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

terry.330

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In Search of Darkness- 4.5 hour documentary on 80s horror movies, apparently part 1 of 3. It's pretty much what you'd expect and also fairly well done with some great guests for the most part. Special mention to the soundtrack by New Retro Wave Records featuring Power Glove, Waveshaper, Tokyo Rose and more.

Barbara Crampton is still fine as hell.
 

100proof

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In Search of Darkness- 4.5 hour documentary on 80s horror movies, apparently part 1 of 3. It's pretty much what you'd expect and also fairly well done with some great guests for the most part. Special mention to the soundtrack by New Retro Wave Records featuring Power Glove, Waveshaper, Tokyo Rose and more.

Barbara Crampton is still fine as hell.

Watched the second part of that when it premiered on Shudder. A significant step down. Partially the movies they chose but also the talking heads. Can't even imagine what part of the barrel they'd be scraping for a part 3.

Speaking of Shudder, watched Terror Train last night. Another lame knockoff slasher from the early 80s. Slaughter High is a more fun take on the same basic premise (nerd gets humiliated, returns years later to murder bullies). Jamie Lee Curtis is wasted and there are zero fun kills.
 
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fake

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I think the Dune thread should go in the war room and fami should get a war room lock for the first 72 hours of Dune’s release. Keep him focused.
 

terry.330

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Watched the second part of that when it premiered on Shudder. A significant step down. Partially the movies they chose but also the talking heads. Can't even imagine what part of the barrel they'd be scraping for a part 3.
I kinda figured as much. Especially since some of the choices in the first were totally odd and some of the bigger movies were suspiciously absent.

Fucking stepfather 1&2 got their own segment over say literally any important Italian stuff?
 

terry.330

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Class of 1984- Naive music teach transfers to literally the worst school ever, seemingly without an interview or visiting the school before starting. Somehow...I guess. Doesn't matter. He immediately gets into a beef with a gang of classic over the top 80s delinquent punks. Who quickly push him too far. Enjoyable garbage with a bizarre early role by Michael J. Fox.
 

100proof

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I kinda figured as much. Especially since some of the choices in the first were totally odd and some of the bigger movies were suspiciously absent.

Fucking stepfather 1&2 got their own segment over say literally any important Italian stuff?

There's more Italian stuff in part 2 if you were looking for that but I've always respected 70s/80s Italian horror movies (for their influence on the genre and some of the great cinematography) more than I enjoy watching any of them. Save for the occasional Argento. It's the way they did dubbing more than anything that throws me off.
 
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evil wasabi

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I watched Black Widow last night. It was ok. Action was top notch, and fun, but ending was so-so. Really weird seeing non Russians trying to pepper their language with Russian, and the native speaker, Olga Kurylenko, not speaking at all. Also, it has Mills Jovavich’s daughter (the other native Russian speaker, who speaks really well) in it, trying to look like Billie Eilish. :rolleyes: But overall not a regrettable waste of 2 hours.
 

@M

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I thought you disliked superhero(ine) films?
 

evil wasabi

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I thought you disliked superhero(ine) films?
I do dislike them as a genre. Especially when characters have supernatural abilities for no reason. Seeing ScarJo fall down 7 stories and hit things on the way down yet not die was eye roll worthy. Or Harbour casually flipping a shipping container or whatever over, also lame. Take that shit out and this becomes a Craig Bond movie almost. But ultimately I watched it because I was bored.
 

terry.330

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There's more Italian stuff in part 2 if you were looking for that but I've always respected 70s/80s Italian horror movies (for their influence on the genre and some of the great cinematography) more than I enjoy watching any of them. Save for the occasional Argento. It's the way they did dubbing more than anything that throws me off.
Same here on the italian stuff. The cinematography, atmosphere and soundtracks are almost always great but yeah aside from a small handful I'm not really into the giallo stuff like a lot of people. A lot of style ofter substance. The dubbing certainly doesn't help, it makes everyone feel disconnected from what's happening and feels very out of place.
 

Burning Fight!!

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Just watched Old (2021) by the guy that directed that ghost Bruce Willis movie.

I thought the concept for the plot was very intriguing and gripping, but the execution was not the greatest thing ever... it was OK barring a silly scene that I did not buy at all, which tells us that apparently you can
Spoiler:
perform stomach tumor removal surgery with a switchblade and cans of tsingtao in a sandy windy beach, why the fuck do we pay so much for an operation in a hospital then? I'm sorry, you could argue that the time is allowing shit to heal fast while you do it but it seems like an extra complication if you think about it long enough, surely if time goes fast then infections spread in the speed of light, and a fucking FOOTBALL SIZED TUMOR shouldn't be as easy to detach as an M lego set.
And lmao at that huge thing that is thrown out of frame at the speed of light so the movie doesn't give you time to see how ridiculous the whole situation is, or what they're doing with that huge 1998 FIFA World Cup sanctioned football and what happens afterwards (does it deflate? become dust?). I don't want to talk about the plot much but I thought it was satisfactory, although I don't think the director explored the theme of mortality to its fullest potential.

What really disappoints is the ending, though, once some characters escape their predicament. They didn't try to explain the twilight zone-ish mechanisms of the movie too much so it was vague enough (though it shouldn't have been explained at all, it didn't make a difference for me to accept the premise at least), they only explained why they got into the movie's plot, and that was good! But the ending was silly and poorly executed:
Spoiler:
apparently if you hand a random police officer in his resort vacation a list of missing persons names on a notebook you can arrest everyone and deliver subpoenas to big wigs from some corporation, all in a day in time for lunch. Does anyone even read my opinions about movies in here anyway?


Anyhow, the interesting premise carries the movie towards good watch territory but much more could have been done with the concept it presents so it's somewhat disappointing. 3 out of 5.

EDIT: also, great casting for the kids that grow up but the adult version of the girl kid does not look like her at all lol

edit2:
Spoiler:

HI EVERYONE AND WELCOME TO JOHN MADDEN FOOTBALL
1634019304771.png
 
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sylvie

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Same here on the italian stuff. The cinematography, atmosphere and soundtracks are almost always great but yeah aside from a small handful I'm not really into the giallo stuff like a lot of people. A lot of style ofter substance. The dubbing certainly doesn't help, it makes everyone feel disconnected from what's happening and feels very out of place.
I actually like the weird dubbing, kind of suitably creepy if its the right psychological horror movie. Visually I can eat up Italian B-horror like yummy candy
 

wyo

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The Many Saints of Newark makes the last season of Game of Thrones look well written. The only explanation for this I can think of is if the film was written by Chris Moltisanti and it's supposed to be a film within the world of the show like Cleaver. Because otherwise, holy shit this was terrible. It's hard to watch without asking yourself if David Chase is trolling with this shit. Imagine two seasons of The Sopranos condensed into 2 hours which feels like 3. That being said, it's still more interesting than any superhero crap or fucking Dune.
 

StaticX

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Not sure if it counts as a film, but Dave Chapelle’s closer on Netflix. Props to him and the middle finger he is giving to the assholes trying to cancel him.
 

evil wasabi

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I tried watching it but after 15 minutes of not laughing once, I turned it off.

his delivery is terrible. He needs Paul Mooney and Charlie Murphy back. It’s clear those two were the real talents.
 

SouthtownKid

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Not sure if it counts as a film, but Dave Chapelle’s closer on Netflix. Props to him and the middle finger he is giving to the assholes trying to cancel him.
I don't like that he has to spend more time trying to navigate his situation than trying to be funny. He should have more faith in himself.
 

100proof

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I don't get the impression that he really gives a fuck. The guy is uncancellable largely because he has nothing they can take away from him. Obviously he spent an inordinate amount of time during this last special talking about people's dumb reactions to his comedy but I don't think the point was to defend himself/navigate that so much as to point out the hypocrisy of people claiming to be desperately trying to protect marginalized groups often being responsible for the anxiety and death of people in said groups. The problem is, of course, that the people who need to hear that message the most are completely incapable of self-reflection and the rest of us are kind of tired of talking about it.

I've always loved Dave (dating back to his early flirtation with Hollywood) and while he's definitely bought in to his own hype, leading to these specials being kind of self-aggrandizing, the man has an incredible gift for storytelling. The way he punctuated his story about Daphne, even though you kinda knew where it was going, left the room speechless in a way that few performers can match.
 

evil wasabi

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His story telling feels like a church sermon. Doesn’t jive with me.

of course you can figure I didn’t hear the daphne story because I clocked out at 15’
 

100proof

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Good comedy often is like a church sermon. Less the preaching and more the weaving the personal and the philosophical in to storytelling. With dick jokes strewn throughout. Most of the best to ever do it (Carlin, Hicks, Pryor, etc.) were masters at that skill.
 
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