NEW: List some movies you've watched recently. Theatre, rental, TV... and give a */10

[zinfamous]

The Devil Wears Prada - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0458352/

I had long avoided this film because i somehow knew i would find it disappointing, and have spent maybe 20 years hyping myself up for a great revelation.

Well, today the disappointment has arrived.

You know the story; the "good guy" (Hathaway) works for "bad guy" (Streep). Through hardship and by pushing herself, she finds that bad guy is actually good guy, because life is tough, mmk?

The problem is that .. this doesn't happen in the film. There is nothing that ultimately redeems Streep's character, and by extension there is nothing that redeems Hathaway's character, either. It's a glitzy, but ultimately empty film, with no message and no meaning.

I really would not recommend this under any circumstances. Can't think of a single scene that i wouldn't want you to miss, despite having Stanley Tucci, Meryl Streep, and Anne Hathaway.

5/10 - possibly even worse than what i had initially thought.

wow, you are WAAAAAAAAAY more cynical about film than I am. I must tell my friends.
This is a great, very well-executed film.

Does everything have to be like a Pasolini film for you to consider it a film?

 

[purbeast0]

Tron Ares - 7/10 - I've never seen the original one so I can't compare, but I just thought the movie was pretty entertaining with the effects, visuals, and the music was awesome too. The actual movie is pretty meh lol, but I was entertained for almost 2 hours.

 

[purbeast0]

i think Magnolia exists to further my own suffering.


Anyway, i watched

Bring Her Back - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32246771/

what. the. fuck. is this.

29 minutes of introduction, and then some supernatural horror that is so overburdened with useless information, that by those 29 minutes i was already exhausted, so kinda glossed over everything else.

I think horror hit the peak with the american version of The Ring. It's just a masterpiece of what you do and do not need in a horror film to progress the plot as fluidly and efficiently as you can, while maximizing the opportunity for horror. And this is the opposite, it's clunky, it's overburdened with trying to set up the characters as extremely profound when it just wants to strangle them.

And it's won awards. It's got a high af rating on independent review sites. So, if you wanna risk it, do, but don't blame me.

5/10

This movie was fantastic. One of the better horror movies of current times. It's very disturbing, in a good uncoomfortable way.

 

[DigDog]

The Proposition - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0421238/

2005 .. uh .. revisionist western? Tells the story of a gang of bushranger, 1880s Australia. There is a sheriff who captures 2 of the 4 brothers in the gang, and tells protagonist dude "i'm gonna kill your younger brother in X days unless you find and kill your older brother" because that brother is the baddest guy of the gang.

The rest of the film is people being killed in very unceremonious ways. Because "life in the bush is hard, man". That's the plot. There's also John Hurt. And the film was written by Nick Cave, of all people??

.. i kept watching, but the story never developed to the point where i could relate to any of the characters onscreen. When it ended, i just tought "it's over".

5.5/10

 

[purbeast0]

The Running Man (2025) - absolute shit - I didn't even finish it. I cut it off after like 50-60 minutes. It's just so bad.

 

[ch33zw1z]

The Running Man (2025) - absolute shit - I didn't even finish it. I cut it off after like 50-60 minutes. It's just so bad.

What did you not like about it?

 

[purbeast0]

What did you not like about it?

The characters, the plot, the story, the acting... basically everything.

 

[ch33zw1z]

The characters, the plot, the story, the acting... basically everything.

Fair enough! I was just curious

 

[DigDog]

Caught Stealing - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1493274/

NYC bartender guy is the next door neighbor of Punk Matt Smith. The film starts with Smith giving him his cat. As every identical film you've seen before - this will be a common theme - the "cat" is actually a cat AND a key to a whole bunch of drug money and there's russians involved.

The film in itself, is well made. There's Zoe Kravitz (still looks good, but nowhere near as good as in the Catwoman suit), the protagonist is Austin Butler, but the plot is soooo predicatable, so much a copy of god knows how many crime films before this one. If you're really that young and unexperienced, then this is a good film, but otherwise, it's just recyled stuff.

6/10

 

[Kaido]

nm

 

[Dr. Detroit]

The Proposition - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0421238/

2005 .. uh .. revisionist western? Tells the story of a gang of bushranger, 1880s Australia. There is a sheriff who captures 2 of the 4 brothers in the gang, and tells protagonist dude "i'm gonna kill your younger brother in X days unless you find and kill your older brother" because that brother is the baddest guy of the gang.

5.5/10

There were only 3-brothers. The other gang member was just an unrelated psychopath.

Ebert liked it.

 

[gorobei]

Chainsawman movie Reze arc

unrateable.
you either have watched/read Chainsawman or you havent. there is no way to watch the movie coming in cold as it will never make sense.

background: manga series about devils on earth wreaking havoc. human kid finds the chainsaw devil as a doglike thing and they eventually merge. from there on it is a frappe of batshit random crazy and semi-profound moments.
the manga's first arc went well and the 1st season of the anime captured almost everything important and good. but because of developments in the anime industry there is a trend to make movies out of popular series 2nd seasons and eventually cut it up and broadcast it on tv later as they can make way more money from fans buying tickets to rewatch it multiple times.

they went whole hog on the production and it is exactly what anyone who read the manga would hope for in it being animated. the battle scenes are something special if only for the surrealism and not your normal sakuga. they even did the panty gag from the manga.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Chopped (tv series) - cooking competition show. Despite having little culinary skill, i enjoy the creativity exhibited by all the different chefs as they think and cook on their feet to make a meal for the judges (who are generally award-winning chefs)

 

[MrSquished]

The Thicket - Gritty western with Juliette Lewis and Peter Dinklage. Pretty good actually.

Avatar 3 - amazing as always. I can't count the number of times I had a shit-eating grin at the visuals being so good I was in another dimension. The actor who plays Spider is fucking annoying though.

Zodiac - solid flick. Robert downey Jr. playing himself as always. Always love Jake Gyllenhall

Frankenstein - kind of beautiful but I got bored and didn't finish. I will though at some point.

 

[DigDog]

i watched

Woman Of The Hour - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7737800/

Starring AND directed by Anna Kendrick.

I thought this was going to be the story of The Dating Game, but boy, was i wrong.
It is instead the story of a IRL serial killer, who was in fact a contestant on the show.

Kendrick plays the bachelorette, and the film is about their encounter on the show and a bit of his backstory, but she has no role in the conclusion of the film - it's just an abrupt "and then they caught him" ending.

The film is really well directed and acted, Kendrick is shaping up to be one of the best actresses of our generation, and i would put her work as director on this film over anything by Sophia Coppola, and while the film does have a lot of tension - as you'd expect, if you went in to see a film about a serial killer - but the script is weak, with no ending.

Still, would recommend.

6.5/10

 

[QueBert]

Chainsawman movie Reze arc

unrateable.
you either have watched/read Chainsawman or you havent. there is no way to watch the movie coming in cold as it will never make sense.

background: manga series about devils on earth wreaking havoc. human kid finds the chainsaw devil as a doglike thing and they eventually merge. from there on it is a frappe of batshit random crazy and semi-profound moments.
the manga's first arc went well and the 1st season of the anime captured almost everything important and good. but because of developments in the anime industry there is a trend to make movies out of popular series 2nd seasons and eventually cut it up and broadcast it on tv later as they can make way more money from fans buying tickets to rewatch it multiple times.

they went whole hog on the production and it is exactly what anyone who read the manga would hope for in it being animated. the battle scenes are something special if only for the surrealism and not your normal sakuga. they even did the panty gag from the manga.

I've never seen the show, but I decided to watch it because I thought it would be fun to see something with subtitles. Boy, you're not kidding, that was easily the most confused I've ever been in a movie. And when it ended, I still couldn't explain a single thing I saw. The only thing I think I got was the main character seems to fall in love with a female at the drop of a hat. But even that, I had no clue why. I did chuckle that at the end when he went back to that coffee shop, lovingly waiting for the female who was a demon who tried to kill him to show up again lol.

I know this is a wildly popular anime, it was at AMC for months and sold out a bunch of times. I need to watch the series to get back story.

 

[gorobei]

Just as I suspected, a week after watching Anaconda, I went back to RT, the Critic score is a bad 52%, the audiance score's 77


I've never seen the show, but I decided to watch it because I thought it would be fun to see something with subtitles. Boy, you're not kidding, that was easily the most confused I've ever been in a movie. And when it ended, I still couldn't explain a single thing I saw. The only thing I think I got was the main character seems to fall in love with a female at the drop of a hat. But even that, I had no clue why. I did chuckle that at the end when he went back to that coffee shop, lovingly waiting for the female who was a demon who tried to kill him to show up again lol.

I know this is a wildly popular anime, it was at AMC for months and sold out a bunch of times. I need to watch the series to get back story.

yeah you need the beginning before you can jump into the middle. good news is that it is only 12 episodes that go relatively quickly.

the author is tatsuki fujimoto, his previous works were some one shots and Fire Punch(ice age alt earth where protagonist has fast regeneration but gets afflicted with inextinguishable fire so he is constantly burning). he likes western movies so his sensibilities are very different than japanese mainstream and his works tend to be more popular in the western world. he does have a solid understanding of drama/storytelling fundamentals as demonstrated in his short stories that dont use scifi/magic/highconcept.

his art runs toward the film/tv cinematography school of manga so it focuses on clarity of onscreen action. his dialogue is focused on very frank declarations of character's real thoughts rather than polite euphemisms.

as for CSM main character Denji being the way he is: his entire life has been a shitshow so he has never known anything good so good experiences are new-great and sex/women even more so.

i will say the movie animation director went all out to make the esthetic of a bunch of scenes kind of arthouse experimental. if you are getting the time and money to do a movie, you might as well spend it.

 

[DigDog]

i also watched

Weapons - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt26581740/

oof.

Ok so. When the film started, i was really impressed. Fantastic photography, impeccable scene dressing, excellent dialogue, great music, great production on every aspect, great acting - Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, Asian Guy Benedict Wong, but as the film went along i switched from being intrigued, to being annoyed.

It's SO long. It's incredibly poorly paced.

The film is a supernatural mystery horror. One day, in sleepytown USA, the kids of a class - all, except one - vanish. They apparently ran off in the middle of the night and were never seen again.

Obviously the parents are up in arms as they would, police tries to grill everyone because they are fumbling in the dark, etc - fantastic setup.

We are shown several "episodes" one after the other. The first, is of the teacher of that class. She too is distraught at what has happened, and the film shows her react as humanly as you'd expect, not perfectly perhaps but, in a manner which seems realistic.
The we get Brolin's part. He is the dad of one of the kids missing. He thinks the teacher did it because, you know, kids don't just vanish like that. Again, the film sticks to realism and does it well.

The story goes on with several characters - six of them, but by character 3 the setup is complete, and i want the story to move along. Instead no, we have 3 more to go.

The film is 2 hours long and, it's too long. Not just because of the two hours, but because i expect the script to precipitate (i.e. "speed forward"), once we have enough setup elements to do so. And we do from around part 3, and the 3 more that come are frankly unwelcome.

It's a shame, because it's a really well made film. It just needed a bit of trimming near the end.
I would say, this is a similar problem to The Batman. The script really wants to explain to you in full detail every single element, every minute of a character's life when they are not the protagonist, and should instead be condensed to serve the script.

Watch at your own peril.

7/10
should be a 6.5/10, but i really, really liked the production.

 

[Dr. Detroit]

The Last Frontier - S1 E1-10 - Apple TV+ - 5.5/10

I had really high hopes for this, but this was clearly a Netflix show that Apple somehow acquired. The plot holes were ginormous, the timelines were skewed, the AI action scenes were comical, the incessant Hollywood tropes were plentiful. Overacting, mundane script, and my favorite was the cell phone signals these folks got anywhere and everywhere...except when it suited them to not have coverage.

I usually steer clear of this shit but Apple TV let me down hard.

It was confirmed there would not be a 2nd season - but who knows, maybe Netflix picks up S2.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Running Man 2025 - i was impressed. apparently this version is a more faithful adaptation of the novel. Powell does a great job in the lead role.

8/10

 

[DigDog]

Running Man 2025 - i was impressed. apparently this version is a more faithful adaptation of the novel. Powell does a great job in the lead role.

8/10

Yeah, Running Man is a film that has split the youtube reviews, either they like it or they hate it. Normally, there's consensus if a film is good or bad in the independent reviews.

Same for another two films that i may have to watch despite being warned that they are bad, which are
Predator Badlands, and
Avatar Whatsthename.

I had film reviewes i agree with split hard on these films. One said that Badlands is "possibly the best of the franchise, including the original".

we'll see.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Yeah, Running Man is a film that has split the youtube reviews, either they like it or they hate it. Normally, there's consensus if a film is good or bad in the independent reviews.

Same for another two films that i may have to watch despite being warned that they are bad, which are
Predator Badlands, and
Avatar Whatsthename.

I had film reviewes i agree with split hard on these films. One said that Badlands is "possibly the best of the franchise, including the original".

we'll see.

Now i gotta see badlands, because the original predator is one of my favorite movies of all time.

 

[DigDog]

not all reviewers were so gracious .. watch at your own risk.

 

[purbeast0]

Running Man 2025 - i was impressed. apparently this version is a more faithful adaptation of the novel. Powell does a great job in the lead role.

8/10

I don't know how you made it through that trash.

 

[Fenixgoon]

I don't know how you made it through that trash.

I mean i watched the Arnold version, sooooooo 😅