Movies: Last Movie You Watched and Rate It: Part XXIX

[nameless1]

The Killing Fields - Played like a horror film at times with the pulsing synthesizer music and the images on screen. Haing S. Ngor, though not really supporting, is absolutely amazing in the role of Dith Pran and definitely earned his Oscar. Waterston and Malkovich are good, too.

I am not sure if people know this, but Ngor was actually a Cambodian doctor, and he lived through the genocide. That is why his performance is so just devastatingly realistic.

That year, the Academy Awards probably did not expect him to win, because while the telecast pointed the camera to all the nominees who was there, Ngor only had a stock photo of him. Now, it could be a mistake, since Pat Morita, another Asian who was nominated for his role as Mr. Miyagi, had a small live screen, and the camera did immediately find Ngor as he went to get his award, but I find it to be a little bit dubious.


I honestly think Ngor is very underrated, because he feels natural and grounded in reality in all his performances, but while he found steady work, he is pretty much typecast, and never got anything as prominent afterwards. Tragically, we will never know if he has another award-winning performance left in him, because he passed away in a robbery.

 

[snowden]

I had read that Ngor was actually late to the ceremony which is why he wasn't in his seat at the beginning. He was a tremendous man and I'm sad he isn't with us still.

 

[nameless1]

I had read that Ngor was actually late to the ceremony which is why he wasn't in his seat at the beginning. He was a tremendous man and I'm sad he isn't with us still.

That could be it.

I have honestly found it to be questionable for all these years, so I legitimately wanted to know. However, I was not sure I could find an answer on something so trivial, or if there would ever be an answer, so thank you for the response.

 

[nameless1]

Life (2017)
2.25 out of 4stars

Effective, yet it's somewhat predictable and filled with borrowed material. Feels like it wants to be better than it is though based on some "touching the surface" retrospective/introspective one liner-ish elements, albeit some nonsensical.... [Spoil] ONLY FILLED WITH HATE? HOLY MOLY. The freaking alien just killed a couple of your friends and shipmates, is strong, is dangerous, is destructive, and intelligent. That's not a logical reason to want to kill and/or avoid it? Logic dictates you to kill that being. [/spoil]

Also, couple other questions/gripes I might have with the movie, aside from the Murphy's law stuff previously discussed/a general fault with the sub genre....

[Spoil] Calvin seemed to desperately need oxygen to live near the end of the film, as do the crew members throughout, yet they were breathing fairly fine under extreme stress, low oxygen levels given the shutdown and kill Calvin protocols on parts of the ship, and even freezing temperature issues near the end of the movie and at times throughout the film, yet......Japanese guy escaping from his sleep chamber had no breathing/weakness issues, Calvin spent literally 5-10mins+ easily in space without oxygen terrorizing a woman and walking around the space ship, and Gyllenhaal/Ferguson had no real physical issues in the end as they dealt with "firewall 3" and the escape plan. Is this one giant screw up or am I missing something? Seemed like a major subplot point(or a plothole) that was inconsistently applied and flat out story ruining for me if I'm reading this correctly.


And I'm sorry, but believing Bakare having maternal feelings to an alien life form he's spent a few weeks with? That is/was small and expressionless? Even after it's broken his hand, killed multiple people, and put everyone's life in jeopardy? And eventually let it eat him to live and grow stronger? That's too big a jump for me, even in this subgenre, to believe remotely possible. How psychologically and emotionally unstable do you have to be for that even remotely be possible? Doubt he passes a number of astronaut tests and his shipmates would certainly see/sense something fishy about his personality wayyyyyyy before that alien interaction if so.

Am I correct on both or one of these accounts or being too nitpicky/wrong on criticizing these things?
[/spoil]

I thought it had the perfect ending though.

These are all fair critiques.

For me, I am too engrossed into the atmosphere to notice the part about the air. I am also not well-versed in scientific knowledge, as I tend to tune out the scientific explanations, and just take their words for it, so I did not think much about it. Even if I did though, it probably would not bother me. The atmosphere is all that matters.

For your point about the biologist, you are likely correct again. However, it is not a fatal mistake, and it is such a small aspect of the movie, so it does not ruin the overall experience for me.

 

[silverfish]

The Road: 6/10

Uh...

[spoil]Why was Guy Pearce's family following them?[/spoil]

 

[Nalens Oga]

Paterson (2016) - 8/10

Better than the 80s Jarmusch movies I've seen or Broken Flowers, more likable characters here and also funnier. His wife being so oblivious and also obsessed with the black & white thing was my favourite bit.

 

[OzzyFan]

RocknRolla
2.25 out of 4stars

Even if not a great movie, a good fun euro gangsters movie headed by Guy Ritchie is still a treat in my book. Not on the level of Snatch or Lock Stock and 2 Smoking Barrels, but still solid and entertaining. The usual with Ritchie when he's on....stylish, energentic, well acted, fun characters, witty dialogue, and some good dark humor moments.

On that note, I'm still incredibly mixed on him with his May release King Arthur project. The trailers give me reservations on it being entertaining, at least in the right way(s). Can't wait to see the reviews on that one.

These are all fair critiques.

For me, I am too engrossed into the atmosphere to notice the part about the air. I am also not well-versed in scientific knowledge, as I tend to tune out the scientific explanations, and just take their words for it, so I did not think much about it. Even if I did though, it probably would not bother me. The atmosphere is all that matters.

For your point about the biologist, you are likely correct again. However, it is not a fatal mistake, and it is such a small aspect of the movie, so it does not ruin the overall experience for me.

Thanks. I guess it's all part of the genre and taking it in as they are. I'm probably a bit too critical there then.

 

[Spawn]

Regarding Life ^

There was a few too many "this is going wrong because we need something to go wrong to keep the story going" moments.

[spoil]Among many (see below), the most egregious in my mind was when they finally trap Calvin in the airlock, only for at that very moment a ship from Earth arriving to implement the 3rd firewall and docking at the airlock where Calvin is trapped. While simultaneously having an unaware Sho going to open the airlock, but failing to notice/be attaked by Calvin before he's able to get it open and kill the new crew and himself.

Also:
Of course the fire extinguisher things which are not isolated from the rest of the ship (despite it supposedly being a sealed lab) go off and allow Calvin out into the ship...
Of course Calvin consumes the coolant for the communications right before they're able to contact earth that the **** has hit the fan...
Of course thrusters somehow lead back into the ship and of course they burn all their fuel after firing it like 3 times which decays their orbit...

Not to mention the constant questionable decision making by everyone involved. Surely it would have been smart to make all of the astronauts aware of what the 3rd firewall is and given them the option of participating or not. They probably all still would have been on board but at least they would have known what would happen if Calvin breached the first two. And really, who thought it was a good idea to start playing around with Calvin with some rubber gloves and a shock wand after he had grown from a single cell organism to a large jelly fish in about a week.
[/spoil]

I understand these kinds of things need to happen in a movie like this, and that for any sci-fi horror a suspension of belief needs to take place. And I'm cool with that generally. But there was just too many times where it was just an obvious plot device. Felt like the scripting and plot needed a bit more work to make it all feel a more authentic. I agree with Nameless that atmosphere is all that really matters. But it's tough to maintain a good atmosphere when these moments kept happening. It happened so much that I kept getting taken out of the film which did have quite a few aspects that I liked. Once or twice? Sure. But it was just nonstop.

Rant over. Didn't intend it to be a rant!

It was actually a passable sci-fi horror film. But for the cast and obvious dollars put into it, there should have been some more thought and care put into ironing out some of the little details.

 

[silkyjohnson50]

Black Mass: By no means spectacular, but it had my attention from start to finish. The contacts they used for Depp bugged me. I don't know if they were supposed to represent and highlight the evil in him, but they were just distracting in an annoying, unrealistic way. Regardless, I still enjoyed the movie though.


The Insider: Cast, acting, story. Very good. One of those films that makes you angry because there's truth behind it.


Spy: It wasn't awful, but I just didn't find it that funny.


Say Anything: Classic 80s teenage rom-com. I laughed out loud when she told pops about doing it.

 

[Puck]

Paterson (2016) - 8/10

Better than the 80s Jarmusch movies I've seen or Broken Flowers, more likable characters here and also funnier. His wife being so oblivious and also obsessed with the black & white thing was my favourite bit.

I loved it too. I did not understand the apparent obsession with twins in all those scenes though (if it meant something deeper). I think maybe he just spotted them after his wife told him she dreamed about twins. Or just an inside joke I did not get.

 

[Hockeyfrilla]

Don't Breathe (2016) 7/10

Hacksaw Ridge (2016) 6.5/10

The Discovery (2017, Netflix) 6/10

 

[silverfish]

The Discovery: 6.5/10

I liked it a lot, but for some reason I was able to predict everything that was going to happen before it happened, so it took a lot of the movie away from me. Otherwise, I feel it'd be closer to a 7.5 or 8.

Captain Fantastic: 7.5/10

That was something

 

[ProstheticConscience]

RocknRolla
2.25 out of 4stars

Even if not a great movie, a good fun euro gangsters movie headed by Guy Ritchie is still a treat in my book. Not on the level of Snatch or Lock Stock and 2 Smoking Barrels, but still solid and entertaining. The usual with Ritchie when he's on....stylish, energentic, well acted, fun characters, witty dialogue, and some good dark humor moments.

On that note, I'm still incredibly mixed on him with his May release King Arthur project. The trailers give me reservations on it being entertaining, at least in the right way(s). Can't wait to see the reviews on that one.

Rock'n'Rolla wasn't quite up to the level of Snatch or Lock Stock, but it was still good to see Guy back on track with his British gangster thing after dumping Madonna. She totally messed up his directorial creativity. See Revolver if you want to see what I mean. Ugh. Wasn't really into his Sherlock Holmes thing, so I'm kind of reserved on the upcoming King Arthur project. Ritchie always reminded me of a British Tarantino; too self-consciously cool for his own good.

Funny story about him and Madonna: when the marriage had gone sour and they were going downhill, he took to referring to her as "it". "We mustn't disturb it...it is in a foul mood today...etc." Then when the divorce became official, every single one of Madonna's super-secret London apartments and batcaves were sent boxes and boxes of books and dvd copies of Stephen King's It.

True story.

 

[Osprey]

Independence Day: Resurgence (2016) - 4/10

The only thing that I could think about through most of the film was how Bill Pullman and Brent Spiner were still alive. It wasn't even explained, which blew my mind. Do the writers not realize or care that they completely undermine every further death (in this movie and the planned sequel) by pulling that stunt?[spoil]Seemingly, Pullman dies once again here (the dude really has a martyr complex), yet I wouldn't be surprised to see him brought back from the dead yet again in the next movie. Even his daughter seems to realize that he's immune to dying, since it's like she forgets all about him a minute after losing him and is all smiles at the end. Speaking of children, what's the point of writing in a character to be Will Smith's son when he's the exact opposite of Will Smith: the least likable character in the whole movie and completely devoid of any personality? Let's see... what else can I rant about? Oh, why is Judd Hirsch suddenly driving his bus full of kids out on the salt flats? Oh, right, it's so that he can just coincidentally run right into his son and the location of the last major fight to save Earth.[/spoil]It's just so poorly written and conceived. It's like they were more interested in following a formula than making a good movie. You have a generic story, a few familiar faces (even if they had to be brought back from the dead), a couple of Chinese characters to pander to the #2 movie market, young lovers, a new ensemble of characters and side stories to appeal to every other demographic possible (like Judd's shoehorned-in road trip just to get some children in the movie) and a whole heap of CGI destruction. That said, it's still oddly watchable in that blockbuster popcorn movie way, so it's not like it's totally devoid of entertainment (plus, it's under 2 hours and doesn't drag on), but it's not a good movie.

 

[Hockeyfrilla]

Allied (2016) 5.5/10

 

[Nalens Oga]

Design For Living (1933) - 7/10

Probably the weakest of the big four Lubitsch films. Has a lot of the same style as Trouble In Paradise and even one of the same actresses so it feels like one of his films but the characters and storyline just don't connect in the same way. It has its nice moments in the end though but the rest ain't as smooth. So on I go with the 30s which I'm learning after seeing 13 films is probably the most overrated decade in film if you use online ratings as a measurement.

 

[OzzyFan]

Strangers on a Train
3.75 out of 4stars

One of Hitchcock's best. The master of suspense gets a story to match his talents and runs with it. Your eyes and brain are glued to the screen from start to finish as Hitchcock smoothly works the turns with his directorial devices. To top it off, it has an A+ villain performance too from Robert Walker to go with the distraut Farley Granger, both adding to the realistic premise. Films like this are timeless.

Funny story about him and Madonna: when the marriage had gone sour and they were going downhill, he took to referring to her as "it". "We mustn't disturb it...it is in a foul mood today...etc." Then when the divorce became official, every single one of Madonna's super-secret London apartments and batcaves were sent boxes and boxes of books and dvd copies of Stephen King's It.

True story.

Lol, that's awesome.

 

[silkyjohnson50]

Deadpool: I'm not at all a superhero/fantasy/whatever type of movie fan. They rarely do anything for me and Batman Begins is probably the one only that I've ever given two thumbs up for. So with all of that being said, Deadpool was awesome. The screenwriters put together one of the more original, edgy scripts that I've seen in a while. Well done, well done.

 

[Shareefruck]

I feel like it would have been a refreshing break from superhero movies if the comedy wasn't such childish frat-boy bro-humor. That completely ruined it for me.

 

[silkyjohnson50]

I'm immature enough to not be negatively impacted by the type of humor used. It even made me laugh out loud a couple of times. Maybe the fact that I wasn't quite expecting it made it refreshing to me and it would wear off a bit during a 2nd viewing, but I don't know. Regardless, I also thought the use of flashbacks to set up the story was effective and felt different than a lot of movies I've recently seen. Like I said, superhero movies usually do nothing for me so it was nice to actually be engaged throughout this one.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

I just think that bro jokes are difficult to execute well unless you're extremely charming - which Ryan Reynolds isn't - and not as good looking as he is. For example, I've gotten a big kick out of movies like Superbad and Pineapple Express probably because the actors look as goofy as their jokes are and they kind have that boyish charm to execute them well.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Also, don't feel like writing a long review for this one but there: Tokyo Drifter (1966) - It was awesome. The story could get kind a little convoluted (probably because I don't speak the language so I would get names mixed up) but the cinematography and aesthetic style to the movie were great. I liked the movie a lot besides that girl who reads comic books throughout the beginning. Probably the most irritating laugh I've heard in my life.

 

[Nalens Oga]

Apollo 13 (1995) - 8/10

Not as good as The Martian but pretty damn good, nice usage of bright colours and late-60s design in the parts set on earth. Bit too much technical mumbo-jumbo going on with the space jargon but the gist of it is there, nice to see Kevin Bacon in a normal role. I keep speaking in my head in a Nasa space control voice now, affirmative.

 

[Shareefruck]

I just think that bro jokes are difficult to execute well unless you're extremely charming - which Ryan Reynolds isn't - and not as good looking as he is. For example, I've gotten a big kick out of movies like Superbad and Pineapple Express probably because the actors look as goofy as their jokes are and they kind have that boyish charm to execute them well.

I mean, I didn't think of those as being a aggressively bro-humor as Deadpool, but even so, you have to think alot of it is that those guys are the self-deprecating butt of the jokes in those movies, especially in Pineapple Express.

 

[Mrb1p]

Just watch the babadook.

Yeah, well.... Its scary for sure. Reminds me of older movies.

Now ill be hearing noises all freaking night