NOW CLOSED ; List some movies you've watched recently. Theatre, rental, TV... and give a */10

[A Casual Fitz]

Tyson 8/10

I never knew this existed before coming across it on Showtime today. The three Mikes talking at the same time during some of the interview was distracting, but overall the 2008 documentary really had some great film and memories of his rock-star status during that period. There really wasn't anybody larger than life during his prime years, and I was always in awe watching his fights (and playing Mike Tyson's Punch Out). And then just as quickly he fell, and he fell hard. He doesn't really hold back on his feelings in this documentary, so you could see how out of control / out of touch with reality he was from that point onward.

His outburst at a reporter (using graphic homophobic language and other slurs) was pretty eye-opening compared to today's standards, and before this documentary I never knew of it either.

On a related note... Mike Tyson Mysteries - 9/10

Quality writing, great voice cast, and Mike Tyson is just so charming

 

[foghorn67]

The Old Guard. 7/10.
-Entertaining, a couple of good action scenes.
-Total study hall fantasy short story as a premise. Not saying it's bad, just simple.
-Oh geez, another Hollywood movie to go way out of it's way to show Christians as the bad guys. Even my liberal atheist gf rolled her eyes at this. Tired trope that's wearing thin.
-Yet another movie where a badass combat veteran (this one has probably wielded a handgun in anger more than any person in history), yet is fooled by a completely empty gun. I can illustrate how dumb and tired this plot device is very simply. I can give someone a loaded handgun and an empty one to anyone and have them hold them for about 30 seconds each, and they will remember the feel of an empty gun for years.

 

[DownTheSky]

The Old Guard 5.5/10 Waste of time

Coma (2019, russian) 7/10. Decent sci-fy - a mix of the matrix, inception and some new ideas.

 

[sdifox]

A Whisker Away (Nakitai Watashi wa Neko wo Kaburu) 5/10 boring, not engaging at all.

 

[Muse]

Jojo Rabbit (2019) 7/10

At first I was pinching my lips, trying to withhold judgment but I was disliking a lot of it. To me, it seemed to be pussy footing around the horror. It played with your emotions but dictated them, and I distrusted its intentions. Manipulative, was my sense of it's techniques. Now, I'd watched The Pianist a few days before (around 5 days, having see that 10/10 three times previously, last in 2012), so I had a much closer to the bone experience very very recently of the Holocaust. Also, I read Anne Frank's diary a few years ago and try to hold that in my heart. This to me was an attempt in some ways to see the holocaust through a child's eyes. You as a 10 year old. His fantasies, his reality. The girl who played the hideaway girl (who was way too much like Anne Frank to be a coincidence!) was far too confident, too worldly, too grown up, too smart ass for a person in her circumstance. The repartee was not realistic. It wasn't meant to be. We're spoiled, we don't expect reality when we see movies and I think that's a shame.

 

[Muse]

On a related note... Mike Tyson Mysteries - 9/10

Quality writing, great voice cast, and Mike Tyson is just so charming

I'll watch for that. Now, Tyson (2008) struck me as nothing short of amazing when I saw it some years ago. I'm partial to documentaries and that one is right up there as one of the greatest.

 

[JEDI]

Ozarks (Season 1): 8/10

Great drama and suspense.
Love the way Marty thinks on his feet and comes up with a plan.

One thing though:
If it's $8M laundered but his cut is 15% and 25% to taxes, then why is he paying the cartel the full $8M back?
Shouldnt it be only $4.8M?

 

[DigDog]

the fact that today, you can make a cartoon with practically zero resources, has led to a slew of uber-mediocre, adult-themed animated shows, and therefore:
Star Trek: Lower Decks - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9184820/

What about all those redshirts and random ensigns who walk around the Enterprise(s) all day, do they have a life? Do they have dreams, aspirations, do they have a personality?
Find the answer to this and other questions you did not ask in the incredibly average and unexciting new Star Trek themed TV show (because nostalgia sells) Lower Decks!! about a bunch of nondescript new recruits in typical Teen Titans animation style who join Starfleet aboard the starship USS Cerritos (TNG period), with mild sexual humour, quaint drug & alcohol use references, and as many pewpew lazers as they can fit in half an hour.

currently at 5.4 on IMDb, i would say 6/10 for the first few episodes and then probably lower.
Voice cast: nobody i care about.

 

[sdifox]

the fact that today, you can make a cartoon with practically zero resources, has led to a slew of uber-mediocre, adult-themed animated shows, and therefore:
Star Trek: Lower Decks - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9184820/

What about all those redshirts and random ensigns who walk around the Enterprise(s) all day, do they have a life? Do they have dreams, aspirations, do they have a personality?
Find the answer to this and other questions you did not ask in the incredibly average and unexciting new Star Trek themed TV show (because nostalgia sells) Lower Decks!! about a bunch of nondescript new recruits in typical Teen Titans animation style who join Starfleet aboard the starship USS Cerritos (TNG period), with mild sexual humour, quaint drug & alcohol use references, and as many pewpew lazers as they can fit in half an hour.

currently at 5.4 on IMDb, i would say 6/10 for the first few episodes and then probably lower.
Voice cast: nobody i care about.

They got you to watch :awe:

 

[SMOGZINN]

the fact that today, you can make a cartoon with practically zero resources, has led to a slew of uber-mediocre, adult-themed animated shows, and therefore:
Star Trek: Lower Decks - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9184820/

What about all those redshirts and random ensigns who walk around the Enterprise(s) all day, do they have a life? Do they have dreams, aspirations, do they have a personality?
Find the answer to this and other questions you did not ask in the incredibly average and unexciting new Star Trek themed TV show (because nostalgia sells) Lower Decks!! about a bunch of nondescript new recruits in typical Teen Titans animation style who join Starfleet aboard the starship USS Cerritos (TNG period), with mild sexual humour, quaint drug & alcohol use references, and as many pewpew lazers as they can fit in half an hour.

currently at 5.4 on IMDb, i would say 6/10 for the first few episodes and then probably lower.
Voice cast: nobody i care about.

Gene Roddenberry would not have approved.

 

[UsandThem]

Transformers: War For Cybertron 8/10

I almost skipped even watching it since the rating was Y7, but I'm glad I gave it a shot.

If you liked G1 Transformers, you'll like this series.

 

[DigDog]

this doesnt happen very often, but i just stumbled upon a solid 8/10 film.
I found it through some youtube reviewer, who i won't like because the guy's annoying and has some discutible film taste, but a few of his reviews do hit home, and this particular film is (almost) everything he said it would be:

Embrace of the Serpent - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4285496/

all in black & white, and subtitled, with the entire film being in the languages their characters speak, at times spanish, german, or a variety of indio languages (good subs tho).
The twin stories of two scientific explorers, separated by 30 years of difference, through the amazon, both guided by the same shaman, but a very different man when 30 years older.
Really excellent; from an explosive, confrontational introduction that lays the basis of the characters clearly in the first two minutes, as the film progresses it keeps being interesting but also concedes to the necessities of storytelling, while at the same time being both historically accurate AND based on a true story.

I would recommend this to any film buff who loves good cinema, and who is ready to put up with a little difficulty to enjoy a superior product.

Well done guy-who-i-never-heard-of-before Ciro Guerra.
Also stars nobody you know.

8/10 - kinda like that Jim Jaramusch film but better.

 

[DigDog]

you've all gone quiet because y'watching Embrace of the Serpent?

 

[snoopy7548]

The Mule - 6.5/10. Story was OK for what it was I guess, kept me entertained, but the acting was pretty bad.

 

[Ichinisan]

the fact that today, you can make a cartoon with practically zero resources, has led to a slew of uber-mediocre, adult-themed animated shows, and therefore:
Star Trek: Lower Decks - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9184820/

What about all those redshirts and random ensigns who walk around the Enterprise(s) all day, do they have a life? Do they have dreams, aspirations, do they have a personality?
Find the answer to this and other questions you did not ask in the incredibly average and unexciting new Star Trek themed TV show (because nostalgia sells) Lower Decks!! about a bunch of nondescript new recruits in typical Teen Titans animation style who join Starfleet aboard the starship USS Cerritos (TNG period), with mild sexual humour, quaint drug & alcohol use references, and as many pewpew lazers as they can fit in half an hour.

currently at 5.4 on IMDb, i would say 6/10 for the first few episodes and then probably lower.
Voice cast: nobody i care about.

The commercial for Lower Decks keeps playing on the YouTube videos I watch. It's extremely irritating.

I loved a lot of TNG stuff but I have absolutely no interest in watching Lower Decks.

 

[zinfamous]

The commercial for Lower Decks keeps playing on the YouTube videos I watch. It's extremely irritating.

I loved a lot of TNG stuff but I have absolutely no interest in watching Lower Decks.

Is that supposed to be like Downton Abbey in Star Trek world?

 

[CZroe]

Is that supposed to be like Downton Abbey in Star Trek world?

It's desperately trying (and failing) to be animated humor like Family Guy and Rick & Morty with the setting of "average rank and file people on Star Fleet" instead of our typical heroes of the command bridge or away teams. It's bad. More than half their jokes are just about embarrassing one of the characters.

Walk in on him pretending to be a captain and make fun of him.

Walk in on him naked and make him self-conscious.

Start playing with the shields, turning them on and off, as he desperately tries to stop it because superiors are watching.

*yawn*

There was a TNG episode by that name in the final season. Maybe that was more like Downton Abbey.

 

[Zanovar]

Cheap thrils.crazy film.awesome.You wouldnt want to meet that couple anytime.Crazy bastards

 

[mikeymikec]

Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn (2020)

Ewan Mcgregor and Margot Robbie are the ones to look out for, they both do a good job. I liked the plot for the Montoya character (though the finale for her character was a little far-fetched without a strong plot element to make it plausible). I think Huntress's character really needed to be fleshed out better (to be as important as Sionis/Harley Quinn), I'm fine with her intentionally being an awkward introvert-type character but she's just that; it adds nothing to her character or the plot.

I wonder if they tried to replicate the Deadpool (2016) style of plot introduction, it certainly reminded me of it.

Spoiler

I thought the relationship between Zsasz and Sionis was interesting, my impression was that Sionis is a shallow rich boy who's being led down darker paths by Zsasz despite Sionis being the boss, which I thought was an interesting and different way of doing things.

Montoya and 'far-fetched' - character goes from police officer to vigilante funded by a former crime family figure? I call that far-fetched!

Huntress - considering her family's importance to the plot, I thought it odd that her character had about as much screen time as a pick-pocket whose only significance to the plot is that she swallowed a diamond and now is on the run because of it.

IMO this film should be seen largely as an amusing action flick.

 

[DigDog]

Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn (2020)

Ewan Mcgregor and Margot Robbie are the ones to look out for, they both do a good job. I liked the plot for the Montoya character (though the finale for her character was a little far-fetched without a strong plot element to make it plausible). I think Huntress's character really needed to be fleshed out better (to be as important as Sionis/Harley Quinn), I'm fine with her intentionally being an awkward introvert-type character but she's just that; it adds nothing to her character or the plot.

I wonder if they tried to replicate the Deadpool (2016) style of plot introduction, it certainly reminded me of it.

Spoiler

I thought the relationship between Zsasz and Sionis was interesting, my impression was that Sionis is a shallow rich boy who's being led down darker paths by Zsasz despite Sionis being the boss, which I thought was an interesting and different way of doing things.

Montoya and 'far-fetched' - character goes from police officer to vigilante funded by a former crime family figure? I call that far-fetched!

Huntress - considering her family's importance to the plot, I thought it odd that her character had about as much screen time as a pick-pocket whose only significance to the plot is that she swallowed a diamond and now is on the run because of it.

IMO this film should be seen largely as an amusing action flick.

i *also* watched Harley Quinn And Mystery Of The Excessively Long Title - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7713068/

it's been sitting there for a while and i knew it wasn't going to be great, but i wanted on purpose to subject myself to a bit of woke media to see what the woke media is up to these days.
Now, Margot Robbie is both a fantastically hot woman, and also a good actress for what she does, and, you know, having seen her suuuuuper naked in Wolf Of Wall Street makes me biased in favour of anything she does. I also don't terribly mind the character, but - and correct me if you think i'm crazy - how much of these later Joker/Quinn characters owe to Vampire's malkavians? Because IIRC even the most far gone Joker, from Killing Joke graphic novel, is a completely different type of crazy than what we have here.

Lot of 4th wall voiceover in a style similar to Big Short, lot of strong color everywhere (because color is woke AF). The production is pretty damn stronk - in one of the intro scenes, we have a outdoors set, then a animated matte painting on the background, then a live truck trailer prop, then some overlay CGI, all in uh, 20 seconds. Oh, and 'splosions.
I didnt like the main support character ("main" because this film has got a shitload of support characters; it seems like filmmaking has forgotten that ONLY the few primary characters get to be fully fleshed out, the others are meant to be minor caricatures, otherwise it doesn't look like a film, but looks like a fucking party at your mom's house) played by Token Minority Woman (Rosie Perez); you know, the one that wears the "i shaved my balls for this?" shirt. Because being edgy is sooo edgy.
Everything else in the film is "i am so fashionable it hurts", where the people in the film accompany the visuals in the film in a modern, self-reliance-ethic style, where everything, not just the women, is a strong independent woman who don't need no man, no, not just the woman, but the men, the clubgoing extras, the lapshades, everything in this film has its shit together and looks good enough to eat haagen dasz ice cream out of they ass with a spoon.

Aaand that's Birds Of Prey. I'm sure there was a story there at some point but i wasn't paying attention to such minor detail. You don't watch this film for the intelligensia, but rather for the visuals. And, i would say, if you want to watch this, why not instead watch the even more visually surreal but-otherwise-identical Sucker Punch ? It doesnt rely as much of the "I AM SO ADHD" cut-to-weird-scene trick as much and actually has a vague sense of pacing, imho, better than this.

Oh yeah there's a thing where she recruits a bunch of "i am a secondary character" characters, for .. reasons. I suppose that's important too.


6.5/10 - not Sucker Punch.





but seriously, films were better when people knew how to make film, but, todays film LOOK better.
I just wish we could have one and two, together.

 

[mikeymikec]

Hum. I think if most of the intended audience of 'Sucker Punch' watched 'Birds of Prey', they'd be really disappointed. The former is wank fodder for teens with a really dark plot and lots of mindless action. I can't think of any similarities between the two save maybe one: I think a point you're trying to make here is 'Birds of Prey is style over substance', which I would probably agree with.

 

[DigDog]

Hum. I think if most of the intended audience of 'Sucker Punch' watched 'Birds of Prey', they'd be really disappointed. The former is wank fodder for teens with a really dark plot and lots of mindless action. I can't think of any similarities between the two save maybe one: I think a point you're trying to make here is 'Birds of Prey is style over substance', which I would probably agree with.

they both rely heavily on meta-style.
Look at SP for example; Babydoll, the protagonist, she'named Babydoll, looks like a baby doll, has the dripping submissive sexyness that most incels dream of, but, she's also a badass, WITH A KATANA. And has 2 companions who also are built out of picking all the baddest bestest traits you can find on social media. Nobody is down to earth here, everyone is the epitome of a completely synthetic character.
You can draw parallels with characters such as General Grevious (lol). First, he's actually named "grevious". He's a robot, because that's badass. He's got an evil looking face because obviously that's badass, and he's got four arms, and not only does he wield four lightsabers, but his arms can windmill - making him and unstoppable whirlwind of death! (oh and he's got a cloak too).

How much more can you throw in every exaggerated characteristic you can think of. WHy not have body spikes, a prehensile tail made of razorblades, no, ELECTRIFIED razorblades, A GUN THAT SHOOTS GUNS.

SP is in a way more subdued in the amount of shit it throws at the screen. After having the protagonist teleported in an ancient arena to fight a gigantic samurai, it doesn't really need any more than that, and it gives us time to absorb all the various meta that scene contains. I would still argue that it's too much meta, but BOP (or rather, BoP:&TFEO1HQ) has waaaaaaaaaaay more than that. It's style change after style change after style change after style change and 3 seconds cameos and cutaways and multimedia compositions and everything else that's the personification of ADHD. They probably described this film as a rollercoaster of emotions, but, can we really follow along for the ride? Was this film meant for humans?

You like The Fifth Element, right?

You know that scene where they introduce Ruby Rhod?

this scene is meant as a comic relief interval in the otherwise straight (if not too straight) action scifi of the rest of teh film. Sure, the characters are a bit over the top, but essentially it's Steve Dallas the straight hero must help damsel in distress Lelo get to the mcguffin to save the world from impending doom. Evil police forces try to stop them, so they must evade them, and then final confrontation with EvilGuy(tm).

Imagine you take this scene, compress it a bit, and, that's ONE scene from your film. And then you proceed to have every next scene be just as weird, over-costumed, over-produced, visual bullshit.

In BOP, the egg sandwich scene is pretty darn good, if it has been made a bit more realistic, a bit more human, we could maybe appreciate it more. Quirky filmmaking technique is meant to punctuate a film, not be everything that film's made of, which is what BOP is. It's a collage of weird filmmaking techniques and overproduced scenes, specifically designed for the ADD crowd who want to blitz their prefrontal lobe on echo chamber meta.
It's like watching pron on six screens while on coke.

 

[sdifox]

Korben Dallas... It's repeated so many times in a movie...

 

[DigDog]

Korben Dallas... It's repeated so many times in a movie...

Steve Dallas

 

[thestrangebrew1]

Cursed - Netflix: 7.5/10. Story takes place pre-King Arthur and Excalibur. I thought the premise was great. Acting was ok, some good performances by the guy who plays Merlin, who also played Loki I believe in Vikings. A little slow initially, action picks up a bit but so does the cheeze. My problem with this series is that the first half was a slow burn that was mildly entertaining, but the other half felt really rushed. They could've expanded a lot of the battles and delved into the whole Fae(sp?) universe a bit more. Anyways, I watched it during my lunch breaks and I didn't feel I completely wasted my time.