Movies you've just watched

[Squire Grooktook]

the plots are predictable, characters are bland, as well as many other things wrong with it.

There's a lot of nuance to writing a fun adventure story, and in many ways there's just as much artistry to crafting a "what's going to happen next?" thriller as there is in any deep, dark, character study.

I'm not a huge Star Wars fan, but like many other classics, I can recognize all the things the original trilogy does masterfully. I think much of it is going over your head, as evidenced by your shallow analysis of them, so I'd encourage you to revisit them when you have more developed tastes. No offense.

Just watched the latest Star Wars, it wasn't bad, I enjoyed it but I also found some parts of it to be rather convenient or rushed up but it does the job and sets the bar higher than it was left with the prequels although not by much, lol.

The Force Awakens was really good and the people who say it's worse than the prequels because it "doesn't do anything new" will never cease to baffle me.

That's the case between choosing to remake something in HD, and trying something new.

The thing about the prequel trilogy, is that they do not work on any level. I honestly barely even consider them movies. A better analogy would be to say that it's like choosing between an HD remake of a decent game and E.T on the Atari.

I literally fucking fell asleep when I watched Attack of The Clones for the first time as a kid (specifically, I lost consciousness during the "romance" scenes). I'd rather sit in a dentists chair for an hour then watch the prequel trilogy, at least I'd be getting something done instead of wasting 2 hours.

Force Awakens may not be a great film, but it'll always be infinitely better than the prequel trilogy by virtue of having some semblance of coherence.

[chempop]

I'm looking forward to Captain Fantastic, it's getting an exceptional so far.

I literally fucking fell asleep when I watched Attack of The Clones

Haha, same here, also for ep2 iirc. Didn't bother with the 3rd but I heard it was the better of the three prequels.

Force Awakes is great though, haters will never love a new Star Wars movie because they aren't kids any more. I can guarantee that if you saw the originals now for the first time you'd all be complaining how cheesy most of the scripting is and tearing apart the plot with your self-proclaimed-professional-movie-critiqing-skills.

[Skykid]

Didn't bother with the 3rd but I heard it was the better of the three prequels.

It's not, it's rubbish. In many ways it's the worst one.

Force Awakes is great though, haters will never love a new Star Wars movie because they aren't kids any more. I can guarantee that if you saw the originals now for the first time you'd all be complaining how cheesy most of the scripting is and tearing apart the plot with your self-proclaimed-professional-movie-critiqing-skills.

Not true. The "cheesy" aspects of the originals come from its earnest sci-fi elements tied to 70s ideas of futurism, and you can accept them as a part of how material becomes dated by the onward march of time. Despite that, a lot of what we consider "cheesy" about them is up against some truly deft work in adventure storytelling. Taking a relatively simple plot and imbuing it with drama, intrigue, atmosphere and lovable characters is no mean feat, and that's against technical work in A/V editing that holds up perfectly today. It's exciting and enthralling, and superb fun. The least "cheesy" is Empire of course, that managed to sidestep the foibles of the the original and later Jedi by being tightly focussed on the elements that make the fantasy work so well. There's a lot in Empire in terms of dialogue, character development, pacing and climax that any film aficionado would do well to study. It's extremely refined.

Force Awakens is good when its good, but ultimately falls down due to many prominent and unnecessary missteps. To pay it its dues, a few script edits and some sensible narrative adjustments would have elevated it to a much better reimagining of A New Hope, and Abrams very much understood the source material from a technical perspective and exercised his skill there very well. But much like Super 8, where he's grasped the material elements well, he hasn't controlled the content strictly enough. The movie has far more structural and narrative problems than any of the OT, and that's the real kicker. The goal would have been to do a lot less, and make that lot less much more effective.

[Durandal]

The Force Awakens was really good and the people who say it's worse than the prequels because it "doesn't do anything new" will never cease to baffle me.

That's the case between choosing to remake something in HD, and trying something new.

The thing about the prequel trilogy, is that they do not work on any level. I honestly barely even consider them movies. A better analogy would be to say that it's like choosing between an HD remake of a decent game and E.T on the Atari.

I literally fucking fell asleep when I watched Attack of The Clones for the first time as a kid (specifically, I lost consciousness during the "romance" scenes). I'd rather sit in a dentists chair for an hour then watch the prequel trilogy, at least I'd be getting something done instead of wasting 2 hours.

Force Awakens may not be a great film, but it'll always be infinitely better than the prequel trilogy by virtue of having some semblance of coherence.

You fell asleep at that point too?
The PT is indeed absolutely god-awful, but only worth watching just to see how bad it is for yourself. As a soft reboot, I can understand the purpose behind TFA playing it safe, but Disney is now standing at the crossroads of just sticking to the formula which is guaranteed to earn credits as it did with TFA, or risk the directors to do something new with the franchise. Though Disney can release anything really new related to Star Wars as a spin-off like that Rogue One movie to fill the time between releasing the main episodes (screw you disney, kyle katarn stole the plans of the Death Star all by himself with the help of his pilot in Dark Forces, not some squad of chumps)

[Shoryukev]

Not true. The "cheesy" aspects of the originals come from its earnest sci-fi elements tied to 70s ideas of futurism, and you can accept them as a part of how material becomes dated by the onward march of time. Despite that, a lot of what we consider "cheesy" about them is up against some truly deft work in adventure storytelling. Taking a relatively simple plot and imbuing it with drama, intrigue, atmosphere and lovable characters is no mean feat, and that's against technical work in A/V editing that holds up perfectly today. It's exciting and enthralling, and superb fun. The least "cheesy" is Empire of course, that managed to sidestep the foibles of the the original and later Jedi by being tightly focussed on the elements that make the fantasy work so well. There's a lot in Empire in terms of dialogue, character development, pacing and climax that any film aficionado would do well to study. It's extremely refined.

Force Awakens is good when its good, but ultimately falls down due to many prominent and unnecessary missteps. To pay it its dues, a few script edits and some sensible narrative adjustments would have elevated it to a much better reimagining of A New Hope, and Abrams very much understood the source material from a technical perspective and exercised his skill there very well. But much like Super 8, where he's grasped the material elements well, he hasn't controlled the content strictly enough. The movie has far more structural and narrative problems than any of the OT, and that's the real kicker. The goal would have been to do a lot less, and make that lot less much more effective.

I agree with you 100% on Empire and the OT as a whole. Sure I have my nostalgia glasses on, but I still think they are fantastic films (especially Empire) when trying to cast nostalgia aside and viewing them critically. There is something I can't quite put my finger on that I really enjoy about Empire, though I'm sure it has a lot to do with character development. It draws you in and really makes you care about what happens to Han and Luke towards the end.

As far as Force Awakens.....at least it's better than the prequels. I felt like the movie was too tied up trying to pay fanservice and it really got in the way. I walked away from the theater thinking the series had recovered from the depths of the hell Ep.1-3 put it in, and maybe Episode 8 could be something truly great now that they have "tested their mettle" with Force Awakens.

I think Episode 7 could have broken the series if they didn't pull it off. Lucas ruined SW's reputation to a large portion of the fanbase with the prequels (I Grew up in George's hometown in California and even with Lucas being a sacred cow to the locals, even we admit the prequels are trash)....and a large majority of us didn't think Disney was capable of giving us what we wanted. Was it a great movie? No. But I understand why they did what they did. They played it safe and pulled on our nostalgia strings and the whole movie almost feels like a reboot. Hey look it's the Falcon! Remember this? How about this?

[Mischief Maker]

Weird how "inspirational" can turn into "cheesy" in the eyes of youth who grew up on a movie's many, many copycats.

I'm sure many young people would consider The Maltese Falcon cheesy because, oh god not another hard-drinking street smart Private Eye character. Missing the point entirely that Dashiell Hammett invented that type of character. And especially missing the character's undercurrent of political dissidence because he wrote all those stories where the PI is constantly boozing (sometimes with the cops) during Prohibition.

Besides, there are only so many deviations from normal reality your movie can make before you lose the audience and become pretentious art-house. Movies that heavily deviate from normal plot beats tend to take place in contemporary settings so the audience can hinge on something familiar. Star Wars takes place in a fantastical science-fantasy universe, so the way (young) George Lucas kept the audience grounded was by writing a story that follows the structure of Joseph Campbell's "Hero's Journey" beat for beat. He's said as much openly many times. So of course you sorta knew the direction the story was going.

You're young, so you're still confusing genius with originality.

Didn't bother with the 3rd but I heard it was the better of the three prequels.

One of my favorite lines from the Rifftrax was when they were riffing on the idea that it's the "best" of the prequels and one of them said, "Of all the headbutts to the balls my nephew has ever given me, this was the best!"

[emphatic]

Weird how "inspirational" can turn into "cheesy" in the eyes of youth who grew up on a movie's many, many copycats.

I'm sure many young people would consider The Maltese Falcon cheesy because, oh god not another hard-drinking street smart Private Eye character. Missing the point entirely that Dashiell Hammett invented that type of character.

I've actually read someone complain that Jimi Hendrix is a Lenny Kravitz wannabe.

My daughters (9 and 11 years old) saw STAR WARS in this order:

Episode IV (Despecialized) - They loved it and wanted to see it again the next day. Seen it maybe 4-5 times.
Episode V (Despecialized) - They loved it, especially daughter #1. Have seen it a t least ten+ times.
Episode VI (Despecialized) - Liked it, but daughter #2 got really upset when Darth Vader died.
Episode VII - Thought it was decent, but nowhere as good as Empire
Episode I - Thought Jar-Jar was cute when he appeared, but incredibly annoying after just 10 more minutes. Thought it was boring and has never asked to see it again.

I'm no (Sky)kid no more, but I can appreciate Episode VII for what it is, a soft reboot, paving the way for greater things (hopefully). I remember watching Episode I in the cinema, trying hard to look past all of it TBH. Never managed to do so though.

[Shoryukev]

I've actually read someone complain that Jimi Hendrix is a Lenny Kravitz wannabe.

My daughters (9 and 11 years old) saw STAR WARS in this order:

Episode IV (Despecialized) - They loved it and wanted to see it again the next day. Seen it maybe 4-5 times.
Episode V (Despecialized) - They loved it, especially daughter #1. Have seen it a t least ten+ times.
Episode VI (Despecialized) - Liked it, but daughter #2 got really upset when Darth Vader died.
Episode VII - Thought it was decent, but nowhere as good as Empire
Episode I - Thought Jar-Jar was cute when he appeared, but incredibly annoying after just 10 more minutes. Thought it was boring and has never asked to see it again.

I'm no (Sky)kid no more, but I can appreciate Episode VII for what it is, a soft reboot, paving the way for greater things (hopefully). I remember watching Episode I in the cinema, trying hard to look past all of it TBH. Never managed to do so though.

I've heard great things about the Despecialized editions, but have never seen them. I need to try and source the files and burn them onto blu-ray's. I currently use the "faces" set on Laserdisc to watch Ep. 4-6. (one of these days I'll get the definitive LD box-set). I'll be honest though, I'm pretty impressed that the LD format holds up as well as it does....especially the audio. I have it hooked up to my 7.1 receiver with an optical cable and it sounds fantastic!!!

[Some-Mist]

wiener-dog exceeded my expectations. it took me by surprise that the character greta gerwig plays is in fact all grown up dawn wiener from welcome to the dollhouse. it's only so fitting because the kids at her school used to tease her and call her wiener-dog and one of the old classmates she runs into even calls her "wiener-dog" before seeing her new pet. gerwig didn't really do anything exceptional... instead she sort of fell into the solondz stereotype of withdrawn and awkward which was slightly disappointing because she usually takes the spotlight. the part that really shined in her segment was kieran culkin visiting his brother-in-law which I won't spoil anything (it's not included in any of the trailers).

the movie was perfectly segmented into 4 separate stories (well sort of... it had a very odd intermission), and I think the first story with remi portrayed by keaton nigel cooke was my favorite. both of his parents played by tracy letts and julie delpy produced the majority of laughs for me as the dad was stern but just trying to please his son who survived a terrible illness and his mom seemed manipulative and against the idea (at all costs) of keeping the dog - both conflicting and tugging back and fourth. the other two stories were played by danny devito and ellen burstyn.

of course, it's very dark which is typical for a solondz flick and as usual it focuses on peoples misery in their suburban incubators (or the city as in devito's case). I'll be buying it on blu-ray to watch again.

[atheistgod1999]

Sorry about earlier. I thought about Star Wars again through a 1977 person's POV and now I understand why it was so good.

[soprano1]

Reign of Fire (2002)
Ugh. Very cool concept for a post-apocalyptic movie, but felt a bit rushed. Needed more dragon battles, imo.

[Vexorg]

I've never actually seen Star Wars Episodes 2 and 3 (at least not all the way through) myself. I saw episode 1 in theaters, thought it was decent but not great, and then just never bothered with the other ones when they came out. I thought episode 7 was better than any of the prequels, but not as good as any of the originals. I think the way I put it when I saw it originally was that it felt too much like a "Star Wars Greatest Hits" nostalgia act, and became way too predictable as a result. Spoiler text in case anyone is living under a rock:

Spoiler

Even before seeing it and without seeing spoilers, it was pretty clear they were going to kill off one of the main characters from the original trilogy, the only real question was whether it would be Han or Chewbacca, and I think the fan backlash would have been huge if they had killed off Chewbacca. Even with that and Starkiller Base, it still wasn't enough to keep the First Order from feeling like the Empire's Junior Varsity team.

[iconoclast]

The Wailing (2016, South Korea)

A new horror/mystery movie from the director of The Chaser (excellent) and The Yellow Sea (good). I went into this with no real knowledge of what it was about, nor did I know that it was even directed by Na Hong-jin. I just felt like watching a movie for the first time in months, looked to see if anything interesting came out, and went with this. It's a great movie - and I say that as someone who typically isn't into this type of horror. I recommend watching it as blind as I was.

[Skykid]

Return of Living Dead Part 2

You'd think with a zero percent rating on useless meta sites that you would at the very least be getting something unwatchable.

But this unnecessary sequel isn't all that bad. There are some decent zombies, some laughs, fourth-wall breaking humour, and some fun elements. Plenty of brain begging too.

All the kids in it are utter shit and amazingly annoying, and parts are badly directed. The music is absolutely awful, mostly, and the token real tracks dropped in are out of place. The ending is weak and there's plenty of copying, but I've seen more appalling unnecessary sequels for sure. Teen Wolf 2 for example, which has 7% more than zero on Rotten Tomatoes aggregate of inept professional critics.

[Ixmucane2]

D.A.D.

In an Italian-language vague location (Lombardy, or less likely Switzerland) in a vague near future, war begins suddenly and a number of people find themselves trapped in a pit (the foundations of a house) with sufficient water, food and assault rifles.
The titular D.A.D., an unseen and highly effective sniper robot, kills anyone who stands up or climbs out (it even shoots corpses as they are lifted out).
Some characters bond together, most participate in the excavation of an escape tunnel, many die, and at the end there's an appalling surprise epilogue that's both narratively inappropriate and incoherent with the plot.

Except for a few minutes at the beginning and at the end, the whole film is set inside the pit, with less claustrophobia than could be expected (there's a lot of space) but a strong feeling of confinement. Slightly exaggerated costumes, uneven acting with some failures, decent dialogues but stereotyped characters.

Interesting for the unusual premise and bleak tone, but could have been better.

[BIL]

^that sounds interesting, what year was it? Can't seem to google it very easily. edit: nm, found it on IMDB (Dir. Marco Maccaferri).

[Mischief Maker]

^that sounds interesting, what year was it? Can't seem to google it very easily. edit: nm, found it on IMDB (Dir. Marco Maccaferri).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-4eJ5bgMOs

[BIL]

Haha, thanks - had just watched it. Not quite the vibe I was thinking of, but I'd totally torrent it.

[Ixmucane2]

^that sounds interesting, what year was it? Can't seem to google it very easily. edit: nm, found it on IMDB (Dir. Marco Maccaferri).

Dated 2015, released last week (and apparently already gone) in Italy.
Given the popularity and abundant distribution of low-budget independent Italian films (I was the only spectator of the only copy in several cities), good luck finding a torrent...

[Xyga]

X-men Apocalypse

It was shit, as expected, save for the cool Quicksilver rescue action scene. Keep those few minutes for a music video, throw everything else.

[atheistgod1999]

It was shit, as expected

So why did you watch it?

By watching it, you're part of the reason why movies are shit nowadays.

[Xyga]

Because I was bored, tired, and looking for bare action entertainment. And I didn't pay for it anyway.

Also you don't learn.

[GaijinPunch]

Mononoke Hime (1997)

Special midnight showing at the Music Box Theater here in Chicago. Subtitled. This one was special to me as I had only ever seen it once, right when it was released on VHS in Japan, which was coincidentally the first month I lived there. It has aged quite well, as most of Miyazaki's films have. Was a special treat to see it in the theater.

[xxx1993]

Star Trek Beyond. Very first Star Trek movie I've seen in the theater. And just in time for its 50th anniversary.

[Xyga]

A Touch of Zen (1971, remastered quite recently)

It's nice seeing it in good quality, certainly one of the most beautiful wuxia films ever made.

Still bugs me that the Chinese title (Xia Nu / Nu Xia) for me means heroin / female hero, and the relationship to zen is kind of not really obvious to the layman until the trippy finale.
Sure the female protagonist would be the best explanation, but she's not excatly the main protagonist since the story's got several and she's not overly more important than the other ones. She doesn't get much lines either.

[null1024]

Star Trek: Beyond.
It's decent. Kind of corny humor, doesn't quite feel like a Trek movie, but it's a relatively solid action-adventure romp. Unlike Into Darkness, I don't really see anything too terribly wrong with the movie other than it not being really amazing.
Saw it in IMAX 3D with my girlfriend. 3D wasn't intrusive at all, but I probably would have enjoyed the movie just the same without it.
The thing that bugged me the most [and there were a fair few things] was how Spock/Uhura was kind of annoying. It's barely there, but it's still not handled well.

If there's one thing that was particularly impressive, it was the SFX. They were just solid, you knew certain things were CG, but it's not jarring at all. It's a nice looking movie.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Yeah, I broke down and checked out the newest Star Trek Beyond in 3D on it's debut day (July 22nd) -- it was presented on a Texas Instruments DLP setup along the requisite Dolby Atmos surround sound format (the heavy bass effects are quite strong, especially when delivered in this particular surround sound format quite easily). All this for a mere $12 USD for bargain matinee + 3D upgrade. Well worth it in the end.

Yeah, I'm old considering that I can recall watching the classic Star Trek: The Motion Picture movie on the big screen back in December of 1979 with such fondness -- seems like it was yesterday (and McDonald's having a Kid's Happy Meal with the ST:TMP theme/cross-promotional deal going on at the same time when that particular film was playing stateside back in the day). Nice tribute/nod towards Mr. Nimoy & Anton during the ending credits indeed.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[trap15]

Gods of Egypt (2016)

Amazingly terrible. Incredibly inconsistent plot with inconsistent and constantly changing internal rules, tons of shit that makes no sense, terrible camera work, abrupt cuts everywhere, horrific CGI; there's not much good to say about this other than it's so bad it's still entertaining. Oh and the main char's girlfriend has sweet cleavage that we unfortunately don't get to see very much.

[electricgrave]

Watched Creed, I actually liked it. I always enjoyed Rocky, the first 2 movies are my favorites specially the first one. However, even though the cheese got thick with Rocky I still like the characters, Clubber Lang and Ivan Drago, no matter what they are very memorable, I feel that's what Rocky Balboa was missing, I liked the movie but this time his opponent was pretty flat. Creed doesn't fall far from that, both movies have too much emphasis on one side of the story, it's always been this way (except for the 1st 2, specially 2) but it's more evident in the last 2 movies.

[Mischief Maker]

Watched Creed, I actually liked it. I always enjoyed Rocky, the first 2 movies are my favorites specially the first one. However, even though the cheese got thick with Rocky I still like the characters, Clubber Lang and Ivan Drago, no matter what they are very memorable, I feel that's what Rocky Balboa was missing, I liked the movie but this time his opponent was pretty flat. Creed doesn't fall far from that, both movies have too much emphasis on one side of the story, it's always been this way (except for the 1st 2, specially 2) but it's more evident in the last 2 movies.

Well in the first one was supposed to be one-sided because Apollo Creed was supposed to be this distant godlike figure to Rocky. He was based on Muhammad Ali. The whole point was that Rocky didn't stand a chance of beating him, so he set his sights on going the distance and that was enough. There's even an exchange between the two in the end:

Apollo: "There won't be a rematch!"
Rocky: "I don't want one!"

For this reason I find 2 to be the real betrayal. Even though it retained a lot of the charm from the first, having Rocky beat Apollo missed the point of the first movie entirely. The fact that Rock barely trained and still beat a maniacally training Apollo just added insult to injury. Might as well have Rocky buy a robot and end the cold war after that, the heart's already been torn out.