Topic: "What Movies Have You Seen Lately?" Thread

[Cobra951]

November Criminals may be short, but it took me 3 sittings to get through it.  It just dragged, maybe because I couldn't sympathize with the protagonist.  Abrupt (non-)endings are an infuriating recent fad in movie making.  Tell me the whole story you set out to tell me.  That's your job.  Don't burden me with imagining or deducing its conclusion.

While I liked The Foreigner overall, I had a serious problem with . . . how do I put this . . . facts not in evidence. 

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Jackie Chan's character can either be a sympathetic antihero, or a despicable criminal, depending on what the relevant truth ultimately turns out to be.  But that truth is not established until late in the film, not for us or for him.

Of the films I've watched since Coco, I have to pick The Shape of Water as the most memorable.  Picture picking up where The Creature from the Black Lagoon left off, back in its time, and letting Guillermo del Toro's imagination loose on it.  Strange and compelling.

Edit:  My comments on the first 2 films are a reply to MysterD's post at the end of the previous page.  Sorry to bury your post, bro.  Page transitions suck. 

[MysterD]

I thought The Shape of Water was really good - but, overrated. I still preferred Pan's Labyrinth over it.

I saw A Quiet Place yesterday and loved it. Just the way that any sound can amplify things in this film, as you know once a sound hits, crap can get intense and hit the fan. One of the better horror movies that I've seen since Get Out.

Terminal seemed quite under-rated, as the acting was awesome & so was the gorgeous lighting/look/setting and whatnot of this neo-noir comedy/action movie. It was really good; way better than expected, Great dialogue and flair, reminiscent of the hyper-dialogue you'd get from a Tarantino film. Some really awesome and nasty twists, at least 2 of them here that I did not see coming. The other one, I guessed - but not the other 2 twists. Especially the final twist; never saw that one coming. Also, Margot Robbie steals the show; she's awesome in this.

[Cobra951]

Yes, A Quiet Place was a very pleasant surprise.  I don't usually care much for such movies.  If you haven't watched Creature from the Black Lagoon, do it to understand why I had a grin on my face while watching The Shape of Water.  Now, Terminal I thought was just plain weird.  I had fun watching it, and I'll watch anything with Margot at least once.  But I doubt I'll ever repeat the experience.

Ready Player One is a must watch for everyone here.  This is the fun Spielberg, not the serious Spielberg, and it delves entertainingly into who we in this community are, and have been.

I enjoyed TAU quite a bit.  Where AI goes depends on where it gets taken.

The Endless was also worthwhile also worthwhile also worthwhile.

[scottws]

A Quiet Place was a decent horror movie, but horror movies are almost universally terrible so it's not exactly a high bar to clear. It's basically like Tremors except with better production value and the protagonists have to be quiet instead of not walk on the ground. I suppose its story is a bit more complex than Tremors. Aaaand... it has Emily Blunt. She's hot.

[Cobra951]

Avengers: Infinity War - Are you fucking kidding me?  Is humanity about to pass around the hemlock like the ancient Greeks?  How can anyone consider this relentlessly depressing exercise in futility entertainment?  Jesus.  Blow me to Bermuda.

[idolminds]

Hah, yeah. I just saw Infinity War as well. I liked it well enough but you're right. It's clearly the dark middle chapter. Sucks that it will likely be a bit before they make the next one to clear things up.

[Cobra951]

I kinda figure it had to be an incomplete story.  I just didn't know it until the credits rolled.  If movies are no longer going to be complete stories, they need to have numbers, like "2 of 3".  My comic-book days are long gone, and it totally blindsided me.  I felt so used.

Hey, watch Tag.  I haven't had this much fun with a movie in a long time.  It isn't perfect.  Nothing is.  But, ha!  It's close.

[scottws]

I totally forgot about Tag. I need to see that.

[Quemaqua]

Reminds me that I need to see A Quiet Place, mostly because I love horror movies but my girlfriend hates them. But she agreed to see that one because she thought it looked neat. Is it streaming anywhere yet?

I thought Infinity War was good. Curious to see how it all ends. Loved Ant-Man and the Wasp as well, though not sure if I liked the first one better. I went back and watched basically the entire Marvel movie catalog because I'd missed most of them when I got sick of superhero movies. But I had a real good time going back through them all. Thor: Ragnarok in particular was a treat. I'm looking forward to picking up the Japanese version while I'm in Japan. It's actually got a dub, and it looks hysterical.

[Cobra951]

Yeah, I definitely want to see where Infinity War leads.  I just wish I had known ahead of time, like I did with Harry Potter's final book.  I knew it was split in half, for the screen, so I waited for the whole thing to come out before I watched any of it.  (Deathly Hallows was properly named "Part 1" and "Part 2" in the movies.)

Definitely watch A Quiet Place.  Not often does a horror movie get the full quality treatment, especially acting.  Speaking of which, Toni Collette is even more impressive than Emily Blunt, in Hereditary.  I did not like that story nearly as well.  I figured out where it was going well ahead of time, and

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I'm just not into fatalistic stories--because if nothing the characters do changes their horrible fate, why not save me the time and just cut to the chase?  If curling into a fetal position and rocking for an hour would lead to the same conclusion, why bother fleshing out all the inconsequential drama?

  This is the fatal flaw for me in 90% of modern horror movies.

[Cobra951]

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse - a must-see.  It's a defining point in movie animation; plus the rest of the production is top-notch, including story and voice acting.  I say this despite the identity politics evident throughout, and which probably even fueled the premise itself.  (How do we make established superheroes diverse without taking away the originals?)  If Hollywood can't separate itself from those, at least using them to this stunning effect is a saving grace.  3D is apparently required to get the full experience.  I wouldn't know, yet.

[MysterD]

@Cobra
I absolutely loved Spider-Verse. It felt like the mixture of a comic book, movie, and CG-fest all come to life. It was fun, unpredictable, and really well put together.

[Cobra951]

Apollo 11 (2019) started with high-quality, high-def footage of what looked like some huge new machine on treads, slowly lumbering on, led by a foreman-looking dude in a hard hat.  Then I got a gander at what it was carrying--a Saturn V, vertical, and fully prepped for action.  At that point, I suspected I was in for something special.  It didn't take long to confirm that.

Nothing in this masterful documentary is faked, recreated, narrated, or cheapened with politics.  It plays as a feature movie of the entire event, from pre-launch till after capsule recovery, in the participants' own voices and actions, surrounded by media and onlookers (and puts First Man to shame, deservedly so).  It was made possible by recently-outed archived footage on 35mm, 65mm and 70mm film, which looks like it was shot yesterday, as well as some 11,000 hours of audio, some never before released.  The editing and composition are fabulous.  It all comes together as well as the historic event and its top-quality record deserve.

I was alive then, and old enough to know what was happening.   I remember the excitement of watching on a GE 13" B&W TV set and a Curtis-Mathes 25" color TV.  This film brings it all closer and in more vivid detail than I've ever experienced.  I wish I had seen it on IMAX.

[Pugnate]

The last film I saw was the new Spider-Man movie and it was pretty entertaining. Better than the first.

[MysterD]

The Hunt - One of the most bat-crap crazy films I've seen in a bit. Up there w/ crazy flicks like The Purge (the original one) and Ready or Not (two other films, I really liked). Written by Damon Lindelof (and Nick Cuse), which should be noted here.

So, around 12 people wind-up in some unknown location w/ weapons, for...well, all kinds of reasons. I won't get into the details, as it's all spoiler turf...and also very politically charged. The less you know going in, the better.

As an action/thriller/horror/comedy hodge-podge film, it's a damn relentless blast of a movie for 1 hr and a half for fans of any of those genres...or all of those. Easy recommendation.

[idolminds]

I watched The Head Hunter the other night. Lots of atmosphere with very minimal dialog. You just kind of get a sense of this fantasy world through the things you see. Not really sure if I liked the conclusion but it was a fun watch.

[scottws]

The most recent movie I watched was The Endless, which I see Cobra (forum RIP) mentioned two years ago. Very Lovecraft, and very wonderful to watch. I'm glad I came across that one.

I also saw Guy Ritchie's The Gentlemen and really enjoyed it. I didn't like it as much as Snatch, but that's a very high bar. It gets close enough.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: I absolutely loved it. Is it weird that I was laughing out loud during the climax?

Oh, and I really, really liked Rise of Skywalker. Shoot me. I even renamed my phone "Sith Wayfinder" so that it shows "Sith Wayfinder Connected" on my in-dash display in my car. My wife doesn't love that.

Edit: I forgot that the most recent movie I watched was Just Mercy. It's based on a true story and stars Michael B. Jordan as a Harvard-grad lawyer providing free law services in the 1980s and 1990s to inmates in The South on death row. The story centers on a case of an individual acted by Jamie Foxx who was accused of a murder of a white woman. It was very well done and I'm glad that Amazon offered such movies free in honor of BLM, otherwise I probably would have never seen it.

[MysterD]

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: I absolutely loved it. Is it weird that I was laughing out loud during the climax?

I was both shocked and laughing out loud by the end, too. With a film that was going on for so long w/out some of the Quentin type of moments often found in his other films...

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...namely, I mean Quentin type of moments as his trademark of violence, gore, and brutality - well, hell; he delivers a crazy amount of that in a small portion of the film & makes an unbelievable alternate world type of ending (where they all survive Manson murders).

It was a hell of a swerve & great ending, since we all know what happened w/ the horrible events in the real world.

Edit: I forgot that the most recent movie I watched was Just Mercy. It's based on a true story and stars Michael B. Jordan as a Harvard-grad lawyer providing free law services in the 1980s and 1990s to inmates in The South on death row. The story centers on a case of an individual acted by Jamie Foxx who was accused of a murder of a white woman. It was very well done and I'm glad that Amazon offered such movies free in honor of BLM, otherwise I probably would have never seen it.

Caught this on Redbox's Streaming service for free. I thought it was fantastic.