I'll co-sign all that about Woman of the Hour.
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Movie Time 2.0: TT mini reviews
- Thread starter Rascally Badger
- Start date
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- Tags
- movies
The People’s Joker? More like A Good Movie.
There are sixteen minutes of credits in the new Venom movie and yeah a post-credits scene. Absolutely should have just gone home.
Hundreds of Beavers couldn’t make up its mind whether it was a silent movie, a Loony a tunes cartoon, or a video game movie. This did not impede watching it. Quite the opposite, I don’t think I stopped saying “Where are you going with this?” about every five minutes. Not every joke landed, but enough of them landed well, and I wasn’t bored, despite its longer than expected runtime.
Speaking as the worlds #1 Skyline fan, I knew I had had to stop at nothing to watch the third film, Skylin3s.
Then, four years passed and I said “Oh right, I really liked those first two” and remembered to watch it.
The original film was a pretty good sci fi horror movie starring the black guy from Scrubs as he and his friends tried *real hard* to avoid being noticed by the surprise alien invasion happening outside their window. Low budget but effective for what it was. The second, Beyond Skyline swung hard, starting with different characters and speedrunning the first movie, turning into a prison escape movie and thenthe movie becoming a kind of budget Independence Day knockoff (paid for by also becoming a tourism video for Vietnam. Or possibly Thailand, I forget which). It also had a cliffhanger sequel hook ending… and apparently the movie just ended, like, five minutes too soon since this third one opens with a recap that barely extended past that before cutting to five years later.
Now the first movie was just the one story, and the sequel was three, so, naturally, Skylin3s had to shift gear entirely about every ten minutes or so. Just off the top of my head we’ve got some Aliens, some Blade 2, some Forbidden Planet, some Resident Evil 5, some Atlantis, some Escape from New York all at various points, the plot shifts gears so often that even when it’s a predictable plot twist, just wait a few minutes because an entirely different plot will happen instead. Occasionally they’ll hold together narratively, mostly, no, it’s just a rapid switch form one set piece to another and I think the writers kind of forgot to do a second draft.
90% of the time the visuals really hold together well, using CG sparingly to enhance the (really good) practical effects, but when it’s full CG the effect is really lessened. Some of the feats look absolutely incredible, others look like a PS1 cutscene.
Anyway, the least boring way to spend 2 hours if you’re in the mood to watch a bunch of people inadequately explain why they’re on an alien planet looking for a space egg.
Then, four years passed and I said “Oh right, I really liked those first two” and remembered to watch it.
The original film was a pretty good sci fi horror movie starring the black guy from Scrubs as he and his friends tried *real hard* to avoid being noticed by the surprise alien invasion happening outside their window. Low budget but effective for what it was. The second, Beyond Skyline swung hard, starting with different characters and speedrunning the first movie, turning into a prison escape movie and thenthe movie becoming a kind of budget Independence Day knockoff (paid for by also becoming a tourism video for Vietnam. Or possibly Thailand, I forget which). It also had a cliffhanger sequel hook ending… and apparently the movie just ended, like, five minutes too soon since this third one opens with a recap that barely extended past that before cutting to five years later.
Now the first movie was just the one story, and the sequel was three, so, naturally, Skylin3s had to shift gear entirely about every ten minutes or so. Just off the top of my head we’ve got some Aliens, some Blade 2, some Forbidden Planet, some Resident Evil 5, some Atlantis, some Escape from New York all at various points, the plot shifts gears so often that even when it’s a predictable plot twist, just wait a few minutes because an entirely different plot will happen instead. Occasionally they’ll hold together narratively, mostly, no, it’s just a rapid switch form one set piece to another and I think the writers kind of forgot to do a second draft.
90% of the time the visuals really hold together well, using CG sparingly to enhance the (really good) practical effects, but when it’s full CG the effect is really lessened. Some of the feats look absolutely incredible, others look like a PS1 cutscene.
Anyway, the least boring way to spend 2 hours if you’re in the mood to watch a bunch of people inadequately explain why they’re on an alien planet looking for a space egg.
The video game or the movie?
Video game; part of the plot is part of the plot is that the former-human-now-bug-guy aliens are succ7mbing to a disease that’s making them feral. So a doctor, her plucky sidekick and a karate lunatic with claw-arms have to fight through a hoard of… well… sick people by giving them lead injections.
Finally watched the original Taking of Pelham 123, which was maybe the New Yorkest movie I’ve ever seen. You can also really tell how much Die Hard owes to the movie. The main difference between them is that Nakatomi Plaza doesn’t move around and Reginald Vel Johnson and Bruce Willis were condensed into a single Walter Matthau.
It was also funnier than I expected.
On the flip side I did some Tubi dredging and wound up with Dark Cloud, which has nothing to do with the video game. Instead it’s pretty much Demon Seed except that nobody has any problem with the super intelligent smart house taking control of a woman’s life until the last twenty minutes or so when the scriptwriter said “Oh yeah… probably need some conflict here, huh?” All the horror elements are completely off screen at the most graphic, implied. It keeps *almost* doing stuff that would make for a better movie (the house can create super realistic holograms and beam images into the woman’s eyes, this is… basically never used) or implying a conflict between her need to connect to other people and the house trying to keep her for itself for her safety but again does not come up.
So it’s about a solid hour of a lady who allegedly has Memento level memory issues being pleased with her futuristic super house and then deciding to kill it with an axe for 20 minutes.
It was also funnier than I expected.
On the flip side I did some Tubi dredging and wound up with Dark Cloud, which has nothing to do with the video game. Instead it’s pretty much Demon Seed except that nobody has any problem with the super intelligent smart house taking control of a woman’s life until the last twenty minutes or so when the scriptwriter said “Oh yeah… probably need some conflict here, huh?” All the horror elements are completely off screen at the most graphic, implied. It keeps *almost* doing stuff that would make for a better movie (the house can create super realistic holograms and beam images into the woman’s eyes, this is… basically never used) or implying a conflict between her need to connect to other people and the house trying to keep her for itself for her safety but again does not come up.
So it’s about a solid hour of a lady who allegedly has Memento level memory issues being pleased with her futuristic super house and then deciding to kill it with an axe for 20 minutes.
I think it was 100% a silent Looney Tunes cartoon, and it was delightful.
My favorite moment was seeing the opening musical act, and then afterwords slowly going Wait...wait, is the whole movie like this? Oh my god, the whole movie is like this. Wait, that's awesome.
Hell of the Living Dead (aka Night of the Zombies aka Virus) (1980)
Format / Platform: Tubi
Hope Labs unleashes a virus in New Guinea that turns people into zombies in the prologue.
A military group stops a kidnapping attempt at an American embassy. Their next assignment is in New Guinea.
A group of reporters is documenting the environmental impact of Hope Labs in New Guinea.
At about the 1/3 mark of the movie the military group and the reporters meet up at a mission and are attacked by zombies. From here on out the film is one zombie encounter after another as the group travels to Hope Labs.
A few notes on the film:
This is primarily an exploitation movie full of gore and some nudity. There are a lot of gore shots as zombies eat people and animals. There is also a sequence where a female reporter gets topless to "blend in" with the natives.
Secondarily this movie is about corporations ruining the environment and not caring about the impact on people. Its odd to me that this movie from the early 80s has themes that still resonate today. Even more depressing, it feels like people in the 70s and 80s were more concerned about the environment despite having far less information than we have today.
The movie is probably about 1/3 stock footage. There are shots of industrial plants for Hope labs, shots of animals, and shots of native tribes that may be but probably are not Guinea. A lot of stock footage padding!
This movie has a Goblin score! Zombie movies and Goblin scores are like peanut butter and chocolate: they just go well together.
It feels like this movie is a reference point for Resident Evil 5. No idea if it actually is or not.
I enjoyed this exploitation horror movie.
Rating (out of 5):
Format / Platform: Tubi
Hope Labs unleashes a virus in New Guinea that turns people into zombies in the prologue.
A military group stops a kidnapping attempt at an American embassy. Their next assignment is in New Guinea.
A group of reporters is documenting the environmental impact of Hope Labs in New Guinea.
At about the 1/3 mark of the movie the military group and the reporters meet up at a mission and are attacked by zombies. From here on out the film is one zombie encounter after another as the group travels to Hope Labs.
A few notes on the film:
This is primarily an exploitation movie full of gore and some nudity. There are a lot of gore shots as zombies eat people and animals. There is also a sequence where a female reporter gets topless to "blend in" with the natives.
Secondarily this movie is about corporations ruining the environment and not caring about the impact on people. Its odd to me that this movie from the early 80s has themes that still resonate today. Even more depressing, it feels like people in the 70s and 80s were more concerned about the environment despite having far less information than we have today.
The movie is probably about 1/3 stock footage. There are shots of industrial plants for Hope labs, shots of animals, and shots of native tribes that may be but probably are not Guinea. A lot of stock footage padding!
This movie has a Goblin score! Zombie movies and Goblin scores are like peanut butter and chocolate: they just go well together.
It feels like this movie is a reference point for Resident Evil 5. No idea if it actually is or not.
I enjoyed this exploitation horror movie.
Rating (out of 5):
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Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
I don't think I can imagine a more incomprehensible 80s teen movie than Dream a Little Dream. Everyone is clearly improvising the entire movie and because the Coreys are completely coked out of their minds, consistency is not concern.
Red Rooms, ou Les chambres rouges, est vraiment fucked up. It’s the best film I’ve seen this year. Truly reminded me why I love movies.
Wicked was good. As someone whose only exposure to the musical is the original Broadway soundtrack, (never seen the actual show) I do think the final song is weirdly rendered much less powerful by pointless non-musical padding. Like maybe the musical was like that, but probably not. The other musical numbers in the film didn’t feel that way. I think the ending would probably be more thrilling with undiluted Defying Gravity, u know?
Wicked was good. As someone whose only exposure to the musical is the original Broadway soundtrack, (never seen the actual show) I do think the final song is weirdly rendered much less powerful by pointless non-musical padding. Like maybe the musical was like that, but probably not. The other musical numbers in the film didn’t feel that way. I think the ending would probably be more thrilling with undiluted Defying Gravity, u know?
I'm not a theater kid. However, the Wizard of Oz is my favorite movie and Wicked is my favorite musical.
I thought the movie version was okay. I thought the movie needed hour cut from the run time and splitting it up into two parts seems real questionable.
I don't see myself watching this again at any point.
I did like that in a movie designed for the masses the director found space for an interpretive dance sequence.
Went through Sonic 1 & 2 with my boyfriend over the past few days alongside a bit of the Knuckles show and these are great! Probably the latest to the party with talking about these movies but they’re just really fun and I’m surprised with how much I like the human cast in them?
Well it’s a time for scary ghost stories and tales of the glories of christmases long ago, so I watched three horror movies, two of which are at least winter holiday based.
Y2K is a horror comedy that’s… pretty much precisely Maximum Overdrive, but somehow not as silly, despite being a comedy. The first third or so is a bit of a slog, but after Every Computer Turns Evil things pick up. There’s lots of really solid practical effects and most of the jokes land pretty well. The main character is a kind of unlikeable dud, but even that eventually works as a joke, so… fine time all around. A good 7/10.
Rare Exports I had high hopes for but ultimately it didn’t land as well as I’d hoped. Also, despite being billed as a horror comedy the only real joke is “Santa is the monster”, and that’s not really played with much. Not as fun as Krampus and I wasn’t a big fan of that either.
Hellbound: Hellraiser 2 doesn’t really fit with a seasonal theme (I guess if Eyes Wide Shut is a Christmas movie than… I mean… there’s kind of a comparison there?) but it was pretty good. Didn’t like it as much as the original or the reboot, but really enjoyed it despite that. Again, *astounding* practical effects. Hell is apparently a carnival spookhouse except with more sex, but the image of Leviathan presiding over it is *real cool*.
Much of the plot hinges on everyone being really interested in a blood-soaked, used mattress or else making out with strange ladies who you’re sure just killed and ate some people.
Y2K is a horror comedy that’s… pretty much precisely Maximum Overdrive, but somehow not as silly, despite being a comedy. The first third or so is a bit of a slog, but after Every Computer Turns Evil things pick up. There’s lots of really solid practical effects and most of the jokes land pretty well. The main character is a kind of unlikeable dud, but even that eventually works as a joke, so… fine time all around. A good 7/10.
Rare Exports I had high hopes for but ultimately it didn’t land as well as I’d hoped. Also, despite being billed as a horror comedy the only real joke is “Santa is the monster”, and that’s not really played with much. Not as fun as Krampus and I wasn’t a big fan of that either.
Hellbound: Hellraiser 2 doesn’t really fit with a seasonal theme (I guess if Eyes Wide Shut is a Christmas movie than… I mean… there’s kind of a comparison there?) but it was pretty good. Didn’t like it as much as the original or the reboot, but really enjoyed it despite that. Again, *astounding* practical effects. Hell is apparently a carnival spookhouse except with more sex, but the image of Leviathan presiding over it is *real cool*.
Much of the plot hinges on everyone being really interested in a blood-soaked, used mattress or else making out with strange ladies who you’re sure just killed and ate some people.
Meanwhile, Christmas Vacation is a film I have no notes regarding
Oh yeah, worth saying that Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is fantastic! I went in with pretty reasonable expectations and I don’t think it’s my favorite they’ve released but it’s a very strong film in its own right. Very pleasantly surprised and I think it’s likely to be my favorite film of the year. Just a shame it won’t be released globally till Jan 3rd on Netflix.
Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
Having not seen Sonics 1 and 2, I can say that it's fine. Jim Carrey is Jack Black levels of bringing it. I can see why this is the only character he wants to play ever from now on.
Also, mom was confused and could only identify the "blue one" as Sonic. She asked the name of the fox with two tails and upon learning the answer sighed and said "of course". My nephew's favourite character is the one who showed up in the post credits scene for two seconds.
To be fair, I feel like the movie, despite it taking place on regular Earth and having some regular human characters feels so Sega that a middling rock song about friendship or motivation or something plays during the climax. I can only assume this is a song from the game series but if not, someone who made the song for the movie understood the assignment.
Also, mom was confused and could only identify the "blue one" as Sonic. She asked the name of the fox with two tails and upon learning the answer sighed and said "of course". My nephew's favourite character is the one who showed up in the post credits scene for two seconds.
To be fair, I feel like the movie, despite it taking place on regular Earth and having some regular human characters feels so Sega that a middling rock song about friendship or motivation or something plays during the climax. I can only assume this is a song from the game series but if not, someone who made the song for the movie understood the assignment.
Lomglegs didn’t really live up to its reputation. It’s got some top tier Weird Nic Cage acting, don’t get me wrong, but for a movie that was shooting for Silence of the Lambs except with a supernatural twist it was… kind of limp through all of it.
“The devil sucks at birthday parties” is the lesson here, I guess.
“The devil sucks at birthday parties” is the lesson here, I guess.
Yeah. I'm in the same shoes. I don't know if the movie was all that great. But I bet if I was 10 years old, or worshiped Sonic back when I was 10, this probably would have been the best thing ever. It sure seemed like it was to the zoomer-work colleagues I went to go watch this with.
And as someone who has only a small fondness for the Genesis and DC eras of Sonic, I'll say the movie was worth it mostly just to get to watch Jim Carrey do Jim Carrey things. There's a whole music-video like sequence where Jim Carrey
dances with him to a laser show[/ispoiler] and it's absolute cinema.
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
Watched Conclave while my mom was visiting. I knew basically nothing going into it other than that it must have something to do with naming a new Pope due to the name. I thought it was absolutely spectacular until the very end when there's something new revealed about a candidate. The movie felt like it had completed its story and we were ready to end, then it just did more that didn't quite work for me plot-wise.
Apparently that last bit is also in the original book so I'm certainly happy that they didn't get scared and cut it out, but I think the movie was already fantastic without it and it felt a little tacked on and trying to make a statement but not fully committing to it? I'd be curious if it's more integrated in the plot in the original book.
Apparently that last bit is also in the original book so I'm certainly happy that they didn't get scared and cut it out, but I think the movie was already fantastic without it and it felt a little tacked on and trying to make a statement but not fully committing to it? I'd be curious if it's more integrated in the plot in the original book.
Nosferatu: very good. Lily-Rose Depp had a lot more to do than I was expecting and was great. Aaron Taylor-Johnson is like in a different film entirely, but in a way that works for me…
I knew there had to be something about that candidate because otherwise the conclusion would have been too pat. I agree that I'm not sure how well the ending works.
Olli
(he/him)
Yep, it was a bit... light? Anyway, I loved the movie; it was suspenseful from the start to the end despite very boring seeming trappings.
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
Okay yeah I want to see this.