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

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DigDog

Lifer
Jun 3, 2011
13,443
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FYI british film & cinema has some good stuff.

the obvious Monty Python Flying Circus, and the practically-python Fawlty Towers. Here in the UK Towers is considered much better than Circus.

the absolutely excellent Blackadder, of which you should skip season 1 entirely.
the pretty-decent in a weird way Jeeves & Wooster, if you are into period films.
the excellent Yes Minister! and Yes Prime Minister!.
everything else may have a good reputation but i would stay away, e.g. Fools & Horses, Open All Hours, etc.
it's worth checking out some of the The Two Ronnies skits on Youtube

in modern times, aside from the Doctor Who reboot seasons with Tennant or Eccleston, you may like
The Thick Of It, starring the magnificent Peter Capaldi in a role that actually fits him (first season is a bit weaker)
Mitchell & Webb, and the less funny Peep Show

uhmm.. that's .. that's about it.
that-thats-about-it.jpg
 
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DigDog

Lifer
Jun 3, 2011
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I'm at E09 of Firefly and i gotta say, this show is pretty terrible.

Direction, art style, costumes, dialogue, photography, camera, everything about actually making a film, is on par with .. uh .. can't think of anything awful enough. I would rather watch an episode of the A-Team than one of Firefly. It's really infantile in how it approaches filmmaking, as if a bunch of film school students tried to put in all the correct elements of a film series, but were actually really bad at doing it. Everything sucks down to the title track & opening credits.

It's not even about the rag-tag group of badly matched characters, it's the scripts man, the scripts are awful. The actors try to make something out of the dialogue, but what they are given, and the stories they tell, are just too bad to make anything decent out of them. The behaviour of the characters changes wildly not only between episodes, but within each episode - sometimes they are badass, sometimes they are incompetent. Sometimes they are criminals, sometimes they are angels. And, there is no 1 common thread that explains why, either.
The show makes some very vague attempts at realism, but then also loves to throw in both verbal and visual technobabble. The visual effects are really poor, to the point where i'd rather watch some CGI instead. I mean, jesus chrrist, the 1983 ! tv series V had better special effects than this, almost 20 years prior.

still .. these scripts are awful.

example.
the sister/brother character, they need to go to a hospital so the brother can find out the MYSTERY of "what they did to my sister".
They go to the hospital and he goes to the fancy space-machine, and he says "oh no, they did EXPERIMENTS !! on her".

.. uh .. t.. that's it? THAT is the mystery? Dude that's literally THE TROPE OF THIS CHARACTER. Like, THE trope that describes the character down to its very basic core, without which, the character could not exist as such.

anyway, i guess i wasted a few hours, but it's not the worst thing i've ever seen. I cannot, however, fathom how this show could have possibly developed a following.

My vote: 5/10
 
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Jul 27, 2020
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My vote: 5/10
5 is ok. Coming from you, it's even high praise :)

I watched a movie with this summary: A Danish family visits a Dutch family they met on a holiday. What was supposed to be an idyllic weekend slowly starts unraveling as the Danes try to stay polite in the face of unpleasantness.

Turns out, it was a big mistake. I hate movies like these that have traumatic endings. It involves some of the worst things you could do to another human being, for no reason other than you can. Do NOT watch if you want go to bed in a good mood.

Score: -11/10

It deserves that.
 

sactoking

Diamond Member
Sep 24, 2007
7,507
2,703
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I finally watched season 1 of Wheel of Time. 6/10

I've not read the books. Having said that the show was OK, not great. I didn't find myself giving up on it after a few episodes like I did with Locke & Key but it's also not a must watch like The Witcher. It actually reminded me a fair bit of Shannara, which I think makes sense because they're both the same genre from the same timeframe I think, though Wheel was definitely less "MTV teen angsty drama" which makes sense because Shannara was on MTV and rewritten to be all teen angsty.

My biggest complaint about Wheel is a very superficial and likely offensive complaint: for a big budget fantasy epic this is perhaps the most physically unattractive cast I've ever seen. Shannara had Ivana Baquero, LotR had Cate Blanchett and Liv Tyler and Orlando Bloom, Hobbit had Evangeline Lily, Witcher has Henry Cavill, etc. There are a few men on Wheel that are objectively handsome but none are super good looking. And the women, woof. Rosamund Pike is the best of that lot by far and she spends most of the show as a 6/10, tops. It's not like they hired for acting talent above all else because, let's be honest, most of them are not particularly good actors, either. If this didn't have a big time Intellectual Property fronting the show I doubt it would have been made.
 
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DigDog

Lifer
Jun 3, 2011
13,443
2,084
126
Netflix Dracula (2020) 7/10

A limited (3 episode) series that did a few new twists with Dracula. It ending up being better than I expected.
ooh, i loved this one, but couldn't find it on IMDb.

What If Realistic Dracula, where Dracula is a much more evil, powerful, intelligent creature than even the Bram Stoker book.
Fortunately, it does away with the book's dumb ending, and instead replaces it with an ending that is either much better, or far more stupider, depending on whether you accept that the character's premise could lead up to it.
The acting is magnificent.
Absolutely worth it, 8/10
 
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JEDI

Lifer
Sep 25, 2001
30,160
3,300
126
Westworld (season 4) 5/10

Wrote my review here:
 

Dr. Detroit

Diamond Member
Sep 25, 2004
8,143
608
126
Spun - 8/10
A drug dealer introduces one of his customers, a 'speed freak', to the man who runs the meth lab. A crazy three-day adventure ensues.

How did I miss this movie when it came out in 2002? I love dark/black comedy flics and this one delivered. in abundance!
John Leguizamo as Spider Mike, Mickey Rourke as the Chef, and J Schwartzman starring with so many cameos.

Music was fantastic - by Billy Corgan
 
Jul 27, 2020
15,738
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Gonna start watching a movie called "The whore next door".

Expecting it to be TERRIBLE.

EDIT: Worse than terrible. Wasted few minutes skipping through it, trying to find something of value. There was none.

Watched Brian de Palma's Body Double (1984). There are moments of brilliance in it (like the camera shots and angles) but on the whole, a really weird movie with a weird story.

This sentence from an imdb user review summarizes the movie best:

"Body Double isn't good art by any means, but it's good trash. Watch it, and you will behold DePalma at his sleazy best. He makes no apologies for what he does, nor would we want him to do so. "
 
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Dr. Detroit

Diamond Member
Sep 25, 2004
8,143
608
126
31 - 9.9/10

A Rob Zombie horror flic that delivers in oh so many ways! A few scares, enormous amounts of gory death scenes, a cast of pyschotic characters, titties and so much fucked up campy dialogue.

Richard Blake was fantastic!

To me, it was a bit reminiscent of the original "Running Man".
 

Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
37,402
8,038
136
1/2 way through Colossal and wondering if it's worth spending another hour finishing it. Seems to spin on:

substance abuse (I mean you're addicted to alcohol, maybe even coke or something or you're not and if you're not this becomes a tiresome refrain, and it's totally ubiquitous in this)

abusive relationships (again, if you're not used to being in one, this gets old fast)

a completely absurd premise with the remote monster connection, but if you're an alcoholic I guess absurdity is something you don't mind... :rolleyes: (if you're not given to indulging insane fantasies, um, good luck with it)

Yes, Hathaway is eye candy, at least what they show me (her smile is something..., but enough?)
 

Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
37,402
8,038
136
Emmy Rossum's lovely smile in "The day after tomorrow" had me awestruck for a long while. Couldn't get her out of my head.
Well, I have to wonder if that's a reason to see it or avoid it, know what I mean? I suppose it's an endorsement.
 

pmv

Lifer
May 30, 2008
12,970
7,889
136
Re-watched the Bourne trilogy, but considering I last watched them as a kid, and vaguely remembered anything about the plot it felt like a first time viewing.

It's a solid 9/10 for the entire series. The films feels very authentic, not sure how else to put it, maybe it was because it was still shot on film. The cinematography and action scenes were just mind-blowing, car chase from the first and foot chase in Morroco in the third are the stand outs.


I think I've seen all of them. Pretty sure I enjoyed them 'in the moment' but, Lord, I can't remember anything about them now - or rather they all blur into one mass of fight-scenes and over-complicated conspiracy-thriller plot exposition.

Were they pre-Daniel Craig-era Bond? Seems like the action scenes were a breath of fresh air after Bond got too silly and gadget-fixated. But I can't remember anything about the storylines now - just that overall it got very convoluted.
 

DigDog

Lifer
Jun 3, 2011
13,443
2,084
126
I think I've seen all of them. Pretty sure I enjoyed them 'in the moment' but, Lord, I can't remember anything about them now - or rather they all blur into one mass of fight-scenes and over-complicated conspiracy-thriller plot exposition.
Bourne 1 no, Bourne 2 & 3 yes.

and

SHAKEYCAM
 

Denly

Golden Member
May 14, 2011
1,433
229
106
Samaritan - 6.5/10

One of Sylvester's best low-budget works, he looks great his face no longer looks like a balloon, acting was great. Just another action flick but it kept you watching.
 

sactoking

Diamond Member
Sep 24, 2007
7,507
2,703
136
I've watched 2 of the 3 episodes so far of Andor. 5/10

It's not bad but neither is it good. Just like House of the Dragon and Rings of Power there just isn't much going on. It's incredibly slow moving. Like the other two shows this one appears to be a show designed for fans of the IP to watch because it's in the IPs universe and not a show designed to be watched because it's entertaining or good. All three shows have been big disappointments so far.
 
Jul 27, 2020
15,738
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House of Dragon was good until I watched Ep6. The feisty Rhaenyra is much older and boring now. I hate it! The older Queen also sucks.
 

DigDog

Lifer
Jun 3, 2011
13,443
2,084
126
I've watched 2 of the 3 episodes so far of Andor. 5/10

It's not bad but neither is it good. Just like House of the Dragon and Rings of Power there just isn't much going on. It's incredibly slow moving. Like the other two shows this one appears to be a show designed for fans of the IP to watch because it's in the IPs universe and not a show designed to be watched because it's entertaining or good. All three shows have been big disappointments so far.
i've watched 1 of the Andor episodes.

I agree that it was .. okaish. If we ignore the absolutely unnecessary Star Wars Franchise & Money Buckets Universe elements, it's an okaish anti-hero story, i'll probably watch some more, but i'm not *dying* to.

6/10
 
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