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Movie Time 2.0: TT mini reviews
- Thread starter Rascally Badger
- Start date
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- Tags
- movies
Well almost everyone spends the entire movie trapped in a box with only the internet for connection to other people so really it's not that far off
Venom is a bad movie, but the IDEA of a dude possessed by an alien parasite with no indoor voice and dumb opinions that gives giving running commentary on everything is WONDERFUL.
Venom 2 will probably still be bad, but at the very least the trailer seems to understand what it has going for it.
Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
I definitely see why its seen as a "romance" movie. Its literally the only possible way the heel turn makes sense.
Are there any movies about families being haunted where the husband is the believer and the wife is the skeptic instead of the other way around?
Does X-Files count?
jpfriction
(He, Him)
Stir of Echoes, although Kevin Bacon needs to be hypnotized by his sister-in-law into being a medium.
Huh... The other way around is a sadly far too common thing, isn't it?
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
"Women are scared/superstitious and men are brave/sensible" say movies because so many executives/producers seem to be stuck in the 1950s.
I remember reading that the Sopranos had trouble getting picked up initially because all the TV executives said it was silly for the man to be in therapy, the wife should be. Essentially they still thought men shouldn't/can't talk about their feelings. The writers stuck it out thankfully.
Realistically a mobster who went to therapy would be killed as soon as anyone found out but The Sopranos was not a realistic show
From all accounts it appears to be a lazy rehash of Aliens too, plot and structure-wise.
Not quite "haunted", but how about Close Encounters of the Third Kind?
Yes. Red Letter Media has a review of the film and they juxtapose Army of the Dead and Aliens. Some definite rehashing.
Oh I forgot the licensed music for the movie is so on the nose it hurts. Viva Las Vegas, the End, and Zombie are played.
For grins I looked up Zach Snyders' filmography on IMDB. He has done a lot of DCU movies including Justice League and Zach Snyder's Justice League. Outside of Dawn of the Dead remake and Watchman, there is not a lot in his filmography that appeals to me.
I like the Dawn of the Dead remake which makes the blandness of Army of the Dead a bit more frustrating.
Oh I forgot the licensed music for the movie is so on the nose it hurts. Viva Las Vegas, the End, and Zombie are played.
For grins I looked up Zach Snyders' filmography on IMDB. He has done a lot of DCU movies including Justice League and Zach Snyder's Justice League. Outside of Dawn of the Dead remake and Watchman, there is not a lot in his filmography that appeals to me.
I like the Dawn of the Dead remake which makes the blandness of Army of the Dead a bit more frustrating.
Pretty fair, though I think it's more socially acceptable for men to believe in aliens than ghosts.
Sprite
(He/Him/His)
So, Cruella.
It is a great movie to watch in a room full of gay men when you are also a gay man. A thoroughly campy movie featuring arch, angry women making each other miserable. It’s not... great, but it is exactly what I expected, and in fact wanted.
Early on, I groaned (major spoilers), ”Her mom’s going to die, isn’t she?” And my husband joked (seriously don’t read this if you plan to watch it), ”Maybe her mother’ll get killed by dalmatians.” AND THEN SHE TOTALLY WAS! I’ve never laughed at a parent’s death in a movie before, but the sheer absurdity of it had me on the floor. I still can’t believe they went there. It is delightfully, terribly stupid. Holy freaking crap.
Emma Thompson is perfection, and fully understands what movie she’s in. She chews scenery with gusto. The costume design is genuinely incredible and feels straight out of a punk drag act. The whole thing is incredibly silly and I truly enjoyed it.
I appreciate that Cruella is at no point a good person. She starts neutral at best, then gets worse. The movie tries - and fails - to make you sympathize with her, but she really is just a reprehensible human being who happens to be slightly less evil than the antagonist. She’s a different character from the original - no real interest in furs or murdering animals - but still unscrupulous and cruel. You know, if that’s your thing.
So, yeah. I don’t think I’d recommend spending $30 on it, but if you like the idea of watching Team Rocket take down Doronjo, or just love watching a movie revel in its own camp, it’s worth a watch when it eventually goes on regular Disney+.
Though... be ready for some incredibly distracting CG dogs. Seriously, they look so bad.
It is a great movie to watch in a room full of gay men when you are also a gay man. A thoroughly campy movie featuring arch, angry women making each other miserable. It’s not... great, but it is exactly what I expected, and in fact wanted.
Early on, I groaned (major spoilers), ”Her mom’s going to die, isn’t she?” And my husband joked (seriously don’t read this if you plan to watch it), ”Maybe her mother’ll get killed by dalmatians.” AND THEN SHE TOTALLY WAS! I’ve never laughed at a parent’s death in a movie before, but the sheer absurdity of it had me on the floor. I still can’t believe they went there. It is delightfully, terribly stupid. Holy freaking crap.
Emma Thompson is perfection, and fully understands what movie she’s in. She chews scenery with gusto. The costume design is genuinely incredible and feels straight out of a punk drag act. The whole thing is incredibly silly and I truly enjoyed it.
I appreciate that Cruella is at no point a good person. She starts neutral at best, then gets worse. The movie tries - and fails - to make you sympathize with her, but she really is just a reprehensible human being who happens to be slightly less evil than the antagonist. She’s a different character from the original - no real interest in furs or murdering animals - but still unscrupulous and cruel. You know, if that’s your thing.
So, yeah. I don’t think I’d recommend spending $30 on it, but if you like the idea of watching Team Rocket take down Doronjo, or just love watching a movie revel in its own camp, it’s worth a watch when it eventually goes on regular Disney+.
Though... be ready for some incredibly distracting CG dogs. Seriously, they look so bad.
Death Ship is an early 80s horror movie that dared to ask the question of "What if The Shining was on a boat, extremely boring and starred George Kennedy." And besides compelling people to murder, the ghosts were also nazis.
A yacht is crashed into by an evil ghost ship fulla ghost nazis, and nobody who survives seems very troubled by any of that, or the fact that the ghost ship fulla ghost nazis is sentient and trying to kill people. They all process their grief incredibly quickly. They seemingly only had enough film shot to fill 30 of the movies 100 minutes, so all the rest is stock footage of a boats engine, empty rooms, and nazi propaganda.
The only point in the movie where anyone seems troubled by all the murder ghosts on a nazi cruise ship is when a lady is taking a shower and all the water turns to blood and, honestly, at that point she's really OVER reacting. I was genuinely unsure if she was supposed to be drowning and the movie didn't convey that.
A yacht is crashed into by an evil ghost ship fulla ghost nazis, and nobody who survives seems very troubled by any of that, or the fact that the ghost ship fulla ghost nazis is sentient and trying to kill people. They all process their grief incredibly quickly. They seemingly only had enough film shot to fill 30 of the movies 100 minutes, so all the rest is stock footage of a boats engine, empty rooms, and nazi propaganda.
The only point in the movie where anyone seems troubled by all the murder ghosts on a nazi cruise ship is when a lady is taking a shower and all the water turns to blood and, honestly, at that point she's really OVER reacting. I was genuinely unsure if she was supposed to be drowning and the movie didn't convey that.
That is how I felt: its not great. Its not bad, but its not great.
From Disneys own synopsis of the film: Cruella, which is set in 1970s London amidst the punk rock revolution, follows a young grifter named Estella, a clever and creative girl determined to make a name for herself with her designs.
Something about Disney using the punk rock revolution as part of their big streaming movie feels odd to me.
The movie is also 2 hours and 14 minutes. I think there is enough story in Cruella for maybe 90 minutes.
I didn't hate the movie. I think Sprite summarized the positives nicely. But I don't see myself watching this one again. For me Maleficent remains the strongest cartoon to live action movie Disney has made.
Over the course of May, I watched all four parts of Sergei Bondarchuk’s War and Peace. Such artistry in these movies. If you’re rusty on the Napoleonic Wars you might want to brush up on some of the details before watching.
Hardly light entertainment, though. I think I will cool it on the historical war dramas for at least a couple weeks now.
Hardly light entertainment, though. I think I will cool it on the historical war dramas for at least a couple weeks now.
karzac
(he/him)
HOT TAKE WARNING
Rear Window is a very good movie.
Got another hot take for you: the recently release The Woman in the Window is not as good as the movie it's inspired it. It is, in fact, a bad movie.
If you like A24's horror output you'll probably like Saint Maud.
Purple
(She/Her)
Earlier, I learned of the existence of some total trash OAV where at one point there is a Master Blaster riding on the back of a nude woman who is a robot, part-motorcycle, and breathes lasers. Asking around here, I learned this is called Goku: Midnight Eye (thanks Peklo!) and for some reason, it's available on Amazon Prime, wih the sort of emotionally dissonant weird old OAV dub you'd expect.
The second episode of two has a monologue from the main character which contains the following word for word quotation:
"If I wanted to, I could hack into the launch codes of every nuclear power, send the missiles up, and destroy the planet. In every other way, I'm just your ordinary private detective."
Shortly after explaining this, he's in a sewer pipe defending some woman from a swarm of robo-pterodactyls.
Also in the first episode, there is a scene where someone sets a trap to kill the protagonist, which I can only properly convey with a bunch of nested spoiler tags.
The second episode of two has a monologue from the main character which contains the following word for word quotation:
"If I wanted to, I could hack into the launch codes of every nuclear power, send the missiles up, and destroy the planet. In every other way, I'm just your ordinary private detective."
Shortly after explaining this, he's in a sewer pipe defending some woman from a swarm of robo-pterodactyls.
Also in the first episode, there is a scene where someone sets a trap to kill the protagonist, which I can only properly convey with a bunch of nested spoiler tags.
The hypnotic robo-stripper who has thus far killed every other character in the episode and attempted to kill our hero (who thwarted it by stabbing his own eye out by the way, which some mysterious unexplained benefactor then replaced with a magical internet eye giving him all knowledge, but we're not making any Odin references because he also gives him a power pole) mind controls his love interest so that she gives him a drugged drink.
Also, she has poisoned lipstick to kiss him with when he refuses.
Also this is basically just a distraction so a random Abobo can sneak up to crush his skull.
And as a contingency for when that fails, Abobo has a fez concealing dozens of poisonous robot mosquitos.
All of which chases him out of the building to be confronted again by the hypno-robo-stripper.
Pajaro Pete
(He/Himbo)
Sailor Moon Eternal The Movie Pt 1 and Pt 2: Kind of flops, honestly? Like yeah the stock footage transformations and attacks look pretty, but it has the same issue that late Sailor Moon always does: Too many characters who get one (1) character scene that feels completely disconnected from the rest of the story and then proceed to do nothing for the rest of the story arc besides repeat proper nouns and scream Sailor Moon's name. Like how much more impactful would the finale of Part 1 been if Minako's insecurity about not being the Cool Veteran Sailor Guardian anymore because of the Outers had been something that had been building all movie instead of something that popped up in the last 20 minutes? (Probably not a lot, but it would have been somewhat better)
The Mitchells versus The Machines: Sony Animation really is eating Disney's lunch huh. It was cute until I realized what song the main character was singing as a toddler with her father and then I instantly turned to dust. I was a bit worried at first it was going to be too "Technology.... BAD" but I guess it sort of comes down on the "Technology.... NEUTRAL, but can be BAD based on how it's used"?
The Mitchells versus The Machines: Sony Animation really is eating Disney's lunch huh. It was cute until I realized what song the main character was singing as a toddler with her father and then I instantly turned to dust. I was a bit worried at first it was going to be too "Technology.... BAD" but I guess it sort of comes down on the "Technology.... NEUTRAL, but can be BAD based on how it's used"?
I saw Raya and the Last Dragon the other night and have two takeaways:
1. Just absolutely, mind-bogglingly amazing animation and really nice visual design.
2. Everything else was extremely disappointing. Every character and story beat was straight out of the worst chapters of Disney's (if not Dreamworks's) most hackneyed, ham-fisted playbook. It somehow manages to feel whitewashed and orientalist even with an all-Asian cast of characters and actors.
1. Just absolutely, mind-bogglingly amazing animation and really nice visual design.
2. Everything else was extremely disappointing. Every character and story beat was straight out of the worst chapters of Disney's (if not Dreamworks's) most hackneyed, ham-fisted playbook. It somehow manages to feel whitewashed and orientalist even with an all-Asian cast of characters and actors.
Disney can't help themselves!
Olli
(he/him)
A Promising Young Woman was really really good. The basic premise is that Carey Mulligan's character has an act where she lures opportunistic rapists into thinking she's too intoxicated to resist, but after they try to take advantage of her, she turns the tables on the "nice guy" attackers.
The movie wasn't perfectly executed perhaps - there are some plot details that feel a bit awkward in retrospect - but emotionally it's a slam dunk. When the end music started playing and the credits began rolling, my jaw was on the floor. The movie pulls no punches describing rape culture and its effects on women. I also liked how
The movie wasn't perfectly executed perhaps - there are some plot details that feel a bit awkward in retrospect - but emotionally it's a slam dunk. When the end music started playing and the credits began rolling, my jaw was on the floor. The movie pulls no punches describing rape culture and its effects on women. I also liked how
the only man in the movie who has a little bit of good in him is the scumbag lawyer who's had a probably irreversible mental breakdown after realizing how much damage he has done