What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Ann Dan Otherthing]

2 hours ago, DeeTillEhDeh said:

 

 

Spoiler

 

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I'm the opposite - 135 minutes of turgid shit and a paper thin storyline. This is Peele's '1941' - an utter turkey of a film.

 

I’m with you - utter shite after great Get Out and passable Us. 2/10, but only to keep it above Lady in the Van, which saw us walk out. Even with Cineworld Unlimited, we were very tempted today!

[accies1874]

132. Mystic Pizza (1988)* - 5Star

I don’t think this film is for me. Got halfway but then they did that thing where a female character sees their boyfriend with another girl, the female character freaks out and does something stupid, but then it was revealed that the other girl was actually… his sister! Turned it off as soon as the reveal happened.

133. The Florida Project (2017) - DVD

This is too long so I'll chuck this and 135 in spoilers. 

Spoiler

If anyone’s ever turned The Florida Project off then they deserve a fate worse than death. It’s absolutely wonderful and one of the best in recent years, although 2017 had a bunch that fall into that category. I’ve seen it a couple of times before, but I don’t think I’d appreciated just how much of it is Willem Dafoe’s film. Obviously Moonee is who we see the film through and she and Halley are at the centre of the plot, but Dafoe is who I think the general audience would connect with. In a film with a bunch of adults trying to do what they think is right in very trying circumstances, Dafoe’s the one whose choices, imo, have more weight to them because he isn’t obliged to make them in the same way that a parent is. He does it because he’s a good dude, even though he’s had plenty of his goodwill thrown back in his face and has the risk of losing it all if his bosses find out what he’s doing. There’s pathos to all of the parents as they struggle to do what’s right for them and their kids, and Sean Baker’s proven himself to be perfect at handling those kinds of characters.

I’m not sure how much work goes into changing the look/design of locations, but this and Red Rocket (and Tangerine to a lesser extent) look incredible. His films make sleazy motels, barren rural America and run-down streets and interiors a joy to watch. You’ve often got wide lenses capturing the super-saturated locales which, combined with being shot on 35mm, legit works as a Visit Poverty commercial. It’s for a purpose, though, as you’re seeing it from the eyes of children; the tragic (yet somewhat sweet) nature of how these kids find pleasure with the Most Magical Place on Earth on their doorstep but locked away from all the plebs. So we’re in the kids’ shoes when the motel, abandoned condos, fallen tree, orange store etc. all look amazing. There’s a lot of low angles and stuff too, and while I preferred how Playground from this year did that, TFP uses it more sparingly and packs more of a punch in individual moments. Between that and the other visual stuff, the way it shoots a child’s perspective is so, so good.

The ending still doesn’t do it for me. I’ve seen a few different interpretations and ways it does work for other people, but switching from that beautiful style to the iPhone guerrilla filmmaking always takes me completely out of it. It’s weird as you’ve got a really stylish looking film for about 99% of the runtime but it’s the more natural, home video conclusion that ruins the ‘immersion’. I know they had to do it that way to get around a bunch of different obstacles (which I won’t mention so as to not spoil anything) and it almost works as it kind of looks like a memory or a dream, but it just doesn’t work for me. 

Don’t wanna end on a negative so I’ll just say that the portrayal of how kids actually act is almost perfect and I have no idea how directors direct kids. 

134. Buffalo Soldiers (2001)* - Film4

I can imagine this having a cult following and there were things I quite liked about it. Manages to do some surprising things that never feel out of place from the rest of the film, and the lack of morality made me quite interested in what it was gonna do next. Big stretches were a slog for me, almost feeling like they’d blown their load way too early, but it does its best to claw that back.

135. Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019) - DVD

Spoiler

I was completely cold on Tarantino when this first came out and only the setting and premise got me to see it. I’ve now watched it several times since then, mostly due to the world that they created. Director Indulgence has never been so comforting! As imperfect as Tarantino is, since Inglourious Basterds his films have essentially been, to me, about letting the audience exist in a different time period more than disappearing into a story. Obviously they’ve all tried to create a story in that setting, but my take on it is that he forms the story from the setting as opposed to the other way about.

What makes me like OUATIH more than some of his other recent work is that I think we’re on the same page. I don’t really care about how faithfully he can recreate the wild west or Nazi-occupied France (I kinda do with TH8 though) but giving someone like Tarantino $100m to make a film set in 60s Hollywood is like catnip to me. He can be as indulgent as he likes if it’s driving down entire streets redecorated for the film, or in the Playboy Mansion with impeccably dressed people. Music, background sounds, costumes, cars, sets/buildings - all captured with some massive crane shots that look magic. Like I said, you could put this amount of effort (or more) into a different setting and I wouldn’t care, however it’s because it fascinates me so much that I care for the effort. 

That said, I do like the script and how hanging out in this time essentially acts as a last hurrah. The audience know that it’s all about to go tits up irl and the 60s are about to end – that looms over it – so it’s like we’re just willing for another scene to happen so that doesn’t happen. Time, societal perception and social hierarchies inform pretty much every moment, and the more I think about the last half-hour or so, the more I think it’s pretty much perfect. 

 

[MSU]

3 hours ago, accies1874 said:

132. Mystic Pizza (1988)* - 5Star

I don’t think this film is for me. Got halfway but then they did that thing where a female character sees their boyfriend with another girl, the female character freaks out and does something stupid, but then it was revealed that the other girl was actually… his sister! Turned it off as soon as the reveal happened.

The real life restaurant in Connecticut is also shite.

[BFTD]

Predator 2 (DVD) - a Predator alien pops up in the futuristic hellscape of Los Angeles in 1997, and proceeds to stalk the gangs and police for sport.

This was actually worse than I remember; it hasn't aged well at all, with the Eighties action movie trope of bizarre comic book gang culture in full effect, and the nonsensical choice of Danny Glover (the one who was too old for this shit) as the action star, which makes you think they tried for "the guy from Lethal Weapon" expecting Mel Gibson to show up on set. It feels like a series of scenes stitched together rather than a well-planned story, and they're perfunctory despite some having promise.

Easy to forget that this basically killed the franchise for more than a decade, only to be revived by AvP. This is probably the worst of the series, and I include AvP 2 in that. It's just boring and unimaginatively, despite starting with a decent concept. I'm pretty sure the soundtrack is 100% recycled from the original film too.

Predators (DVD) - Adrien Brody and a group of ultimate badasses wake up in the middle of the jungle and are stalked by...*sigh*...a mysterious hunter. Who could it be? Surely not one of those dreadlocked aliens from the previous films? You'll have to watch it to find out!

This probably deserved a sequel y'know, although it would probably have been pish. It's a good attempt to channel some of the magic from the original film, and it's successful to a degree. Certainly entertaining, with a reasonable premise and colourful cast, with even Adrien Brody just about managing to pull off being an action hero. There are a few mild references to the original and Aliens, but it's nothing like as gratuitous as later Hollywood franchise films would plumb the depths of.

Not a classic, but certainly a good time if you're looking for a fun action film. Pity it didn't do better at the box office.

Spoiler

You can entirely see where Arnie was supposed to be in this - presumably Larry Fishburne's character was supposed to be Dutch, kidnapped by the Predators because he'd kicked one of their asses in the original and they were curious about his badassery. It would make sense with the traps they discovered at the beginning of the film, which were all the kind of thing Dutch made, so presumably it would've turned out that they were his handiwork.

Surely they hadn't planned to have him turn on the others, though. That would've been harsh.

Edit: the wean wants to see The Predator next. Yeesh.

Edited August 16, 2022 by BFTD

[BFTD]

The Predator (DVD) - our favourite race of Rastafarian spree killers send another representative to Earth and...oh, I could not begin to describe the nonsense that follows.

I remember this being bad, but not THIS bad. Problems in almost every aspect; it was obviously re-shot and edited, as what little story there is has an uneven, jerky feel, and it's not just due to the Frankenstein editing stitch job. There were some utterly bizarre choices made here by writer/director Shane Black, like including a stereotypical Hollywood autistic genius kid as a major plot point, monumentally poor and unfunny dialogue that he loved so much that he just couldn't pack enough of it in, and employing a known sex offender in a prominent role, refusing to remove them when his leading lady objected, and having to be strong-armed into doing so by the cast, crew, and the fucking studio employing him  

The CG is all over the place too, with some scenes looking just fine, and others being comically bad. The whole thing's a hot mess in almost every way and, incredibly, an inferior film to both Predator 2 and Alien vs Predator 2 that tries to ape the chemistry and characters of the original, only to utterly fail, despite a pretty decent cast.

But, the good news is that my son wanted to see them all before Prey, so that's us up to date. My Predatable would be:

1. Predator (Celtgers; has the best players and most bigotry)
2. Predators (St Johnstone: often better than expected)
3. Alien vs Predator (Hamilton in the top league, having fun pretending to be a big-boy club)
4. Alien vs Predator 2: Requiem (Dunfermline; has its moments, but generally WTF?)
5. Predator 2 (Falkirk; hangs about accomplishing little considering its size and budget)
6. The Predator (Morten)

[accies1874]

136. The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad (1988)* - Netflix

When it’s funny, it’s really funny. Does have a few wonky moments where the jokes feel like jokes, but it’s best when it’s played somewhat straight, at least from Frank, and it’s his oblivious oafishness while trying to be competent that’s the source of laughs. You don’t often get to the third act not caring about how the plot concludes because you just wanna see how the protagonist makes a fool of himself, but that was definitely the case for me here.

137. X (2022)* - Digital Rental

When the credits started rolling, I had no idea how I was feeling, and I ended up changing my mind on a certain point while writing this so I’m still a bit confused by the whole thing.

There’s a clear attempt to emulate 70s/80s slasher films with some funk camerawork and editing, as well as a breathy sound effect like Friday the 13th, which I found enjoyable. I can’t really explain one of the editing techniques it sometimes used, but you’d know it as soon as you see it, that I’m guessing was from the French New Wave due to a character referencing that. I found it unsettling, though, while it was also an effective tension builder. What I didn’t like about the slasher emulation, and this will just be personal taste, was that it just looked too clean. It was mostly fine at night when they had more control over the lighting, but during the day just looked like a Netflix film. I think it would’ve been better with a cheaper look shot on 16mm or something, as even the porn scenes, supposed to be captured on an old camera, looked like the simply had an iMovie effect over them. Katalin Varga (next film) looks like it came out about 30 years before it did and sometimes that can be a good thing when you’re working in a specific genre.

That’s quite a long criticism for something no one will care about but for whatever reason it was the thing I felt most strongly about, both as a positive and negative. Despite that issue, the atmosphere throughout the whole thing was kinda disgusting (in a good way), but it wasn’t until writing this that I started to have an idea why that may be.

At first I didn’t think it was doing anything particularly interesting thematically, however I now think – but could be way off – that it was attempting to take this disgusting elderly couple and make the audience go “gross, a disgusting elderly couple who are dead horny” before forcing the audience to reflect on the double standards of that response compared to the sexiness of the other horny characters. It isn’t played for laughs either, although I initially thought it was due to how straight they play this ridiculous couple’s issues that it seemed like it was poking fun at them. They’re not sympathetic characters – they’re horror movie villains who do bad things for bad reasons – but I like the deception that Ti West is playing with, even though it does make them less scary as antagonists.

I also appreciated that it wasn’t a smug, post-modern, self-aware horror film. There’s around one hour of building atmosphere before characters get picked off in gruesome, memorable ways in an exciting final act – just like a lot of classic slashers. At one point a character was asked to go into a basement and didn’t respond with “omg I’ve seen horror movies I ain’t goin down there.” Its commitment to an oft-parodied genre was more refreshing than if it were just a parody. 

Writing this review has genuinely made me start to like it a lot more than I did during not one but two viewings, so I’m intrigued to see if it becomes better in my head over time rather than how I felt actually watching it which wasn't much enthusiasm. 

138. Katalin Varga (2009)* - MUBI

Given Peter Strickland’s filmography, this is surprisingly restrained – at least stylistically – and feels slower, colder and less playful than his other stuff which was kind of disappointing as I was interesting to see what the debut from the guy who made Berberian Sound Studio and In Fabric looked like. 

[BFTD]

Prey (entirely legal download) - at the start of the 18th century, a Native American tribe attract the attention of a suspiciously be-dreadlocked visitor.

This was really good - it doesn't really do a lot different in terms of story but, as with the original, it just does it all so well. Dan Trachtenberg seems to get involved in quality productions. It has a very different feel to any of the other films; much more grounded and genuine, while maintaining some real visual flair. Our heroine's a proper badass too, and Amber Midthunder reminded me a lot of Aubrey Plaza, which is no bad thing. Pretty much the only complaint I have is that Disney CG'd over the practical effects and, much like The Thing prequel, the leaked video of the original effects look much better.

The 'Predators throughout history' idea is more interesting than what they'd been doing up to now, so we'll see where they go from here. It certainly seemed like this Predator was exploring Earth as a new planet. I did like the Predator 2 tie-in at the end too; I think I'd have seen it coming if the film hadn't been so engaging, but it was a delightful touch.

Edit: interesting that Disney seem to have decided that Fox's big cinematic sci-fi properties are better suited to streaming these days. Looks like a shrewd move.

Edited August 19, 2022 by BFTD

[Detournement]

The Wrestler - Mickey Rourke as a washed up pro wrestler who can't break his self destructive habits. You can tell it was made right after Chris Benoit murdered but it doesn't get preachy and it portrays the wrestlers really positively with everyone supporting each other. It's also got Marissa Tomei as a stripper which you don't expect to see from a big name actress who was in her mid 40s at the time, I was quite shocked when her character appeared. 

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes - A musical caper with Marilyn Monroe as an unashamed gold digger and Jane Russell as her good time gal best friend. Russell gets all the best gags and Marilyn gets to shake her arse. 

Norwegian Wood - An adaptation of the Haruki Murakami novel. I had forgotten how ridiculous the plot is despite having read the book a few times in my 20s but just like the book it doesn't really matter as it more about the mood and the characters.

Galveston - A twist on the old hit man on the run with a younger woman story with Ben Foster and Elle Fanning. It's written by Nic Pizzolatto who created True Detective and it's a got similar feel. It's directed by Melanie Laurent (she played Shosanna in Inglorious Basterds) who uses the same sort of long close up shots during the action sequences that everyone loved so much in TD back in the day and she also drops in one of the most brutal shots i've seen in a while near the end. The on the run scenes are much better than the third act rush to give it a typical crime film ending. 

[Detournement]

21 hours ago, accies1874 said:

136. The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad (1988)* - Netflix

When it’s funny, it’s really funny. Does have a few wonky moments where the jokes feel like jokes, but it’s best when it’s played somewhat straight, at least from Frank, and it’s his oblivious oafishness while trying to be competent that’s the source of laughs. You don’t often get to the third act not caring about how the plot concludes because you just wanna see how the protagonist makes a fool of himself, but that was definitely the case for me here.

 

OJ was a truly great comic actor. He had so much more to give.

[accies1874]

OJ was a truly great comic actor. He had so much more to give.

Just had a look at his IMDB and he hasn't appeared in anything of note since 1994! Strange, must've just fancied settling down with his wife or something.

[Detournement]

39 minutes ago, accies1874 said:

7 hours ago, Detournement said:

OJ was a truly great comic actor. He had so much more to give.

Just had a look at his IMDB and he hasn't appeared in anything of note since 1994! Strange, must've just fancied settling down with his wife or something.

It's a tragedy but at least we have his posts. 

 

[Mark Connolly]

Currently watching The World is Not Enough on ITV

It's entertaining enough, as with most Bond films. Denise Richards as a nuclear physicist though. And calling her "Christmas", just for some double entendre opportunities.

[underdogunderdog underdog]

Has anyone seen bullet train? Really don’t know if I enjoyed it or not. Started out as what seemed like perfectly acceptable Guy Ritchie type stuff then just descended in to absolute nonsense.
Brian Tyree Henry also putting on one of the worst English accents I’ve ever heard but I can’t tell if it was deliberate or not.

Went to see it tonight and thought it was a great fun action movie. Pretty funny too.

[JustOneCornetto]

Once (2007)

Nice wee Irish film set in Dublin about a guy who's a busker and a girl, a Czech immigrant who sells flowers in the streets. You never find out either of their names which adds to the charm as they meet and immediately hit it off as they both love music and seem to share similar problems with their love lives. She helps him record a demo CD over a few days and along the way there's some interesting charcters a few funny moments and the film never gets too sentimental. Incidentally Bob Dylan liked this film so much he invited both lead characters to open for him on part of his World tour.

8.5/10

[paranoid android]

Watched a guid film last night: 'X+Y' with Eddie Marsan, Sally Hawkins, Rafe Spall, and Asa Butterfield being brilliant. You can shove you action movies - films about math(s) is where it's at, kidz! Spoiler - turns out it's not really about math(s) after all!

I also watched 'Whiplash'. which isn't about math(s) either, but is very much my tempo!

[BFTD]

Star Trek: The Motion Picture - Director's Cut (cinema) - travel back through time to 1979, after the suits have realised that there's some money to be made from this Star Trekking thing that the kids like. The Enterprise crew are back; older and charged with investigating a dangerous, mysterious murdercloud that's on a collision course with Earth.

Hadn't seen this in a long time. It really is quite dull, with the audience seemingly expected to be mainly entertained by the effects and the novelty of seeing the cast of their favourite TV show again, neither of which are things that work for a modern audience, even with the added CG polish. Doesn't help that it's a rehash of an old episode, which can't have amused fans at the time. Still, given that it was obviously a film made to be a big-screen spectacle, I'm glad we went to see it.

@scottsdad - my son was most amused by the giant space sphincters, and finally lost his shit when Spock went to "penetrate the orifice". Oh my. Think I'm going to have some difficulty dragging him along to Wrath of Khan now, no matter how much better I tell him it is! Happy birthday; a drink or two beforehand might make it seem more interesting?

[scottsdad]

14 minutes ago, BFTD said:

Star Trek: The Motion Picture - Director's Cut (cinema) - travel back through time to 1979, after the suits have realised that there's some money to be made from this Star Trekking thing that the kids like. The Enterprise crew are back; older and charged with investigating a dangerous, mysterious murdercloud that's on a collision course with Earth.

Hadn't seen this in a long time. It really is quite dull, with the audience seemingly expected to be mainly entertained by the effects and the novelty of seeing the cast of their favourite TV show again, neither of which are things that work for a modern audience, even with the added CG polish. Doesn't help that it's a rehash of an old episode, which can't have amused fans at the time. Still, given that it was obviously a film made to be a big-screen spectacle, I'm glad we went to see it.

@scottsdad - my son was most amused by the giant space sphincters, and finally lost his shit when Spock went to "penetrate the orifice". Oh my. Think I'm going to have some difficulty dragging him along to Wrath of Khan now, no matter how much better I tell him it is! Happy birthday; a drink or two beforehand might make it seem more interesting?

I am seeing the motion picture tomorrow. It will be shite but looking forward to it. 

[welshbairn]

21 hours ago, paranoid android said:

Watched a guid film last night: 'X+Y' with Eddie Marsan, Sally Hawkins, Rafe Spall, and Asa Butterfield being brilliant. You can shove you action movies - films about math(s) is where it's at, kidz! Spoiler - turns out it's not really about math(s) after all!

Enjoyed it too but found the ending a bit pat and unrealistic.

[DeeTillEhDeh]

I am seeing the motion picture tomorrow. It will be shite but looking forward to it. 

Nothing could drag me along to see it.

Wrath of Khan though - tickets already booked for next Friday.

[scottsdad]

9 hours ago, DeeTillEhDeh said:

Nothing could drag me along to see it.

Wrath of Khan though - tickets already booked for next Friday.

Next Saturday for me... So, no spoilers please.