I'm thinking to skip going to any films for a couple of weeks. I'm not at risk from Covid-19, but I work with a few folks who live with elderly parents they care for. Since you can be asymptomatic, it just doesn't seem right for me to do anything but avoid crowds to the extent I can for a while.
Movies: Last Movie You Watched and Rate It | Part#: Some High Number +3
- Thread starter ProstheticConscience
- Start date
- Status
Good for you. If we think of what is good for one another, we can help us all get through the crisis. It might be a very big boat but we are all in the same one together.
Savi
Registered User
Dangerous Curves (1988)
This movie had a pretty good cast, including some funny actors like Leslie Nielsen.. but I don't think I laughed or smiled once. It was an unfunny, derivative Spring Break type movie.. 2 guys are transporting a Porsche that gets stolen & then offered as a bikini contest prize. Terrible soundtrack, unfunny, unoriginal 'quirky' supporting characters (like a pair of stupid security guards). I probably watched (& quickly forgot) this back in the late 80s/or 90s.. It was too clichéd to be memorable.
This movie had a pretty good cast, including some funny actors like Leslie Nielsen.. but I don't think I laughed or smiled once. It was an unfunny, derivative Spring Break type movie.. 2 guys are transporting a Porsche that gets stolen & then offered as a bikini contest prize. Terrible soundtrack, unfunny, unoriginal 'quirky' supporting characters (like a pair of stupid security guards). I probably watched (& quickly forgot) this back in the late 80s/or 90s.. It was too clichéd to be memorable.
Yeah, I am with you. I think I will skip the movie theatres for now too. I guess it is classic movie reviews for the next little while.
I haven't posted a review in a few weeks, either. Aren't you afraid that I contracted coronavirus or is kihei the only reviewer that any of you would miss?
Seriously, I can't remember the last time that I went to the theater. All of my reviews are from home watching. Coronavirus has no impact on my reviews. I just haven't felt like I've had the attention span for a movie lately. I have a lot of movies to get to, though. The NHL season being suspended will certainly free up a lot of time to get around to that.
kihei is very consistent, so any absence by him will be noticeable.
I am glad we will continue to read your reviews.
Yeah, just got back from Barbados on Wednesday. Highly recommended when travelling is allowed again. Unless there is something that I want to see or something that looks out of the ordinary, I pretty much ignore what's out there from January to June or so. Plus, anyway, now my family has made me promise not to go to movie theatres for a while which is good advice. I am thinking of seeing some '20s and '30s movies on line or on DVD and reviewing those, but outside of that I will probably hang out at the "movie of the week" page mostly. I have really been enjoying reading the reviews on here, though. There have been a whole lot of very good ones.
ProstheticConscience
Check dein Limit
The Sheik
with The Iron Sheik. Yeah, that guy! He's still out there doing Iron Sheik stuff.
Documentary of the life and outsized times of Hossein Khosrow Vaziri, better know to old time pro wrestling aficionados as the Iron Sheik, the greatest heel in pro wrestling history.
In the early 80's, pro wrestling made the big time. Vince McMahon took the WWF global, largely on the strength of Hulkamania. But what would the hero Hulk Hogan be without an equally compelling villain to triumph over? That villain was the Iron Sheik. Iranian, bald, badass, foul-mouthed and foul-tempered, he made an entire nation hate his guts...helped along by the Iranian hostage crisis and Vaziri's willingness to play along. But he came with a story of his own; one the crowds couldn't have guessed at. He went from being a champion Greco-Roman wrestler in Iran and one of the Shah's personal bodyguards to coaching the US Olympic team in the 70's and bursting onto the pro scene later on, with all the attendant problems so sadly common in pro wrestling circles.
As a kid, I was fully caught up in this particular wrestling era. I remember hating the Iron Sheik so, so much. But so many years later I was happy to see he was still around and still doing his thing. Time has not been kind to many of the wrestlers I remember from those young, excited times, and a lot of them have had very unhappy endings. Sheik himself has not been without his trials and problems, but he persists in Sheiking on. The film itself kind of plods along, and this is coming from someone with a natural affection for the subject matter and time. So if you have no idea who this guy is or don't care about the history of pro wrestling you'd probably want to give this a miss. I enjoyed it more for nostalgia than anything else. And also it put me on to the Iron Sheik's twitter account, which is f***ing hilarious. Watch footage of his old matches from the 70's if you want to feel really, really out of shape.
On Prime.
with The Iron Sheik. Yeah, that guy! He's still out there doing Iron Sheik stuff.
Documentary of the life and outsized times of Hossein Khosrow Vaziri, better know to old time pro wrestling aficionados as the Iron Sheik, the greatest heel in pro wrestling history.
In the early 80's, pro wrestling made the big time. Vince McMahon took the WWF global, largely on the strength of Hulkamania. But what would the hero Hulk Hogan be without an equally compelling villain to triumph over? That villain was the Iron Sheik. Iranian, bald, badass, foul-mouthed and foul-tempered, he made an entire nation hate his guts...helped along by the Iranian hostage crisis and Vaziri's willingness to play along. But he came with a story of his own; one the crowds couldn't have guessed at. He went from being a champion Greco-Roman wrestler in Iran and one of the Shah's personal bodyguards to coaching the US Olympic team in the 70's and bursting onto the pro scene later on, with all the attendant problems so sadly common in pro wrestling circles.
As a kid, I was fully caught up in this particular wrestling era. I remember hating the Iron Sheik so, so much. But so many years later I was happy to see he was still around and still doing his thing. Time has not been kind to many of the wrestlers I remember from those young, excited times, and a lot of them have had very unhappy endings. Sheik himself has not been without his trials and problems, but he persists in Sheiking on. The film itself kind of plods along, and this is coming from someone with a natural affection for the subject matter and time. So if you have no idea who this guy is or don't care about the history of pro wrestling you'd probably want to give this a miss. I enjoyed it more for nostalgia than anything else. And also it put me on to the Iron Sheik's twitter account, which is f***ing hilarious. Watch footage of his old matches from the 70's if you want to feel really, really out of shape.
On Prime.
Guns Akimbo, Directed by Jason Lei Howden, 7.0
Miles' (Daniel Radcliffe) nerdy existence as a video game developer takes a dramatic turn when he inadvertently gets caught up as the next contestant with SKIZM, an underground gang live-streaming real-life death matches. While Miles excels at running away from everything, that won't help him outlast Nix (Samara Weaving), a killer at the top of her game.
I don't know why but I really enjoyed this one. Although it's probably meant for the 18-25 computer geek demographic that likes shooter games. It's techno neo-noir, along the lines of Hotel Artemis, John Wick and Bad Times at the El Royale. My expectations were low going in, so I was pleasantly surprised. I don't want to raise your expecttions here (tastes differ), this won't win any film awards, but its a neat quirky film. No polished fight choreography like John Wick, but it was interesting and funny watching the amateur Radcliffe (Miles) try to run from Nix, the professional hit-woman. It only gets a 53% at RT, but a respectable 6.4 on IMDB, I gave it a 7.
Miles' (Daniel Radcliffe) nerdy existence as a video game developer takes a dramatic turn when he inadvertently gets caught up as the next contestant with SKIZM, an underground gang live-streaming real-life death matches. While Miles excels at running away from everything, that won't help him outlast Nix (Samara Weaving), a killer at the top of her game.
I don't know why but I really enjoyed this one. Although it's probably meant for the 18-25 computer geek demographic that likes shooter games. It's techno neo-noir, along the lines of Hotel Artemis, John Wick and Bad Times at the El Royale. My expectations were low going in, so I was pleasantly surprised. I don't want to raise your expecttions here (tastes differ), this won't win any film awards, but its a neat quirky film. No polished fight choreography like John Wick, but it was interesting and funny watching the amateur Radcliffe (Miles) try to run from Nix, the professional hit-woman. It only gets a 53% at RT, but a respectable 6.4 on IMDB, I gave it a 7.
ItsFineImFine
Registered User
- Aug 11, 2019
- 3,539
- 2,266
I can't believe the movie theatres aren't closed. This is where Western countries are slow to respond, shut that shit down don't wait for a greedy corporation like Cineplex to maximize their profit before doing it.
Little Women (2019) - 7/10
I love some of the Greta Gerwig mumblecore stuff so I thought I'd like this more but it was a bit too much at times. Like ovelry positive in a squemish sort of way. And I say this as someone who prefers positive movies generally. All that hand holding, hugging, sobbing, it just got a bit too much. Older films on this time period are over-acted at times and this tried to be a bit more 'real' but I couldn't take it too seriously. I did not enjoy her overly talkative obnoxious portrayal of the three girls. Anyways, those are my complaints, as a whole, it was mostly fun to watch and well-paced.
Little Women (2019) - 7/10
I love some of the Greta Gerwig mumblecore stuff so I thought I'd like this more but it was a bit too much at times. Like ovelry positive in a squemish sort of way. And I say this as someone who prefers positive movies generally. All that hand holding, hugging, sobbing, it just got a bit too much. Older films on this time period are over-acted at times and this tried to be a bit more 'real' but I couldn't take it too seriously. I did not enjoy her overly talkative obnoxious portrayal of the three girls. Anyways, those are my complaints, as a whole, it was mostly fun to watch and well-paced.
Spring in Fialta
A malign star kept him
Watched some stuff and always put off reviewing. If anyone is up for a discussion of any of these movies, I'd be glad to engage.
The Lighthouse (2019) - One of the decade's greats. Perfect in all aspects. Dafoe's secret bad review of Pattinson's job is a cruel and funny touch in the best of ways. Nabokov is chuckling with his hand over his mouth somewhere.
The Witch (2015) - Alright. Flawed. But this is not a film that presaged the enormous leap Eggers would take with The Lighthouse.
The Godfather (1972) - Solid but overrated. Brando and Caan are phenomenal. Especially the former.
The Godfather II (1974) - Alright, weaker than I. Mediocre second-half. Veers into bad melodrama that's not delivered well by anyohe other than John Cazale. Still in the mafia genre, The Sopranos utterly smokes the rest of the field. Similar to Richard Pryor and comedy. The Coppola saga tends to suffer from hero worship.
In the Bedroom (2001) - Good. I don't know that I see the transcendent storyteller others see in Todd Field but he is good. The scene sketches following the early climax show great taste. Very well-acted but I think Field might get some extra hype the way mid-century New England male novelists who wrote about affluent whites in suburban crisis tend to for obvious reasons (i.e. the people who review their works tend to hail from the same background).
I think I'm forgetting some flicks...
The Lighthouse (2019) - One of the decade's greats. Perfect in all aspects. Dafoe's secret bad review of Pattinson's job is a cruel and funny touch in the best of ways. Nabokov is chuckling with his hand over his mouth somewhere.
The Witch (2015) - Alright. Flawed. But this is not a film that presaged the enormous leap Eggers would take with The Lighthouse.
The Godfather (1972) - Solid but overrated. Brando and Caan are phenomenal. Especially the former.
The Godfather II (1974) - Alright, weaker than I. Mediocre second-half. Veers into bad melodrama that's not delivered well by anyohe other than John Cazale. Still in the mafia genre, The Sopranos utterly smokes the rest of the field. Similar to Richard Pryor and comedy. The Coppola saga tends to suffer from hero worship.
In the Bedroom (2001) - Good. I don't know that I see the transcendent storyteller others see in Todd Field but he is good. The scene sketches following the early climax show great taste. Very well-acted but I think Field might get some extra hype the way mid-century New England male novelists who wrote about affluent whites in suburban crisis tend to for obvious reasons (i.e. the people who review their works tend to hail from the same background).
I think I'm forgetting some flicks...
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Jussi
Registered User
1917
Just watched it. It really deserved the Oscar for cinematography. Some really great shots and overall camerawork. But the story or plot was fairly simple and while I appreciated the straightforward heroism tale, it felt a bit...lacking of something. Clear 9+/10 anyway. From the Oscar nominated films, I've seen all but The Irishman, Little Women and Marriage Story now (don't have interest for the last two). Jojo Rabbit is still my favorite but I put this right after it with Knives Out, Parasite and Ford v Ferrari (maybe a bit ahead of this). Even with it's fault(s), this movie highlighted to me that Joker didn't deserve to be named in the same group as the other films I've seen. It felt so underwhelming compared to these great movies.
Just watched it. It really deserved the Oscar for cinematography. Some really great shots and overall camerawork. But the story or plot was fairly simple and while I appreciated the straightforward heroism tale, it felt a bit...lacking of something. Clear 9+/10 anyway. From the Oscar nominated films, I've seen all but The Irishman, Little Women and Marriage Story now (don't have interest for the last two). Jojo Rabbit is still my favorite but I put this right after it with Knives Out, Parasite and Ford v Ferrari (maybe a bit ahead of this). Even with it's fault(s), this movie highlighted to me that Joker didn't deserve to be named in the same group as the other films I've seen. It felt so underwhelming compared to these great movies.
ProstheticConscience
Check dein Limit
Battle Beyond the Stars
with 70's people
A little trip down memory lane, with Richard Thomas, Robert Vaughn and the holy shit luscious Sybil Danning in this ridiculous sci-fi romp. The peaceful planet of Akir is under attack by Sador and his 20 or so ships of Malmori mutants, who decide to take over the planet for reasons. Sador and his horrible combover will not be denied! So Richard Thomas and the giant mole on his left cheek hop onto the only spaceship in the planet's garage to look for help. The ship looks like...I don't even know. The slurm worms on Futurama with big outrigger weapon pods? HR Giger smoked a joint and got inspired by a dildo crossed with two electric shavers? Something like that. Anyway, they strike out to find people to play Seven Samurai in space. George Peppard shows up as the space cowboy who's explicitly from Earth. Who knew the future would look so much like the 70's? He's got a belt that dispenses scotch, water and ice cubes, and they didn't think about what that would look like until they filmed it. We spend time with him, a space valkyrie (Danning...hummina hummina hummina...), a lizard dude, a space bounty hunter, some space clone dudes...space mutants...lots of space things. And 70's hair. Also, sound effects from Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers and Star Wars.
You really don't know how not-weird this was at the time. It was. Seriously. All you millenials, get on Prime and see what us old folks had to watch in 1980. This wasn't really considered strange at the time. Really! I'm honestly not joking at all. This is what we had to watch.
with 70's people
A little trip down memory lane, with Richard Thomas, Robert Vaughn and the holy shit luscious Sybil Danning in this ridiculous sci-fi romp. The peaceful planet of Akir is under attack by Sador and his 20 or so ships of Malmori mutants, who decide to take over the planet for reasons. Sador and his horrible combover will not be denied! So Richard Thomas and the giant mole on his left cheek hop onto the only spaceship in the planet's garage to look for help. The ship looks like...I don't even know. The slurm worms on Futurama with big outrigger weapon pods? HR Giger smoked a joint and got inspired by a dildo crossed with two electric shavers? Something like that. Anyway, they strike out to find people to play Seven Samurai in space. George Peppard shows up as the space cowboy who's explicitly from Earth. Who knew the future would look so much like the 70's? He's got a belt that dispenses scotch, water and ice cubes, and they didn't think about what that would look like until they filmed it. We spend time with him, a space valkyrie (Danning...hummina hummina hummina...), a lizard dude, a space bounty hunter, some space clone dudes...space mutants...lots of space things. And 70's hair. Also, sound effects from Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers and Star Wars.
You really don't know how not-weird this was at the time. It was. Seriously. All you millenials, get on Prime and see what us old folks had to watch in 1980. This wasn't really considered strange at the time. Really! I'm honestly not joking at all. This is what we had to watch.
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Mr Jiggyfly
Registered User
- Jan 29, 2004
- 34,340
- 19,402
Did you visit Harrison’s cave?
I was pretty enthralled with the tree outside... been a decade since I was there so forget the species it was.
I don't get it. What about this would a millennial possibly find strange?
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ProstheticConscience
Check dein Limit
I don't get it. What about this would a millennial possibly find strange?
^^She has a line after the Richard Thomas character says: "No violent end is beautiful." She said: "You've never seen a Valkyrie go down!" My wife and I both immediately burst into laughter.
Rambo: Last Blood (2019) - 5/10 (Didn't like or dislike it)
John Rambo goes after Mexican sex traffickers who have his niece. I wanted to like this and almost did, but it just slightly missed the mark. For one, it didn't feel much like a Rambo movie, on account of it being a neo-Western with "Rambo" as an Arizona rancher with short hair. I think that they could've had a long-haired Rambo living and rescuing his niece in the forested Northwest and had it feel more like Rambo and shine a light on sex trafficking closer to home. Secondly, I respect that it tried to be more than just an action movie, but it wasn't as emotionally resonant as it seemed to want to be. The entire first half hour does little more than establish the relationship between Rambo and his niece, which I initially liked, yet I eventually didn't care much about her and didn't feel the anger towards the baddies that I was supposed to. That was especially the case with the head baddie.
Anyways, I found it too flawed to "like" and disappointing as a Rambo movie... but, on the other hand, it's a simple action movie and the final 20 minutes do deliver on that, so I'll be generous and say that it was "OK."
John Rambo goes after Mexican sex traffickers who have his niece. I wanted to like this and almost did, but it just slightly missed the mark. For one, it didn't feel much like a Rambo movie, on account of it being a neo-Western with "Rambo" as an Arizona rancher with short hair. I think that they could've had a long-haired Rambo living and rescuing his niece in the forested Northwest and had it feel more like Rambo and shine a light on sex trafficking closer to home. Secondly, I respect that it tried to be more than just an action movie, but it wasn't as emotionally resonant as it seemed to want to be. The entire first half hour does little more than establish the relationship between Rambo and his niece, which I initially liked, yet I eventually didn't care much about her and didn't feel the anger towards the baddies that I was supposed to. That was especially the case with the head baddie.
He gets slowly killed at the end, but he wasn't the one who did the worst things to the niece. That was the 2nd-in-charge brother, who gets killed off camera, strangely enough. It seems to me that it would've worked better to have had Rambo kill the head guy first, then had the 2nd-in-charge take over, go after Rambo and get his comeuppance at the end.
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Did you visit Harrison’s cave?
I was pretty enthralled with the tree outside... been a decade since I was there so forget the species it was.
Yes, and the tree is still there and doing fine, Looks like some kind of banyon variety to me, but that's a guess. Here's the grand-daddy of all banyons in Lehaina, Maui
KlausJopling
Registered User
Knives Out 9/10
I love well down Whodunits and this is one. It handles the suspects differently than most in the genre but still feels like a whodunit. Supporting cast is all good, but this is really the Daniel Craig and Anna de Armas show. Both are terrific.
I love well down Whodunits and this is one. It handles the suspects differently than most in the genre but still feels like a whodunit. Supporting cast is all good, but this is really the Daniel Craig and Anna de Armas show. Both are terrific.
ItsFineImFine
Registered User
- Aug 11, 2019
- 3,539
- 2,266
Chloe In The Afternoon/Love In The Afternoon (1972) - 3.5/5
Pretty decent Rohmer film. Has the usual aggravations of talkative French classic films where the characters are ham-fistedly pompous. The lead woman played by some actress who ended up being a heroine addict is particularly punch-able but the film does start and end fairly strong imo.
Seance On A Wet Afternoon (1964) - 3/5
A fairly tense midpoint as they kidnap and then try to hide a young child. It just fizzles out at the end and I always find films on mental illness to generally do a boring job of portraying mental illness. Kim Stanley being the deranged person in question here putting on a 'performance' which must have moved film critics but annoyed me.
Pretty decent Rohmer film. Has the usual aggravations of talkative French classic films where the characters are ham-fistedly pompous. The lead woman played by some actress who ended up being a heroine addict is particularly punch-able but the film does start and end fairly strong imo.
Seance On A Wet Afternoon (1964) - 3/5
A fairly tense midpoint as they kidnap and then try to hide a young child. It just fizzles out at the end and I always find films on mental illness to generally do a boring job of portraying mental illness. Kim Stanley being the deranged person in question here putting on a 'performance' which must have moved film critics but annoyed me.
To be fair, that is classic Rohmer in the Six Moral Tales, as he simply wanted to show what intellectuals were like in his days without any sort of judgement. Rather or not the audience identify with the main characters is up to the audience themselves, which is why even though the series is called Six Moral Tales, there are never any moral or underlying messages attached to the movies.
Personally, I find all of the characters in the movies to be pompous and annoying, but I never disliked Rohmer as a result. Nobody can capture the bourgeoisie like him, then and since. Olivier Assayas tries to be another Rohmer, but most of the time, he just annoys me instead. He seems to want to justify them, unlike Rohmer.
Chloe In The Afternoon is definitely not my favourite in the Six Moral Tale, but I have it second after A Night with Maud.
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A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019) - 8/10 (Loved it)
A cynical magazine writer (Matthew Rhys) receives an assignment to profile Fred Rogers (Tom Hanks) and learns to deal with his feelings (toward his father) by being around the man who dedicated his life to helping children deal with theirs. It's an "adult" take on the show's mission and a reminder that adults sometimes need help, too. Like the show, it doesn't avoid heavy subjects like anger, regret, illness and death, but puts them into perspective in the way that only Mr. Rogers could. I was a bit concerned because I knew that Hanks was just a supporting actor, but that ended up being a non-issue because Hanks is in it more than I expected and because Ryhs does a terrific job as the moody writer. Hanks, of course, is also excellent. He and director Heller capture the calming presence of Rogers. Anyways, it's a very moving film and therapeutic for adults. I loved it.
A cynical magazine writer (Matthew Rhys) receives an assignment to profile Fred Rogers (Tom Hanks) and learns to deal with his feelings (toward his father) by being around the man who dedicated his life to helping children deal with theirs. It's an "adult" take on the show's mission and a reminder that adults sometimes need help, too. Like the show, it doesn't avoid heavy subjects like anger, regret, illness and death, but puts them into perspective in the way that only Mr. Rogers could. I was a bit concerned because I knew that Hanks was just a supporting actor, but that ended up being a non-issue because Hanks is in it more than I expected and because Ryhs does a terrific job as the moody writer. Hanks, of course, is also excellent. He and director Heller capture the calming presence of Rogers. Anyways, it's a very moving film and therapeutic for adults. I loved it.
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The Invisible Man (2020) - 7/10 (Really liked it)
A young woman (Elizabeth Moss) escapes from her controlling tech leader boyfriend but continues to be tormented by him in an "inventive" way that you would never guess without looking at the title. In many ways, this is a psychological horror/thriller that doesn't really break any new ground, but it's smart, well acted and well directed. It's smart because it follows the axiom that what you don't see is scarier than what you do. The director employs lots of still and slow shots that give viewers ample time to psyche themselves out by wondering if the titular character is hiding in the empty spaces. Surely, he isn't always, but it gives a sense of the paranoia that the victim feels. There's a jump scare or two, but that's all. The acting performance is very good by Moss, whose character often looks like she's hanging on to sanity by a thread and who is believable as someone susceptible to manipulation, but also capable of fighting back. I also quite liked the guttural soundtrack during the action scenes. A few elements of the plot are not very believable and the ending is a bit weak, but there's still enough to like. As I said, it's not the most original psychological horror/thriller, but it's a really solidly crafted one.
A young woman (Elizabeth Moss) escapes from her controlling tech leader boyfriend but continues to be tormented by him in an "inventive" way that you would never guess without looking at the title. In many ways, this is a psychological horror/thriller that doesn't really break any new ground, but it's smart, well acted and well directed. It's smart because it follows the axiom that what you don't see is scarier than what you do. The director employs lots of still and slow shots that give viewers ample time to psyche themselves out by wondering if the titular character is hiding in the empty spaces. Surely, he isn't always, but it gives a sense of the paranoia that the victim feels. There's a jump scare or two, but that's all. The acting performance is very good by Moss, whose character often looks like she's hanging on to sanity by a thread and who is believable as someone susceptible to manipulation, but also capable of fighting back. I also quite liked the guttural soundtrack during the action scenes. A few elements of the plot are not very believable and the ending is a bit weak, but there's still enough to like. As I said, it's not the most original psychological horror/thriller, but it's a really solidly crafted one.
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GlassesJacketShirt
Registered User
Game Night (2018)
Dir. John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein
I had moderate expectations for the film; safe to say they weren't met. Outside of the next door neighbor, who was hilariously creepy/awkward, I kinda wished everyone else just got shot.
Score: 3/10
Dir. John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein
I had moderate expectations for the film; safe to say they weren't met. Outside of the next door neighbor, who was hilariously creepy/awkward, I kinda wished everyone else just got shot.
Score: 3/10
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