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

SouthtownKid

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Watched the trailers a while back and its clear our age group is not the target demo.
That was my reaction, too, but the fandom is going crazy for it. Seems like it's surprising a bunch of people.

But yeah, let me know when it hits streaming or whatever maybe.
 

terry.330

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Triangle- I'm a sucker for horror movies set on old ships, the problem is that most of them are terrible. To my surprise this happens to be one the better ones. It's more psychological horror than the usual ghost ship type stuff.

It's about a troubled single mother who is invited to out on her rich friend's yacht with a couple other people. They soon get caught in a rogue storm and the boat capsizes. At the last minute they manage to get aboard a large steam liner that comes out of nowhere. Once on board they realize that the ship is somehow still pristine and seemingly running itself even though it's over 60 years old and abandoned. Then they start to notice odd things and indications that they might not be alone.

What ensues is a series of increasingly complicated time loops on top of each other. They are in fact the only people on the boat but not in any traditional sense of linear time. I don't want to spoil anything so I won't get into anymore detail.

If you enjoyed movies like Timecrimes and Primer this is worth checking out. It's not amazing and has a lot of holes, not just the usual time travel ones but also a lot of psychological blurriness. Problems aside it's a definite step above a lot of time centric and ghost ship horror. It could have easily been just another forgettable horror dud but the lead actress and tight direction keep it engaging. It also goes a bit further with it's time looping than you would expect. Recommended, it's on Prime.


Lost Voyage- Speaking of bad ghost ship horror, this is a direct to video turd from 2000 starring Lance Henriksen and Judd Nelson. A cruise ship that vanished in the Bermuda triangle 25 years ago suddenly reappears sans crew and passengers. The son of two of the passengers (Nelson), the cruise line's owner (Henriksen), a salvage team and a TV crew board it and try to figure out what happened to it.

The son is now a paranormal investigator and expert on the Bermuda triangle. Him and the others soon figure out that the ship is haunted and is trying to kill them. Not only that but that the Bermuda triangle is actually a gateway to some sort of horrible supernatural dimension. Basically it's Event Horizon on a boat. Which could be cool if they put a little effort into it and had any sort of actual budget, ultimately it's just another forgettable weekend afternoon cable movie that you'd see on the Sci-Fi channel back in the day.
 
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jro

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Oddity - sometimes a taut little 80 minute thriller is just right, you know? Great concept, executed really well. Recommended. Weird ending that somehow still made me go yeah sure that makes sense.

The Devil's Bath - slow as hell, like really really slow. If you don't know the premise, it's better, but it also feels like an utter slog most of the way until it gets to the OH SHIT point in the story.
Spoiler:
true story, a handful of ladies in Austria and Germany in the mid 1700's who wanted to commit suicide were taught that suicide was unforgivable before God but that murder somehow was forgivable, so they killed little kids and then confessed in order to receive forgiveness before being executed. That's what happens here.
Same filmmakers as Mommy Dearest and The Lodge, latter of which is still one of my favorite horror movies of recent memory. This was quite good but takes some work to sit through.
 

Average Joe

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Oddity - sometimes a taut little 80 minute thriller is just right, you know? Great concept, executed really well. Recommended. Weird ending that somehow still made me go yeah sure that makes sense.

The Devil's Bath - slow as hell, like really really slow. If you don't know the premise, it's better, but it also feels like an utter slog most of the way until it gets to the OH SHIT point in the story.
Spoiler:
true story, a handful of ladies in Austria and Germany in the mid 1700's who wanted to commit suicide were taught that suicide was unforgivable before God but that murder somehow was forgivable, so they killed little kids and then confessed in order to receive forgiveness before being executed. That's what happens here.
Same filmmakers as Mommy Dearest and The Lodge, latter of which is still one of my favorite horror movies of recent memory. This was quite good but takes some work to sit through.
Both of those are on my watchlist this month.

I really dug Caveat, so I was looking forward to Oddity.
 

Average Joe

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Oddity

This guy is becoming a favorite of mine.

Another great example of a simple concept that is elevated due to its execution. Once again shot in a rather confined and almost claustrophobic manner despite not actually needing to given the settings the film takes place in, but he is clearly wanting to make everyone feel as confined as possible.

It's a very slow and deliberate film that takes its time unraveling its plot and is extremely confident in letting its many long stretches of silence due its creepy work for it. It does have honest jump scares, but just like Caveat they never feel cheap as they actually serve a function for the story.

Ending played out nothing like I was expecting as did a lot of the film in general, so consider my expectations happily subverted.
 

HornheaDD

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Triangle- I'm a sucker for horror movies set on old ships, the problem is that most of them are terrible. To my surprise this happens to be one the better ones. It's more psychological horror than the usual ghost ship type stuff.

It's about a troubled single mother who is invited to out on her rich friend's yacht with a couple other people. They soon get caught in a rogue storm and the boat capsizes. At the last minute they manage to get aboard a large steam liner that comes out of nowhere. Once on board they realize that the ship is somehow still pristine and seemingly running itself even though it's over 60 years old and abandoned. Then they start to notice odd things and indications that they might not be alone.

What ensues is a series of increasingly complicated time loops on top of each other. They are in fact the only people on the boat but not in any traditional sense of linear time. I don't want to spoil anything so I won't get into anymore detail.

If you enjoyed movies like Timecrimes and Primer this is worth checking out. It's not amazing and has a lot of holes, not just the usual time travel ones but also a lot of psychological blurriness. Problems aside it's a definite step above a lot of time centric and ghost ship horror. It could have easily been just another forgettable horror dud but the lead actress and tight direction keep it engaging. It also goes a bit further with it's time looping than you would expect. Recommended, it's on Prime.

I liked this one as well. I think Primer and especially Timecrimes are better, but I liked it. Though, I don't really remember thinking it was much of a horror movie. I thought it was just like any other time travel movie. I havent seen it in a while but dont remember any horror aspects.
 

terry.330

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The Poughkeepsie Tapes- A found footage/faux-documentary about a serial killer who recorded himself for decades and was never identified. I had heard this hyped up quite a bit over the years as one of the best found footage movies ever which I didn't put much stock in. But even with low expectations I still hoped it would at least be engaging or creative in some way. Well I'm glad I kept my expectations low because even for a found footage movie this was mediocre at best.

It suffers from the same problems that most of these types of movies do. The actors used in the interviews all feel like people they grabbed from the local community theater and really stick out, especially in comparison to the woman who played the main victim. Also the entire documentary angle feels very amateurish, especially the editing. The found footage stuff ranged in quality but never really felt right because of the way the killer was written and presented, he just came off as try hard and too unrealistic. The biggest problem with the movie though is that it never goes anywhere or tries to say anything. There's no point, it's like they came with half an idea but couldn't back it up with any substance.
 

famicommander

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Joker 2 receives a D on Cinemascore, which is the lowest for any comic book movie ever made.

For those who don't know, Cinemascores are polls taken from the release night audience and they're asked to rate the movie they got versus the movie they were hoping to see when they walked into the theater. They are almost always overwhelmingly generous to franchise films because the hardcore fanbase is who shows up on day 1. If you don't shit the bed in the worst way possible you get at least an A-.

Rise of Skywalker got a B+ and every movie in the whole DC Extended Universe got at least a B. Even Madame Web and Morbius got a C+.

Previous low water marks for DC:
Superman IV - C
Jonah Hex - C+
Batman and Robin - C+
Catwoman, Steel, Green Lantern, Batman vs Superman theatrical, etc - B
 

SouthtownKid

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Whatever their faults, Madame Web and Morbius at least had the sense not to be a fucking musical.
 

SouthtownKid

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On a related note, Joker 2 marks the last time James Gunn will be able to use, "This movie was in motion before I was put in charge" as an excuse. He used it with Blue Beetle, Aquaman 2, and Flash, but Joker 2 is it.

From here on out, bad decisions will be completely on him. First up? A Robin movie using puppets instead of actors or animation. That's a real thing, folks.
 

famicommander

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On a related note, Joker 2 marks the last time James Gunn will be able to use, "This movie was in motion before I was put in charge" as an excuse. He used it with Blue Beetle, Aquaman 2, and Flash, but Joker 2 is it.

From here on out, bad decisions will be completely on him. First up? A Robin movie using puppets instead of actors or animation. That's a real thing, folks.
Never heard of this until now but
"Swaybox uses a technology known as “Momo animation,” which is a cross between CGI animation, practical elements of stop-motion, and live-action real-time performance."
 

Hattori Hanzo

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I rewatched Batman Forever and Batman & Robin for the first time in years. Looking forward to Joker 2 after that.
 

Tarma

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Patriot Games - 2nd of Tom Clancy's "Jack Ryan" novels to be given the big screen treatment, following on from The Hunt for Red October. Decent thriller with an excellent cast, which sees Sean Bean's terrorist out for revenge against Harrison Ford's Ryan, after the latter killed the former's brother during a botched assassination attempt.
 

Hot Chocolate

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On a related note, Joker 2 marks the last time James Gunn will be able to use, "This movie was in motion before I was put in charge" as an excuse. He used it with Blue Beetle, Aquaman 2, and Flash, but Joker 2 is it.

From here on out, bad decisions will be completely on him. First up? A Robin movie using puppets instead of actors or animation. That's a real thing, folks.
Blue Beetle is still the best movie out of this bunch, it is such a fun movie but Jaime is my Beetle so bias.
 

terry.330

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IT Part 1&2 (Remakes)- Eh, I don't have much nostalgia for the original TV versions from back in the day. I saw them but was never a big fan, so these remakes don't do too much for me either.

The first part is leagues better then the second part, much like the originals. Part 1 came out at the right time with the 80's nostalgia really kicking off and Stranger Things being hugely popular. Which is funny considering that IT so heavily inspired ST, then ST so heavily inspiring the Part 1 remake. It's fine for what it is and struck a nice balance between horror and tween coming of age stuff, helped a lot by some nice performances.

Part 2 is pretty rough and a bit of a slog at almost a 3 hour runtime. A great cast that is mostly squandered on shitty material. Don't get me wrong it's wayyyy better than the original Part 2, that one is downright embarrassing. Still it's almost completely lacking in any of the charm or sense of adventure that the first part had. I chalk that up mostly to the source material being a coke fueled jumble of nonsense, like a lot of King's work at the time. Honestly if they could have just tightened the whole thing up and trimmed at least 30 minutes off it that would have helped a ton.
 

fake

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IT Part 1&2 (Remakes)- Eh, I don't have much nostalgia for the original TV versions from back in the day. I saw them but was never a big fan, so these remakes don't do too much for me either.

The first part is leagues better then the second part, much like the originals. Part 1 came out at the right time with the 80's nostalgia really kicking off and Stranger Things being hugely popular. Which is funny considering that IT so heavily inspired ST, then ST so heavily inspiring the Part 1 remake. It's fine for what it is and struck a nice balance between horror and tween coming of age stuff, helped a lot by some nice performances.

Part 2 is pretty rough and a bit of a slog at almost a 3 hour runtime. A great cast that is mostly squandered on shitty material. Don't get me wrong it's wayyyy better than the original Part 2, that one is downright embarrassing. Still it's almost completely lacking in any of the charm or sense of adventure that the first part had. I chalk that up mostly to the source material being a coke fueled jumble of nonsense, like a lot of King's work at the time. Honestly if they could have just tightened the whole thing up and trimmed at least 30 minutes off it that would have helped a ton.
I really did not like part 2. I had to sit through it for a second time when I went to an event where they didn’t reveal which horror movie they were showing until they started the projector. Seemed like a weird choice given it’s a sequel.
 

Average Joe

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V/H/S Beyond

I am a massive fan of these and outside of Viral, I think they're pretty damn great overall and this one holds up really well minus one segment.

The theme of this one is supposed to be about aliens, but for some reason one segment is very much not that and it kind of throws off the whole vibe.
Spoiler:
It's by Justin Long and his brother and is basically just a direct rip of Tusk only with a lady crazy about dogs... it's an OK segment and would fit in fine with any of the other films, but as I said it throws everything off here.
 

terry.330

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I really did not like part 2. I had to sit through it for a second time when I went to an event where they didn’t reveal which horror movie they were showing until they started the projector. Seemed like a weird choice given it’s a sequel.
Ugh. Yeah, that's a terrible choice for a mystery movie screening of any kind.


Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum- This is one of those trendy new(ish) types of supernatural horror movies coming out of Asia that are really tech and internet streaming heavy. I've seen a few of these and they've all been pretty mediocre. This one is no exception. It would probably be a lot more enjoyable if they had shot it more traditionally. But unfortunately the entire visual gimmick is that it's shot in first person with GoPros but everyone also has a face cam. So it's either shaky night time first person footage or extreme close ups of everyone's faces. It's really hard to watch and the characters look absolutely ridiculous with all this gear strapped to them. Especially considering they're supposed to be sneaking around.

The premise is that a guy that runs an internet ghost hunting show recruits a bunch of dipshit kids to go into a famous haunted asylum to investigate and open some room that is supposed to be super-duper ultra haunted and of course braodcast it live. The twist is that the host has rigged the place with a bunch of scares and tricks so when supernatural shit actually starts happening nobody knows what's really happening.

It's not great. The characters are all annoying and dumb, it's visually unpleasant, predictable and not very original. It does get pretty crazy in the second half but not enough to overcome any of it's many other problems.
 
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Tarma

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The Protege - underrated action thriller with a solid cast, featuring, Samuel L Jackson, Maggie Q, and Michael Keaton; directed by Martin Campbell (GoldenEye, Casino Royale). Was originally released during Covid and tanked, which is a real shame as the action is good (Michael Keaton really kicks some ass), the acting is great, and there's a fairly good plot twist at the end. Written by the guy who penned the recent Equalizer films. I'd recommend it, I certainly think it's a better film than John Wick 4.
 
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2Heed

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Transformers One is the best TF movie thus far (not exactly high praise, but still) and holds up much better than the one from the 80s.

There's a bit too much banter for my tastes in the first half-hour or so, but as the stakes are raised and it takes itself more seriously it picks up steam. It isn't bad for an origin story and establishes the main characters motivations effectively. Plus, it has both Soundwave and Shockwave. Just having one of them present would have made it a plus in my book.

The only good thing about the old 80s movie was Kup. Everything else about it was cynical marketing garbage. Rodimus Prime can go kick rocks.

Equally as noteworthy was the trailer we saw for a LOTR theatrical, hand-drawn animated film coming out on Christmas. If for no other reason than to support the present and future viability of 2D animation, my wife and I will definitely see it.
 

100proof

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Azrael - Tight little 90 minute Christian fan fiction about a mute woman and her mute partner getting chased around the woods by a mute cult and some cannibal humanoid creatures called "The Burned Ones" in a post-Rapture world. The movie has no dialogue for all but one scene (in which the main character happens upon someone not in the cult who is puzzled by her not being able to speak). Samara Weaving, who plays the titular Azrael, plays a pretty great damsel-to-warrior as anyone who's seen Ready or Not can attest (and she gets ample opportunity yet again to flex her "Revenge Lady" muscles).

However, while there's a few interesting and violent moments spread throughout, the thing that makes it interesting (the lack of dialogue makes you constantly on the lookout for contextual/non-verbal exposition and storytelling) also makes it kind of undercooked and most of its 90 minutes is spent running in circles between the woods and the cult's forest encampment in the woods. No idea what motivates any of these characters. Don't care about anyone living or dying beyond that it's a revenge story so I know who I'm supposed to root for and the ending reveal, while probably obvious for anyone familiar with Christian eschatology, would be complete and utter nonsense to anyone else.
 
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