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

jro

Gonna take a lot
20 Year Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2004
Posts
14,410
The Sacrament

Eli Roth was one of the producers so I hoped it was better than it was. Three guys visit one of the guy's sister at a Jim Jones type cult. Things go wrong and they break out the special kool aid.

It's not bad but I felt like I'd seen it before when I hadn't.
The Sacrament is a Ti West joint, he's a far better filmmaker than Eli Roth could ever hope to be. It also has all three of Amy Seimetz, Joe Swanberg, and AJ Bowen in it, which is basically indie horror bingo for me (A Horrible Way to Die and You're Next also star all three, with YN including Ti West in the cast, and both are quite good). I've been meaning to re-watch The Sacrament, I remember mostly liking it the first time around I think. West also made X, which I'm very much looking forward to watching sometime soon hopefully. The House of the Devil is really good, also. Yes, I suppose I am a bit of a Ti West stan come to think of it.

Sticking with my Halloween marathon:
Halloween 3: Season of the Witch - I had somehow managed to avoid SotW up until I watched it a few nights ago. It is indeed not good. It makes a lot more sense, its entire existence I mean, knowing about the whole original TV anthology idea that was mentioned a bit earlier in this thread. Even then it wouldn't be any good, don't get me wrong. The scene where the guy suddenly has a Celtic accent and explains the entire plot of the film in like two sentences (with zero explanation at any other time in the movie) cracked me up. The casting of Tom Atkins' characters' love interests must have been a running gag at this point, I mean seriously, Stacey Nelkin was 24 years younger than he was and Jamie Lee Curtis was 23 years younger.

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers - Dr. Loomis is apparently as unkillable as is Michael at this point, I guess his limp is the one reminder that he blew himself up along with Michael earlier on? Movie itself works okay but it's basically just a re-skin of the first one with more slasher movie cliches in place of the nuance that Carpenter had. It's also pretty clear that the directors were more than happy to have Pleasance chew the hell out of the scenery at this point, with his dedication to his American accent also being pretty spotty at times. Ending is so incredibly dumb that I'm not sure I can stand to try watching 5.
 

terry.330

Time? Astonishing!
20 Year Member
Joined
May 4, 2004
Posts
11,792
The People Under the Stairs- This is definitely one of Wes Craven's weirder pieces. From that little window of time when studios were consciously making horror for a black audience, or at least with heavy racial and classist themes. You had this, Candyman, Tales from the Hood and a couple others all within a couple years of each other.

There really is a whole lot of weird shit going on though and it's genuinely fucked up. You've got a guy in a full gimp suit with a shotgun and a rotweiler as well as his his sister with whom he has an incestuous relationship (and they're cannibals) chasing a child around a murder mansion. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. On paper it seems a lot closer to something like Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 or even out of Rob Zombies catalog than what we've come to expect from Craven. Then again he did Last House on the Left and The Hills Have Eyes and this definitely fits in line with those. Though this is noticeably more cartoonish and exaggerated than those.

I hadn't seen it in years and wasn't sure how well it would hold up or even if was any good in the first place.I'm happy to say that I think it's held up pretty well for the most part. A lot of that is due to the fact that it's just so incredibly bizarre and the actors are so well cast and committed to the roles. It's predictable and the ending is beyond cliche but the overall thrill ride that comprises the bulk of the movie is entertaining enough that it's easy to overlook a lot of the things that don't work.
 

SouthtownKid

There are four lights
20 Year Member
Joined
Oct 12, 2003
Posts
26,896
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers - Dr. Loomis is apparently as unkillable as is Michael at this point, I guess his limp is the one reminder that he blew himself up along with Michael earlier on? Movie itself works okay but it's basically just a re-skin of the first one with more slasher movie cliches in place of the nuance that Carpenter had. It's also pretty clear that the directors were more than happy to have Pleasance chew the hell out of the scenery at this point, with his dedication to his American accent also being pretty spotty at times. Ending is so incredibly dumb that I'm not sure I can stand to try watching 5.
The only part I enjoyed about Halloween 4 (and the final time I ever enjoyed anything in the original series) was when the deputies started stepping out from behind trees and stuff wearing Michael masks. In the brief half-second between it starting to happen and it becoming obvious what was going on, I had a flash of a thought, "That's how he does it!" It was the one, lone instant in any of the non-Carpenter movies where I briefly got fooled into thinking they might have an interesting and original idea to add.
 

terry.330

Time? Astonishing!
20 Year Member
Joined
May 4, 2004
Posts
11,792
Tenebrae- Kind of disappointing for Argento, (in his prime) up until the end it's a pretty by the numbers giallo. It's also fairly disappointing visually, like everything else they're adequate but nothing really stands out. The are a few small flashes of his signature style but they're brief and far between. The end while very predictable is crazy as fuck though. It's worth a watch but don't expect something on the level of Argento's better stuff. Also worth note is it's absolutely amazing soundtrack which has been re-used, re-purposed and sampled into oblivion.

If Suspiria is a 10 I'd give this a 6.
 

terry.330

Time? Astonishing!
20 Year Member
Joined
May 4, 2004
Posts
11,792
What We Do Is Secret- Biopic on D'Arby Crash, singer of The Germs. This was just awful, bad cast, bad script, bad everything. While it wasn't as romanticized as I thought it would be it was still pretty insufferable in places. The biggest problem though is that there wasn't really a point, a lot of that comes down to the fact that The Germs are mostly known for just being notorious instead of actually doing anything. So in a way there really isn't a lot to work with. Lots of wasted potential.
 
Last edited:

terry.330

Time? Astonishing!
20 Year Member
Joined
May 4, 2004
Posts
11,792
The Stepfather- Terry Quinn gives a fantastic performance in what can be described as the best Lifetime Channel original movie they never made. I kind of miss the late 80s/early 90s psychological horror trend, there's just something so basic and trashy about them. Despite it's trashiness and predictability this actually a very well made movie from a structure standpoint. Everything fits and and comes back around, basic writing but I always appreciate it when it's done well.

There are two sequels to this and I know I've seen the second one on cable back in the day, I remember it being quite a bit shlockier than this one.

Fun fact: Terry Quinn's character is actually based on a real guy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_List

Man I'm signofzetaing the fuck out of this page.
 
Last edited:

HornheaDD

Viewpoint Vigilante
Fagit of the Year
Joined
Mar 22, 2016
Posts
4,272
Thor 4:

Not nearly as bad as everyone is moaning about it online but it wasn't as good as Ragnarok. Thought Bale did an interesting job as Gorr. And Russel Crowe doing a Greek accent that was basically a bad Italian accent lol.

Also Roy Fucking Kent as Hercules was cool.
 

jro

Gonna take a lot
20 Year Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2004
Posts
14,410
The Sacrament (ty @Syn for reminding me to finally re-watch this) - what struck me, on re-watch, is how simple the story is. But it totally works. Good writing, good acting, really nice execution of everything, easily recommended. Very simple story told really, really well.

Halloween 5 - I got through 25 minutes before the premise just broke for me and I hit eject. Little sis brutally murders her family, but now she's a totally relatable mute, not her fault! No.

Halloween 6 - I got through 7 minutes before I wanted to punch a baby. Why did they keep making these?

Halloween H20 - I watched this again about a year ago, and I'm not enough of a masochist to bother with it again in present day. Fucking awful IIRC.

Halloween Resurrection - decent premise, IMO. But it stars a rapper and a model and was written by an autistic third-grader (google it, it's true) and does absolutely nothing interesting. Awful.

Halloween (Rob Zombie version) - there's an impressive amount of gore and gratuitous nudity in this, and there's also a weird slavishness to the original that comes through in shots where it doesn't matter. Rob didn't get it, just, no. He's made some decent horror movies, but this is bad. I sort of oddly appreciate what he was going for in the bizarre dedication to utter trashiness, but ultimately... no. The dialogue is every bit as bad as its reputation. Also, it is f'ing weird to go from Danielle Harris in the early movies as adorable kid to this one being a naked trophy kill. Oddly, though, this one isn't bad on its own merits as something other than a proper entry in the series. It's nasty as hell with a bunch of solid kill scenes.

Halloween II (Rob Zombie version) - My bad on this one. Much of what I remembered as alright in this one is actually in H1, this is just boring. I get why they had to switch child Michael, but man, Faerch just brought it an a way that the new kid doesn't. And the unicorns? Sure. Watching this again, I got the very distinct impression that Rob was operating under the assumption that he was making a new trilogy, which, obviously, didn't happen. Probably for the best, as this was terrible. The Danny McBride versions aren't good but they're better than the Zombie versions.
 

terry.330

Time? Astonishing!
20 Year Member
Joined
May 4, 2004
Posts
11,792
I sort of oddly appreciate what he was going for in the bizarre dedication to utter trashiness, but ultimately... no.
Yeah, the only time that has worked for me is in The Devil's Rejects. In everything else he does it's so forced and over the top it's beyond cringe. It just comes off as fake, much like Zombie himself.

The Halloween franchise is such a shit show.

Gonna have to watch The Sacrament, I actually hadn't heard of it until syn mentioned it
 

jro

Gonna take a lot
20 Year Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2004
Posts
14,410
jro you OK bro

don't Halloween yourself
Luckily that is it until Halloween Ends later this year! The new trilogy is cheating a bit with me in casting tho, definitely liking anything w Judy Greer.
 

100proof

Insert Something Clever Here
10 Year Member
Joined
Jan 16, 2014
Posts
3,579
Man I'm signofzetaing the fuck out of this page.

The amount of self awareness in that sentence alone pretty much guarantees that will never happen.

Ohboy. That's three of us. Whoo whee. Judy Greer.

Judy Greer is the twig in the recent Halloween movies. Pam Grier is the one in Ghosts of Mars... one of the baddest bitches in the history of show business. Big difference. :)
 

SouthtownKid

There are four lights
20 Year Member
Joined
Oct 12, 2003
Posts
26,896
The amount of self awareness in that sentence alone pretty much guarantees that will never happen.



Judy Greer is the twig in the recent Halloween movies. Pam Grier is the one in Ghosts of Mars... one of the baddest bitches in the history of show business. Big difference. :)
Oh yeah. That's why Ghosts of Mars is better than the new Halloween movies.
 

terry.330

Time? Astonishing!
20 Year Member
Joined
May 4, 2004
Posts
11,792
Robocop 2- Well it's certainly not as smart or nuanced (for lack of a better term) as the first movie and it's obviously missing Verhoeven's skilled touch but it's still highly entertaining. The story is a total mess, obviously re-written by multiple people but I think the biggest problem is that after Murphy kills Kane there is zero resolution. It just kind of ducks any sort of actual conclusion and tacks on a lazy open ended setup for the third. (which is a whole other can of worms)

It still has a lot going for it. There's as much over the top satire and world building in the first 5 minutes as the entire first movie. There's obviously a much larger budget and it's far more ambitious in it's action scenes. That doesn't always work but overall the effects, miniatures, animatronics and stop motion are impressive. I like Cane and his gang as bad guys even though the kid is a bit much, though I wish they gave Cane more screen time. The casting is great Cane, the Mayor, (Not) Dick Jones and his lacky are all perfect.

One thing I didn't remember was just how evil they made OCP this time. By the end of it they have what are essentially giant Nazi banners and their own SS troops all over Detroit. Not Dick Jones literally stepping over corpses as he gets into his limo at the end is hilarious. It doesn't hold a candle to the original but I gotta give them credit for raising the ridiculousness to a new level and at least trying to do something that expanded Murphy as a character. I'd put it in the same league as Predator 2, maybe not the sequel we wanted but mostly satisfying in it's own way.
 

terry.330

Time? Astonishing!
20 Year Member
Joined
May 4, 2004
Posts
11,792
Psycho III- This is a an odd one. Anthony Perkins is in the directors chair this time and while the sequel was more in line with the original as mostly psychological horror this is almost a straight up giallo with some slasher elements. There's no way he hadn't been watching Argento, Bava, Martino and the like. While it steers away from the masked/gloved unseen killer for obvious reasons the atmosphere and visuals are straight out of the Italians playbook. The whole thing feels a little off and Anthony Perkins acting is questionable at best most of the time but he still shines when he really goes for it with the crazy. Jeff Fahey is also exceptionally creepy, him and the investigative reporter woman are solid supporting characters.

This isn't as strong as the second film but it's definitely worth watching. I think that taken as their own separate thing from the original (which they definitely should) the second and third movies go well together and are thoroughly entertaining.
 

HornheaDD

Viewpoint Vigilante
Fagit of the Year
Joined
Mar 22, 2016
Posts
4,272
Top Gun 2: More Guns at the Top

It was ok. I'd go so far as fun, enjoyable but two things bugged me.

1. Miles Teller - I have no idea how this dude keeps getting work. Dude just doesn't act well at all. And such a punchable face. Did he resemble Anthony Edwards? Sure, a little but it was literally all the outfit.

2. This is basically what The Force Awakens was to A New Hope. I get it, lots of nostalgia for Top Gun, its a fun flick. But did they have to have soo many scenes that were analogues to the first one? Did Goose's kid really have to wear the exact same outfit his dad did, and have the pedo-stache with the aviators? And he had to have a bit at the piano? They had to have a shirtless sandy sports game scene?

There was just way too much "eh!? Eh?! Remember that scene from the first one!? We did it again!" in this flick.

I wasn't bored and the jet scenes were lots of fun. Except I didnt like how they kept referring to the enemy jets as "fifth gen." Dude just call it an F35 or whatever it was. (F22 Raptor? I dunno Im not a jet guy)

Though I do like how they handled Val Kilmer's cameo as Iceman. I have to say it was tastefully done. But I'm 99% sure that wasn't his real voice in the movie. I've heard his actual voice as it is after his illness and it was much worse, and sounds a lot like a smoker when they don't use the little voice modulator than how it did in this film.

Decent watch. Liked the first one better, but still a fun watch. Plus, Jon Hamm.
 

terry.330

Time? Astonishing!
20 Year Member
Joined
May 4, 2004
Posts
11,792
But I'm 99% sure that wasn't his real voice in the movie. I've heard his actual voice as it is after his illness and it was much worse, and sounds a lot like a smoker when they don't use the little voice modulator than how it did in this film.
Aktshually some company made a program using his real voice from old movies, interviews etc. and they gave it to him so it actually is his real voice.
 

Lagduf

2>X
20 Year Member
Joined
Dec 25, 2002
Posts
46,682
Top Gun 2: More Guns at the Top

It was ok. I'd go so far as fun, enjoyable but two things bugged me.

1. Miles Teller - I have no idea how this dude keeps getting work. Dude just doesn't act well at all. And such a punchable face. Did he resemble Anthony Edwards? Sure, a little but it was literally all the outfit.

2. This is basically what The Force Awakens was to A New Hope. I get it, lots of nostalgia for Top Gun, its a fun flick. But did they have to have soo many scenes that were analogues to the first one? Did Goose's kid really have to wear the exact same outfit his dad did, and have the pedo-stache with the aviators? And he had to have a bit at the piano? They had to have a shirtless sandy sports game scene?

There was just way too much "eh!? Eh?! Remember that scene from the first one!? We did it again!" in this flick.

I wasn't bored and the jet scenes were lots of fun. Except I didnt like how they kept referring to the enemy jets as "fifth gen." Dude just call it an F35 or whatever it was. (F22 Raptor? I dunno Im not a jet guy)

Though I do like how they handled Val Kilmer's cameo as Iceman. I have to say it was tastefully done. But I'm 99% sure that wasn't his real voice in the movie. I've heard his actual voice as it is after his illness and it was much worse, and sounds a lot like a smoker when they don't use the little voice modulator than how it did in this film.

Decent watch. Liked the first one better, but still a fun watch. Plus, Jon Hamm.

It was a “fifth gen” fighter because they fought a generic peer enemy. I mean it was Russia, one of their client states, or a former Soviet state. That helicopter that almost kills them at the end was a Soviet MI-24 Hind lol.

The only states with an Air Force we’d give a damn about are Russia or China and I don’t think they were about to name drop their Air Force’s planes.

Movie was brainless fun and I really enjoyed the jet scenes. Great action.
 
Last edited:

jro

Gonna take a lot
20 Year Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2004
Posts
14,410
We Need to Do Something - generally pretty well-made little indie horror-ish. Family gets stuck, together, in a bathroom in their house due to a freak storm accident and things go south. Then at the end, things go very far past south and more kinda off the rails in general. Ending works well. The kid that plays the little brother is one of the worst child actors I've seen in a long time and he really detracts from several scenes, though.
 

NeoSneth

Ned's Ninja Academy Dropout
20 Year Member
Joined
Oct 22, 2000
Posts
11,084
I agree Top Gun 2 was very similar to Force Awakens by playing it safe and repeating what made the previous movie successful. I think it keeps working because the original was so long ago. I thought Tom Cruise was actually pretty good, but I did find quite a few scenes to be super cringe. E.g. the bar , the beach, and anytime they introduced someone's Callsign. I can't imagine real pilots walk around calling each other by Call Signs... If so, they are lame as hell and piloting a jet doesn't make up for that.

Machine guns in 2022? I guess a lot of sci fi movies still use manual fire lasers... so whatever.

The movie hit at the right time. I don't think it's worthy of the box office gross, but just perfect timing. Russia is the global bad guy more than ever....
 

100proof

Insert Something Clever Here
10 Year Member
Joined
Jan 16, 2014
Posts
3,579
My turn to choose what to watch last night and the wife had never seen Road House. Such delicious cheese and a fun take on the classic "gunslinger rolls in to clean up the town" western trope complete with the shakedown, the old-timer who gets killed (apparently "Time Machine Sam Elliott" is now on the wife's "Free Pass" list) and the big shoot-out at the end. Never bought Swayze as an action star (his girly, dancer's frame was always better suited for rom-coms and "handsome prince" roles) and he's kinda miscast for this but it totally still works. Movie's super simple and the 80s cheese almost makes it better.
 

terry.330

Time? Astonishing!
20 Year Member
Joined
May 4, 2004
Posts
11,792
Do your wife a favor and watch The Legacy. It's an awesome movie and Sam Elliot gets naked.

Roadhouse has some of the best 80s bad guys ever.
 
Top