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

[terry.330]

People absolutely shit on No One Will Save You and I agree the ending is out of place but Kaitlyn Dever absolutely nails her performance and and it's worth watching just for that.

People also shit on Totally Killer but I thought it was better than it gets credit for. Nothing special but fun and on par with stuff like The Babysitter, Final Girls and Freaky.

 

[Average Joe]

Star Wars

For fuck's sake why is it damn near impossible to find the original unaltered versions of these? I ended up settling on just watching what I could find, but it is so damn distracting seeing some of these beautiful and iconic shots/scenes ruined by pointless CG additions. My brain managed to do a lot of real-time editing and kind of mentally removed all the dumb shit, but Han and Greedo shooting at the same time still managed to annoy me so much that I almost turned it off (still can't decide if this is better or worse than Greedo shooting first...)

God damn you George and your mall foodcourt loving nerdy ass.

ANYWAY

I don't really think I need to go into the details about why this movie rules as it's so engrained in our culture that pretty much everyone here grew up with it. Even with all the pointless additions/changes, I still had a hell of time watching it and the sparks of movie-making magic come alive at so many different points in the film. I might even give a vote for the opening shot to be one of the best and most effective in all of cinematic history as it conveys so much with just visuals alone and you'll never convice me that George had anything to do with it.

 

[HornheaDD]

Star Wars

For fuck's sake why is it damn near impossible to find the original unaltered versions of these?

Project 4K77 | The Star Wars Trilogy

www.thestarwarstrilogy.com

 

[terry.330]

I remember seeing the "special editions" in the theater and getting a distinct feeling that the prequels were going to be bad. The OG trilogy definitely have that feeling of movie magic like Jaws, Raiders etc. ROTJ has it's problems but there's still a lot to like and it still feels like SW. You can clearly see with time that Lucas's success is either a fluke or because he worked with the best, the more he's directly involved the worse things get. He also became surrounded by people too afraid to tell him "maybe that's a bad idea".

Initially KOTCS was going to be titled Indiana Jones And The Saucer Men ffs.

 

[famicommander]

I remember seeing the "special editions" in the theater and getting a distinct feeling that the prequels were going to be bad. The OG trilogy definitely have that feeling of movie magic like Jaws, Raiders etc. ROTJ has it's problems but there's still a lot to like and it still feels like SW. You can clearly see with time that Lucas's success is either a fluke or because he worked with the best, the more he's directly involved the worse things get. He also became surrounded by people too afraid to tell him "maybe that's a bad idea".

Initially KOTCS was going to be titled Indiana Jones And The Saucer Men ffs.

Lucas needs someone who can tell him no. That's what it comes down to.

With the original Indy films it was Spielberg, with the original Star Wars films and American Graffiti it was his ex-wife (who won an Oscar for editing Star Wars and also worked with Scorsese on Taxi Driver, NY NY, and Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore).

Ever since he divorced Marcia, George has pretty much fucked up everything he's touched besides Indy 2 and 3. And Spielberg just plain hasn't given any fucks in decades, which explains Indiana Jones 4 and 5.

 

[Average Joe]

Project 4K77 | The Star Wars Trilogy

www.thestarwarstrilogy.com

That rules.

 

[Average Joe]

I remember seeing the "special editions" in the theater and getting a distinct feeling that the prequels were going to be bad. The OG trilogy definitely have that feeling of movie magic like Jaws, Raiders etc. ROTJ has it's problems but there's still a lot to like and it still feels like SW. You can clearly see with time that Lucas's success is either a fluke or because he worked with the best, the more he's directly involved the worse things get. He also became surrounded by people too afraid to tell him "maybe that's a bad idea".

Initially KOTCS was going to be titled Indiana Jones And The Saucer Men ffs.

"I may have gone too far in a few places."

Even though I've come around on the Prequels a bit and enjoy them on an ironic level, they don't actively annoy me to the degree that George's "enhancements" do on the original trilogy.

It's analgous to that botched restoration job of the "Ecce Homo" painting--a well-intentioned goon with a paintbrush is still a goon with a paintbrush.

While the Prequels are like a child's first attempt at drawing their house and family. Sure, they can't draw a proper fucking circle, but there is an inherent charm to seeing someone so young try their hand at something. And yes, George is an adult and no you will never convince me that he doesn't also have the mind of a child.

 

[terry.330]

And yes, George is an adult and no you will never convince me that he doesn't also have the mind of a child.

That's what baffles me about him including all the trade federation nonsense in the prequels. What kid wants to sit through that shit?

Though it definitely explains the extremely awkward YA love story with Anakin and Padmae.

It's like he's mentally always been simultaneously an old man and a little kid. That's how we ended up with stuff as stupid and annoying as the Sy Snootles number and the trade embargo stuff. It's such a weird dichotomy.

 

[Average Joe]

That's what baffles me about him including all the trade federation nonsense in the prequels. What kid wants to sit through that shit?

Though it definitely explains the extremely awkward YA love story with Anakin and Padmae.

It's like he's mentally always been simultaneously an old man and a little kid. That's how we ended up with stuff as stupid and annoying as the Sy Snootles number and the trade embargo stuff. It's such a weird dichotomy.

Think it's just autism.

 

[terry.330]

Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)- This is still one of the most effective horror movies ever made. It just has such a visceral feel and look t it while still holding up as an a actual movie. The fact that most of the violence is implied or happen off screen and how effective that is at making the viewer fill in the blanks is almost unmatched. It's also a legitimately groundbreaking movie in many regards. One of if not the first "final girl", the iconic boogeyman in a mask, the sound design, the choice to shoot it almost completely in not just the daytime but the blistering Texas sun and almost scorched landscape. It's all extremely influential, it's really lightening in a bottle and holds up incredibly well. Actually I think it's only gotten better with age.

 

[100proof]

Forgot one:

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F - Unremarkable but inoffensive rehash of Axel Foley's greatest hits. It does have some of the charm of dumb 80s action movies with a couple of car chases with plenty of collateral damage and the humor comes from making jokes and not self-referential "hoo boy that thing sure did just happen" meta humor nonsense.

That said, 65-year-old Eddie Murphy sure doesn't hit like 25-year-old Eddie Murphy and all of the stuff with his kid is embarrassing/cringe-inducing. Kevin Bacon also may have played one too many sneering villains at this point as he's not nearly as good a foil as Maitland or whatever Jurgen Prochnow's name was in part 2. The "80s action hero turned in to a broken old man being scolded by children" trope can't die quickly enough for my taste.

It had just enough of the old juice for me to be sporadically entertaining but you can file it alongside all of the other way-too-late sequels to franchises that were better off staying dead.

 

[Syn]

I have the original unedited trilogy on VCD. I got it for $10 locally mainly to play on a Sega Saturn. It surprised a few friends then the quality is so bad that I put a game in instead.

 

[Tarma]

If you want to watch / own the original trilogy before George lost the plot, then Laserdisc is your friend.

 

[jro]

I guess you can't win em all.

Civil War was... Terrible. Goddamnit it with the caps f ing really google.

I liked Plemons' scene. Dunst also tried hard but man, that was a bad script from a guy that I expected better from. Just genuinely not good.

Don't get me wrong, I cannot wait to get rid of Alabama, but this was just bad. North gets ownership of Dredd.

 

[terry.330]

Matinee- Joe Dante's homage to atomic age B-movies starring John Goodman and damn near every character actor working at the time. While this is most definitely targeted to kids it's pretty enjoyable for all ages. A lighthearted love letter to shlocky monster movies of the 50's and early 60's set against the Cuban missile crisis in Key West. A strange combination but it works well and provides a lot of fodder for parody. Goodman is great as the huckster movie promoter and Cathy Moriarty is perfect as his disgruntled girlfriend/lead actress. The movie within a movie Mant! is a lot of fun and you can tell Dante and his crew put a lot of work into it. I think this is a bit of a hidden gem and the kind of fun 90's family friendly movie they just don't make anymore.

 

[jro]

Also, I watched The Strangers Chapter 1 - not very good. Th original will always be the movie my ex just fucking hated, and that's a lot to live up to, but yeah, this is continuing the slide of the series. It's okay, but everything that was okay or better in this one is just a repeat of 1. Meh.

 

[Average Joe]

Longlegs

I don't know how every new movie Nicolas Cage is in is his most insane performance ever, but this new Nicolas performance is his most insane ever.

This was a surprisingly straightforward Psychological Crime/Horror Thriller from Oz Perkins that is chock-full of all the demonic goodness that Oz likes to work with. It is carried a lot by its atmosphere, which is constantly oppressive from the very beginning and it doesn't let up for a second. It's one of those movies that lives up to cliche of it being "edge of your seat" as I was honestly expecting something terrible to happen at any given second.

All of the performances are strong, but as aforementioned Cage does his usual show-stealing when he's on screen, but Maika Monroe (who I didn't realize is in a lot of films I like) was also great as the troubled Detective that is determined to do her job despite her fear/anxiety.

 

[terry.330]

Death At A Funeral- A semi madcap British dark comedy-lite I guess you could say. It was alright, a bit predicable and I thought the schmaltzy ending was a bit of a cop-out but overall it was enjoyable. Great cast, the guy that played Tom on Succession was a solid main character and Alan Tudyk tripping his balls off was pretty good. Worth a watch.

 

[basic]

Dune 2 should be able to reach 700-725M worldwide, compared to 406M for the first film (including the IMAX re-release from this year). Dune Messiah is a sure thing, it's just a matter of whether Villeneuve wants to do it next or if he wants to make one or two other movies before that.

Godzilla x Kong is also looking at probably a 100-200M increase over the previous movie in the series despite being made on a much smaller budget.

So that's probably the best measuring stick for just how much the day one HBO releases impacted the box office for those movies.

Meanwhile, Ghostbusters 5 absolutely cratered in its second week. At this rate it's going to bomb harder than Girlbusters.

watched Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire recently. it's shit. every movie coming out of Hollywood feels the need to have marvel-esque humor and wacky characters. I don't care if it's a movie that "doesn't take itself seriously". doesn't make me think it's better just because it's self aware.

tl;dr - Prometheus > Godzilla x Kong

 

[SouthtownKid]

We need a Fonz / 2 thumbs up emoji.

 

[HornheaDD]

Junk Head

Not sure if anyone has ever seen Junk Head 1, but it was a stop motion short that came out in 2013, and the guy was trying to get a full movie made, and it never happened. Or so I thought.

I found out the other day that he indeed got it going and released it in 2021.

Its got no english language (or Japanese for that matter) other than 3 english names that aren't uttered until the very last 10 minutes of the film. Its just literal gibberish and mouth noises (that can irritate some I guess) so subtitles are required.

Dystopian, futuristic sci-fi with a little comedy with cyborgs, monsters, and not the most clear plot. Basically humans have fucked themselves into near extinction because of genetic manipulation to live longer and losing the ability to reproduce, but the clones they made rebelled ages ago and live deep underground in their own society so they send an explorer down. Shit immediately goes awry and then we have the movie.

For what it is, it's not bad. It ends not on a cliffhanger, but it doesn't answer much, and evidently is intended as the first in a trilogy. I dunno, dude took like 8 years to get the first one made, so I guess part 3 will be out in 2040. Its worth a watch and apparently the full thing is on youtube albeit in 720p.

edit: its about 10,000 times better than Mad God though.

 

[LoneSage]

Honey, I Shrunk the Kids - when was the last time I watched this, 1997? Still holds up as a great kids movie. Matt Frewer is the standout here; as a kid I thought he was an asshole but now I see he's just a normal guy. In constrast, Rick Moranis's character was a bigger pussy than I remember. Lots of great tense scenes; Antony VS the scorpion, mowing the lawn, the kid in the cereal. The only real issue I have with it is when the parents are looking for the kids in the yard, they're suspended in the air and placing their hands every which way on the lawn, which could immediately crush the kids. It sounds autistic but really, it was just bad direction for parents to be that whatever and not putting their hands on the grass like that. Completely took me out of it. Otherwise, glad it holds up.

 

[terry.330]

I remember going to Universal Studios or Disney or whichever theme park it was back in the day that had a Honey I Shrunk The Kids area that was like a giant set that you could run around in and climb on. It was pretty awesome, like a chunk of the backyard from the movie with giant ants, grass and misc. things and there were a bunch of tunnels built into it.

Spoiler:

I Sell The Dead- A somewhat odd horror comedy about a pair of grave robbers in1800's England that end up involved in everything from vampires to zombies to aliens and get tangled up with a rival body snatching gang. The movie is quirky, cheap and kind of sloppy but the two leads and the general loose, goofy vibe make it pretty enjoyable. Hadn't seen this one since it came out and was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it again.

 

[100proof]

Longlegs - Somehow the over-the-top marketing didn't kill it. An artsy crime thriller from Oz Perkins (Blackcoat's Daughter/son of Tony Perkins) with a great lead performance by Maika Monroe, some terrific tension building and a wacky Nic Cage performance that could've easily been a joke in a worse movie. Monroe plays a fresh FBI agent in the 90s with a little bit of clairvoyance that gets assigned to a serial killer case. Won't spoil anything beyond that but it's a lot less straightforward than some of the genre's more famous offerings, has some fun twists and turns and Nic Cage makes the most of a small part that would probably go down with Buffalo Bill, John Doe and other famous killers if the monoculture still existed.

It feels uneasy from the first frame and nearly every scene is shot in a way that the killer could be watching/stalking the characters in the background. This is definitely going to be a movie that's not for everyone (it's gonna be a little too artsy for some of the true crime wine moms and Nic Cage's performance will definitely rub some people the wrong way) but if you go in with your expectations not completely through the roof because of the (very effective) marketing, it's worth a watch.

The supernatural reveal at the end felt a little out of place with the rest of the movie but I was fine with it. Nic Cage smashing his own face into paste in the interrogation room is some haunting shit.

 

[Average Joe]

The Last Dragon

Absolute 80s perfection.

Movies really don't get much more dumb fun than this.

Outside of Vanity's "7th Heaven" song, which is fucking terrible, I really can't think of any negatives for this. It's just so damn goofy and charming that it is impossible for me not to love it.

I've seen this many times over, but this time I'm just now realizing how great all the supporting characters are. Even characters that just have a line or two still somehow manage to say something kind of weird or funny and it makes them memorable. All of the little touches like Leeroy eating his popcorn with chopsticks is just so dumb that I can't help but love it for its unashamed stupidity--it is very self-aware and it works well for knowing that.

I think Sho'nuff could have used another couple of scenes as he very much steals the spotlight when he's on screen, so I guess I might mark that down as the closest thing to a negative outside of Vanity's song that I can think of.