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Movie Time 2.0: TT mini reviews
- Thread starter Rascally Badger
- Start date
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Dredd IS great. A classic in the "guy fights his way up a tower" genre.
I also watched AmbuLAnce on Amazon Prime, owing to a video Patrick H Willems put out, and wouldn't you know, I loved it. I have been dismissing Michael Bay movies out of hand since the whole Transformers thing, but this is a really good action movie that constantly ratchets up the suspense. Great casting and acting, especially from Jake Gyllenhaal, operating comfortably within his Nicolas Cage register.
I also watched AmbuLAnce on Amazon Prime, owing to a video Patrick H Willems put out, and wouldn't you know, I loved it. I have been dismissing Michael Bay movies out of hand since the whole Transformers thing, but this is a really good action movie that constantly ratchets up the suspense. Great casting and acting, especially from Jake Gyllenhaal, operating comfortably within his Nicolas Cage register.
Cant say I particularly enjoyed M3gan, I was expecting, and desiring, something like Child’s Play, and instead got Ex Machina
There was also just the one TikTok murder dance, which was the only thing I knew about the movie besides “murder doll” going in
There was also just the one TikTok murder dance, which was the only thing I knew about the movie besides “murder doll” going in
It's exactly like the Child's Play remake however. I liked both! And Ex Machina!
M3gan was better than I expected and I expected it to be a lot of fun. Goofy-ass movie with like three perfect musical moments. I hope the sequel focuses on the fact that Allison Williams should really be in a lot of legal trouble after all that...
I saw Missing a few nights and it was very good. It is also preposterous. The Jasmin Savoy Brown cameo was funnier to me than anything in M3gan.
Also liked Ambulance when I saw it in theaters!
I saw Missing a few nights and it was very good. It is also preposterous. The Jasmin Savoy Brown cameo was funnier to me than anything in M3gan.
Also liked Ambulance when I saw it in theaters!
Went in to Malignant completely blind, outside of knowing that it’s a weird’un.
That was not overselling things.
Thought I had a handle on what kind of story it was, like, four times before I actually figured it out.
That was not overselling things.
Thought I had a handle on what kind of story it was, like, four times before I actually figured it out.
and by wild coincidence I watched a much more lighthearted horror-comedy that kind of went in a similar direction; Patchwork (which I kept wanting to call “Spliced”, but that’s a different movie). Elevator pitch is that it’s about several women who suddenly wake up and find themselves Frankensteined together into a single body, and figure “Well, we… how do we proceed from here?”
The answer is “Makeovers” and then “Revenge”
It was a pretty fun movie; gotta say. Excellent makeup work, and everyone was clearly having a great time making the movie. It starts off looking like it’s going to be a *lot* more grim and dark than it really is.
The answer is “Makeovers” and then “Revenge”
It was a pretty fun movie; gotta say. Excellent makeup work, and everyone was clearly having a great time making the movie. It starts off looking like it’s going to be a *lot* more grim and dark than it really is.
Gotta say, Guillermo Del Toros Pinocchio is, by far, the best adaptation of the story.
I guess the presense of Ewan MacGregor and people blowing up some nazis was the secret sauce needed to make the story really dazzle
I guess the presense of Ewan MacGregor and people blowing up some nazis was the secret sauce needed to make the story really dazzle
Those were exceptional, but also have to give props to making the whale less of a Large Fish and more of a Cthulhu.
And also Pinocchio’s creation being a straight up Frankenstein scene and his first moments of life having him lurching around like a nightmare incarnate.
This here is a GDT movie.
You should watch Come and See
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
My Classics book club read The Old Capital by Yasunari Kawabata and while I was looking up the history of the book I learned there was a movie (Koto) which was nominated for an Oscar for best foreign language film in 1964. Wasn't able to find it to stream or buy anywhere but risked a download from the site I linked and watched it.
Just lovely. Beautiful shots of all these famous landmarks in Kyoto, matched the book pretty well and just well done. Very niche family drama but like the book it's so subtle and peaceful despite what the family finds out.
Just lovely. Beautiful shots of all these famous landmarks in Kyoto, matched the book pretty well and just well done. Very niche family drama but like the book it's so subtle and peaceful despite what the family finds out.
The Immortalizer (1989)
If you've been thinking about plastic surgery, Dr. Devine would like to change your mind.
I watched the Immortalizer. Dr. Devine has perfected a way to transfer the brains of elderly people into younger host bodies through surgery. As part of this surgery he uses a green serum that re-animates the brain. This aspect of the movie seems like it was stolen from Re-Animator.
Dr. Devine hires some henchmen to capture teenagers in town as hosts for the surgery. One of the teens escapes the henchmen which sets up the action of the movie.
I'm sure I've seen the VHS / DVD box art for the Immortalizer when video stores existed but never rented it. Its a pretty nice cover. It was nice to finally see the film. The Immortalizer is a decently fun horror movie. Although Re-Animator is the superior re-animation film.
If you've been thinking about plastic surgery, Dr. Devine would like to change your mind.
I watched the Immortalizer. Dr. Devine has perfected a way to transfer the brains of elderly people into younger host bodies through surgery. As part of this surgery he uses a green serum that re-animates the brain. This aspect of the movie seems like it was stolen from Re-Animator.
Dr. Devine hires some henchmen to capture teenagers in town as hosts for the surgery. One of the teens escapes the henchmen which sets up the action of the movie.
I'm sure I've seen the VHS / DVD box art for the Immortalizer when video stores existed but never rented it. Its a pretty nice cover. It was nice to finally see the film. The Immortalizer is a decently fun horror movie. Although Re-Animator is the superior re-animation film.
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What is that? Is the title a play on the word lifelike? Is it about robot wives?
I watched Jung_E, a movie from the guy who directed Train to Busan about future scientists trying to use the brain scan of kick ass mercenary as the basis for the ai in their combat robots. But she died years ago, and her daughter leads the team to perfect the AI. The mom became a mercenary to pay for said daughters medical treatments, and even sold her brain to keep the bills being paid after she died. Spoilers, but in the end, war is cancelled and the company behind the project decides to shift into sex robots. Like other Korean favorites, its critique of capitalism is subtle.
I watched Jung_E, a movie from the guy who directed Train to Busan about future scientists trying to use the brain scan of kick ass mercenary as the basis for the ai in their combat robots. But she died years ago, and her daughter leads the team to perfect the AI. The mom became a mercenary to pay for said daughters medical treatments, and even sold her brain to keep the bills being paid after she died. Spoilers, but in the end, war is cancelled and the company behind the project decides to shift into sex robots. Like other Korean favorites, its critique of capitalism is subtle.
Rewatched Big Trouble in Little China.
Between this, Buckaroo Banzai, Leonard Part 6, and I’m sure a slew of others im forgetting, there was a real trend of movies where the central conceit is that it’s the middle part of a long running series that doesn’t exist.
Jack Burton is such a perfect lunkhead.
Between this, Buckaroo Banzai, Leonard Part 6, and I’m sure a slew of others im forgetting, there was a real trend of movies where the central conceit is that it’s the middle part of a long running series that doesn’t exist.
Jack Burton is such a perfect lunkhead.
I think George Lucas did some films like that too. But they're pretty obscure.
oh right, Cadillac Summer was supposed to be a sequel wasn’t it?
Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
After a month of watching (and in most cases re-watching) adventure movies, I decided to dip back into the Criterion Collection for something different and got Robert Altman's 3 Women, I've seen very few Altman films (I only remember seeing Nashville and A Prairie Home Companion) but 3 Women is his Ingmar Bergman inspired psychodrama with Shelley Duvall and Sissy Spacek. Like Persona, it is about two women getting in close proximity and their identities shift and merge but this takes it more as a launching pad rather than just a pastiche (though the music feels very much like what you would expect from a Bergman movie).
Spacek and Duvall are very good at playing two very awkward people, albeit in different ways. Duvall is a lonely woman who talks exclusively about banal trivia and food (I can relate) to everyone else's disinterest, like she is desperately trying to be interesting to a heavy flop sweat degree. Meanwhile, Spacek is ridiculously childish for her age (she's playing younger than Duvall but is acting like a 9 year old for a lot of the movie) and she thinks Duvall's character is the bee's knees,. the coolest person ever... and begins emulating her in a way that would be charming for a kid but weird for a grown-up (even a young grown-up). The two move in together and it is clear there's something... deceptive about both. But in mostly ways that don't seem overtly sinister. More like they are trying to put on airs or seem impressive. Spacek is a little moreso, childishly reading Duvall's diary or taking small things from her.
But at the midway point, something happens that shifts things and Spacek's mimicry gets more aggressive and moves from "sincerest form of flattery" to "I'm going to be you, but better." And things get murkier from there. I think I actually like this film better than persona, though I feel like even though the ambiguous ending is ambiguous there's something about it that feels a little too... arch, for lack of a better word? Maybe a little too trying to impress with something impactful. But I still like the film. It's the kind that is fun to play with in your heard afterward, trying to unpack it but is also vague enough to not easily spell everything out. But the best is those performances.
Spacek and Duvall are very good at playing two very awkward people, albeit in different ways. Duvall is a lonely woman who talks exclusively about banal trivia and food (I can relate) to everyone else's disinterest, like she is desperately trying to be interesting to a heavy flop sweat degree. Meanwhile, Spacek is ridiculously childish for her age (she's playing younger than Duvall but is acting like a 9 year old for a lot of the movie) and she thinks Duvall's character is the bee's knees,. the coolest person ever... and begins emulating her in a way that would be charming for a kid but weird for a grown-up (even a young grown-up). The two move in together and it is clear there's something... deceptive about both. But in mostly ways that don't seem overtly sinister. More like they are trying to put on airs or seem impressive. Spacek is a little moreso, childishly reading Duvall's diary or taking small things from her.
But at the midway point, something happens that shifts things and Spacek's mimicry gets more aggressive and moves from "sincerest form of flattery" to "I'm going to be you, but better." And things get murkier from there. I think I actually like this film better than persona, though I feel like even though the ambiguous ending is ambiguous there's something about it that feels a little too... arch, for lack of a better word? Maybe a little too trying to impress with something impactful. But I still like the film. It's the kind that is fun to play with in your heard afterward, trying to unpack it but is also vague enough to not easily spell everything out. But the best is those performances.
jpfriction
(He, Him)
I was going to express incredulity that Sissy Spacek made two movies about this exact thing but apparently that’s Brigid Fonda in Single White Female. I guess I had the two movies conflated.
Surf II: The End of the Trilogy (1983)
The movie that gives insanity a bad name.
There is no Surf I. The title is a joke.
I watched Surf II last night for the first time. This is a pretty fun cult movie.
A nerd name Menlo was bullied by surfers when he was young. As an adult he develops Buzz Cola to get revenge on the surfers. Surfers drink Buzz and turn into mindless New Wave Goth zombies. The good surfer kids and the new wave goth zombies are on a collision course that culminates in a surfing competition.
Surf II is an 80s sex comedy movie, zombie movie, surfing movie, and consumer culture satire rolled into one messy film. I imagine this being a real love it or hate it movie for most people. I enjoyed the ride.
1/2
The blu-ray box indicates that this movie influenced the Simpsons. I don't know if I would go that far; but I could see Matt Groening or other Simpsons creators being fans of the film.
The movie that gives insanity a bad name.
There is no Surf I. The title is a joke.
I watched Surf II last night for the first time. This is a pretty fun cult movie.
A nerd name Menlo was bullied by surfers when he was young. As an adult he develops Buzz Cola to get revenge on the surfers. Surfers drink Buzz and turn into mindless New Wave Goth zombies. The good surfer kids and the new wave goth zombies are on a collision course that culminates in a surfing competition.
Surf II is an 80s sex comedy movie, zombie movie, surfing movie, and consumer culture satire rolled into one messy film. I imagine this being a real love it or hate it movie for most people. I enjoyed the ride.
1/2The blu-ray box indicates that this movie influenced the Simpsons. I don't know if I would go that far; but I could see Matt Groening or other Simpsons creators being fans of the film.
- Danny Elfman's Oingo Boingo contribues music to the soundtrack.
- A father two hand chokes a son in Homer and Bart style.
- The last line of the movie is Steamed Clams.
Was I subconsciously influenced by this thread in selecting Surf II to watch last night? Maybe.
Watched Underwater, the Kristen Stewart movie that is Alien in all ways except that it takes place Down instead of Up.
Since Alien itself is basically a perfect film, it stands to reason that a movie that is Pretty Much Exactly That Again is similarly very very good.
Thanks for accidentally using a deep sea drill to dig up Cthulhu, Kristen Stewart
Since Alien itself is basically a perfect film, it stands to reason that a movie that is Pretty Much Exactly That Again is similarly very very good.
Thanks for accidentally using a deep sea drill to dig up Cthulhu, Kristen Stewart
Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
Homebodies is a weird little 70s movie that appeared on Shudder but a mostly good one. And a perfect double bill with The Amusement Park for a "We treat our old people pretty inhumanely, don't we" night. It's a satire thriller in a Alfred Hitchcock Presents mode about a condemned building that is planning to relocate old people who want to stay put. The tenants begin sabotaging a building project to by more time but eventually they turn to murder.
I really like this low budget little film. It's a not-subtle social satire about old people being treated like obstacles or burdens and not like people and the old people get to strike back. There are people we don't mind see dying but this feels more nuanced than slashers full of unlikable characters so we can enjoy their deaths. The construction workers are clearly concerned with their own safety on the project but they are victims like anyone. And our protagonists start to realize they are the villains when they too start seeing humans as obstacles and things get complicated when some of them start turning on each other. I don't like the very last shot because I think it robs it of a bit of power just for the sake of a fun surprise. But overall, I think more people should check this one out, it's a really fun hidden gem of the era.
Man, this trailer REALLY overplays the humour aspect of the movie.
I really like this low budget little film. It's a not-subtle social satire about old people being treated like obstacles or burdens and not like people and the old people get to strike back. There are people we don't mind see dying but this feels more nuanced than slashers full of unlikable characters so we can enjoy their deaths. The construction workers are clearly concerned with their own safety on the project but they are victims like anyone. And our protagonists start to realize they are the villains when they too start seeing humans as obstacles and things get complicated when some of them start turning on each other. I don't like the very last shot because I think it robs it of a bit of power just for the sake of a fun surprise. But overall, I think more people should check this one out, it's a really fun hidden gem of the era.
Man, this trailer REALLY overplays the humour aspect of the movie.
surprisingly (but not that surprising considering his viewing preferences), my father has never watched Alien before.
This oversight has been corrected. And clearly successfully given the number of times he said “Holy shit, this is a good movie” and “This was made in 1979?!?”
He was also absolutely convinced that the cat was secretly evil clear up until the very end when I had to explain that, no, it’s just a cat.
This oversight has been corrected. And clearly successfully given the number of times he said “Holy shit, this is a good movie” and “This was made in 1979?!?”
He was also absolutely convinced that the cat was secretly evil clear up until the very end when I had to explain that, no, it’s just a cat.
Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
This means it is conspicuously evil.