Movie Time 2.0: TT mini reviews

[Rascally Badger]

Because not all movies are worth their own thread.

I watched The Sleepover, a netflix movie starring Malin Ackerman, Joe Manganiello, and Ken Marino. Also, plenty of children. Its kind of like Spy Kids. Ken Marino almost gets it over the finish line. There is no one better suited to playing a well-meaning but kind of dim father.

 

[Vaeran]

Continuing my exploration of jidaigeki cinema, I watched Akira Kurosawa's Ran a couple days ago. It's actually an adaptation of King Lear, with all the joy, whimsy and mirth that implies. It's also an incredible looking film for 1985. The number of extras, many on horseback, they managed to fit into the battle scenes was extraordinary, and the color-coded uniforms for each of the three brothers' armies were sharp and eye-catching. (It's my understanding that the costume designer won an award for this movie, and deservedly so.) There's one battle sequence in the first third of the film that plays out as a montage of carnage with no dialogue or sound effects, just mournful score over panning shots of castles on fire and bloody slumped soldiers. Amazingly effective.

 

[Octopus Prime]

Continuing my own mission to watch the entire Species series. Which... is really not looking to reclaim the level of fun that made me love the first movie so much. Species 3, at least, wasn't *reprehensible* like the second movie was, it was merely really boring (albeit with some exemplary practical effects). Natasha Hensdridge ain't even in this one, past the first five minutes where she Comes Back To Life (yet again) and is then immediately killed off (again) in time to give birth to the new Species lady; Sunny Mabrey.

Well, just one movie left to see if they can turn this train-wreck around

 

[Paul le Fou]

Caught a little movie called Ghost Light that my girlfriend was watching yesterday. Basically, a small theater company is putting on Macbeth but two of the people break the rules and bring on the curse. Cary Elwes plays the talentless rich guy who landed the role of Macbeth, and Carol Kane is an actress playing one of the witches. Overall, the movie was nothing special, but it kept me interested, was kinda funny, ends well, and I'd say worth a free watch if you're bored and don't have anything else on your watch list.

 

[pudik]

I watched Uncut Gems the other day and above all else it is a great watch. It's so extremely stressful; everything happens all at once and it's a series of teases that everything will work out, and maybe it does? IIn light that it's still just relentlessly entertaining, sandler is great, kg is great, soundtrack great. I love the beauty of kg resonating so much with the opal and it leads into his monologue extremely well (which is the clear high point)

 

[Jeanie]

Bill & Ted Face The Music

Yeah, okay, that makes sense at the end, just like Rufus said it would. I liked it.

 

[Rascally Badger]

I read a review that described Project Power as a movie that tills some very thematically rich soil and proceeds to plant nothing in it. There are two movies here fighting against each other. One is a sort of what if a dime store John Wick showed up in a superhero movie; the other is superhero movie that uses the real world background of racial injustice. What results is a movie that bring up a lot of ideas of systemic injustice and poverty and America's racist past/present and then tells a fairly straightforward action movie story. At least Jamie Foxx and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are good.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Watched The Disaster Artist over the weekend. It was about half-way through that I remembered I never actually have watched the Room and know all about it purely via video clips and cultural osmosis. I heard complaints that if you are unfamiliar with the Room, it lacks something but while I can't speak to that, I feel like it is a good movie on its own terms about a weird guy who has possessive feelings towards his friend and wants to do things on his own terms to a ridiculous and often unpleasant degree. I also feel that its kind of a look at the art of filmmaking in general, because as shitty as the movie is, it feels like a lot of what the people involved go through probably echoes strongly the experience of working on a more "legitimate" film. My one complaint is I could have done with side-by-sides in the end credit. I think it would make a good youtube supplemental thing but I feel like within the movie its too self-congratulatory.

 

[Octopus Prime]

Last Action Hero remains a brilliant masterpiece that’s only hampered a little bit by its family friendly (ish) veneer. The kid wasn’t as dislikeable as Eddie Furlough, but it was a close race. I don’t know how you have Arnold Schwarzenegger starring in a movie and have him be upstaged by Charles Dance, but BY GOSH, Charles Dance stole everything scene he was in.

I’m not surprised that a New York theatre is having a midnight showing of Seventh Seal, but I am surprised it was as densely attended as it was.

 

[Büge]

It's Eddie Furlong.

Eddie Furlough is on a leave of absence.

 

[Adrenaline]

Why would actual good actor Charles Dance NOT blow Schwarzenegger off the screen in every scene

 

[Octopus Prime]

It's Eddie Furlong.

Eddie Furlough is on a leave of absence.

I do not respect him enough to get the homonym that is his last name correct.

ANYHOO

Didn’t intend to get on to a Schwarzenegger run, but it happened, and I wound up watching True Lies for the first time, and I was expecting to get something in the Octo Good mileu, like, say, Commando or Running Man. But nope, it was Regular Good, not Octo Good. In fact, it wasn’t just Good, but Very Good! “Woah damn! I am fully invested in this movie” good.

Turns out that James Cameron is really good at directing big budget action movies.

 

[Felicia]

I mean, I think True Lies is an unintentionally creepy movie, since a big part of the plot is Arnold secretly monitoring and emotionally manipulating his unknowing wife, culminating in the frankly disturbing strip scene.

 

[Octopus Prime]

Also yes, but it's okay because they had a romantic kiss, lit up by a nuclear explosion scant miles from the Florida mainland, and they were shown thumb wrestling in the finale, so clearly their marriage is stronger than ever.

The strip scene is *double creepy* since Jamie Lee Curtis occupies the "Everyones Mom" zone of my brain, much like how Tom Hanks is "Everyones Dad"

 

[Paul le Fou]

The strip scene is *double creepy* since Jamie Lee Curtis occupies the "Everyones Mom" zone of my brain, much like how Tom Hanks is "Everyones Dad"

I totally get that now but uh, that is definitely not how JLC got her start.

 

[Adrenaline]

The first thing I saw her in was Trading Places so yeah she's not my mom

 

[Droewyn]

Bill & Ted Face The Music

Yeah, okay, that makes sense at the end, just like Rufus said it would. I liked it.

Boy and I laughed ourselves silly at this. It was precisely the movie that we both needed, when we needed it. My only real complaint is that the actor who played Rufus's daughter gave me some serious Flo from Progressive vibes, and therefore I was predisposed to find her extremely annoying.

 

[ozacrot]

Bill & Ted Face The Music

Yeah, okay, that makes sense at the end, just like Rufus said it would. I liked it.

It was a fun movie! 92 minutes, which is an undefeated runtime. Cleverly stupid the whole way. Thea and Billie are terrific. Alex Winter hasn't acted in live-action in decades and he outshone Keanu. Fun, good-natured escapism with a plot centering around the collapse of reality. Great way to spend an evening.

 

[Droewyn]

Boy and I have been debating whether adding on another half hour with Billie and Thea would have made it a better movie, or just been self-indulgent. Because neither of us wanted the movie to end, but whether that's because the movie could have been longer or just because we haven't been so entertained by a new thing in six months... who knows?

 

[Rascally Badger]

Two+ hour long comedies usually end with the feeling that half an hour or more could have been removed and nothing lost.

 

[ozacrot]

Give me a Billie and Thea-hosted Drunk History-style show about famous musicians of history, please

 

[Droewyn]

Give me a Billie and Thea-hosted Drunk History-style show about famous musicians of history, please

SECONDED!

 

[Rascally Badger]

A few years ago I thought The Babysitter was a pretty decent horror comedy. It was kind of a reverse slasher, where a kid had to escape his HS aged babysitter and her friends who are actually a Satanic cult who want to use him as a human sacrifice.

The Babysitter Killer Queen is a stupid cartoon of a follow up. It almost feels like the direct-to-video sequel, except it came to the same service and, somehow, returns all the actors instead of just like one or two. While I am not a fan of horror, any pretense of horror is gone. It is all cartoony cutaways to explain why the would be killers joined this cult, stupid graphic overlays to simulate things like video games, and execrable dialogue. It is almost enjoyable in just how tastelessly bad it is.

 

[Mommi]

Finally watched Annihilation last night. I feel like it was kind of overrated, but also glad because I'm a wimp. So that the scary parts weren't as scary as I imagined, the gross parts weren't as gross, and the weird parts weren't as weird. I think they fairly grounded approach to the photography and production helped walk me through a lot of moments that absolutely would have been too much if they wanted to make them so.

I liked the fractal toroid thing that makes Hans Zimmer tuba farts.

 

[Zef]

Absolutely love Annihilation, but sad to say I missed plenty of meaning my first time through. There's a couple of analyses that certainly made me appreciate it far more than I originally had, and I'm extremely curious about how much the book series follows on these topics and how much came from the adaptation.

 

[R.R. Bigman]

Smokey & The Bandit is a fun film where three quarters of the population are truck drivers and are down to help you screw over the cops at a moments notice.

 

[Rascally Badger]

American Assassin is pretty much the worst of the tv show 24. Your fears about brown people are justified and killing them is good, actually. It doesn't even have good action to help you ignore the racism.

 

[Octopus Prime]

I was expecting Upgrade to be Robocop, just with a robot who is not a cop, and while that’s broadly accurate, it’s also pretty much completely wrong. Much more like Ghost in the Shell/Deus Ex (with a smidge of John Wick) than Robert Copp.

Was pretty solid on the whole, great camera work and action scenes, though its a slow burn; takes a while for the cyber man to commence his mission of revenge against his wife’s killers.

Also, his wife is killed in order to spurn him on to action, so... there’s that.

 

[Pajaro Pete]

A few years ago I thought The Babysitter was a pretty decent horror comedy. It was kind of a reverse slasher, where a kid had to escape his HS aged babysitter and her friends who are actually a Satanic cult who want to use him as a human sacrifice.

The Babysitter Killer Queen is a stupid cartoon of a follow up. It almost feels like the direct-to-video sequel, except it came to the same service and, somehow, returns all the actors instead of just like one or two. While I am not a fan of horror, any pretense of horror is gone. It is all cartoony cutaways to explain why the would be killers joined this cult, stupid graphic overlays to simulate things like video games, and execrable dialogue. It is almost enjoyable in just how tastelessly bad it is.

of all the things in Killer Queen that were bad, i think i hated the soundtrack the most. the classic rock music cues just felt... bad. i think college-aged me would have been all about it, but i was in college during the guitar hero/rock band boom so classic rock was having A Moment and here's it's like these kids would have been born in like 2005, retro stuff for them would be the Spice Girls. i don't know, it just feels weirdly out of touch?

(other problems with Killer Queen: the way the black characters were written felt very "only black character in a 90s movie", bee's wig)
(positive thing about Killer Queen: i actually really like the core concept of the original cult being able to come back every few years to try again as a premise for a franchise)

 

[Purple]

IS kind of a shame that they followed that up with the specific thing they're there to do being made undoable in the same movie. Also the uh... let's say severe inconsistency of motive with women in general?

Also I could never be mad about sequels to big H small C horror comedies turning out to be little H big C horror comedies. It worked for Gremlins House Evil Dead Critters and Tremors after all.