What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[coprolite]

Loads of horror on here recently with platforms pushing their hallowe’en offerings. Not really my genre so I’ve got into the spirit with a couple of spooky comedies and one truly horrific offering.

 

What we do in the shadows (2015)

Taika Watiti’s original Vampire flatshare comedy. 
 

Really smart mucking about with the whole vampire mythology. Lots of proper belly laughs as well as cleverness.

Not much wrong with it at all.

8/10

 

Ghostbusters II (1989)

Misfit scientists unravel mystery of super natural goings on.

“The first one was great, so just chuck in the same ingredients” school of sequels. 
 

Works well for the most part. The first 3/4 has some top comedy. Bill Murray seems less of a presence in this one but his screen time is as good as usual. Rick Moranis’ lawyering had me in stitches, as did what Egon did with the slime.

The last 20 minutes is diabolical shite though. Just doesn’t work on any level and looks terrible. I’d honestly have preferred a caption saying “got girl, killed baddie, lived happily ever after”.

Incidentally, this must have been just about the last major Hollywood special effects fest to be mainly blue screen and stop motion.

6/10

 

The Brothers Grimsby (2016)

Very different long lost brothers re-unite for some sort of spy gubbins.

I thought that this couldn’t possibly be as shit as it looked. I thought wrong.

It’s based on a hateful view of the lower orders as seen by Maily op Eds on benefit scroungers and the like.

Obviously going for a Farrelly brothers type of gross out. I did actually find some of the more base humour quite funny but some of it missed the mark by a long way. 
 

I did make it all the way through, which puts it ahead of Spy Hard.

+1 for Isla Fisher

2/10

[MSU]

143 Halloween (1978) -- Struck me on this watch how odd it must've been to watch this back in 78 without a clue of what happened. That opening must've been pretty shocking. Such a simple premise executed brilliantly on a shoestring budget. My street and my town look pretty much like Haddonfield at this time of year, just bringing it home how everyday the horror was, which is perhaps what makes it so effective. 10/10

144 Halloween II (1981) -- I can only be sure of watching this once, about twenty years ago, and I had fonder memories of it. On this viewing, though, the most terrifying thing about it is Jamie Lee Curtis's wig. Dr Loomis is getting more crazy as he runs about with a gun through the night streets, and the movie does give us Ben Tramer's death, which I guess is something. But in every other possible way, it abandons what was great about Halloween in favour of blood, guts, and hot tubs hot enough to melt someone's face, but not Michael's hand. It's weird that one of the aspects of the movie that really didn't work, having Laurie in a hospital bed for most of the movie, was picked up by Halloween Kills. 4/10

145 Hot Summer Nights (#70 in A24 series). It's another A24 movie about drug dealers, but there's a good chemistry between Timothee Chalamet and Alex Roe as the small time dealers whose ideas and ambitions quickly accelerate beyond their capability. There are hints of comedy in the opening scenes that really should've continued but in the end, it takes its characters way too seriously and the whole thing is quite hard work. 5/10

146 Up in the Air (#5 in the Anna Kendrick series). I really enjoyed this back in 2009. George Clooney is near peak charisma as Ryan Bingham, a guy who spends his life flying around the country, hired by companies to lay off their workforces when they're too scared to do it themselves. At that time in my life I was traveling quite a bit myself so I appreciated the approach of never buying anything that's not on expenses and everything has to have a loyalty card. It's aged pretty well, Vera Farmiga as the female version of Ryan is excellent, and Anna Kendrick gives the stand-out performance of her early career. The movie comes perilously close to a shmaltzy ending but thankfully gives it a swerve in the nick of time. 8/10

147 Dr No -- A surprisingly straightforward start to the Bond movies in terms of plot. Bond flies off to Jamaica to investigate the death of an MI6 station chief and his secretary who had discovered the source of a radio signal that jammed a series of rocket launches at Cape Canaveral to Crab Key, home to the reclusive Dr No, who is supposed to be Chinese. Apparently, Ursula Andress's dialog and singing were both dubbed by other actors. Sean Connery might not be the best actor in the world, but he's a blummin' fantastic Jimmy Bond. 6/10

148 Terrifier -- Ooft, sers. 4/10 (2 for the incredible practical effects, 2 for David Howard Thornton's performance as Art the Clown.

Edited October 26, 2022 by MSU

[accies1874]

179. Decision to Leave (2022)* - Cinema

Don’t even know where to begin with this tbh. You’re dropped right into it with a lot of plot and character work which never really relents, but the rhythm of the film (it’s seriously excellent in that respect) makes it a bit easier to watch. However I’d be lying if I said it didn’t drag for me at points despite that brilliance, and that was the case on both watches.

Like I said, there’s so much to unpack from two very reserved characters that I typed a whole load of shite out on my train journey home that made me appreciate the film more in retrospect than I did while actually watching it. First time around, I thought it was an incredibly stylish film without much going on and I was actually far more interested when it was being a neo-noir as the mystery elements of it are incredibly fun, but the script is just so dense that I wasn’t getting it until a rewatch (and still don’t understand a lot of what was going on).

One train journey and Notes file later, I'm really interested in giving it a third go - and I'm sure it'll come to MUBI quite soon - but I also accept that I'll need to sit through those dragging parts again and that's a big black mark against it. 

180. The Evil Dead (1981) - DVD

Watching this on Blu Ray actually changes it a wee bit. Should just stick with the lowest quality possible. 

Anyway, it's the perfect horror-comedy for me despite being the least overtly comedic out of the trilogy. The humour all came from the ridiculous dialogue and performance from Bruce Campbell whose ability to turn difficult dialogue into something immensely quotable is brilliant.

Horrors with big comedic elements are often ashamed of embracing the horror which makes them seem lazy, but The Evil Dead is perfect in both respects as some of the images, especially when it comes to blood, are so, so good. Something I hadn’t appreciated before is how the timing on the jumpscares actually makes them more effective. It doesn’t draw attention to the fact that there’s gonna be a big, loud noise to startle you, instead it’s much more natural.

We’ve seen so many “post-modern” horrors, some are really good, but this pre-dates a lot of them and I’m not even sure if it intentionally falls into that category, but Sam Raimi’s natural style of blending legitimately effective horror with his tone sets the bar for what you can achieve with the combo.

181. Evil Dead II (1986)* - DVD

After a weaker opening compared to the original, mostly because it’s just Ash and his girlfriend at the start as opposed to a fun group dynamic, it does manage to elevate itself to the madness of The Evil Dead. I also think the chase scene in this one is perhaps scarier than anything else in the original.

182. Army of Darkness (1992)* - DVD

I lost interest in the third act, although did like the effects on the skeletons, but everything before that is insane. Completely bizarre with bigger laughs that sadly did usually turn into groans for me when  jokes went too far. I’m sure if you told anyone who saw the original that this is where the series would lead to 11 years and two films later, they’d have been confused to say the least, but you can only do the same schtick so many times, so why not just do something completely detached?

183. The Orphanage (2007)* - DVD

I should say that I watched this on Saturday night having spent the day driving to and from Arbroath to watch Accies be comprehensively beaten and sent bottom of the Championship, so all I wanted was some daft horror to watch at night. I think I initially bought this because I thought it was directed by Del Toro, but I think over time I’d got it mixed up the 2009 film Orphan which I haven’t seen but I believe is actually meant to be schlock.

So yeah, I really wasn’t in the mood for a knock-off Del Toro* film that ends with [REDACTED]. It’s an OK depiction of grief, but the whole thing just felt unoriginal to me.

*Can you say it’s a knock-off when his name is on the DVD cover and, as far as I remember, is given more prominence in the opening credits than the director’s? It’s only in an Executive Producer role, though, so who knows how much input he had.

184. The Changeling (1980)* - Prime

Despite a couple of creepy moments, it takes a lot for ghost stories to be effectively scary for me as the antagonist tends to be a tragic figure who evokes sympathy rather than fear which is clear pretty early on in this. The mystery is a bit undercooked, too, so it doesn’t really work on that level either.

185. Blazing Saddles (1974)* - Digital Rental

Not my choice. I hated it. 

[Arch Stanton]

3 minutes ago, accies1874 said:

185. Blazing Saddles (1974)* - Digital Rental

Not my choice. I hated it. 

Just shows opinions differ. I think it's the funniest film ever made.

[BFTD]

I've had this conversation before, and received the derision you'd expect, but I can think of half a dozen Mel Brooks films I'd watch before Blazing Saddles, and I doubt I've even seen half of his output.

It's not a bad film by any means, and has some inspired moments, but Brooks did better. It doesn't help that the people lionising it normally think the funniest scene he ever wrote was a bunch of cowboys farting in front of a fire, which...well, each to their own.

Edit: here's my Mel Brooks list, if anyone cares. Yes, I'm well aware there's a few classics I haven't seen. He was 96 years old this year and still working, BTW.

1. Young Frankenstein
2. The Producers
3. Spaceballs
4. High Anxiety
5. History of the World part 1
6. Dracula: Dead and Loving It
7. Blazing Saddles
8. Robin Hood: Men in Tights

Edited October 26, 2022 by BFTD

[BFTD]

I dunno where else to put this, but I know Mark Kermode has fans on here, and I just heard him say that Ghostbusters is a film that's aged badly.

[accies1874]

Peter Venkman is an a-hole tbf

[BFTD]

1 hour ago, accies1874 said:

Peter Venkman is an a-hole tbf

Aye, but he was back in 1984 too!

Here's a weird thing I've just noticed - Ghostbusters was given a PG certificate on release, which makes sense as I'd only just started at school in 1984, yet managed to see it three times in the cinema. It's now got a 12A certificate. What's that all about?

[Theroadlesstravelled]

Ghostbusters (1984) is perfect. A cinematic masterpiece.

[DA Baracus]

Ghostbusters 1 and 2 are still fantastic. The only thing that hasn't aged well is some of the effects. 

[DA Baracus]

The other night I watched Any Given Sunday.

Excellent film with some cast (Al Pacino, Jamie Foxx, Cameron Diaz, James Woods, Aaron Eckhart, LL Cool J, Dennis Quaid, John C McGinley, Lawrence Taylor). 

Pacino is the old school coach of a stuttering American football team who seem to have the requsite parts but not the requisite cohesion. When the starting quarterback (Quaid) is injured and the second string QB is subsequently injured in the very next play, third string QB (Foxx) must step up. After a shaky start, he soon becomes their star man and leads a charge towards the playoffs, but lets it go to his head, furthering the lack of team spirit.

Diaz is the owner of the team and is clashing often with Pacino over his old school stuff, with her wanting to modernise things. She also wants to move on certain key players (Quaid and Taylor) to freshen things up, and because they're both fucked. James Woods is the unscrupulous team doctor who cuts corners and gets guys back playing using any means necessary (there's a CTE subplot here with him and Taylor).

Anyway, Foxx soon becomes widely loathed by the defence for being a big headed w**k and for insulting them at a party, with the consequence of them not blocking some big hits on him at a game.

Quaid makes it back for the playoffs and Foxx is benched. 

Foxx goes through a redemption arc and when Quaid is inevitable injured, has to step up.

Al Pacino gives a legendary speech that is still played by teams of all sports today.

Someone loses an eye during a game.

A car is cut in half during a party.

There's a comedy music video.

 

Very enjoyable stuff and far better than I've described it. Would highly recommend.

[DA Baracus]

Last night I watched Superman 3.

Did so because I've been listening to a podcast that discusses shit films recently (How Did This Get Made) and heard the episode featuring this film yesterday.

An absolute wreck of a film, but fairly amusing. There should be zero threat to Superman but he somehow acts even dumber than he does in the phenomenally overrated first two. There's no super villains here. There's no clever plan. It's just a rich guy, his sister and Richard Pryor who is quite good at using computers, and their plot is to control the world's coffee supply. Superman could, and should, have this nonsense sorted out in about 2 minutes, but instead we get just 2 hours of fucking pish.

The film opens with a 5 minutes slapstick comedy routine involving numerous pratfalls and prop comedy. The term 'comedy' should be used lightly here though.

Many, many liberties are taken, such as a single computer being able to control pretty much anything, Richard Pryor skiing off of a skyscraper (and being absolutely fine), everyone not knowing that Superman's weakness is kryptonite until a lassie says she read about it in a magazine interview (so Superman revealed his biggest secret in a fucking interview?!), using tar to fill in the formula for making kryptonite in a lab, Richard Pryor getting half of the plot from the back on cigarette packets and multiple other pish.

This is the one where Superman turns heel, but instead of a terrifying super villain, we get a daft wee high school level prankster who 'fixes' the leaning tower of Pisa, blows out the olympic torch and gets drunk in a bar where he flicks peanuts at glass bottles. Oh aye, and he shags some lassie who somehow survives.

This leads to a scrap in a scrapyard, between Superman and Clark Kent somehow. It's incredibly goofy and cheesy, but Clark prevails and banishes bad Superman, and now becomes good Superman once more.

There's some other bollocks here such as a sub plot romance with Lana Lang, a woman turning in to a robot, acid, a 'supercomputer' being made after Pryor draws a children's level 'sketch' of it on a napkin, stupid coincidental contrivancies and hot air balloons.

A fucking ridiculous film with multiple plot holes, riddled with inconsistencies, rife with campy, cheesy acting and featuring an absolute goof of a hero. His costume remained cheap and cringey as with the first two films, although at least like them this one didn't take itself so seriously.

Superman as a character is the worst, as really he should be indestructible and, given his powers, under zero threat and able to deal with anything. 

[stevieKTID]

1 hour ago, DA Baracus said:

Last night I watched Superman 3.

Did so because I've been listening to a podcast that discusses shit films recently (How Did This Get Made) and heard the episode featuring this film yesterday.

An absolute wreck of a film, but fairly amusing. There should be zero threat to Superman but he somehow acts even dumber than he does in the phenomenally overrated first two. There's no super villains here. There's no clever plan. It's just a rich guy, his sister and Richard Pryor who is quite good at using computers, and their plot is to control the world's coffee supply. Superman could, and should, have this nonsense sorted out in about 2 minutes, but instead we get just 2 hours of fucking pish.

The film opens with a 5 minutes slapstick comedy routine involving numerous pratfalls and prop comedy. The term 'comedy' should be used lightly here though.

Many, many liberties are taken, such as a single computer being able to control pretty much anything, Richard Pryor skiing off of a skyscraper (and being absolutely fine), everyone not knowing that Superman's weakness is kryptonite until a lassie says she read about it in a magazine interview (so Superman revealed his biggest secret in a fucking interview?!), using tar to fill in the formula for making kryptonite in a lab, Richard Pryor getting half of the plot from the back on cigarette packets and multiple other pish.

This is the one where Superman turns heel, but instead of a terrifying super villain, we get a daft wee high school level prankster who 'fixes' the leaning tower of Pisa, blows out the olympic torch and gets drunk in a bar where he flicks peanuts at glass bottles. Oh aye, and he shags some lassie who somehow survives.

This leads to a scrap in a scrapyard, between Superman and Clark Kent somehow. It's incredibly goofy and cheesy, but Clark prevails and banishes bad Superman, and now becomes good Superman once more.

There's some other bollocks here such as a sub plot romance with Lana Lang, a woman turning in to a robot, acid, a 'supercomputer' being made after Pryor draws a children's level 'sketch' of it on a napkin, stupid coincidental contrivancies and hot air balloons.

A fucking ridiculous film with multiple plot holes, riddled with inconsistencies, rife with campy, cheesy acting and featuring an absolute goof of a hero. His costume remained cheap and cringey as with the first two films, although at least like them this one didn't take itself so seriously.

Superman as a character is the worst, as really he should be indestructible and, given his powers, under zero threat and able to deal with anything. 

Is that the one where he bicycle kicks a missile?

[Bully Wee Villa]

That's Superman IV. Superman III is great, and I won't hear otherwise.

How can you not enjoy this? Cinematic perfection.

 

 

[accies1874]

13 hours ago, BFTD said:

Aye, but he was back in 1984 too!

Yeah that's true. I suppose some of his... forthrightness might be a bit more apparent nowadays. 

[accies1874]

186. Halloween (2007)* - Digital Rental

Yes ok, it’s absolutely pants. The characters are complete voids, there’s none of the original’s tension, the technical craft is all replaced with shaky closeups, the music doesn’t fit the style and is only there because it’s so iconic etc etc. It’s garbage.

What I will say is that the overarching idea of how environments shape a person was done in a moderately interesting way that makes the violence feel a tiny bit less like it's just there for the hell of it. I was a bit perturbed as to what the purpose was of the 50-odd minute section giving Michael Myers a backstory, but it makes a bit more sense in retrospect and might not just be trying to sympathise with a serial killer. Essentially, if We Need to Talk About Kevin is the Champions League of exploring these ideas, then Rob Zombie’s Halloween is the Lowland League.

This is part one of the Halloween franchise extravaganza. I’m doing it in a slightly different order so as to not peak with the very first film.

187. Halloween II (2009)* - Netflix 

Wtf did I watch? It’s like a CSI Miami director had just been on a David Lynch binge and wanted to apply it to the Halloween franchise.

188. Halloween II (1981) - Lionsgate+

I don’t mind this, although my thoughts haven’t really changed since I first saw it last year. It’s an epilogue more than it’s a sequel, and when it’s continuing the story of the first one it’s actually quite fun (except the big reveal), but almost everything in the hospital is reminiscent of daft British horror films from the 50s/60s – I know a lot of people have a soft spot for them but I’m not a huge fan. Not everything in the hospital is bad, though, as there are a couple of quite inventive kills and reveals, and I enjoyed the pre-horror stuff when they were just establishing the characters. The film wouldn’t be any worse off if they wrote out Laurie though.

189. Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)* - Lionsgate+

An enjoyable entry that probably wouldn’t have provoked as strong reactions (positive or negative) in the general public if it weren’t a Halloween film. It’s got some really good moments but also has a campy atmosphere and two boring central characters (they really rushed into the sex scene, eh?), and I actually feel that if they had the courage of their convictions and didn’t lean into the silliness then they could’ve had a legitimately good horror rather than some schlock.

190. Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)* - Lionsgate+

Pretty awful. It teases you towards the end with the potential of a home invasion movie set in the Halloween franchise, but that never properly materialised. “A town full of beer bellies running around in the dark with shotguns” is quite funny though. Should’ve just made a film about them.

191. Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)* - Lionsgate+

2 tried to be a continuation, 3 tried to separate itself from the franchise, 4 tried to ‘get back to basics’ by aping the first. With no. 5, we are now firmly in the territory of them not giving a f**k and transitioning into ridiculous daytime TV, disposable junk centred around Donald Pleasance giving an all over the shop portrayal of a plot device and a wee kid who was silly in 4 but, well, I don’t even know how to describe the character in this one. I don’t even know how to describe the film tbh – nothing makes sense in my head when thinking about it. I actually had to read the Wikipedia page to remind myself how it ended.

It's irredeemably terrible.

Edited October 28, 2022 by accies1874

[BFTD]

Superman 3's a classic example of a film you know is bad, yet just has so many memorable scenes that you can't help but enjoy it. Not sure if you need to have seen it when you were a kid; it might just seem bafflingly terrible to younger audiences. It also features one of the most terrifying scenes in any film aimed at kids, when the lassie gets pulled into the machine and turned into a cyborg. It's so notoriously horrible that it's been cut from the TV versions for decades, and it wouldn't surprise me if the DVD/Blu-Ray versions have been edited to keep the certificate down. Seriously, it's disturbing as f**k.

Halloween 3's genuinely the best in the series, other than the original. Straddles the line between being goofy and sinister, but it's a lot of fun. I discovered recently that, when our hero is banging his younger sidekick in the hotel room, the woman in the next room is the actor's real-life wife, and apparently she was cast without anyone realising they were married.

Edit: also, Rob Zombie's Halloween film felt like he really wanted to make a prequel, but he couldn't get funding for anything less than a full remake, so that was the compromise. I don't remember a fucking thing about the sequel to it.

Edited October 28, 2022 by BFTD

[Mark Connolly]

17 minutes ago, BFTD said:

Superman 3's a classic example of a film you know is bad, yet just has so many memorable scenes that you can't help but enjoy it. Not sure if you need to have seen it when you were a kid; it might just seem bafflingly terrible to younger audiences. It also features one of the most terrifying scenes in any film aimed at kids, when the lassie gets pulled into the machine and turned into a cyborg. It's so notoriously horrible that it's been cut from the TV versions for decades, and it wouldn't surprise me if the DVD/Blu-Ray versions have been edited to keep the certificate down. Seriously, it's disturbing as f**k

Superman 3 scared the absolute shite out of me as a kid

[BFTD]

41 minutes ago, Mark Connolly said:

Superman 3 scared the absolute shite out of me as a kid

[dysartrovers]

Fully recommend the greatest beer run of all time. Very entertaining