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

[jro]

Okay, bit of a list here, starting with the insane one and moving on:

Climax - yeah, so, Noe is still a lunatic. Like you'd expect anything else from the guy that made Irreversible and that Netflix movie with all the real sex right? Anyhoo, I'd kinda forgotten what the New French Extremity can bring to the table, and this reminded me. Plus it's actually really good. Vague-ness intended, but I loved it. Boutella, don't know how she was like, yes, sign me up for this car crash. The kid in the locked room just, lol. The dancing is also legit incredibly good.

I can't help but wonder if Noe, von Trier, and maybe Refn have a group chat where they argue about which of them is the current most-depraved motherfucker in filmmaking.

Saw X - honestly unimpressed. The story's topical I guess, the traps are okay (especially the first one that's f'ing fake), but there's just so little meat on the bone here. Boring, not recommended to anyone, especially fans of the franchise hoping for something with some teeth.

Ghosts of the Void - nice. Indie horror getting it right, hits the current zeitgeist/mood and turns it into a very effective home-ish invasion thriller. Good ending that is earned throughout.

Expendables 4 (no I'm not typing it like in the poster) - at least they went back to hard-R, otherwise not great. I mean, you have Uwais and Jaa and do this little with them? Just re-watch The Night Comes for Us again instead.

In the Forest - solid. Good, basic story that nails the basics and doesn't screw up the execution. Worth the 90 minutes to watch it.

Birth/re-birth - quite good indie horror. Good premise, good script, good acting, story makes sense and has an appropriately unpleasant ending.

The Surprise Visit - kind of an unexpected diamond in the rough, IMO. Clearly small-budget but very taut script and some very effective performances from folks who don't even have a picture on IMDB (srsly that girl that played Annabelle, hat-tip). Highly recommended, and there's even Eric Roberts!

 

[Ralfakick]

Alan Quartermaine and the Lost City of Gold- A slight step up from King Solomon but not much. It's still Canon which means it's still cheap and dumb as fuck. Kind of surprised to see James Earl Jones in this but he was doing some weird stuff in the 80s. Sharon Stone is honestly the best thing in both of these movies, she brings a lot of energy and genuinely looks like she's having fun.

Lots of people you wouldn’t think would be in a Cannon film pop up in their movies.

 

[Ralfakick]

Godzilla Minus One

Just saw an IMAX showing
He’s back and he’s pissed

Lots of drama the main character had his moby dick or jaws to get revenge on. Actually Godzilla charging in the water was scarier than jaws.

The acting between the main actor and his female companion was really good and had emotional weight behind it.

 

[LoneSage]

Expendables 4 (no I'm not typing it like in the poster) - at least they went back to hard-R, otherwise not great. I mean, you have Uwais and Jaa and do this little with them?

This is what I thought with the first two - “you have ___ and ___ and do this little with them?”. I actually remember being excited for the first one, bless my heart. I remember having hope for the second, nah.

 

[Average Joe]

Saw X - honestly unimpressed. The story's topical I guess, the traps are okay (especially the first one that's f'ing fake), but there's just so little meat on the bone here. Boring, not recommended to anyone, especially fans of the franchise hoping for something with some teeth

As someone who just got done seeing all these movies for the first time (with the exception of 1 and 2) and can comfortably say that I kind of dislike nearly all of them (with another exception of 1 and 2), I actually liked X a lot.

I think the fact that it's just a self-contained side story and doesn't complicate things with all that typical Saw cat and mouse bullshit made me appreciate it a lot. Also, no seizure-inducing quick-cuts bumps the score up at least two stars for me.

 

[terry.330]

Cellar Dweller- Classic 80s rental schlock from John Carl Buechler, very goofy and weird with tons of practical effects. The plot is pretty nonsensical but that doesn't really matter. Basically a young woman who is an aspiring horror comic illustrator uses a big dumb looking evil book to bring her drawings to life and of course they start killing people. The main monster/demon thing is awesome looking and some of the kills are pretty great. I thought Jeffery Combs would be in it more but he's only in the opening scene, which is kind of a bummer. Oh well, it's still a lot of fun with a weird charm and packs a lot into it's 70 minute runtime.

I also watched a little retrospective called Grabbed by the Ghoulies which was about John Carl Buechler's career. I knew he worked on a lot of stuff for Empire and Full Moon but had no idea just how much stuff he was involved in.

 

[roker]

Comedy sequels are very rarely good

I thought about this and came up with the following off the top of my head:

Wayne's World 2
Adams Family Values
Austin Powers 2
National Lampoons Christmas Vacation

That's all I have. Austin Powers 2 might not be better than 1, but 2 is good. The other 3 I listed are better than the 1st entries, imo.

 

[famicommander]

I thought about this and came up with the following off the top of my head:

Wayne's World 2
Adams Family Values
Austin Powers 2
National Lampoons Christmas Vacation

That's all I have. Austin Powers 2 might not be better than 1, but 2 is good. The other 3 I listed are better than the 1st entries, imo.

I can't back any of those as better than the first. They're pretty good as far as comedy sequels go, though.

 

[terry.330]

Bogus Journey

 

[SouthtownKid]

A Shot in the Dark (1964) is one of the greatest comedy movies ever made, and is drastically better than The Pink Panther.

 

[100proof]

Waynes World 2 blows goats. I have proof.

 

[100proof]

Saltburn - Emerald Fennell's second movie is as frustrating as her first (Promising Young Woman). It's a mundane and predictable class infestation thriller (think Talented Mr. Ripley or Parasite for dumb Gen Zers). All of the characters are hateable (she weirdly tries to humanize the old money goofs towards the end after an entire film of making them look like vapid, out-of-touch borderline retards) and the movie is chockful of "shocking" moments that just reek of a desperate way to distract you from what a mess the story is. It's all style and no substance and tries super hard to seem intelligent when it's largely just vapid and has nothing interesting or coherent to say, All of that said, the movie is gorgeously shot and has a great soundtrack. A shame it's wasted on such tripe.

The main character ends up being a sociopath who's lied about everything and manipulated everyone to murder them all and steal Saltburn from them. Which is all supposed to be a big twist I guess that makes him seem like an evil genius but it's obvious from pretty much the time he gets there what's happening and they go so out of their way to make him seem pathetic and weirdly obsessed with his buddy (literally drinking his bath water, fucking the dirt surrounding his grave) to the point that he barely even seems like the same character... like if it was more intelligently written, I would assume she was going for some kind of Single White Female thing but gay-ish where he so desperately wants to be rich and powerful that he's willing to kill to do it but it's so disjointed. He struts around the house full-frontal in the last scene (complete with helicopter dick) like Patrick Bateman... like how am I supposed to feel about any of that? Is he a victorious villain? Is he the sad, deranged hero of the working class? Is it that shitty people fuck and kill their way to the top and get away with it? Like okay but none of that really makes much sense given how the movie is setup.

 

[wataru330]

Godzilla Minus One

Just saw an IMAX showing
He’s back and he’s pissed

Lots of drama the main character had his moby dick or jaws to get revenge on. Actually Godzilla charging in the water was scarier than jaws.

The acting between the main actor and his female companion was really good and had emotional weight behind it.

I been meaning to see it. You catch it @ KOP?

 

[Ralfakick]

I been meaning to see it. You catch it @ KOP?

Yes sir last night.

My friend wanted to eat at the food court, can’t say I ever did before, it was comical every other store was the same Chinese Bourbon Chciken Place with a different name they all had the same menu

 

[wataru330]

The new mini food court on the expanded (SuperDry/Vutton/etc) side is really good.

I’m going to be in AC this weekend for a trade show-maybe I can get to ‘zilla on Sunday.

 

[Ralfakick]

The new mini food court on the expanded (SuperDry/Vutton/etc) side is really good.

I’m going to be in AC this weekend for a trade show-maybe I can get to ‘zilla on Sunday.

Does Tropicana still have an IMAX?

Yeah I would have chosen Bonchon

 

[Lagduf]

I’m going to have to see Godzilla tomorrow.

Any of you guys catch the trailer for Furiosa?

 

[Ralfakick]

I’m going to have to see Godzilla tomorrow.

Any of you guys catch the trailer for Furiosa?

@gusmoney reminded me about it

It seems less crazy so far compared to the last one, Hemsworth didn’t do much for me either.

I like the low budget charm of the original movies the last one was good wasn’t really that excited about it though personally, holding out hope for this one.

 

[jro]

Anya Taylor-Joy is mostly really good but agreed on the Hemsworth reservations. Trailer was fine but might have been better if she was the focus instead of him.

IMDB says George Miller wrote and directed it tho, so I am stoked for now at least.

 

[terry.330]

Dolls- Never been a big fan of the Puppetmaster series and this is very much in line with that except a little more kid friendly. It's definitely not a kids movie though. A bunch of strangers end up stranded in the country and stay in an old mansion to get out of a storm. The mansion is owned by an old couple and the husband is a doll maker. So of course the house is filled with a shit ton of living evil dolls that murder everyone. I'm not really sure who the target audience is since it's too violent for kids but too kiddy for adults. I expected a little more considering it's directed by Stuart Gordon. Oh well at least I could appreciate some of the effects.

 

[LoneSage]

Legendary VHS box art though. Used to stare at it in Blockbuster but was too chickenshit to rent it.

 

[Average Joe]

Dolls- Never been a big fan of the Puppetmaster series and this is very much in line with that except a little more kid friendly. It's definitely not a kids movie though. A bunch of strangers end up stranded in the country and stay in an old mansion to get out of a storm. The mansion is owned by an old couple and the husband is a doll maker. So of course the house is filled with a shit ton of living evil dolls that murder everyone. I'm not really sure who the target audience is since it's too violent for kids but too kiddy for adults. I expected a little more considering it's directed by Stuart Gordon. Oh well at least I could appreciate some of the effects.

That's the exact movie that marks him starting to fall off. Some stuff after this is still fun in its own way, but it doesn't top anything that comes before.

I do really like the practical work in Dolls though as some of it is legit creepy as hell, but there definitely isn't enough of it.

 

[roker]

I have to rewatch 1408. I remember seeing that movie back in the day and thinking it was brilliant. It's probably been a good 5 -10 years or so since I've last seen it.

 

[terry.330]

Universal Soldier- I remember my friends all loving this when it came out but I just didn't like it and never felt the need to watch it again. I had no idea it was directed by Roland Emmerich but that explains a lot. It just feels like something is missing, it's dull. It's also extremely stupid. This is the type of movie that should have been directed by Albert Pyun or someone like that who could really put some gritty flavor on it. It might actually be Emmerichs best movie all things considered, It's a perfectly serviceable B level action flick. The main reason I don't like it is because of the female lead, she is instantly unlikable. Plus I'm just not that big of a JCVD fan outside of Bloodsport and Cyborg.

 

[DevilRedeemed]

Over the Top
Equal measures shit and great. Kids in the 80s where creepy. Soundtracks by and large vomit inducing, so bad it goes straight past good and wades into swampy oblivion.
Arm wrestling is ridiculous
And yet.
It's a 7