Movies you've just watched

[NYN]

Also at the beginning I had that old thought of "how is he talking without having some lungs?" but then I realized I was thinking too much for this movie again and told my brain to shut up.

"Yooouuuuu baaaastaaaard."

IIRC Stuart Gordon addressed this in commentary or extras: they didn't think audiences wouldn't catch on, just production was so tight with monies that they couldn't afford some steel lungs to make it "realistic". Is that enough for you or will you dismiss it?

[BIL]

tbh I found it harder to believe a man with no lungs could still eat pussy \(O_O)/ then again I guess he better had, he's got no hands and no fuckin hog neither!

[NYN]

HELLRAISER

Again. Shoestring production from first-time director mostly recognizable with tight facial "TV" set-ups. Next to no pans. Poor to some, evocating to others. PFX luster with goth punk Cenobites and shiny goo-dripping skinless Frank. Female fighter character maybe overdone. Cheap VFX neutralised by dreamy score to flesh out the bizarre beauty of mortality.


CHRISTINE

After misreviewed high point a seasoned director takes on project for the love of a paycheck and creates something he would underestimate himself. Lush set-ups for movement, lense flare illumination, versatile lead, and a fine measure of pacing bring out the shine 40 years since ignition. Cars and girls, same thing for male psyche. Bitchin' fire stunt work. Just enough shitters for nerd-revenge to last vintage R'n'R soundtrack spliced with synth. Ironic last line: "Gad, I hate Rock and Roll!". Here to stay.

MAXIMUM 0VERDRIVE

A first. One-time director to ejaculate love for AC/DC in everyone's ears biggest drag. Zombie apocalypse with semi trucks. Camp and brutal fun CHOP-CHOP-CHOP surprising and exhilarating. Parts into 3 uneven pieces: 1) Bumbling at the Dixie Boy Truck Stop, 2) Slavin' for Trucking, 3) Let's blow this. Too many shitters left at the end. Cast seems sedated, Pat Hingle one-lines, engines rev. Infamous for tight reasons.

[xxx1993]

Oh, I also did a re-watch of Enter the Dragon (the ultimate martial arts movie) yesterday for its 50th anniversary. I'll also do a re-watch of both Hard Target 1 and 2 as well as Surf Ninjas today.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Barbie

This was a pretty hands on date I went on, and I had an absolute blast. As some here know, I'm not afraid to embrace the flamboyant. So, donned a pink shirt and enjoyed an espresso martini while catching this at a rather nice theater in Soho in London. Somewhat surprisingly, I really enjoyed it. It was the right amount of cheese, and it was quite funny. If you're the spitting image of the caricature bro that's the butt of most of the humor, well, it's obviously not gonna be for you. And even though Gossling is playing second fiddle to Margot Robbie, he does quite a compelling job with the music and dancing. The last "number" the Kens did is fucking hilarious.

I didn't know that in real life, actor Ryan Gossling & actress Eva Mendes are husband & wife. If you're in the Hollywood biz, that's common knowledge/old news.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Vexorg]

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3: **1/2

Easily the weakest of the three GoTG movies, mostly because they just tried to cram way too much plot into one movie (guess the contracts were expiring so there wasn't much other choice.) This is one of those movies where you think you're about to hit the epic final battle, but then you look down at your watch and realize there's still almost an hour of runtime. There is also the now customary random added characters that you won't recognize at all if you haven't watched every single other MCU movie and probably also most of the TV shows, and a plot that sounds like a 6 year old on too much Kool-Aid wrote it.

Short summary: Rocket Raccoon is badly wounded by Captain Ahab, but the Guardians have to find a way to bypass the DRM on his body to heal him. Also there's an alternate universe Gamora just to really mess with Star Lord.

[xxx1993]

Retribution. American remake of a Mexican action thriller starring Liam Neeson. Mario Lopez of Access described it as “Speed meets Taken”.

[xxx1993]

Phoenix. Quite possibly my first and only Tubi Original movie.

[xxx1993]

The Equalizer 3. A great conclusion to an already awesome trilogy.

[Sumez]

Had a rare chance to see a bunch of movies from my to-watch list the last few days. A couple of alleged movie classics, and a couple of overlooked horror movies.

First up was The Royal Tenenbaums. I've seen nearly every other Wes Anderson movie outside of this, which is funny considering it's often heralded as one of his best, though there's an unimportant "logistical reason" for that.
Long story short, I think this one is probably my favourite as well. Everything about it is great, the characters all have a unique and alluring personality to them, and Gene Hackman just absolutely steals the show. It's both heartfelt and funny, as you want a Wes Anderson movie to be.
It's relatively early in his career, which mean his famous distinct visual style is not quite as pronounced at this point. Compare recent movies, most likely The French Dispatch, which though still a fine movie, comes across so much like a parody of a Wes Anderson movie, that it becomes off-putting.

The question I have asked myself in the past, and which I'm sure many other people have done after watching Bottle Rocket, Rushmore and/or Royal Tenenbaums is - have we been massively underestimating Owen Wilson? It's easy to lump him in with the 90s/00s slapstick SNL actor crowd thanks to movies like Zoolander or Wedding Crashers, but he's been instrumental in writing those three Wes Anderson movies, which I think most people would agree are some of the wittiest and most ingenious comedies of their era.
But yeah, Royal Tenenbaums? Absolutely masterpiece, straight into my personal favourites.

[Some-Mist]

the darjleeling limited has always been my personal favorite, and owen wilson kills it in that one too

[Sumez]

Owen Wilson has also multiple times stated that one to be his own favourite, since he's a fan of the themes it deals with. Which is interesting given it was made after he stopped being a part of the writing process.
Then again, it's probably easier to show appreciation for something made by others than something you had a personal involvement in.

I need to get some of the Criterion releases of these movies for the commentary tracks. It's always really interesting hearing behind-the-scenes talk about these movies.

[drauch]

A couple of alleged movie classics, and a couple of overlooked horror movies

Where da rest? Cock tease

[vol.2]

Rushmore is still my favorite, The Grand Budapest Hotel is a close second. The DL was a little too cringe for me . Idk maybe that was the point, but it just didn't hit, and when cringe humor doesn't hit it's the worst.

[NYN]

A couple of alleged movie classics, and a couple of overlooked horror movies

Where da rest? Cock tease

Second. Bring the fun bags!

[XoPachi]

Just finished Arrival. Incredible movie.
I had to sit and think about certain things and piece together certain plot threads for a few minutes after watching but when the light bulb went off, I was satisfied.

The themes were things I've wanted to see in a modern sci fi movie for ages. This is exactly what I could have hoped for. Like 100%.

Beautiful film.

[Sumez]

Rushmore is still my favorite, The Grand Budapest Hotel is a close second. The DL was a little too cringe for me . Idk maybe that was the point, but it just didn't hit, and when cringe humor doesn't hit it's the worst.

Rushmore and Budapest are probably my #2 and #3, not sure which order though. Budapest is probably the one W.A. movie to truly embrace his famous characteristic style through and through, while also coming out the other end as a completely solid movie.

Where da rest? Cock tease

Lol sorry, I was gonna post them in succession, but don't have too much time at a computer these days XD
The next take is probably gonna be less popular, I dunno. Or maybe other people had the same experience as me.

Dead Poets Society
I have often heard this mentioned as a movie that is close to people's hearts, and one of the best performances of Robin Williams (I feel like he's always this good though).
It was honestly a complete miss for me. It tells the rather cliché story of a fun teacher with """"unconventional"""" methods who manages to win over a bunch of... assumingly rowdy kids? I'm not really sure, honestly. It's supposed to take place in the 50s in a snotty boarding school for super rich kids, so obviously the standards for these things were different - but it seems like the kids that the movie focuses on are supposed to be unruly, yet by the standards of modern culture (or culture in 1989 when the movie was made), they really come across like nerdy teacher's pets. Maybe that's intentional, I dunno.
One kid defies his parents wishes by... taking a role in a Shakespeare play (honestly, what parent wouldn't be proud of that?). I can believe the context of the movie, because it makes it very clear that his dad wants him to be a boring banker, but it's hard for it to really make any impact on someone like me who has never experienced a society like the one portrayed here.

The movie also tells us to root for a guy who's taking advantage of an unconscious girl, but "it's alright, because her boyfriend is a jock". Where I really lost it with the movie however, is when it goes on to pretty much

Spoiler

justify suicide. Not saying it portrays it as a good thing, but it really puts us in the position where we are rooting for a boy who believes he has no other ways to tell his parents that they don't understand his passion, except killing himself. Yeah, that will tell 'em!

That's also the only real dramatic beat, and it comes so far into the movie, it just results in a really weird pace, since you'd believe the aftermath is what the movie is really about. But it doesn't seem to have any real message to it. The only themes I can see it perpetuating, stopped being relevant decades before it was released.
Did I misunderstand it completely? Probably. I'll say as much, in terms of craftmanship, it's excellently put together. Peter Weir is a master at that. I just don't believe the script.

[vol.2]

Rushmore and Budapest are probably my #2 and #3, not sure which order though. Budapest is probably the one W.A. movie to truly embrace his famous characteristic style through and through, while also coming out the other end as a completely solid movie.

Tenenbaums is my third favorite. It's an amazing heartfelt film, but I think it has the dubious distinction of being the first WA film to be done as separate set pieces rather than a whole narrative. Taken individually, the constituent scenes are by far the best of his career, but felt as though he hadn't quite mastered the process of integrating his carefully crafted vignettes into a seamless narrative yet; that is, the scene transitions don't flow so well from one to the next, and there are substantial gaps that rely entirely on Baldwin's narration (which is excellent of course). He also set up many of the scenes around a single song, which felt slightly overdone to me; taken individually, many of those scenes are top notch (Nico's version of Jackson Browne's These Days is probably my favorite), but they felt shoehorned into the movie to me. I watched all WA movies in order in the theater as they came out, so I was watching RT after BR and Rushmore, both of which felt like they struck a more delicate balance between song-based vignettes and story flow, and RT felt very different from the first two films; as you noted, he eventually came to parody the careful set pieces he had just begun to create with RT.

Dead Poets Society
I have often heard this mentioned as a movie that is close to people's hearts, and one of the best performances of Robin Williams (I feel like he's always this good though).
It was honestly a complete miss for me.

We were supposed to watch this movie during finals week in my Advanced Composition class in HS, which I took all 4 years (AC 1-4). I skipped it the last two years. I remember the acting being pretty good. I liked the guy who played the asshole dad (he was also the bad guy in Robocop, and the father in That 70s Show). Robin Williams obviously was great in it. I liked him up until the movie about his wife dying of cancer; that one really got me the wrong way.

[Sumez]

Yeah, Kurtwood Smith is fantastic, I was surprised to see him in that movie - you rarely see him in anything I feel.

[Sumez]

I also watched Creep and the sequel, Creep 2. Not sure if anyone's heard of them, but I've bumped into them namedropped many times, always hearing them described as ingenious underappreciated indie movies. I like Mark Duplass in the other movies I've seen him in, which is usually equally super low buget indie films, so I wanted to give these a try.
I don't know, I feel like the praise might have been coming out of a "I didn't expect an amataur found-footage horror film to be so well made", because that's the best I can say for them. At least the first one does manage to build up a sense of tension, which is genuinely uncomfortable, I'll give it that. But you also have this feeling that you don't know where it will go, constantly expecting it to defy genre conventions.
...except it doesn't. Most of what you think might be relevant character moments or misdirections, ends up being just random nonsense in support of the "bad guy" being an unjustifiable nutjob with no rhyme or reason to his actions. It plays the slasher/suspense movie tropes completely straight and ends exactly how you'd expect, but not how you'd hope.
The sequel then acts like it's gonna subvert the tropes established in the first one, by introducing a new victim who remains completely unintimidated by all the terrorizing methods employed in the first one. Except it does nothing with it, and just goes the same direction yet again.
Definitely not recommended, but at least both movies were short.


Finally The Exorcist III. I wasn't too well informed about this and expected enjoyable shlock. Instead I got a grounded police procedural with a supernatural twist, a mature and patient pace, littered with brilliant bits of dialogue and captivating details. Not only written by the same guy who wrote the original Exorcist novel, but also directed by him. One of the best classic/classy horror movies I've seen, easily, carried all the way by George C. Scott as the grumpy, battle-hardened detective who just wants to see this whole thing dealt with.
Aside for a couple of returning characters, the connection to the first Exorcist movie feels a bit tacked on and unnecessary. And as a bit of research would reveal, it turns out it was something introduced via reshoots later in production, but everyone seems to agree that the original ending is boring, so ultimately it's probably for the better. I'm sure this is common knowledge to horror fans, but I'm not much of a buff, and to be honest the original Exorcist never really did much for me, even hough I respect it. This one is phenomenal however.

[NYN]

Spoiler

That vintage Wise face, though. Is it any wonder the guy is the man in anything he appears? Seriously. I watched an indie horror flick (EXCISION), and it's a tiny part of a school dean who doles out some scolding to the weird gal in his office, yet he brings it with his own touch. The gal leaves, and he begins to communicate to the faces of politicians on the wall, as in "Can you believe this, George?", which the director notes is total improv. So Wise.

[Sumez]

Ray Wise will forever be Leland Palmer, but whenever I see him show up in anything, it always makes my day better. I'll have to check out Excision now.

[NYN]

Oh? Get ready for weird on the "this-is-messed-up!" scale. You shall encounter some more familiar faces along the trip.

The alternative to that is the very mild Swamp Thing by Wes Craven. Wise plays Holland, the man face of the soon-to-be creature. It's about a 20 minute part before it's handed to a stunt guy in a suit, though very tender pre-Robocop 20 minutes. After that Arcaaane takes over with 'tude and style and somehow "saves" the movie. At least for me. Some bare ta-tas included, if you are planning a family watch, be advised.

[cj iwakura]

I once saw Ray Wise in a random episode of Charmed, doing what he does best: chewing scenery for all it's worth.

[Vexorg]

Fast X: *1/2

This franchise jumped the shark about three movies ago (probably four really) and yet they keep cranking them out. This time they finally managed to come up with a villain even more annoying than Charlize Theron (who somehow ended up on the good guy side for some inexplicable reason) and the result is 140 minutes of wallowing in misery. Most of these films at least work as some sort of (extremely) mindless entertainment, but this one is unwatchable.

[Some-Mist]

The DL was a little too cringe for me . Idk maybe that was the point, but it just didn't hit, and when cringe humor doesn't hit it's the worst.

what'd you find cringe about it?

[Vexorg]

Bewitched: **

2005 Will Ferrell and Nicole Kidman Trainwreck that earned 5 Razzie nominations and "won" the Worst Onscreen Couple award. For some inexplicable reason they are remaking the Bewitched TV show from the 60s except the Darrin is a typical Will Ferrell character (that is to say a scenery chewing egomaniac) and Samantha and Endora are actually witches. Hijinks ensue.

How much you like this one depends heavily on your tolerance for Will Ferrell. In my case that tolerance is pretty low.

[emphatic]

Barbie - 3/5

I could probably watch this again, and maybe understand what the message of the movie is, because it pretty ambiguous. I did laugh a few times.

[BIL]

The Exorcist III. I wasn't too well informed about this and expected enjoyable shlock. Instead I got a grounded police procedural with a supernatural twist, a mature and patient pace, littered with brilliant bits of dialogue and captivating details. Not only written by the same guy who wrote the original Exorcist novel, but also directed by him. One of the best classic/classy horror movies I've seen, easily, carried all the way by George C. Scott as the grumpy, battle-hardened detective who just wants to see this whole thing dealt with.
Aside for a couple of returning characters, the connection to the first Exorcist movie feels a bit tacked on and unnecessary. And as a bit of research would reveal, it turns out it was something introduced via reshoots later in production, but everyone seems to agree that the original ending is boring, so ultimately it's probably for the better. I'm sure this is common knowledge to horror fans, but I'm not much of a buff, and to be honest the original Exorcist never really did much for me, even hough I respect it. This one is phenomenal however.

Great movie! WonderfuLL movie, even! It figures one of the few horror franchise sequels to sport this kind of quality wasn't intended to be a sequel at all. Weathers the rebadging with grace; I could've gone with the harshly anticlimactic OG ending, but the slightly obligatory-feeling final cut works more than well enough; it's truly more about the preceding 95%.

I too was totally unaware of its quality, until I saw it recommended along with a brace of iconic horrors in KCET's Silent Hill "Lost Memories" mook; the killer's bloody graffiti homaged in a particularly nightmarish stretch of SH3. Wasn't sure what to expect, but came away liking it even more than the usual Lyne/Argento/Lynch et al.

[xxx1993]

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway.