I absolutely hated it. Mawkish humour mixed with manipulative soap-opera level characterizations. Hard to even watch. And somehow smugly self-satisfied to boot.
Movies: Last Movie You Watched and Rate It | Part#: Some High Number +1
- Thread starter ProstheticConscience
- Start date
KallioWeHardlyKnewYe
Hey! We won!
- May 30, 2003
- 15,529
- 3,380
The Dark Tower
I heard it was bad. Expected it to be bad. Somehow it was actually worse. I fired it up on a whim and maybe deep inside hoped it would defy the reputation in some way. Nope. Feels oddly rushed and incomplete. Has any world building "epic" ever been this mercifully short? The kid playing Jake is just bad. The best special effect is taking two of our most charismatic actors in Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey and draining them of any personality or appeal.
I heard it was bad. Expected it to be bad. Somehow it was actually worse. I fired it up on a whim and maybe deep inside hoped it would defy the reputation in some way. Nope. Feels oddly rushed and incomplete. Has any world building "epic" ever been this mercifully short? The kid playing Jake is just bad. The best special effect is taking two of our most charismatic actors in Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey and draining them of any personality or appeal.
KallioWeHardlyKnewYe
Hey! We won!
- May 30, 2003
- 15,529
- 3,380
With the blessed launch this week of The Criterion Channel, I dove into a pair of random flicks from genres I enjoy...
Murder By Contract. B-grade 50s noir staring Vince Edwards. I knew zero about this, but picked it because the description said it was one of Scorsese's favorite B-movies. It did not disappoint. Edwards plays a quirky hitman who has an issue with his assignment. Acting is a bit rough, but the cinematography is great (though it's a noir vibe, the look is very much SoCal sun soaked). Dialogue pops and the score is memorable.
Samurai Spy. A real corker of a samurai flick from Masahiro Shinoda. Almost an anti-Yojimbo in that the main character is a solo warrior who is actively trying to NOT be pulled into the battles of rival clans. The associations were a bit tough for me to follow to be honest (reminded me of Battles Without Honor and Humanity in that it gives you quick introduction of the clans and key players early and said intro did me very little help). Action and visuals were good though.
Murder By Contract. B-grade 50s noir staring Vince Edwards. I knew zero about this, but picked it because the description said it was one of Scorsese's favorite B-movies. It did not disappoint. Edwards plays a quirky hitman who has an issue with his assignment. Acting is a bit rough, but the cinematography is great (though it's a noir vibe, the look is very much SoCal sun soaked). Dialogue pops and the score is memorable.
Samurai Spy. A real corker of a samurai flick from Masahiro Shinoda. Almost an anti-Yojimbo in that the main character is a solo warrior who is actively trying to NOT be pulled into the battles of rival clans. The associations were a bit tough for me to follow to be honest (reminded me of Battles Without Honor and Humanity in that it gives you quick introduction of the clans and key players early and said intro did me very little help). Action and visuals were good though.
Vince Edwards is a blast from the past for me. He played in an early '60s TV medical show called Ben Casey, where he portrayed a broody, testy, mean SOB of a doctor very similar to the killer he plays in Murder by Contract. Ben Casey was the exact polar opposite of Dr. Kildare, starring Richard Chamberlain as a super nice-guy physician, an equally popular show that oddly enough came out in the same year, 1961. Although both actors do have good looks in common, in appearance as in every single thing else, they are about as different as it is humanly possible to get--as were their TV characters and their very successful shows . While Chamberlain is by far the more accomplished actor, Edward's Casey was indeed a breath of fresh air and, though almost certainly unintentionally, an early harbinger of things to come in the rebellious, anti-hero loving '60s.
I wouldn't be surprised if Kit Harington did a study of Vince Edwards at some point early in his career. Both actors do "broody" in a very similar fashion.
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Nalens Oga
Registered User
Spring in Fialta
A malign star kept him
Ben Affleck's got his bad moments too. Still, such a fun film. Matt Damon is awesome in it.
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Have u ever watched Suncatcher (with Woody Harrelson) ?
Like Thunderbolt, it's another Cimino' odd-couple type buddy movie.
Besides plot, it also reminds me of Thunderbolt, bcuz of how epic Western landscape is featured in many wild, outdoor scenes.
It's a decent (but sappy) flick. Watching Suncatcher now, it's aesthetic is so mid-'90s.. it hurts.
ORRFForever
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- Oct 29, 2018
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ThePhoenixx
Registered User
- Aug 7, 2005
- 9,302
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I watched the first ten minutes and then the last five minutes. Didn't miss a thing.
Wish I could have those fifteen minutes back though.
1/10
ProstheticConscience
Check dein Limit
Kung Fury
with Swedish people doing ridiculous things
Kickstarter-funded 80's nostalgia kung fu live-action anime-style cop buddy short film about a kung fu master cop named Kung Fury in 80's Miami who seeks to thwart a time-travelling Hitler. His mulleted buddy Hackerman hacks time via a Nintendo Power Glove and several cathode ray monitors, but he overshoots and mistakenly sends Kung Fury briefly back to the Viking age. Luckily, he runs into minigun-wielding valkyrie Barbarianna, who summons Thor, who's got just awesome huge pecs, man. Thor helps Kung Fury get to Nazi Germany, and epic battles between Nazis, kung fu masters, valkyries, Norse gods and dinosaurs happen. Oh yeah, there are also dinosaurs.
31 minutes of over the top WTF did I just watch action. On youtube now. And probably forever.
with Swedish people doing ridiculous things
Kickstarter-funded 80's nostalgia kung fu live-action anime-style cop buddy short film about a kung fu master cop named Kung Fury in 80's Miami who seeks to thwart a time-travelling Hitler. His mulleted buddy Hackerman hacks time via a Nintendo Power Glove and several cathode ray monitors, but he overshoots and mistakenly sends Kung Fury briefly back to the Viking age. Luckily, he runs into minigun-wielding valkyrie Barbarianna, who summons Thor, who's got just awesome huge pecs, man. Thor helps Kung Fury get to Nazi Germany, and epic battles between Nazis, kung fu masters, valkyries, Norse gods and dinosaurs happen. Oh yeah, there are also dinosaurs.
31 minutes of over the top WTF did I just watch action. On youtube now. And probably forever.
Nalens Oga
Registered User
Meet John Doe (1941) - 6.5/10
Fairly sentimental like other Capra films but also long and relying way too much on montages/collages. Barbara Stanwyck's acting starts off well and gets progressively worse as her character becomes more hysterical towards the end. The actor going on about Heelots was driving me insane. It's got a good plot it's just not well-executed after the opening 30 minutes imo.
Also currently downloading a 1981 Scottish film called Gregory's Girl. Anyone seen it? Looks like a bit of a period piece watching it now in 2019, very nostalgic and simplistic likable look.
Fairly sentimental like other Capra films but also long and relying way too much on montages/collages. Barbara Stanwyck's acting starts off well and gets progressively worse as her character becomes more hysterical towards the end. The actor going on about Heelots was driving me insane. It's got a good plot it's just not well-executed after the opening 30 minutes imo.
Also currently downloading a 1981 Scottish film called Gregory's Girl. Anyone seen it? Looks like a bit of a period piece watching it now in 2019, very nostalgic and simplistic likable look.
Trap Jesus
Registered User
- Feb 13, 2012
- 28,686
- 13,456
I thought it was amazing for the first bit until around the Viking part. Still good overall but I feel like it starts to wear a bit thin. 30 mins is probably about right. That action sequence at the end when it's just Kung Fury plowing through all the Nazis is awesome though.
Hellboy (2019)
2.30 out of 4stars
Darker, gorier, and a more focused/developed story than Del Toro's/Perlman's Hellboy, albeit they are very different in terms of what they are trying to portray and accomplish. It's not half bad popcorn fun in an over the top, giggle here and there, identity/morally confused hero kind of way.
2.30 out of 4stars
Darker, gorier, and a more focused/developed story than Del Toro's/Perlman's Hellboy, albeit they are very different in terms of what they are trying to portray and accomplish. It's not half bad popcorn fun in an over the top, giggle here and there, identity/morally confused hero kind of way.
ORRFForever
Registered User
- Oct 29, 2018
- 18,019
- 9,462
It's a charmer as is director Forsyth's later Local Hero. Sweet tempered but never saccharine.
KallioWeHardlyKnewYe
Hey! We won!
- May 30, 2003
- 15,529
- 3,380
Yep. Movie Club tackled it at some point in the last year. I believe it was widely well received.
Just watched Game Night earlier in the week. Never any huge laughs, but more than enough smaller moments. Just a really consistent comedy and a few clever twists and turns throughout.
Also started watching Bolt with my kids earlier this morning. Only got about a half hour in but i definitely went to finish it. Really entertaining story to it.
Also started watching Bolt with my kids earlier this morning. Only got about a half hour in but i definitely went to finish it. Really entertaining story to it.
ORRFForever
Registered User
- Oct 29, 2018
- 18,019
- 9,462
Pranzo Oltranzista
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- Oct 18, 2017
- 3,843
- 2,704
Hockeyfrilla
Swe prospect fanatic
Better Call Sal
Salnalysis
She was supposedly incredibly difficult to work with, I think Kevin Smith has mentioned it before.
ProstheticConscience
Check dein Limit
The Death of Stalin
with mostly British people, but weirdly, Steve Buscemi as Khrushchev.
1953, USSR. Joseph Stalin is chilling at his dacha with a number of his immediate subordinates and high-up rulers of the Soviet Union including Khrushchev, Lavrentiy Beria (head of the NKVD and in real life was a truly terrifying character), Molotov, Malenkov, and assorted others who wouldn't be able to find their asses with both hands without The Boss telling them so do so. It's quickly established that everyone is terrified of him and lives to appease whatever whims pop into his head. Khrushchev obsessively tracks which jokes The Boss found funny the day after their party, and a Radio Moscow head flies into a panic when Stalin himself calls him up and tells him he wants a recording of the night's airing of a Mozart symphony...that wasn't actually recorded. He frantically gets everyone back into the concert hall, drags some local conductor out of bed in his pj's to conduct, and even goes so far as to drag random passers-by off the streets to shove into the seats in hopes of replicating the acoustics. The orchestra replays the concerto, a record is feverishly produced...and then Stalin has a stroke.
What follows is what happens when a personality cult suddenly loses its personality. Nobody can call a doctor because Stalin had all the doctors killed last year. And nobody would dare to call a doctor without permission from the higher-ups, anyway...even if the only higher-up is lying in a puddle of his own piss, paralyzed from a stroke. Much black humour is had as the men fall all over each other to show the most deference to The Boss...and then frantically jockey for position in what will be the new order. Beria, Khrushchev, Marshall Zhukov and others all feverishly struggle to assert dominance and form the right alliances while trying to contain Stalin's overbearing daughter, drunken idiot son, and every once in a brief while considering the needs of the common Soviet citizen for about a nanosecond.
Events in the movie bear little resemblance to the genuine timeline of events in real life 1953 Moscow, but it's still worth watching. Anything that pisses off the Russian Ministry of Culture can't be that bad.
with mostly British people, but weirdly, Steve Buscemi as Khrushchev.
1953, USSR. Joseph Stalin is chilling at his dacha with a number of his immediate subordinates and high-up rulers of the Soviet Union including Khrushchev, Lavrentiy Beria (head of the NKVD and in real life was a truly terrifying character), Molotov, Malenkov, and assorted others who wouldn't be able to find their asses with both hands without The Boss telling them so do so. It's quickly established that everyone is terrified of him and lives to appease whatever whims pop into his head. Khrushchev obsessively tracks which jokes The Boss found funny the day after their party, and a Radio Moscow head flies into a panic when Stalin himself calls him up and tells him he wants a recording of the night's airing of a Mozart symphony...that wasn't actually recorded. He frantically gets everyone back into the concert hall, drags some local conductor out of bed in his pj's to conduct, and even goes so far as to drag random passers-by off the streets to shove into the seats in hopes of replicating the acoustics. The orchestra replays the concerto, a record is feverishly produced...and then Stalin has a stroke.
What follows is what happens when a personality cult suddenly loses its personality. Nobody can call a doctor because Stalin had all the doctors killed last year. And nobody would dare to call a doctor without permission from the higher-ups, anyway...even if the only higher-up is lying in a puddle of his own piss, paralyzed from a stroke. Much black humour is had as the men fall all over each other to show the most deference to The Boss...and then frantically jockey for position in what will be the new order. Beria, Khrushchev, Marshall Zhukov and others all feverishly struggle to assert dominance and form the right alliances while trying to contain Stalin's overbearing daughter, drunken idiot son, and every once in a brief while considering the needs of the common Soviet citizen for about a nanosecond.
Events in the movie bear little resemblance to the genuine timeline of events in real life 1953 Moscow, but it's still worth watching. Anything that pisses off the Russian Ministry of Culture can't be that bad.
ORRFForever
Registered User
- Oct 29, 2018
- 18,019
- 9,462
Prospect [2018] :
A father takes his teenage daughter to a dangerous planet to dig for precious gems - Father Of The Year he is not. Not only is the environment hostile, so are the other prospectors. Next thing you know, they are in serious trouble.
Prospect doesn't look like it had much of a budget. The special effects are bare bone and the space suits look like they were put together with junk bought at a garage sale. Instead, the movie concentrates on character development and it's all the better for it.
The story is original and unpredictable, the acting is strong, and the claustrophobic audio adds to the suspense - you actually feel as if these people are on a strange, unsafe planet.
I'm not a Sci-Fi guy, but I really liked Prospect. This little film is so much better / more intense / more realistic than the expensive Sci-Fi junk you see in theaters.
8/10
Movie Trailer :
A father takes his teenage daughter to a dangerous planet to dig for precious gems - Father Of The Year he is not. Not only is the environment hostile, so are the other prospectors. Next thing you know, they are in serious trouble.
Prospect doesn't look like it had much of a budget. The special effects are bare bone and the space suits look like they were put together with junk bought at a garage sale. Instead, the movie concentrates on character development and it's all the better for it.
The story is original and unpredictable, the acting is strong, and the claustrophobic audio adds to the suspense - you actually feel as if these people are on a strange, unsafe planet.
I'm not a Sci-Fi guy, but I really liked Prospect. This little film is so much better / more intense / more realistic than the expensive Sci-Fi junk you see in theaters.
8/10
Movie Trailer :
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Islandgirl
Registered User
The last movie I went to see was Dumbo (2019) Colin Farrell, Eva Green, Danny DeVito, & Michael Keaton. I would rate this film a 6.5/10. There were some parts of the film that were spectacular that followed closely to the original Disney animated film and other aspects of the film such as the long drawn out too dramatic ending that just fell short for me. The acting was overall good and especially by the two little kids in the movie.
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