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

[terry.330]

Despite being primetime and running for 10 years, BB still feels kind of underground. Or maybe I'm just talking out my ass and it's quite popular.

It's incredibly popular with a very broad audience. Which is a good thing, it's a quality show and after the shit stain that was Family Guy, American Dad etc. for so many years it's nice that something good and somewhat wholesome is actually popular again.

 

[NeoSneth]

I got tired of Bobs Burgers. I should probably watch a new episode to see what's changed.

 

[lithy]

I got tired of Bobs Burgers. I should probably watch a new episode to see what's changed.

It has gotten a little stale for me too. Not sure if I could adequately explain why, but I still occasionally see some early episodes and laugh throughout. Meanwhile, several from recent seasons have been so meh throughout that my wife and I hardly chuckle.

I'd still like to see the movie though.

 

[terry.330]

Yeah, I watched the first few season when I still had regular TV and then just kind of stopped even though the later season were available on streaming. Went back got caught up during the pandemic. It did get a little stale, the quality is still pretty high though. It didn't suddenly drop off like The Simpsons. It's just kind of there, it's reliable which isn't the worst thing.

I was surprised at how many seasons there are. I thought maybe 7 or 8 but there's 13. Which might account for some of the staleness.

 

[terry.330]

Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight- I love the TV series and while this movie seems like it was most likely a different project that was repurposed to cash in on the license it's still a lot of fun. I never realized how much this has in common with From Dusk Till Dawn, this came out a year earlier but the similarities are striking. This has one of the best ensemble character actor casts of anything I can think of, it's a cavalcade of "oh shit that guy/lady!". Billy Zane is fantastic as the main bad guy, he's really hamming it up and just going for it. The effects are great and while it's not as clever or funny as the better Tales episodes it gets by for the most part and the Crypt Keeper wraparounds are pretty good as always. The John Laraquette cameo in the opening is funny as well.

Not sure if I want to sit through Bordello of Blood though. I remember it being just awful and you know... Dennis Miller. But it has a cult following now so I might try and give it a shot.

 

[HornheaDD]

American Dad

I'm not about to claim that American Dad is as good as Bobs Burgers by any means, but American Dad actually came into its own a few seasons in. They moved away from all the US Political/terrorism jokes, that just weren't funny, and did its own thing. All of the characters (and to an extent the eponymous 'Dad') have their own funny parts to play - except the daughter. Fuck that character. The mom is hilarious too.

The shit that the son Steve and the alien Roger get into, callbacks to other jokes in the show, its actually quite funny. Scott Grimes, the actor who plays the son (and Gordon in the Orville) is hilarious, and I think the only person that screams better than him when it comes to comedy is Stanly Tucci. He's also quite an accomplished singer, funnily enough.

Now, its not on the level of something like Bobs Burgers/Archer/Home Movies, but still funny on its own. Family Guy was great until it was canceled at the beginning, when it was un-canceled it sucked butt and still does. Can't stand it.

The way I view AD is sorta like how Futurama became the better show between it and the Simpsons. Simpsons was great up until about season 10 or 12 (at a stretch), but when Futurama came around it was as funny and well written as the Simpsons was early on. Same with American Dad.

 

[terry.330]

Nope.

 

[SouthtownKid]

Family Guy and American Dad are two of the worst non politics-related things to happen to America in the past several decades.

 

[HornheaDD]

Family Guy and American Dad are two of the worst non politics-related things to happen to America in the past several decades.

Sometimes I wish I knew what it was like to be just *so* jaded.

But then I realize I got life to live and enjoy.

 

[SouthtownKid]

Sometimes I wish I knew what it was like to be just *so* jaded.

But then I realize I got life to live and enjoy.

If you think Family Guy was ever funny, you must be the happiest person in the world. What they call special, in quotes. Because you have a super low bar for enjoyment. Something like that Will Ferrell Sherlock Holmes movie probably put a spring in your step for a week.

 

[HornheaDD]

If you think Family Guy was ever funny, you must be the happiest person in the world. What they call special, in quotes. Because you have a super low bar for enjoyment. Something like that Will Ferrell Sherlock Holmes movie probably put a spring in your step for a week.

So jaded and butthurt to boot

 

[@M]

I love Family Guy, and think American Dad is okay, but, didn't much care for Bob's Burgers.

 

[SouthtownKid]

I love Family Guy, and think American Dad is okay, but, didn't much care for Bob's Burgers.

See, hornhead? There you go. That's exactly what I'm talking about. "Special".

 

[100proof]

Family Guy would probably be remembered a lot more fondly if it had actually ended after that first run of three or four seasons. It wasn't particularly good but at least it hadn't long overstayed its welcome and become a parody of a parody of a parody of itself.

The manatee joke thing has been beaten to death at this point but the MacFarlane cartoons really have no characterization or premise or story. Just a paper-thin excuse to write the same jokes over and over or an endless buffet of stale pop culture references. Which in and of itself isn't necessarily bad but when the jokes aren't great either and the references mostly consist of "here are our characters reenacting a thing you probably know", it really is just fodder for waterheads who will laugh at anything.

I mean even Seth MacFarlane checked out on those shows years ago and just does the voices now.

 

[NeoSneth]

im not going to shit on Family Guy just because it hasnt aged well. The format didnt lend itself well to aging. It's to the point they constantly make fun of their own format. Doesnt matter. Family Guy was a good middle ground between Simpsons and Adult Swim for a long time.

ALso, this is the movie thread. How the fuk we get on about TV shows...?

 

[HornheaDD]

Family Guy would probably be remembered a lot more fondly if it had actually ended after that first run of three or four seasons. It wasn't particularly good but at least it hadn't long overstayed its welcome and become a parody of a parody of a parody of itself.

The manatee joke thing has been beaten to death at this point but the MacFarlane cartoons really have no characterization or premise or story. Just a paper-thin excuse to write the same jokes over and over or an endless buffet of stale pop culture references. Which in and of itself isn't necessarily bad but when the jokes aren't great either and the references mostly consist of "here are our characters reenacting a thing you probably know", it really is just fodder for waterheads who will laugh at anything.

I mean even Seth MacFarlane checked out on those shows years ago and just does the voices now.

While I agree with everything you say, American Dad doesnt do (or at least stopped doing early on) that. It doesn't have that "I remember that one time.." And then it cuts to some dumb ass tired joke. AD doesn't do anything like that.

 

[100proof]

If you like that format, vaya con dios, but it's the same shit people clown on modern Simpsons for. It may not do the manatee jokes but it's still a bunch of empty vessels to fill with whatever tired, hack comedy premises the writers come up with from week to week. And Jesus, Roger is like an amalgam of every annoying sitcom character ever created. Now that I think about it, just about every character on a MacFarlane cartoon is a generic sitcom archetype with the "Annoying" dial turned to 11 and the "Subtlety" dial turned to 0 and broken off.

To be fair, I haven't watched a new episode of AD since it left Fox but I find it hard to believe it's become a fundamentally different show since then.

 

[famicommander]

Mike Judge > Matt Groening > Seth MacFarlane

 

[terry.330]

Waxwork- A group of college kids get invited to a wax museum which is of course totally evil where they end up getting sucked into the displays and used as human sacrifices to help bring about the end of the world, or something. I like that the displays are mainly from famous horror movies instead of just famous real life people. This has a lot in common with House II, it's very bizarre in that same type of surreal fantasy way. Great cast and some good monsters. The practical effects are all over the map quality wise, which isn't surprising since there are so many of them and the budget was pretty small. Not sure who the intended audience is as some of it comes off as intended for older children but then you have a scene with a woman being brought to orgasm from being whipped by the Marquis De Sade. It's pretty messy all around though and it actually kind of works in the movies favor.

Overall it's goofy B grade fun and fairly original for a horror movie of the time. Like House II I can see this being something I would have really loved as a kid.

 

[LoneSage]

Mike Judge > Matt Groening > Seth MacFarlane

All three are incredibly talented people. Good on them for making it. It's a hard life

 

[terry.330]

Waxwork 2- Holy shit, this was awesome. I cannot believe I'd never seen this before. It took everything good about the first and turned it up to 11. It is as close to a live action cartoon as just about anything else I can think of, it's totally off the rails. Just parody after parody; Dawn of the Dead, Aliens, Evil Dead, Nosferatu, Godzilla, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, The Haunting, Saturday Night Fever, Psycho, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and probably a dozen more. It's almost completely unrelated to the original (Zach Galligan is the only returning actor) and honestly the plot doesn't matter at all. It's just a beyond thin reason for the characters to jump around to all these different movies. Also for some reason the end credits are just a music video for a rap group who rap about the movie, I guess that was the thing at the time (Addams Family, TMNT 2 etc.) Oh yeah and Bruce Campbell is in it. This is definitely a hidden gem.

The only real complaint I have is that Deborah Foreman didn't return and the chick that replaced her is just awful. She's the epitome of blah. At least the movie is so insane that most of time she's easy to overlook.

 

[fake]

The Parallax View
A journalist is caught up in a political assassination, and upon investigating he finds a private corporation is recruiting psychopaths to carry out the murders. He has to thread the needle between investigating and getting himself in too deep. There's a lot of paranoia, and the DP uses a lot of weird architecture and open spaces to create sort of liminal spaces. It's definitely a good reflection of the era of the JFK, RFK, MLK, and MX assassinations. Recommended.

Chopping Mall
Wow. A mall purchases three robots who serve as after-hours security guards. A group of teens stays late to have sex in the furniture store and the robots get a little overzealous. Recommended.

 

[terry.330]

Chopping Mall is fucking awesome.

 

[Tung Fu ru]

Chopping Mall is fantastic

 

[terry.330]

Darkman- Too violent for kids, too weird for most adults, too comic booky before that was an established genre and not enough star power to compete with Tim Burton's Batman. This movie was doomed from the beginning. You gotta love it though, Sam Raimi in full effect. This movie is to superhero movies what Evil Dead 2 was to horror. Tons of optical effects, wacky camera angles, snap zooms, dissolves, crazy backlighting, he really one tall out. Perhaps a bit too ambitious. It obviously laid the groundwork for a lot of stuff he would later do in his Spider Man movies while retaining the rough around the edges style.

It's not perfect by any means but it's a hell of a lot of fun.