What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Flybhoy]

Interstellar. 

 

 

Read some rave reviews about this science fiction/space/time travel thriller with Matthew McConaughey, Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain Michael Caine. 

 

Looked pretty well scripted with a fascinating plot line and some top performances but, despite trying my best and giving it my full attention, the vast majority of it I couldn't make head nor tail of so was even more confused about the 'twist' at the end than I was for most of the film if I'm honest. 

 

Fair play to anyone who managed to follow and understand it all,  6 out of 10 mainly for some fine acting performances but a plot too complicated and trying too hard that I'd imagine a lot of people found it too confusing and gave up halfway through as I almost did. 

[BFTD]

I like Nolan's films, including their refusal to pander to things like audiences and the limitations of human comprehension. He really lost me with Tenet, but I still enjoyed it, despite my brain throwing its hands up by the halfway point for a variety of reasons (there's a long dialogue-heavy scene that I couldn't catch a word of, as apparently it was more important to hear the motor of the boat they were on).

Anyway, tonight we watched Predator. First time I've paid attention to it properly in a while; the wean had never seen it before, so that had to be remedied. It really is something of a genre work of art, with surprising patience for a bombastic Eighties action film, and a host of nice touches that you wouldn't find in an inferior film. Also, two future state governors. You can't ask for more.

Edited August 11, 2022 by BFTD
Repetition!

[KnightswoodBear]

7 hours ago, BFTD said:

I like Nolan's films, including their refusal to pander to things like audiences and the limitations of human comprehension. He really lost me with Tenet, but I still enjoyed it, despite my brain throwing its hands up by the halfway point for a variety of reasons (there's a long dialogue-heavy scene that I couldn't catch a word of, as apparently it was more important to hear the motor of the boat they were on).

Anyway, tonight we watched Predator. First time I've paid attention to it properly in a while; the wean had never seen it before, so that had to be remedied. It really is something of a genre work of art, with surprising patience for a bombastic Eighties action film, and a host of nice touches that you wouldn't find in an inferior film. Also, two future state governors. You can't ask for more.

I tried watching Tenet recently and gave up after about 30 mins.  Partly because I couldn't follow it and partly because it was utterly fucking dull.

[accies1874]

128. Scream (2022)* - Paramount+ trial

It retains what was, imo, the weakest part of the original in that it thinks referencing cliches/problems in slashers elevates their film above its contemporaries and they can get away with thingsjust because it’s referential. However, the original also has a lot of interesting questions about how violence and violent movies link into one another and where thirsts for violence stem from, and this new one is, to me, completely devoid of any worthwhile social commentary so just becomes a smug, annoying slasher with maybe one or two memorable set-pieces and absolutely 0 memorable characters. They also bring back a character through CGI who looks more realistic than two of the actual human characters they bring back.

It genuinely surprised me a couple of times, tbf, however the one scene that was all about being smug and saying “haha you thought” was a huge disappointment. Constant predictable rug-pulls before a predictable surprise. When the moments that you’re banking on being surprising lack any sort of surprise, you’ve fucked up. It would’ve legit been more interesting if there was no death in that scene whatsoever – they even set that up earlier in the film.

129. Natural Born Killers (1994)* - Prime

I loved it. Didn’t really care what was going on, just let the madness consume me. I’ve never bothered with any of Oliver Stone’s other stuff, but it did feel like a culmination of other popular 80s/90s American cinema like Lynch, Coens and Tarantino, as well as the deliberate adoption of other cinematic mediums (which I liked a lot).

130. Our Eternal Summer (2022)* - MUBI

Nah, not for me. Its character work was stretched even at 74 minutes, so for a script that focuses all of its efforts on character, I was left bored.

131. Schizopolis (1996)* - YouTube

Starts brilliantly with an incredibly funny opening and ‘skits’ that are inventive in how they use dialogue and interactions to sort of strip back the words and either replace them with complete gibberish or generic placeholder lines. It’s almost like a screenwriting/filmmaking class at points due to showing the importance of action more than the words. It sadly wasn't able to keep me engaged for the final half-hour or so but the first hour was so enjoyable that I'm almost willing to let that slide. 

Soderbergh’s a weird one for me, probably because his films are so varied in terms of genre, style, quality etc. Suppose you’re gonna get that when you do so many, but not many directors have the range of interesting character dramas, fun heists, engaging procedurals, b-movie horror and then the more experimental like this. How many folk are able to get two Best Director noms in the same year and then make perhaps the definitive heist movie immediately after?

[BFTD]

59 minutes ago, KnightswoodVanBear said:

I tried watching Tenet recently and gave up after about 30 mins.  Partly because I couldn't follow it and partly because it was utterly fucking dull.

I get that. It's been interesting to see Nolan pursue inscrutability with such gusto, and it's obviously a choice considering Dunkirk was very straightforward, but it took me until Tenet to see why some people complained about films like Memento and Inception.

I still like M. Night Shyamalan's films, so I clearly have awful taste. Maybe I just find entertainment in watching clearly talented filmmakers make utterly mystifying choices.

[JustOneCornetto]

The Lost Daughter (2021)
Based on the story by Elena Ferrante who I knew from the very good My Brilliant Friend which I saw on Sky Atlantic and liked it so much I'm now working my way through the 4 novels it was based on. I can see a few similarities between the two stories, the lead is gifted academically in the field of literature, a doll plays a part in both stories and they are both very much about a woman reflecting on her earlier life. It's Maggie Gyllenhall's directorial debut and she has a great cast with Olivia Colman as Leda and Jessie Buckley as the younger version in a story that gets very intense at times when an incident on the beach where Leda is holidaying sparks off a lot of soul searching with Olivia Colman taking viewers through a rollercoaster of emotions. 8/10

[Scotty Tunbridge]

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.

[BFTD]

Nope (cinema)

Spoiler

Jordan Peele does unknowable cosmic horror. Nice. Contains a couple of decent laughs and genuinely creepy scenes, and I really liked it. Definitely a cinema film, BTW.

I get the feeling I'll like Us a lot better after seeing this - you really have to go with the dream logic of his worlds, which has taken me a while to get to grips with. Officially a fan now.

 

[Lofarl]

Prey 8/10.  There was a predator fan film made years ago.  Set during the medievil period where a knight was charged with clearing an area of a demon.  Vibes of that in it.

[MSU]

090 Prey -- The Predator sequel I never know I needed. Inexplicably denied a theatrical release in favor of appearing on Hulu. The premise is an excellent overlay on to the Predator formula as a young Comanche woman, with ideas of becoming a hunter like her brother, sets off to kill a mountain lion after seeing what she thinks is a sign in the sky but is actually the Predator's Joe Baxi dropping them off. Benefits from having a Native American and First Nation cast, has characters you care about, is thrilling and tense and all round a great way to spend an hour and a half. Some of the CGI is a bit ropey, but I'm nitpicking. I loved this. 9/10

091 Good Time (#54 in the A24 series) A weird, bleak, tale from the Safdie brothers that comes across as a bit of a hybrid between Dog Day Afternoon and Rain Man. Robert Pattinson plays Cassie, something of a failed criminal who steals his mentally disabled brother, Nick, from a therapy session and the two of them rob a bank which predictably goes wrong. Nick is caught while Cassie is dragged further and further down the whirlpool as he travels around New York at night trying to get the money to get his brother out. It's a story that's likely to make you want a shower about halfway through and then twice again once it's over. There's nothing much redeemable about Cassie apart from his misguided love for his brother. The soundtrack made me want to kill my ears with fire. 6/10

092 Woodshock (#55 in the A24 series) I like Kirsten Dunst and I understand that this movie was a bit of a labor of love for her, which makes me sad because not only is this movie really bad, it means that Kirsten Dunst doesn't know a shit movie when she sees one. Kirsten is Theresa, a woman who assisted her ill mother to suicide with a joint spiked with poison. In the weeks and months after this, Theresa, who conveniently works at a weed dispensary is thrown further into a pit of despair when she gives the wrong customer another suicide joint. She then plays Russian Roulette with further suicide joints and has some hallucinogenic experiences where things get weird. Directed and written by Kate and Laura Mulleavy, this appears to be their one and only credit and this is a good thing. After twenty minutes, I had already had my fill of pretentious tedium and the remaining hour and a bit was a slog. 3/10

093 Bodies Bodies Bodies (#118 in the A24 series) It's like a Gen Z Knives Out or real-life Among Us whodunnit movie as a small group of teens, and one fortysomething dude, gather in a house for a party ahead of a hurricane. Among the drink, drugs, and dancing, and a guest they wait to arrive, when the power goes out they decide to play a murder mystery game called Bodies Bodies Bodies where one of them is secretly assigned the killer of the group and the others have to deduce who that is. When one of them is found proper dead, suddenly they're playing the games for keeps. Aside from the Knives Out comparison, the movie is influenced by any number of murder mysteries that take place in a fixed location during a storm, with a bit of Scream-esque slasher jumps thrown in for good measure. The USP is really the generation of the characters and their collection of anxieties, neuroses, and hobbies, and their inability to connect with each other without thumbs hitting touch screens. The movie is perhaps a bit guilty of becoming too self-aware but it gets a good bit of comedy from this so I guess it can be forgiven. I still haven't worked out how I feel about the ending. 6/10

[coprolite]

The Gangster,  The Cop,  The Devil (2019)

Korean Cops and Robbers caper meets Serial killer Thriller.  

This is pretty slick and cool with a strangely low key feel to it.  It's all plot,  no long shots of anyone looking thoughtful over a cup of coffee or anything. 

The plot is pretty tight for about 2/3 of the film,  goes off piste and inexplicable for a bit,  then pulls it back for the end.  The end is great. 

It's a bit raggy and a bit dumb in places but it's really enjoyable. Inevitable material for a Hollywood remake. 

7/10

Spree (2019)

A satire on fame and social media. VL films killing spree. 

Decent premise.  Good performance from the main actor. 

Even as events got more dramatic and extreme i got boreder and boreder.  I enjoyed maybe from about ten minutes in to about 25 then it lost me.  This was not awesome content. 

3/10

 

 

[Detournement]

Betty Blue (1986)

Good 80s French fare with lots of nudity, shagging and drinking and a half decent plot to go along with it. Beatrice Dalle who plays Betty has one of the best controversy sections on Wikipedia.

 

Quote

 

Controversies[edit]

Dalle has been arrested on several occasions for shoplifting, drug possession and assault.^[4] In January 2005, while making a film about prison life in Brest, Dalle met Guenaël Meziani, serving a 12-year prison sentence for assaulting and raping his ex-girlfriend. She married him after 24 one-hour visits, and spoke on his behalf at hearings for his early release.^[4][5] According to a 2015 profile of Dalle, she said the marriage was "a complete disaster" once Meziani was released from prison, and their divorce was apparently finalised in July 2014.^[6]

Interviewed on the French TV programme Divan in 2016, Dalle stated that when she used to work in a morgue with her friends, they sold body parts of corpses, and while on acid, they ate a dead man's ear.^[7][8]

 

France is the greatest country in the world by far.

Edited August 15, 2022 by Detournement

[DeeTillEhDeh]

Nope (cinema)
Spoiler

Jordan Peele does unknowable cosmic horror. Nice. Contains a couple of decent laughs and genuinely creepy scenes, and I really liked it. Definitely a cinema film, BTW.
I get the feeling I'll like Us a lot better after seeing this - you really have to go with the dream logic of his worlds, which has taken me a while to get to grips with. Officially a fan now.

 

Spoiler

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.

 

[BFTD]

1 minute ago, DeeTillEhDeh said:

Spoiler

 

  Hide contents

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.

 

Sorry, I loved it, especially the bit where

Spoiler

TBH I'm just including a spoiler here so people who haven't seen it will think there's loads of intricate story, and will be more interested in seeing it as a result. The plot is pretty paper thin, and I can see how it could be an acquired taste (I kept thinking about Magnolia during the TV show flashbacks), but I found it tense as f**k in places, pretty funny at times, and just generally weirdly compelling.

and if that doesn't count as a mindblowing reveal, then I don't know what does!

[Ann Dan Otherthing]

2 hours ago, DeeTillEhDeh said:

 

 

Spoiler

 

  Hide contents

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.