Movies you've just watched

[Vexorg]

Man, I got my dad's DVD from the living room last week and was planning on watching it, but then the dude dies and now if I say I watched it in this thread, all the fucking shit is gonna go toward the dead guy as opposed to the FUCKING PLOT AND JOKES AND SHIT! I was looking forward to posting it here and people realizing I have good taste in movies, but now they're gonna think I watched it just because one of the actors died. Fuck my life

I'm not meaning to be disrespectful toward the guy who died; I'm just mad at the timing.

Social skills 101: There is nothing in the world less impressive than somebody trying to be impressive.

But it's weird to me that people are screening Blazing Saddles in tribute to Gene Wilder. That was Cleavon Little's movie, Wilder was just the sidekick. If you want the Mel Brooks movie that's all about showcasing Gene Wilder at the top of his game, you screen Young Frankenstein. How ironic for a movie with a black lead that's all about lampooning racism, people are remembering it for the white costar.

Fun fact: Sam Kinison cited (the shouty version of) Gene Wilder as a major influence on his standup.

After seeing the movie yesterday it's pretty clear that Gene Wilder was a fairly minor character in that one, but I think that's the one people end up watching because that's one of the two (along with Willy Wonka) that made the appearance in theaters (the two that were shown were WB films, Young Frankenstein is Fox.) In my mind Willy Wonka is still the definitive Gene Wilder film but I've seen it so many times I've practically memorized it. It was certainly interesting seeing Blazing Saddles in a nearly full theater, and aside from (and quite likely because of) the ridiculous amount of political incorrectness the film holds up really well and still gets plenty of laughs, to the point that I think a 40-year-old film was quite likely a bigger draw in the theater that night than any of the first run stuff. Most comedies these days are shockingly unfunny, relying almost entirely on a combination of toilet humor and stupidity (See also: Every Adam Sandler movie ever.) Sure this one was crude and wasn't completely immune (see also: the campfire scene) but is still far better than pretty much everything that's come out in the last decade.

[Mischief Maker]

(the two that were shown were WB films, Young Frankenstein is Fox.)

Ah. That explains it!

[iconoclast]

I didn't like Blazing Saddles that much when I watched it last year. I did like how offensive it was since movies like that could never get a wide release these days, but at the same time, that type of humor does nothing for me. I felt the same way after watching The Wolf of Wall Street, which was supposed to be so great and funny, but I thought it was childish and stupid. But both movies are decent enough, I guess.

[EmperorIng]

Despite really liking Evil Dead as a franchise... I never watched the TV series

Mister. You go watch that shit. You go watch it right the fuck now.

You can watch the pilot for free right now!

If you don't end up with a smile on your face, your soul must have been already swallowed by a deadite.

All right, with pilot having been watched, a smile on my face was achieved.

Man, I just can't believe how good Raimi/Campbell are still after all these years. Bruce has been partially parody since at least Evil Dead 2 (full-blown by Army of Darkness), but it amazes me how these two* can keep themselves away from the total trash-bin that other action/horror stars find themselves in. You know, the full "wink wink" bargain bin of "remember how cool I used to be?" type stuff.

*Emphasis on two. Some of Campbell's solo works are middling... Like the occasionally-entertaining Alien Apocalypse. Occasionally.

[Vexorg]

A couple more recent ones:

Star Trek Beyond: ***1/2

Watched in a big theater that was nearly empty this evening (probably less than 10 people in the audience.) Definitely a better film than the trainwreck that Into Darkness was, but as with the other Kelvin Timeline films, there were plenty of moments where it seemed like people were too busy taking turns batting around the Idiot Ball to employ the mind-numbingly obvious solutions to their problems that things like probes, transporters and all that other Treknology stuff provides. That said, this one still kind of came across as some sort of a Fast and Furious in space and the ending just went straight off the deep end (In fact, it reminded me a lot of Fast Five), but at the same time the characters are a lot more watchable now that the filmmakers have stopped trying to demonstrate how hip and edgy they are compared to their prime universe counterparts and just let them be who they're supposed to be. Simon Pegg as Scotty is still my favorite out of the bunch, but some of the scenes between Spock and McCoy were pretty good too. The end result was nothing too earth-shattering, but made for a decent popcorn movie.

High Anxiety: **1/2

One of my wife's favorite Mel Brooks films, but probably somewhere in the lower tier on my list. That said, it does have its moments, and some of the Hitchcock references they throw in are pretty funny (it appears that Alfred Hitchcock actually advised in some capacity on the script, albeit uncredited).

[Durandal]

A couple more recent ones:

Star Trek Beyond: ***1/2
That said, this one still kind of came across as some sort of a Fast and Furious in space and the ending just went straight off the deep end (In fact, it reminded me a lot of Fast Five)

Fast Five and Star Trek: Beyond are directed by the same guy, actually.

[Vexorg]

A couple more recent ones:

Star Trek Beyond: ***1/2
That said, this one still kind of came across as some sort of a Fast and Furious in space and the ending just went straight off the deep end (In fact, it reminded me a lot of Fast Five)

Fast Five and Star Trek: Beyond are directed by the same guy, actually.

I am well aware of that, hence the comparison. The first three F&F movies are kind of stupid in my opinion, but the more recent ones are some of my favorite "turn your brain off" type movies, mostly to see what depths of absurdity they're going to plunge next.

Edit: Since we're bringing up the Fast and Furious movies, I just have to post this now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjqsWtO5Xjg

The ridiculousness of the recent Fast and Furious movies summed up neatly in under 2 minutes. I know Justin Lin didn't do this one, but it's Bollywood level absurdity on a Hollywood blockbuster budget.

[Shoryukev]

All right, with pilot having been watched, a smile on my face was achieved.

Man, I just can't believe how good Raimi/Campbell are still after all these years. Bruce has been partially parody since at least Evil Dead 2 (full-blown by Army of Darkness), but it amazes me how these two* can keep themselves away from the total trash-bin that other action/horror stars find themselves in. You know, the full "wink wink" bargain bin of "remember how cool I used to be?" type stuff.

*Emphasis on two. Some of Campbell's solo works are middling... Like the occasionally-entertaining Alien Apocalypse. Occasionally.

I rather enjoy most of Campbell's work, good or bad LOL. Some of the stuff like Man With the Screaming Brain, Alien Apocalypse, Tornado!, etc. require me to be in the mood for it....but Bubba Ho-tep and My Name is Bruce are on my frequent watch list right alongside Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness

I can't find a clip of it online, but there's a scene in the movie My Name is Bruce where they're filming Bruce's latest film "Cave Alien II"....if you're a fan of Bruce at all you'll find it hilarious. The easiest way I can describe the film is Bruce's version of Last Action Hero.

I need to check out the new TV series, but I don't have cable TV (only internet). Hoping a Blu-Ray set for season 1 comes out soon! Till then I'll hold myself off with my Brisco County Jr. boxset LOL

[BryanM]

His interactions during fan QA's is always hilarious without fail, just ruthlessly rips on them constantly. The man has no off button. It's like hours of free content on the youtubes.

Hoping a Blu-Ray set for season 1 comes out soon!

Welcome to 2 weeks ago >0_o)>---------~

[Shoryukev]

It's out already??? Looks like I'm going to the store on my way home today. You'll have to excuse me for living under a rock. I'm in my 30's, don't have cable, and moved across the country a couple years ago so I have no local friends. That's enough excuses for not knowing about this.....right? LOL

EDIT: I also have two children under the age of 6, and bought a house within a month. Still thinking of more excuses....

[xxx1993]

I saw Hard Target 2.

[soprano1]

Duck, You Sucker! (1971)
Pretty nice Leone western.

[Vexorg]

Wrongfully Accused: **1/2

Standard issue Leslie Nielsen movie, this one mostly parodying The Fugitive. Leslie Nielsen plays basically the same character as he did in everything since Police Squad (to the point that the opening credits say "Leslie Nielsen is Leslie Nielsen in Wrongfully Accused", and it's full of the usual cheap gags, bad one-liners and nonsense you've come to expect from a Leslie Nielsen film. Apparently it bombed pretty badly in the theaters.

Now You See Me 2: *1/2

This is the type of film that will make you wonder who keeps throwing 90 million bucks a pop at the producers of these types of movies, but then you see that it ended up being profitable in spite of a 34% Rotten Tomatoes rating and you start to question the sanity of the theater-going public. One group of unlikable characters gets double-crossed by another group of unlikable characters while being chased by a third group of unlikable characters for control of some MacGuffin that ultimately ends up being pointless in the first place. Basically you have schemes on top of schemes on top of schemes to the point that the movie ultimately has to do what amounts a Scooby-Doo Badguy confession at the end just so the whole thing doesn't come off as completely nonsensical (which it still does anyway) and Morgan Freeman basically sits around the whole time looking like he's about to try to sell you car insurance. I'm not going to even try to explain it beyond that.

[Ixmucane2]

Independence Day: Resurgence

Awful, particularly for not even trying to tell a story that makes sense. All opportunity to show style, coherence, attention to detail, sense of pacing etc. are grossly wasted.
A friend hypothesized that Emmerich was forced to direct this sequel and he made it bad on purpose; I simply assume incompetence.

Plot: the "harvester" aliens have heard the distress call of their 1996 fleet and they are back, with an even bigger ship; but killing their queen will disperse them. What can go wrong with such a straightforward premise?

• At the beginning, a lot of scenes and characters are gratuitously placed on the Moon. The Moon is closer than normal, with spaceship travel times between Earth and Moon on the order of a few minutes (with gentle acceleration, to add insult to injury), and more massive (only in one scene gravity appears lower than on Earth, but not by much, and only because it is a scene with people walking outdoors in spacesuits).
• Alien lore and gimmicks get even less respect than natural laws. How can the alien energy shields resist nuclear weapons but collapse when hit with the most unimpressive beam weapons? Star Trek has justified with adorably silly technobabble much worse implausibilities for much lower narrative usefulness; the problem here is not having plot holes, but not making the slightest attempt to address them AND not having a reason for them beyond careless stupidity
• Even the most basic continuity has trouble. For example, fighter jets "dramatically" escape an alien mothership through closing doors, at the last possible moment, forgetting the huge hole in the ceiling left by a detached subship.
• The dialogue is terrible, and emotion severely lacking. Motivational speeches are particularly bad.

[Skykid]

I saw Hard Target 2.

Spoiler

[Volteccer_Jack]

So while Now You See Me 2 did take a bit of a nosedive in quality, I still want to defend the sanity of the audience. Now You See Me is not a movie so much as it is a magic show disguised as a movie, and is entertaining for those reasons rather than the usual reasons a movie is entertaining. Everything is about misdirection and illusion, even things like the way a given character is written. The plot is actually pretty straightforward and simple; bad guy forces good guys to steal thing for him, they do, then it turns out it was all a big trap to catch the bad guy. If it seems confusing it's only because the movie follows the perspective of a rabbit that doesn't know it is getting pulled out of a hat.

But still, I can't in good conscience recommend this one, go see the first instead.

[xxx1993]

I liked the second more, actually. Though the only part I didn't like was when Wes (Scott Adkins) killed his friend Jonny by accident in the fight at the start. It's like if Ryu accidentally killed Ken in a sparring match.

[Mischief Maker]

I saw Hard Target 2.

Spoiler

I wonder what the porn version is called?

[BrianC]

Murder by Death: **1/2

A 1976 spoof whodunnit that's been frequently compared (often favorably) to Clue, but which just comes across as pretentious and unsatisfying in practice, and basically admits in the end that it wasted everyone's time. Basically, a bunch of copyright-friendly imitations of various famous film and book detectives are called together to solve a murder that hasn't actually happened yet. A few funny bits here and there, but ultimately I'd much rather watch Clue again than this. The fact that the Charlie Chan lookalike character is a pretty blatantly racist depiction doesn't help much, but such things seem to have been the norm at the time. Probably isn't helped much by the fact that its genre has largely fallen out of favor.

I doubt the parodies of famous detectives were using different names for copyright reasons. They are all spoofs rather than played straight up. Sidney Wang is a parody of how Charlie Chan is a racist depiction.

[BIL]

Though the only part I didn't like was when Wes (Scott Adkins) killed his friend Jonny by accident in the fight at the start. It's like if Ryu accidentally killed Ken in a sparring match.

God, this sounds funny. Like Ken just trips and breaks his neck on a rice bowl or something in the attract sequence, lmao. "Crumbs!" I think you've inspired me a little. :O

[xxx1993]

That's what really happened in Hard Target 2.

[Skykid]

Though the only part I didn't like was when Wes (Scott Adkins) killed his friend Jonny by accident in the fight at the start. It's like if Ryu accidentally killed Ken in a sparring match.

God, this sounds funny. Like Ken just trips and breaks his neck on a rice bowl or something in the attract sequence, lmao. "Crumbs!" I think you've inspired me a little. :O

That's almost exactly what happens to the sole antagonist of Beyond the Black Rainbow. It's hilarious.

[BIL]

That's what really happened in Hard Target 2.

That's almost exactly what happens to the sole antagonist of Beyond the Black Rainbow. It's hilarious.

There's just an inherent black comedic rhythm to a pratfall resulting in catastrophic injury and death, isn't there? Here's a minor classic of the form from Out of Sight (1998).

[xxx1993]

Like what, did Death from Final Destination invade other movies or is it Light Yagami's doing from Death Note?

[Zen]

That's what really happened in Hard Target 2.

That's almost exactly what happens to the sole antagonist of Beyond the Black Rainbow. It's hilarious.

There's just an inherent black comedic rhythm to a pratfall resulting in catastrophic injury and death, isn't there? Here's a minor classic of the form from Out of Sight (1998).

Oh, Christ. Hadn't seen that one before. I think i've just swallowed my tongue

Though the crown (if you will excuse the pun here) for this type of thing must go to great Bobby Peru: https://youtu.be/ibCDxmMfbrY?t=46

[BIL]

I keep Bobby's triumphant sendoff around in GIF form, reserved for great forum misfortunes.

Spoiler for Wild at Heart:

Spoiler

Gotta make a proper updated one at some point.

[Mischief Maker]

Don't forget the entire storyline in Pulp Fiction based on an accidental death!

[xxx1993]

You mean I shot Marvin in the face?

[Vexorg]

I guess this means I need to post the freak gasoline fight accident from Zoolander now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Huc47Dqsg8

And a couple recent ones:

Chicken Run: ***1/2

One of the Aardman stop-motion films which I saw originally back when it was in theaters, but hadn't seen since then. Surprisingly dark in places for a PG-rated film, and rather short as most stop-motion films tend to be, but still pretty good, although some of the humor can be a bit of an acquired taste as it tends to be in most British media.

Romancing the Stone: ***

Very 80s adventure film where a timid chronically single romance novelist flies to Colombia to rescue her kidnapped sister with a treasure map leading to a very large gemstone, runs into Michael Douglas while being chased by Danny DeVito and various other thugs trying to get the map, and generally spends a lot of time running through the jungle and getting covered in mud and grime. Not bad but not particularly good either, but perhaps the most jarring part is the soundtrack, which sounds like it was composed entirely on a cheap Casio synthesizer. Even the big Latin dance part in the middle of the movie with a band playing in the background has cheesy synth music in the foreground.

[Shoryukev]

Wrongfully Accused: **1/2

Standard issue Leslie Nielsen movie, this one mostly parodying The Fugitive. Leslie Nielsen plays basically the same character as he did in everything since Police Squad (to the point that the opening credits say "Leslie Nielsen is Leslie Nielsen in Wrongfully Accused", and it's full of the usual cheap gags, bad one-liners and nonsense you've come to expect from a Leslie Nielsen film. Apparently it bombed pretty badly in the theaters.

If you're a fan of movies like Airplane and Hot Shots part Duex, you can bump that rating up at least one more star (if you aren't a fan of those movies I could see you rating it as low as one star). I personally find Wrongfully Accused to be hysterical, but then again I am no stranger to the most EXTREME of cheeses. My copy is right at home next to Robin Hood: Men in Tights and Dracula: Dead and Loving It on my shelf. Wrongfully Accused pulls no punches, it is incredibly stupid and makes no apologies about it. Whether you hate it or not for that is up to you. I've shown this movie to several people over the years, and the results were varied to say the least LOL