• Welcome to Talking Time's third iteration! If you would like to register for an account, or have already registered but have not yet been confirmed, please read the following:

    1. The CAPTCHA key's answer is "Percy"
    2. Once you've completed the registration process please email us from the email you used for registration at percyreghelper@gmail.com and include the username you used for registration

    Once you have completed these steps, Moderation Staff will be able to get your account approved.

Movie Time 2.0: TT mini reviews

YangusKhan

does the Underpants Dance
(He/Him/His)
Fast X was a "rip-roaring fun time" to borrow a phrase. Outrageously stupid and self-aware, and my jaw dropped at the absurdity of the last 5 minutes or so. What's a term for jumping the shark but in a positive way? That's what Fast X is doing.
 

Johnny Unusual

(He/Him)
The Equalizer is... fine. It's a pretty generic vigilante was former super soldier story. Like John Wick of the same year, it's about a guy who is just unstoppable through the whole movie and Denzel being a great actor helps a lot for this movie but it's not as imaginative, sadly. It looks good and it's got stuff going for it in terms of filmmaking and it gets the appeal of an absolute murder monster who is bullying other monsters and looking out for the little guy but I feel like the acting and directing is doing a LOT of heavy lifting to make the film watchable.

Similarly, Ant-Man and the Wasp in Quantumania is a film that I really appreciate talking big visual swings and Jonathan Majors crafts Kang into a very compelling character, which makes it a shame because it turned out Majors is a monster (and assuming there aren't any sudden refilming of an entire season of television, will also appear for most of season two of Loki.) Overall, though, Paul Rudd of all people feels lost in the shuffle. I appreciate the great character designs like "guy who death ray cylinder for a head" and basically adding off-brand Micronauts (and also off-brand Jarella, despite the fact that Marvel SUPER owns her and has no ties to the Micronauts). It wants to do a lot of stuff but the Kang stuff also means it's less of an Ant-Man story (and sure as fuck isn't a Wasp story) and more of a "step up" story for more Marvel properties. Hopefully, they'll do another small stakes Ant-Man story later on where he fights Whirlwind or Egghead or something because while this film wasn't bad, it got kind of numbing at a certain point. I will also say that I appreciate the ambition of the probability storm scene. It's not perfect but I like it going for a "late stage Jojo threat" feel.
 
The Amityville Horror (1979)
For God's sake, get out!

If you're going to watch one 1970s demonic possession movie, make it the Exorcist. But if you're going to watch two 1970s demonic possession movies, include the Amityville Horror?

The horror movie genre is my favorite genre of movies, but I have not seen everything. I did not watch the Amityville Horror until tonight. It was a pretty big blindspot for me.

George and Kathy Lutz and their 3 children movie into a house in Amityville New York. The house was the site of a mass murder and is being sold for well below market value. After moving in, the family soon discovers their house is haunted or possessed.

On the positive side, the Amityville horror has some good atmosphere and creepy moments. I liked the flies mysteriously showing up in the house, the the husbands obsession with keeping the fire going, and the wife discovering that the murderer has a great resemblance to her husband. I also like Margot Kidder as Kathy Lutz.

On the negative side, I found the movie to be very slow. Its almost 2 hours long and it could easily be trimmed to 90 minutes. I kept waiting for the house to drip blood and talk to the family, which I knew about from the Simpsons Treehouse of Horror. That didn't happen till the final act of the movie. One of the children has an evil imaginary (not imaginary?) friend, which is a trope in horror movies that I hate.

The Amityville Horror is not top tier horror, but I enjoyed my time with it. It won't be a staple horror movie for me, but it is good enough for me to revisit at some point.

💀 💀💀 1/2
 
Sister, Sister (1987)
Love Kills

If you're going to watch one movie about sisters, make it Sisters (1972). If you're going to watch two movies about sisters, watch Sister, Sister (1987).

Two sisters run a bed and breakfast in a souther gothic Mansion on the bayou. Their parents have past away. As the sisters interact with guests, it's clear there are unresolved issues between the sisters. The younger sister is an object of desire and claims that she can see ghosts. The older sister has commitment issues and pacifies the younger sister with drugs. Is the older sister controlling or compassionate?

I love small scale dramas or thrillers with supernatural or sci-fi elements. Sister, Sister operates on a similar scale as Never Let Me Go or Voice from the Stone (two movies I also like). I picked up this movie on blu ray from Vinegar Syndrome who normally release campy horror movies and over the top action movies. I was surprised to find this movie in their catalog.

I recommend Sister, Sister. The central mysteries are compelling, the movie is well acted and the cinematography is gorgeous.

💀 💀💀💀
 
Last edited:

Johnny Unusual

(He/Him)
Air Doll is a weird, beautiful movie, though digesting that ending, I'm not quite sure what it wants to say. But still, I'm glad it was made. It's a Japanese film based on an obscure manga about a blow-up sex doll who comes to life and explores the world, getting a job at a video store and learning some hard truths about her existence. It's a beautiful movie that doesn't pull punches in it's last act and feels like a fairy tale... including in some of the darker, more tragic ways.
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
Fast Ten is… s’okay. Didn’t realize it was supposed to be a two parter when I went to see it so that ending sure was abrupt.

I feel like Fast & Furious movies must be what it’s like to be Medium Invested in the MCU; there are so many characters introduced and killed off and then just… back again and I can’t keep track of all of them; I think Helen Mireans been in half of them and I’m surprised to see her in every single movie
 

Purple

(She/Her)
My favorite is how there's a character they both introduced and killed off in the 3rd movie (the let's be honest bad one where I guess they were trying to not pay increasingly big name actors and do a spin-off in Tokyo), who they then decided they just really really liked, so he's just suddenly around with the main cast in the next 3, and at the end of every movie he's talking about this big trip he's planning to Tokyo but eh, he can put it off a while longer, and it's just like... the end of David Tennant's run on Doctor Who or something.
 

Rascally Badger

El Capitan de la outro espacio
(He/Him)
I like how they finally get to the moment where he goes to Tokyo and then he comes back, because he didn't actually die in either of the movies that showed him die in Tokyo.
 

Johnny Unusual

(He/Him)
I feel like I was prepared for Chicken Little to be one of the worst Disney animated features and it's pretty bad but I liked it more than The Wild, which was quite bad. Still, this is interesting because it is clearly trying to be an Emperor's New Groove-type film but it 3D and I appreciate a broader splat/squish approach with a lot of broadly rendered environments but it looks less like bringing 2D animation choices into 3D but creating places of weirdly empty space. Overall, though, the big issue is it's a very unfunny comedy that hopes music references are enough like characters singing "Wannabe" on karaoke in an extended sequence or a left field reference to "I Will Survive" that acts like it is paying off something never established. I've seen far worse animated film but this is just so thoroughly mediocre in a way that feels more akin to Disney's less-imaginative competitors. From the sounds of it, the director (who also did New Groove), was not happy with it, particularly being forced to change Little to a boy as he wanted to tell a father/daughter story. Interesting that this also happens in a film where the tomboy girl bully is transformed into being more feminine and no one changes her back and it feels weird. It sucks but... maybe a covert complaint about what happened with his film? I dunno, just a wild guess.
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
I liked how nobody in this movie is sure if Kurt Russel is going to come back, so they’re all very cagey about if he’s alive or not.

Paul Walker, on the other hand, is always juuuust out of frame. He’s like Nanny from Muppet Babies
 

karzac

(he/him)
Fast Ten is… s’okay. Didn’t realize it was supposed to be a two parter when I went to see it so that ending sure was abrupt.

I feel like Fast & Furious movies must be what it’s like to be Medium Invested in the MCU; there are so many characters introduced and killed off and then just… back again and I can’t keep track of all of them; I think Helen Mireans been in half of them and I’m surprised to see her in every single movie
I think Mirren was only in 8 and 9 before this. And Hobbes & Shaw
 

Johnny Unusual

(He/Him)
I kind of new I was going into 2002's John Q with the knowledge that it would be a pretty trite "message movie" but I wasn't prepared for how bad this movie was, despite, as always, Denzel trying his very best to make it work.

My God, it's astounding how insanely earnest this braindead movie is. There is literally a cheering crowd that tells the audience how to feel when characters talk to each other. Eddie Griffin is playing "an Eddie Griffin-type" in this movie. This was very much made in an era where even in a black lead movie, the black side character's role is primarily "sassy commentary".

* I love that this 6 year old has a bedroom pasted top to bottom of nearly naked muscle men and we learn this in a scene that is "sad" and John Q is moping.
* The last scene has the montage of media coverage including a scene where Jay Leno explains what happens and it cuts away before the punchline. They cut back to it at the end but I feel not doing so would be a greater statement on the man.
* There's also a scene from a fictional episode of "Politically Incorrect" and Ted Demme (not the Demme you want) credited as "hip indie film director". Looking at his IMDB page... not entirely accurate. Also, he fucking looks ashamed to be in this movie.
gU8RfWc.png

This feels like it was written either by a 17 year old or an 87 year old. It really wants to be a message movie but it's the most basic-ass "revelations" and takes from characters with no subtly or character and it feels like a parody. This feels like a movie Marge Simpson would make after Lisa has a 5 minute conversation about medical care in America. This is the perfect movie for the Bill Maher audience. No more damning commentary than that.
 

Paul le Fou

24/7 lofi hip hop man to study/relax to
(He)
Across the Spiderverse may not be quite as good as the first one, but it's damn close. It may be even more gorgeous than the first; they certainly seemed to push the animation envelope even harder.

It also might be its equal or better, but I don't know how fairly I can really compare it to one of my favorite movies of all time.
 

Johnny Unusual

(He/Him)
Almost done with the Disney animated canon (that isn't Song of the South) and am down to ones that, for no particular reason, I've been a bit hesitant to visit. Last night was Tarzan, which I've never heard anyone complain about or enjoy. And I see why; it's not bad at all but it isn't super-memorable.

It's weird to find there's only one musical number in the movie and it's an instrumental rather something with lyrics and there's just a bunch of Phil Collins songs acting as backdrop to montages and extended scenes. I don't mind the choice and while I have no strong feelings about the soundtrack, I feel the tact is used better here than in Treasure Planet, where I really didn't like the songs at all.

I was sort basing my memories on the trailer where Tarzan looked a bit serious but this really is a fun version of the character and while it is a bit different to have a Disney adaptation of a pulp character, it makes a lot more sense than Pocahontas or The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I feel like with all of those films, they were experimenting with the KIND of material they could adapt and boy did it not work for Pocahontas and Hunchback... has virtues but is also kind of insane that it exists. Also, considering where the novel series goes, the "talking animal" aspect is actually pretty grounded by comparison when Tarzan meets ant-men and goes to the center of the Earth.

It's a decent enough movie and there's real chemistry between the leads and the best stuff is Tarzan getting very excited about learning of the world beyond his home. The action scenes still look really good too as Tarzan surfs through the jungle. The villain, however, is one of the duller Disney antagonists (his last shot of his death scene is very well-composed). Same with the animal friends; they do a good job initially building up his relationship with Terk but by the end, the jealousy angle, while making sense narratively, doesn't land for me. Tarzan isn't one of the more memorable renaissance films but it is pretty good despite that and is easy to watch and enjoy and I kind of wish they tried a few other pulp characters (I mean, they did try a live action John Carter but... that didn't go well).
 

Rascally Badger

El Capitan de la outro espacio
(He/Him)
I don't recall any actual nudity in Magic Mike's Last Dance, but Channing Tatum and Selma Hayak spend a lot of time grinding on each other, if that is the sort of thing your into.

Just a classic romance about a aggrieved ex-spouse hiring a stripper to choreograph an erotic dance show at a classic London theater to equally express herself and stick it to her ex. Same story you've heard a 100 times.
 
Shin Kamen Rider was wonderful. Fewer 10-hour streaming movies and more 2-hour theatrically released television shows. I missed Shin Ultraman when it came out but I’m looking forward to its home release here in a month.
 

Bongo

excused from moderation duty
(he/him)
Staff member
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, also aka'd as DAD HAT, is really fun and clever and charming, a rarity among movies in its genre and doubly so for being an adaptation of that cursèd brand.
 

Johnny Unusual

(He/Him)
In giallo world again. In the latter end where it is more interested in being transgressive than being good, The Killer is Still Among Us wants to be a movie about the real life murderer, the Monster of Florence but feels like the braindead version of David Fincher's Zodiac. It goes for shocks with some very graphic mutilation I won't go into detail on (though it certainly does) but actually it's kind of a bore. It tries to go for an ambiguous ending which almost works, then a really weird message about hoping to inspire civilians to report crime or something.
 

Vaeran

(GRUNTING)
(he/him)
Spider-Verse 2: This Time It's a Different Preposition was excellent.

"Vaeran there's already a Marvel movie thread; in fact you made the Mar--" NO THAT'S THE MCU THREAD AND THIS IS NOT THE MCU

I can't believe I just watched a major motion picture where the word "Hammerspace" was uttered and a fucking definition appeared on the screen.

Overall this is a more complicated story than the first film and as such it doesn't feel quite as elegant and easy to emotionally hook into, but it's still great and has some wonderful character moments. Miles' confession to The Wrong Mom was a nice counterpart to his silent absorption of his dad's speech through the closed door in the first film. And I loved opening on a big chunk of Gwen's story; I'm just as invested in her as I am in Miles.

The only vocal performance I wasn't totally impressed with was Jason Schwartzman as The Spot. I guess the idea is that he's this ineffectual nobody who ends up becoming a complete nightmare and Schwartzman was conveying that in his performance, but in execution it just felt like a bunch of weak line readings and kept distracting me. Everyone else was amazing.

The animation of course is mind-blowing, possibly even moreso than Into the Spider-Verse. Every frame a feast, and I get the feeling I'm going to be pausing the blu-ray a lot to check out all the various Spidered Men. Did I catch Jess Drew doing an Akira slide on her bike at one point?

When they introduced the Go Home Machine my theory was that it actually does nothing of the sort; it just vaporizes people and only Miguel knows, and that would be his big villain twist. Swing and a miss!

I had read a while back that this would be Part 1 of 2, but that fact slipped my mind until Miles was tied to a punching bag in the wrong universe. I was like "man how are they gonna wrap all this up ohhhhhhh right they aren't."

My wishlist for the third movie: please play "What's Up Danger" at a pivotal moment, possibly the inevitable fight between Miles and Nega-Miles (a.k.a Kilometers.) That's it! I'm easy to please.

There are no credits scenes.

EDIT: lol I just remembered

MILES: A good guy who's a vampire? I'd pay good money to see that!

According to Morbius' box office take, you are one of an elite few who would, Miles.
 
Last edited:

The only vocal performance I wasn't totally impressed with was Jason Schwartzman as The Spot. I guess the idea is that he's this ineffectual nobody who ends up becoming a complete nightmare and Schwartzman was conveying that in his performance, but in execution it just felt like a bunch of weak line readings and kept distracting me. Everyone else was amazing.
His voice was weird and didn't really seem to fit early on, but I think that was the point? Like, you're not supposed to take him seriously early on, just like Miles, so he doubles and triples down until he's a real threat, and at that point he's sufficiently sinister sounding. I think there's also a read of the character that someone should eventually write about how he's emblematic of fragile cis-white-male ego, and the propensity for rightwing extremists to self-radicalize because of it, and misdirect all of their frustrations and anger onto brown people that have nothing to do with any of their woes.
 

R.R. Bigman

Coolest Guy
I sure liked Rankin Bass’ The Hobbit from 1977. My only exposure to Tolkien‘s Middle Earth stories is watching Fellowship of the Ring around it’s release, so seeing the extremely humble beginning of the series in charming 70’s animation was surprising.

The One Ring everybody wants being a bauble that Bilbo picks up in a random cave, along with Gollum’s very brief appearance, was not what I was expecting. Same goes for the final act when four armies show up to get Smaug’s gold, Gandalf and some birds show up, and Bilbo has to just shake his head and walk away from the carnage.

Tolkien must have gone through some stuff, eh?
 

Johnny Unusual

(He/Him)
Watched Adam's Rib, a Tracy/Hepburn courtroom dramedy with the most sitcom of set ups; they are a married couple of lawyers but also are surprised to find themselves working opposite sides of the same case. It's mostly good and it's clearly aiming to talk about double standards but I was a little too tired watching to completely sus out the points of view, save that I feel like we are supposed to like Spenser Tracy despite being somewhat in the wrong but the dude sucks, especially when he pretends he's going to kill his wife to prove a point. The script co-written by Ruth Gordon (Maude from Harold and Maude) I think does want to explore the difference between the idea of justice and the law but really in the end I'm 100% on Hepburn's team.
 

Purple

(She/Her)
So last night a couple friends and I made a double feature out of Roger "If it's borderline porn, I produced it!" Corman's 1996 adaptation of Vampirella and Tobe "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" Hooper's 1985 cult classic Lifeforce, and when I put it like that it's weird which of the two's SPACE LADY DRACULAS just kinda forgoes clothing for the bulk of the running time.

It's interesting watching these two back to back since there's a decent number of oddly specific parallels (mostly the bit where a bunch of astronauts out exploring find a vampire woman in a glass coffin and bring her back to earth), but also because there's this huge gulf in how much they recognize what absolute garbage the premise is. Vampirella knows that it is just absolute bottom of the barrel trash and has a lot of fun with it, and thus maintains this very even campy tone throughout, while Lifeforce keeps just kinda wildly swinging between actually seriously good, fun garbage, and like made-for-TV-British-sci-fi boardroom scenes.

So, Lifeforce is kind of unquestionably the better movie of the two, but Vampirella's more consistently fun in a party setting.
 
“Some stuff” being World War I, yeah.
This reminds me of Ample Vigour's post in the Top 50 Fantasy Novels thread in the previous incarnation of Talking Time, with his contribution to the conversation around the Chronicles of Narnia and Susan not going to Book of Revelations Narnia:

CS Lewis learned what 'growing up' was worth on the Somme.

We aren't supposed to judge Susan or pity her, we're supposed to recognize ourselves in her. I'm Susan, you're Susan, Lewis is Susan. We put on our nice clothes and bitch about not getting laid and drink too much, and most of us are on powerful psychotropic drugs all the time.

But to the charge that a man born to Irish middle class in the 1800s may be insufficiently woke, I have no rebuttal
Probably one of the best posts in TT history.
 
Top