Movie opinions thread (what have you seen, what did you think?)

jro

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Thank you.

I felt like I was the only one who felt that way. Everybody gushes about about it but there is literally nothing to it. It's just mindless torture porn. Try hard is an understatement.
I remember being moderately impressed by the creativity in the scene in the first one where Art bisects the one chick in a way I don't think I'd seen in a horror movie before, but other than that I don't remember any of it standing out. In the sequel Art's unyielding dedication to the bit where he goes out of his way to laugh at everything was more entertaining to me than the kinda dumb gore, i.e. the shotgun-related stuff.

Watched The Menu - pretty much enjoyed it while watching it, but the ending... not sure it works for me. I like how Margot and Slowik end up, but several other parts of it, a little too high on the suspension of disbelief scale for me.
 

terry.330

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Night of the Living Dead (1990)- George Romero remaking his own movie but having Tom Savini direct it is a weird choice. I've seen this one several times over the years and I'm still not sure about it. It's not bad but it's also still kind of disappointing in a lot of ways. First Savini is not a strong director and where you think he would have made up for that with insane gore and effects he kind of drops the ball. Actually there looks like some pretty hard edits where there should have been some big gags. The effects that are there are great but it still feels like a missed opportunity.

On the plus side Tony Todd is great and Barbara is a much better character this time around. The ending is solid and I think it was a good idea to forego the racial commentary in favor of justice for Ben and satisfaction for both the audience and Barbara.

It's an odd one but I'm glad it was made and there's a lot to like about it even with it's shortcomings.
 

Syn

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Yeah, in 68 or 69, a black man slapping a (hysterical) white woman upset those who were prejudiced. My brother in law, at the time, told me about it's release and reception. Pretty ignorant.
 

terry.330

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Yeah, in 68 or 69, a black man slapping a (hysterical) white woman upset those who were prejudiced. My brother in law, at the time, told me about it's release and reception. Pretty ignorant.
Thankfully the type of people that went to midnight movies back then were pretty open minded so it found an audience.
 
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SouthtownKid

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Night of the Living Dead (1990)- George Romero remaking his own movie but having Tom Savini direct it is a weird choice. I've seen this one several times over the years and I'm still not sure about it. It's not bad but it's also still kind of disappointing in a lot of ways. First Savini is not a strong director and where you think he would have made up for that with insane gore and effects he kind of drops the ball. Actually there looks like some pretty hard edits where there should have been some big gags. The effects that are there are great but it still feels like a missed opportunity.

On the plus side Tony Todd is great and Barbara is a much better character this time around. The ending is solid and I think it was a good idea to forego the racial commentary in favor of justice for Ben and satisfaction for both the audience and Barbara.

It's an odd one but I'm glad it was made and there's a lot to like about it even with it's shortcomings.
In some ways, I like it more than the original. The original has some slight racial commentary, or at least more overt racial commentary, but its attitude toward women is caveman days. Original Barbara is worthless beyond belief. I also like new Ben better, not just because he's played by a better actor, but because he's more nuanced in that he's heroic without being anywhere near perfect.

I agree with everyone everywhere that turning Ben into a zombie is a cop out, because it lets the audience off the hook when the rednecks shoot him. But the trade off is that we get the satisfaction of getting to watch Barbara flat-out execute still human Mr. Yo-Yo. (the"YOU'RE ALL A BUNCH OF YO-YOS!!" guy) It's a remake, but the movies are doing different things. Even though the original movie begins with Barbara and starts by following her, Ben is clearly the main character, with Barbara becoming irrelevant as soon as he shows up. But the remake is Barbara's movie, and it's she that gets the character arc.

In any case, I like both. Unlike Dawn of the Dead, where the original is a flawless masterpiece for what it's trying to do, while the Zack Snyder remake is the epitome of soulless and witless. Zack Snyder demonstrating early something that would come up again countless times in the years that followed as he adapted other properties to film: He can construct a plot, but he doesn't understand theme or story. Not even a little bit. He aspires to symbolism, but it completely eludes him and it's laugh out loud funny when he attempts it. Plus, he loves to make hilariously on-the-nose choices for source music. Snyder is a less self-aware Michael Bay. Everything snaps into focus when you hear that his dream project is to adapt the novels of Ayn Rand.
 

terry.330

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Yeah the new ending is extremely satisfying.

She's just like BLAM.

"Another one for the fire pile." and walks out.

Exactly what that guy deserved.
 

terry.330

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Predator- It's fucking Predator.

I will say it did look good in 4k, glad to finally see it without a bunch of DNR. It's a good looking movie in general though. The camera work really makes the jungle a big part of the movie. I know some of that was due to the difficulty of shooting in that terrain but it really helps give it a dense atmosphere, sense of isolation and fear of the unknown.
 

fake

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Hardcore Henry
I laughed at this when I saw the trailers, but figured why not. I was watching on my iPad and got super motion sick, which has never happened to me before. I'll have to try to finish it on the TV. It's...exactly what it looks like.
 

terry.330

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Hardcore Henry
I laughed at this when I saw the trailers, but figured why not. I was watching on my iPad and got super motion sick, which has never happened to me before. I'll have to try to finish it on the TV. It's...exactly what it looks like.
It's not much better on a TV.
 

Lagduf

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Hardcore Henry
I laughed at this when I saw the trailers, but figured why not. I was watching on my iPad and got super motion sick, which has never happened to me before. I'll have to try to finish it on the TV. It's...exactly what it looks like.

I saw it in the theater when it came out. It’s pretty forgettable and dumb.
 

terry.330

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Tucker: A Man and His Dream- For those that don't know this is about the Tucker car company and it's founder who tried and failed to take on the US car industry in the late 1940s. They ended up only producing 50 cars before they were shut down.

I know it's supposed to be a bit of a feel good underdog story and a throwback to the days of the quintessential "American Dream" and optimism in the face of adversity etc. but it also comes off as overly romanticized, short sighted and honestly more than a bit naive. (Which I'm sure was true) I didn't know that the same senator that went after Howard Huges also went after Tucker, that's quite interesting. Jeff Bridges is great and the supporting cast is solid, lots of period details and a healthy message of distrust for big corporations/industry and the US government. It doesn't feel like a Francis Ford Coppola movie though. Recommended.
 

pixeljunkie

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I saw it in the theater when it came out. It’s pretty forgettable and dumb.

This hurts my soul - I am a big fan of this one. For me, it's like a super-fucking kinetic, live action anime OVA. It knows what's its about and it has the production budget to actually do it. I saw an early screening of it and it blew my tits off. I was a big fan of the music video that spawned it though. I didn't care for the music, but the video was batshit insane. It's basically par excellence for a story via first person. Plus, you could tell Sharlto fucking Copley had a blast on it. I dunno, man - it's pure adrenaline, exquisitely executed, pure action from a perspective yet to be realized. I like that the same people who could call it "dumb" probably love something adjacent that I promise, is way more objectively dumb. It was inventive and sharp as nails. That final fight with some legit video game tropes and over-the-top moments, come on! I don't see how you can like shit like Fist of the North Star, etc and not dig the shit outta' that movie. I'm drunk raging right now.
 

Lagduf

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This hurts my soul - I am a big fan of this one. For me, it's like a super-fucking kinetic, live action anime OVA. It knows what's its about and it has the production budget to actually do it. I saw an early screening of it and it blew my tits off. I was a big fan of the music video that spawned it though. I didn't care for the music, but the video was batshit insane. It's basically par excellence for a story via first person. Plus, you could tell Sharlto fucking Copley had a blast on it. I dunno, man - it's pure adrenaline, exquisitely executed, pure action from a perspective yet to be realized. I like that the same people who could call it "dumb" probably love something adjacent that I promise, is way more objectively dumb. It was inventive and sharp as nails. That final fight with some legit video game tropes and over-the-top moments, come on! I don't see how you can like shit like Fist of the North Star, etc and not dig the shit outta' that movie. I'm drunk raging right now.

To be clear I enjoyed watching it.

But it was dumb and forgettable.

For me a better “dumb” action flick is Crank.
 

terry.330

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This hurts my soul - I am a big fan of this one. For me, it's like a super-fucking kinetic, live action anime OVA. It knows what's its about and it has the production budget to actually do it. I saw an early screening of it and it blew my tits off. I was a big fan of the music video that spawned it though. I didn't care for the music, but the video was batshit insane. It's basically par excellence for a story via first person. Plus, you could tell Sharlto fucking Copley had a blast on it. I dunno, man - it's pure adrenaline, exquisitely executed, pure action from a perspective yet to be realized. I like that the same people who could call it "dumb" probably love something adjacent that I promise, is way more objectively dumb. It was inventive and sharp as nails. That final fight with some legit video game tropes and over-the-top moments, come on! I don't see how you can like shit like Fist of the North Star, etc and not dig the shit outta' that movie. I'm drunk raging right now.
Yeah it's all those things for sure but it's still a gimmick and a gimmick being stretched to feature length long outstaying it's welcome. The original video was cool but I feel like this would have been best as a highly polished short.
 

terry.330

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Torso (aka The Bodies Show Traces of Carnal Violence)- Sleazy, 70s and Italian. Some sick fuck is strangling and mutilating slutty sexy college girls. One local girl thinks she may know who the killer is and that he may know that she knows. She decides to stay at her families country villa with a few friends until things cool down but of course the killer follows her. The girls spend their time nude sunbathing, having sex with each other and partying. All the girls get killed and dismembered except for one who the killer is conveniently unaware of. The last act of the movie turns into a cat and mouse game with the girl trying to hide while the killer slowly cuts up her friends downstair.

This is much more of a proto-slasher than a giallo. Directed by Sergio Martino it has his usual flair for fairly extreme sex and violence. The last third of the movie is genuinely tense as hell and elevates the movie above it's sleazy ridiculousness. Italian logic and titties by the truckload, this has more sex and nudity in the first 10 minutes than most pornos. It's not very artfully made compared to the directors other works but it's still highly enjoyable for what it is. That last act is legit.
 
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100proof

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Killer Klowns from Outer Space - Alamo had a late night show this evening. I hadn't watched it in quite a while and I couldn't help myself. This isn't Shakespeare... you 100% watch this movie for the practical f/x, the makeup work and the dopey gags. Everything else is campy 80s cheese wrapped up in a rock simple 50s horror movie plot.

A meteor/comet falls from the sky which turns out to be a circus tent-shaped spaceship filled with weirdly ghoulish clowns that murder an entire sleepy town (by turning them all in to cotton candy and drinking their blood through a giant crazy straw). If that sounds completely ridiculous, there's a seemingly endless number of gags with clowns doing clown-like things that are both ridiculously silly but also weirdly creepy.

Just take the hint from the title and don't expect anything remotely serious and it's a perfect little cult movie that every fan of camp should watch.
 

HornheaDD

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Felt like watching Ender's Game again just for shits and giggles and yeah, it still sucks.

I can get some of the changes like Ender being around 12 or so rather than 6 like in the book. You're not gonna really find a 6 year old who can act the way Ender is portrayed in the books, so I get it. That said, they didn't develop any of the other characters apart from "hi, Im Petra" or whatever. side note: I had forgotten Haley Stienfeld played Petra in the flick. She looked like a baby.

They showed maybe 3 battle room scenes, and very little of that showed any of Ender's strategies. It also completely telegraphed the 'twist.'

When I first read Ender's Game I was in 5th grade, I believe. I remember getting toward the last few chapters and thinking "wait a sec how are we at the end, they are still training. Are we not gonna see any actual battles with the buggers?" And then when it's revealed that the last few months of 'simulations' were actual battles it was kind of a mindblowing thing for some kid in 5th grade. I honestly didn't even know there were sequels (or a Bean quartet) until sometime in the late 90s.

I looked at the run time and it was just under 2 hours. I have no idea exactly how much film they cut out for the released version, but at the two hour mark, Ender should have maybe killed Bonzo or gotten his own army. They sped through and cut out a lot of the story WAY too much.

This is me just picking nits, but I don't like that they called the aliens "Formics." They didn't call them Formics in the books until later in the Ender series. They just called them "Buggers," at least for the entirety of the first novel.

What a shame. Terrible movie. It made me want to read through the Enderverse books again but then I remembered that I read the final Ender book (The Last Shadow) a year or two ago and it was absolute garbage and didn't end the actual story. Complete bullshit that Card pulled out of his ass over a weekend. It was literally what the last season of Game of Thrones was to that story.
 

DevilRedeemed

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The Living Daylights

Best thing about the film is the title. I remember it being great, kind of dark. Nope
 

DevilRedeemed

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Watched The Menu - pretty much enjoyed it while watching it, but the ending... not sure it works for me. I like how Margot and Slowik end up, but several other parts of it, a little too high on the suspension of disbelief scale for me.
It's ok, but I liked The Hunt a lot more in that vein of film
 

Burning Fight!!

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Sad on the eyes, yet no tears -- the flight of The Wild Geese (1979) brings no hope that I'm ever going to like movies from the "british old gentlemen mercenaries go to a poor country to fuck shit up" genre. All of these movies pale in comparison to the book The Dogs of War, especially this one for the anti-apartheid but not really cringeworthy moments only a movie from this age could bring. lol cyanide sprays, lol hundreds of african soldiers just running towards a couple of outnumbered old men and a stationary machine gun, lol at them not being able to shoot down a shit propeller airplane trying to take off 10m away from them (naturally the bomber airplane that fucked their shit up in an earlier scene for dramatic effect is nowhere to be seen here).

I need to pick better movies for rainy days.
 
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