Movies you've just watched

[xEbb1993x]

Superman 2025 was quite possibly the best Superman movie I ever saw. Sorry to those that love the original or Man of Steel.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Checked out the "Mad Max-like" summer action/fanasty genre based film by the name of "In the Lost Lands" (circa 2025) with Milla Jovovich & Dave Bautista getting top billing and is currently streaming on Hulu+. The writer of George R.R. Martin wrote the story of ITLL and Paul W.S. Anderson directed it. With a run time of 101 minutes in duration, it's quite epic (with both audio and music being presented in Dolby Atmos format -- sounds awesome with heavy bass effects if played through an ample enough soundbar setup). I wouldn't be surprised if another proper ITLL sequel is "greenlit" & made with the characters of Gray Alys & Boyce's further adventures/tales awaiting to be told.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[NYN]

CULT OF CHUCKY

First. Besides the premise of a slasher, for a seventh (!) piece in a chain of movies this feels just fresh enough. Elm Dream State, Camp Voorhees, Final Death Exploitation, Jiggy's See-saw: rip your hearts out! Ah, well, straight-to-video it goes! While the assorted "schizo" nomenclature for the patients seem dated, the minimalist asylum is presented not in dark 'n dank trope, just opposite in clear coma white for more creepy effect. On first watch the doll face expressions became my favorite of all the movies: those twisted eyes leering... Humour is allowed back in after the absence in Curse, for nuanced effect, and thus camp kept to the minimum. Splashes of De Palma flavour in composition. I fell for a red herring, so it wasn't all predictable terrain for me. Certainly one-up in fun from the grim cursing. A cult to succumb to.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

CULT OF CHUCKY

First. Besides the premise of a slasher, for a seventh (!) piece in a chain of movies this feels just fresh enough. Elm Dream State, Camp Voorhees, Final Death Exploitation, Jiggy's See-saw: rip your hearts out! Ah, well, straight-to-video it goes! While the assorted "schizo" nomenclature for the patients seem dated, the minimalist asylum is presented not in dark 'n dank trope, just opposite in clear coma white for more creepy effect. On first watch the doll face expressions became my favorite of all the movies: those twisted eyes leering... Humour is allowed back in after the absence in Curse, for nuanced effect, and thus camp kept to the minimum. Splashes of De Palma flavour in composition. I fell for a red herring, so it wasn't all predictable terrain for me. Certainly one-up in fun from the grim cursing. A cult to succumb to.

Cult of Chucky is made primarily for the Chucky fans foremost and horror genre lovers in general. With the very last Final Destination film, it wraps the entire film franchise with Tony Todd's final appearance -- the film director's wanted Mr. Todd to "speak from the heart" and he did so in his last days. Such a befitting and nobel farwell to Mr. Todd indeed.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[xEbb1993x]

Finally watched Thunderbolts*. Is it one of the better MCU films? Maybe. In fact, I was supposed to see it before Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, but decided the latter was more important.

[vol.2]

Superman 2025 6.5/10

It was a decently entertaining action flick with abysmal, oversimplified, wooden dialog. The script wasn't even bad in an interesting way, it was just inexplicably predictable and mundane.

Don't get me wrong, I didn't dislike the film per se; I thought the overall thing was a well executed, good idea with a great outline and good story beats. It was just the script. I walked out of the theater wondering if we are being groomed for AI to take over the writing leg-work because yeah, maybe AI could have done that job for this one.

Also was a very on-the-nose take on the current situation in the middle east, so there is that.

Thunderbolts was pretty good. It was funny and occasionally exciting. I'm pretty tired of a lot of the MCU stuff, but I appreciated that one. It's no where close to being the best MCU film, I think that would probably have to go to Iron Man 3 or maybe GOTG 1.

[xEbb1993x]

Ice Road: Vengeance. It's a sequel to a Netflix movie with Liam Neeson. And... I found it better.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

New full-length movie trailer of "Tron: Ares" out on 10/10/2025 courtesy of Disney: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YShVEXb7-ic

It's good to see Kevin Flynn back -- just how many cycles have passed since Tron Legacy occured (as it was mentioned that a 1,000 cycles had passed in that particular movie)?

---------
Still no word when the Tron: Ares merchandise will appear at retail (perhaps in possible August/September of 2025?). With Tron Legacy, merchandise was already in stores by October of 2010 in time for it's December 17th, 2010 film debut indeed for the USA retail market.
---------

I wouldn't be surprised if Stern & Disney were to release a dedicated Tron: Ares pinball machine in the upcoming 2026/2027 timeline (preferably in 2026 as not to miss the promotional tie-in with the theatrical movie run/release, of course). Stern did release such a dedicated Tron Legacy pinball machine with a miniature Tron arcade cab on the actual playfield back in 2011.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[xEbb1993x]

And I thought he died at the end of Tron: Legacy after absorbing CLU. Anyway, I just saw Bride Hard. It was... okay.

[Aguraki]

Hello,
shumps forum, long time no see.
I come here as a kinda last resort to find the name of a movie (like in the shmups forum when people try to find an old game).

To begin with:
I might have dreamt that scene, or mixed things up.
It's either from a movie or TV show, but my best guess it's less than 10 years old (but might as well be old, just a feeling.)
I have done research on the internet and found one reddit thread where one person ask a pretty similar question.
I have wondered if that person was an earlier drunk me.

The scene:
In a car, driving with a passenger (at least 1).
The driver slide a coin (like a dollar) in the buckseatbelt (idk exactly it's where you put the seatbelt in), and accelerate and crash the car.
The passenger couldn't put his seatbelt on cause of the coin.
Implies driver didn't like passenger or tried to escape.

This is very precise but everything else is a blank.

I haven't posted here in years.

Help me Shmups Forum, you are my only hope!

[vol.2]

I come here as a kinda last resort to find the name of a movie (like in the shmups forum when people try to find an old game).

This is not your last resort. The tipofmytongue subreddit is probably the best place on the internet for these things. You'll have 2.6 million eyeballs on the question. https://www.reddit.com/r/tipofmytongue/

It doesn't sound familiar to me though, apologies.

[Aguraki]

Thx I have been there a week or two ago with no success.
It didn't let me post with some weird ''not good enough account'' or whatever.
I gave up, not gonna make a burner account for that.
I know a lot of you guys are well versed in movies culture and it felt just like the right place to ask. )

[Ixmucane2]

Longlegs

Some memorable moments, consistent good style and good acting, but a disappointing and flawed plot.
The combination of typical schemes (a supernatural serial killer vs. the chosen one, with reckless FBI agents that would be at home in X-Files), although handled relatively well, suffers from traditional defects (unclear "rules" and motivations for the inhuman elements, implausible timelines) and unusual ones (a late explanation that contradicts the initial premise, trivially avoidable deaths).

[Raytrace]

I just done watched (and some were rewatches) - all the McDonagh movies:

The Guard

In Bruges

Calvary

Seven Psychopaths

They're all very good IMO - though I do think Seven Pyschopaths is a good bit not as good as the other 3.

[xEbb1993x]

The Fantastic Four: First Steps. After not one, not two, but three huge missteps, we finally got a proper start for the first Marvel family.

[NYN]

Ahem, OK, like, for instance, is this thing on? In a spur of a moment we decided to re-watch TMNT III, right? Riiight. We've seen this only once before, about a decade or some back. While being hyped on TMNT as a kid when the first movies hit, I never cared to watch the last, I dunno why. Maybe Power Rangers arrived at the scene and the dudes where on the way out. Anyway, on the first and only watch I had a lot to complain about the obvious: the puppets are not made by Jim Henson, it's a silly kids movie, Casey Jones got nanny scenes, I loathe as a whole time travel stories 'cause DUH!, half the voice cast is replaced, lamo fights, etc. That stayed true this time around, and yet none bothered me much. What honked me off was that the run time of slim 91 min felt like 2 full hours! Honestly, 70 min to the max! Holly! That said, the humour has some serious delivery issues. The campy villain smirks in a moment of triumph, ask: "Who is your tailor?" One dude answers: "We're naked!" OK. After, I asked the gal who could not help but giggle about most of the silly kid stuff in general how this bit rubbed her. And she said she blanked out completely, could not remember it at all. That's some frequency, right there.

[vol.2]

it's a silly kids movie

I think the bar was set pretty low by "The Secret of the Ooze," so I wasn't really expecting anything out of number 3. I did end up watching TMNT3 eventually, I think on TV while I was doing something else, and that felt like the right vibe; as a placeholder in the background while paying more attention to a task.

[NYN]

While I won't defend The 00ZE, it clocks at 84 min. Seems that it at least got that going. You could've sold ANYthing to me when young and of course I can see the seams now.

Eh, I cannot as a matter of principle engage with something and pretending to do something else. I just do not have that in me. As in watch a movie within a party. Y'all shut it, I wanna watch that! No. So that category doesn't qualify with me. Similar with music. The times I get interrupted with reading, I don't even. What are people thinking I'm doing here? Hide behind a cover and spying! No.

I remember now, some 2 decades back I "could" watch cartoon shows and anime and all the while playing Game Boy Adv. Thinking that I actually did this makes me shudder somehow.

[vol.2]

Fantastic Four First Steps 8/10

As an adaptation of Kirby era FF comic books, the movie is flawless. I've never seen a more effective translation of one media into another.

This movie is like what you would get if you could travel back in time to the 60s and ask Kirby to imagine what a FF movie would be like if there were no limitations on special effects or costumes. And for that it really kind of goes down in history I think.

And I love Jack Kirby, I really do, but the movie felt just a little bit too sincere to me. It is possible that it they did their job just a little too well, as a 2025 audience is not a 1962 audience. Yes, they updated things, but not tonally, only in a superficial way.

I guess damned if you do, damned if you don't. But as much as I enjoyed it, it still didn't reach the heights of Iron Man 3.

I cannot as a matter of principle engage with something and pretending to do something else.

Not engaging is the whole point; it's background noise. Some things aren't good for anything else.

[it290]

I had some issues with Reed's characterization:

Spoiler

First off, he has a full month in space to prepare for how to deal with the public regarding the Franklin situation, and the best he could come up with is just to tell everyone the truth? Yes, I guess this is necessary to set up the subsequent conflict and resolution with Sue, but it still felt really forced. Reed is always doing shady ass shit in the comics, so the explanation that he's just too honest to lie about it doesn't really fly.

Secondly, after their initial plan with the teleporters is foiled, Reed's plan is to try and trick Galactus by having him step into what he already knows is a teleporter? That's the best the world's smartest man can come up with? It really feels like there should have been some other trick/diversion/ruse here that got cut for time. Which is my problem with the whole movie really — normally I loathe overly long superhero epics, but this one just had a bunch of pacing issues. I saw someone comment that Marvel movies often feel like dropping three scripts on the floor, cutting them up with scissors, and then putting the pieces together to fit the allotted time and that's kinda how FF felt to me.

[vol.2]

I had some issues with Reed's characterization:

Well yes but...

Spoiler

Well yes, they changed Reed. He's not as omnipotently smart as Kirby portrayed him, and he lacks much of the hubris that would come with that. I think in the context of the movie, the "last ditch plan" that Reed employed was just that, a last ditch effort. He didn't have another ace up his sleeve because he didn't, and this Reed doesn't. I think it's pretty clear from the way they are treating Franklin that they intend to do something different with his story and making changes to the characters is pretty important in shifting that. If Reed was the (sometimes) lying and (always) egotist that he was in the comics, then we would truly just be stuck on the same merry-go-round. I think that the plot is totally plausible. I agree that it wouldn't be plausible if Reed was the exact same Reed from 1962, but I think that's on purpose and it works. I don't personally want to go in an actually watch them set the plot of a comic I've already read (multiple times) to a film. When I say that I think it was a perfect adaptation, I mean that in the tone of the film. And I mean that sincerely; I think it felt like watching a movie adaptation of a 1960s Marvel comic. I think that was really impressive.

And yet, I still feel like I prefer there to be a little edginess in a story, and FF First Steps is rather devoid of it. The movie is so sincere that it feels like it's missing something to me. Regardless, I had fun watching it. Never got bored.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

According to the latest published issue of the Hollywood trade magazine, Variety, actor Harrison Ford has a stunning revelation in regards to the classic scene shown in "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back" Episode V where both Princess Leia and Han Solo are are on Cloud City on the gas giant Bespin in the pivotal moment before he's subject to carbon freezing when she says, "I love you" and Han says, "I know." That particular key line has perplexed die-hard Star Wars fans ever since it was released on the big screen theatrically back in May of 1980 -- there's more to the story than "meets the eye."

Harrison Ford said that his original scripted line was to say, "I love you too" but he thought that was un-Han Solo like (and he would never say something like that, especially in front of the Emperor's emissary of Darth Vader and Co. to save face and not admit it truthfully when faced in a very bad and dire situation that he & his Wookie companion can't carefully extricate themselves from the strong iron-handed clutches of the Empire when they, themselves, already have the "upper hand") and came up with an improvised line on the spot during the filming of the carbon freezing scene which was the simple phrase of "I know" along with the classic expression on his face of not knowing if he was going to survive it or not & be delivered to crime lord Jabba the Hutt courtesy of bounty hunter, Boba Fett.

It was common for the test subject to die from the extreme & instantly sudden carbon freezing process results if not done properly right the first time (thanks to Lando Calrissian for keeping Han alive & well) + the test subject will suffer from a bout of temporary blindness once revived from the CF process (as shown in the "Return of the Jedi" Episode VI classic scene of Jabba the Hutt's Throne Room where Princess Leia disguised as a bounty hunter rescues her beloved prisoner, Han Solo).

----------
We finally learn a mere 45 years later, today, from Harrison Ford's revelation that he was supposed to say an entirely different line in TESB movie with the line of, " I love you too." But as it is, it was not meant to be -- so be it.
----------

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~