Author Topic: Respond to the last movie you watched  (Read 683951 times)

Sandy

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #3530 on: May 16, 2019, 12:30:11 AM »
You've been doing Musical May! Wish I could join in. I've been out of town and still am. I'm reading along though!

1SO

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #3531 on: May 16, 2019, 09:25:37 AM »
I had a few titles set aside for this month and wanted to get to them before I left town for work (which is today.)

Thief

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #3532 on: May 16, 2019, 02:37:35 PM »
Lady Bird (2017)
The surviving women who were invited to test as astronauts upon the US entry into the Space Race tell their story of frustration and discrimination. A Lady Bird goes through the routine high school tropes until, suddenly she’s not at high school any more. Boyfriends, schools plays and an inevitable prom at the end. But then it’s actually something else. Family interactions are acutely well observed, but even more than that this is a that rarest of things. A coming-of-age film for 18-year-old women that breaks free from convention and the patterns of school life to emerge into a whole new adult world filled with love, regret and new responsibility. Understated and a joy to watch.


Nice writeup. I agree.

Thief

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #3533 on: May 16, 2019, 02:40:47 PM »
Total Recall (Paul Verhoeven, 1990)[/b]

I'm surprised by how seldom this is referred to as the primary source of inspiration for The Matrix, because there's a lot here. The bug-removal, the red pill (used differently, true), the general mindCINECAST!ery the character goes through juxtaposed with exceptional effects work and the cross between philosophical inquiries and badass action... anyway, this is probably the best possible use of the "was it all a dream" ending. None of the in-world narrative quite add up: you either have to take the first fifteen minutes at face value which means accepting Schwarzenegger as an average Joe (hah) and that he would be so frustrated with his life (which seems quite nice even before taking into account that his wife is Sharon Stone at her attractiveness peak) as to go to Recall... or you have to accept all the insanity that comes after that, including the bonkers final minutes. In the end, it plays as the most fun exercise in post-modern skepticism ever.

8/10

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Philip Kaufman, 1978)


What an experience. Kaufman is throwing everything but the kitchen sink at you and not all of it works (we're too familiar with the echography sound now for it to be as creepy as he wants it to be) but it adds up to one of the most effective horror films I've seen in terms of pure mood, and a perfect encapsulation of 70s liberal blues. Great cast, a willingness to experiment with effects, score and direction on top of a very simple and effective concept (as seen in the very lean original) and an unforgettable ending... amazing overall.

9/10

I've never been a huge fan of Total Recall. It is a weird combination of a "dumb" 80's action film and a more ambitious science/fiction film, but unfortunately, the end result leans more towards the former. I "enjoy" it in that respect, but I wish it was more substantial.

As for Invasion of the Body Snatchers, that's a really, really nice film. Also, have you seen the original? I think it's really strong as well.

Teproc

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #3534 on: May 16, 2019, 03:02:29 PM »
Re: Total Recall, I think the beauty of the ending is that it makes the Schwarzenegger stuff actually meaningful, as a commentary on the surrealness of, well, movies starring Arnold Schwarznegger and the way in which we watch them is similar to why his character wants to be a spy on Mars.

Yeah, I've seen the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and I did like it, but definitely not as much as this one. It's leaner, which can be good but the remake gets to be so much more ambitious, and pretty daring formally. They're very different in the end, which speaks to how much the US (and the world) changed in those 22 years.
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oldkid

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #3535 on: May 17, 2019, 12:24:05 AM »
You've been doing Musical May! Wish I could join in. I've been out of town and still am. I'm reading along though!

I apologize you two.  I plain forgot.  I've been thinking about starting now, in the middle of the month, but 1SO has been doing well on his own.
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

Dave the Necrobumper

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #3536 on: May 17, 2019, 06:16:30 AM »
Mini Force: New Heroes Rise (2016) aka Mini Force: The Beginning

I have to start out with my kids did enjoy this.

Manos: Hands of Fate, Robot Monster, Plan 9 from Out of Space these are classified as some of the worst movies ever made. Still they do have their charms. Mini Force: New Heroes Rise does not. The animation is very low budget with only the most rudimentary rendering. I am not sure I have ever seen animated characters act badly, not the voice acting, the way they move. I can no longer say that, still the animation did look good in comparison to the voice acting and dialogue. The plot was boiler plate anime.

To those involved in making this film hang your head in shame.

This is now officially the worst movie I have ever seen. It only got the points it did because the kids enjoyed it, but I am still tempted to mark it further down, yep going to mark it further down as thinking about it is making me feel woozy.

Rating: 5 / 100

1SO

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #3537 on: May 17, 2019, 01:13:08 PM »
You've been doing Musical May! Wish I could join in. I've been out of town and still am. I'm reading along though!

I apologize you two.  I plain forgot.  I've been thinking about starting now, in the middle of the month, but 1SO has been doing well on his own.
I'd let it slide this year. I'm in Wales until the 27th. My next musical will probably be Aladdin (2019) on the 28th.

FLYmeatwad

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #3538 on: May 17, 2019, 09:59:03 PM »
Booksmart

This film, something that has such a strong core, that channels so many great to good films, that should be so far up my alley that it's standing on the doorstep left me completely speechless. A movie like this shouldn't even be capable of being this bad, and yet, somehow, here we are. Super strong core, the cast as a whole is pretty solid, and some of the jokes hit based on the commitment of the actors alone. But the camera is obtrusively close almost always, there are so many echoes of better films, and even ones that aren't even fantastic, but are still way better than this, and it's all just incredibly disappointing. That's not even a strong enough word, I'm pretty much reeling even now. Yikes.

Teproc

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #3539 on: May 19, 2019, 12:48:20 PM »
Les crevettes pailletées / The Shiny Shrimps (Maxime Govare & Cédric Le Gallo, 2019)

A typical French feelgood comedy in the vein of last years's Le grand bain, since it focuses on another band of misfits and a watersport: this time it's waterpolo, and they're not middle-aged men but young (most of them anyway) gay men (and a trans woman). That's nice I guess, but it doesn't really hide how rote the script is, with a much less capable cast as well, and the ending stuck me as being in extremely bad taste in its attempt to challenge traditional values. It features our heroes giving an flamboyant performance (of some sort) at a funeral, clearly without the consent of the family of the deceased. We're clearly meant to shake our heads at the stuffy attendants who walk out, but this is so blatantly disrespectful of the family (though they are of course into it by the end, because movie magic) that it just makes everyone in the film feel like, well, dicks.

3/10

The Dead Don't Die (Jim Jarmusch, 2019)


Basically what you'd think Jarmusch's version of Night of the Living Dead would look like, with everyone taking the news of the zombie apocalypse with a certain amount of wry detachment. It's pretty all-over the place tonally, with Adam Driver distractingly breaking the fourth wall for reasons I can't quite fathom and don't mesh at all with Sévigny's much more grounded performance. It's also extremely slight, and whenever it tries not to be, it's mostly through bad Trump jokes and/or Tom Waits heavy-handedly commenting from the sidelines. It's pretty funny though, which made it an overall pleasant experience for me.

6/10

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