Movies/TV What was the last movie you watched?

[pokemoll]

The new Suicide Squad and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings; it was my first time venturing out to the cinema with a friend since pre-pandemic times, and we wanted to commemorate that by watching two screenings in one day, lol.

I don't care much for superhero films as a genre, but they were both decent enough watches. The last film I saw in cinemas before lockdown was Parasite, though, which was is a nigh on impossible act to follow. Mostly I just enjoyed being sat in a cinema with my friend again!

 

[Neyo]

Ip Man 1 and 2. They’re martial arts films centering around the real life Ip Man, although there are a few artistic liberties taken.

I would say that 1 is overall better than 2, as it has more emotional weight, but they’re both still really fun to watch. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a martial arts film.

 

[Emmy]

I watched "Graveyard of Honor" this afternoon - the original 1975 version directed by Kinji Fukasaku who is probably only familiar to Westerners for his final film "Battle Royale" but for me he is better known for his Yakuza films. I am bemused that the subtitles translated the word 親分 as "Godfather" as this couldn't be any more different from the Al Pacino trilogy. It also differs from a lot of earlier Yakuza films as instead of the usual chivalric portrayal, Fukasaku once again does not hold back and depicts them as the absolute scum of the earth and none more so than the protagonist, Rikio "Riki" Ishikawa.

The plot is fairly simple yet classic in that it portrays the rise and fall of the main character in the criminal world. But what makes this movie really unique is the fact that Riki is in fact a real person so Fukasaku takes a quasi-documentary approach to filming, complete with childhood photographs of Riki as the narrator explains his background for the first three minutes of the film. In addition, Fukasaku employs his iconic Cinéma Vérité-esque style of filmmaking with unusual camera angles and whatnot. The only thing that particularly bothered me was the blood effects - especially the climax where it was almost something out of Evil Dead what with the red stuff just squirting everywhere.

Given the aforementioned faux-documentary nature of the product it's hard to say whether it was a good or bad film as there isn't really a structured narrative but rather a bunch of stuff happening over the course of Riki's life...but I was firmly engaged the whole time so I guess it was a success.

They’re martial arts films centering around the real life Ip Man, although there are a few artistic liberties taken.

Understatement of the century right there.

 

[Juliko]

Two movies, both based on the same subject: Flight 93 (TV movie released in January 2006) and United 93 (Theatrical movie released in August 2006). Yeah, I got these confused. I remember seeing the ending to the latter, and saw the whole thing finally, but I caught the former on my Roku Channel, thinking it was the other one but it turned out it wasn't. Honestly, though? I think I like the TV movie version better, because I felt it did a better job at helping me get to know the characters and making things feel more personal, as United 93 seemed to focus too much on what was going on in the command centers and all the technological stuff. But both are fine tributes to the people on the doomed flight who did their damndest to make sure the hijackers didn't win, even if it meant losing their own lives in the process.

 

[Enzo]

I finally watched the two IT movies today. I actually really liked it. It has some good scares, charmingly corny at times, but with a overall good plot and a satisfying ending. And hey, a horror movie that actually developts it's characters with full arcs and with a happy ending? Sign me in.

 

[Neyo]

Okay, so I've watched 3 movies before making this post.

1: Chappie: A decent movie, but the pacing is weird. The concept of a consciousness is briefly touched on, but the movie doesn't really do anything with it other than it serving as a plot device later on to save some character. It's good, but not great.

---

2: Ip Man 3 and 4. These films definitely don't feel the same as the first two. The fights are still well choreographed and fun to watch, but there isn't much emotional attachment compared to the first two movies. Furthermore, the titular character feels a bit too OP.

I do have a pretty large issue with the franchise as a whole: the fridging of Ip Man's wife. It often feels that, especially in the first two, she's just a stand in for the concept of family, and ends up feeling unimportant to the story as a whole, until the third film. She freaking goes into childbirth in the second film, but it just moves the scene to focus on a fight, and then when it cuts back to her, she's fine and the child has been born. So yeah, she just feels like a tool to develop Ip Man's character and personality.

At least the fight scenes are fun.

 

[Lylian]

The Schumacher documentary.

 

[Juliko]

Just finished Boyz n the Hood. Ehh...I didn't like this one. The overuse of cursing and the gratuitous sex scenes just made it feel too edgy for its own good. At least the soundtrack and commentary on gentrification were good.

 

[skywaffles]

Black Widow... and uh, it was pretty horrible

 

[Neo Blaze]

So earlier today I finally saw The Predator (2018). I heard bad things about this one but... oh man... it is pretty terrible. I remember being rather excited when this movie was first announced. Shane Black was directing it, and while I am not really a fan of his films, he had a role in the original Predator. Which wouldn't guarantee he would be able to direct a good Predator movie of course, but it could at least be interesting to see the vision of someone who was closely associated with the original film. Then the Predator films itself... the original one is a classic and I love it in all its campiness, it's great and endlessly rewatchable. The second Predator is pretty bad, but it's a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine. I was disappointed with the third one from 2010 with a horribly miscast Adrien Brody and Topher Grace. And let's just not speak of the Alien vs. Predator films please. So enjoying half of the franchise and being disappointed in the other half, I was ready for this movie to be good...

Oh boy. It's not. Cringey dialogue, cringey jokes, cringey characters, and on top of that a subpar plot to drive it all forward. If cringe was a film, this would be it for me. My god. Especially a scene between (a horribly miscast) Olivia Munn and Thomas Jane was about one of the cringiest scenes I have seen in a long time. Thomas Jane's character itself felt extremely insensitive because this character has Tourettes Syndrome, but it honestly felt like they were just using that to make inappropriate sex jokes. I don't even have any problem with raunchy jokes (I mean Shane Black himself had some of those in the original Predator), but when it's at the expense of a real life disorder people struggle with and these lines are delivered by an actor who doesn't even have Tourettes himself, I don't even know what to say about that. Maybe everyone involved thought it was funny on paper (still struggle to see how though) but the outcome is just pure cringe.

Sometimes ranting about a bad or disappointing film feels good, so that's all I had to say about this trainwreck of a film.

 

[Silverwynde]

So earlier today I finally saw The Predator (2018). I heard bad things about this one but... oh man... it is pretty terrible. I remember being rather excited when this movie was first announced. Shane Black was directing it, and while I am not really a fan of his films, he had a role in the original Predator. Which wouldn't guarantee he would be able to direct a good Predator movie of course, but it could at least be interesting to see the vision of someone who was closely associated with the original film. Then the Predator films itself... the original one is a classic and I love it in all its campiness, it's great and endlessly rewatchable. The second Predator is pretty bad, but it's a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine. I was disappointed with the third one from 2010 with a horribly miscast Adrien Brody and Topher Grace. And let's just not speak of the Alien vs. Predator films please. So enjoying half of the franchise and being disappointed in the other half, I was ready for this movie to be good...

Oh boy. It's not. Cringey dialogue, cringey jokes, cringey characters, and on top of that a subpar plot to drive it all forward. If cringe was a film, this would be it for me. My god. Especially a scene between (a horribly miscast) Olivia Munn and Thomas Jane was about one of the cringiest scenes I have seen in a long time. Thomas Jane's character itself felt extremely insensitive because this character has Tourettes Syndrome, but it honestly felt like they were just using that to make inappropriate sex jokes. I don't even have any problem with raunchy jokes (I mean Shane Black himself had some of those in the original Predator), but when it's at the expense of a real life disorder people struggle with and these lines are delivered by an actor who doesn't even have Tourettes himself, I don't even know what to say about that. Maybe everyone involved thought it was funny on paper (still struggle to see how though) but the outcome is just pure cringe.

Sometimes ranting about a bad or disappointing film feels good, so that's all I had to say about this trainwreck of a film.

The 1987 Predator film is awesome, because Peter Cullen is the voice of the Predator. And he's the voice of Optimus Prime, so Mr. Cullen is awesomeness personified.

Shang-Chi. It's absolutely amazing and if you haven't seen it, do it.

 

[Neyo]

Recently saw The Secret World of Arietty. It was…okay. Probably the most meh I feel about any Ghibli movie. It just felt…bland. And the 3rd act unnecessary villain kind of reminded me of Attack On Titan.

 

[Neo Blaze]

I saw No Time To Die (the 25th James Bond film) in theaters today. I'm a diehard and lifelong James Bond film and seeing this film postponed over and over again was quite frustrating (but entirely understandable, of course) so I was really excited to finally see it. That said... I have mixed feelings.

There's a beautiful film hidden in there somewhere with parallels and plenty of references to 1969's On Her Majesty's Secret Service (which is an underrated and underappreciated Bond film I have to say), but unfortunately that movie is hidden somewhere within a plot that is overstuffed, overlong and clichéd. They say an action movie is only as good as its villain and I think it's true in this case. I really like Rami Malek as an actor, and there was nothing wrong with his portrayal of the villain here per se, but I found the character to be really lacklustre and bland. The villain plot revolves around nanobots which... I just found to be eyerollingly stupid. There was a freaking Cody Banks movie (think James Bond but as a teenager) that had a villain plot involving nanobots but that was in 2003... almost 20 years ago. They really couldn't think of anything better? And the doctor who's an expert on nanobots in this movie honestly felt like he came straight out of an Austin Powers movie, thick Russian accent included.

For Bond fans (or even action-fans in general) there's plenty to enjoy still of course. It has all the Bondisms, it even has some of those silly one-liners that made the old Bond films so fun. It has a couple of really cool easter eggs. And it has an emotional punch to it that did resonate with me, but I just wish the script had been tighter.

 

[dig]

The last film I saw to the end was 101 Dalmatians, but I started Coco tonight.

 

[Enzo]

I just watched, for the first time in my nearly 20s of life, Mean Girls.

Now I know why people like it it's so funny.

 

[MadisonSteel]

Scott Pilgrim vs The World

I loved it, but it's also very confusing.

 

[MegaPod]

The Simpsons Movie

 

[tTow]

The Tomorrow War. 7/10 - A solid action movie and a decent waste of a couple of hours. Oh, and it stars Yvonne Strahovski too - so there's that.

 

[Juliko]

A short film on HBO Max called 1, 2, 3 All Eyes On Me...but man, this was just BAAAAD. I would have liked this a lot more if the characters didn't seem intent on breaking all the cardinal rules on how to deal with a school shooting!!

 

[Kung Fu Ferret]

Pokemon: secrets of the jungle. I enjoyed it