Movie News, Reviews, and Discussion Super-Thread

[Phoenix Dark]

One of the most intense, uncomfortable, mean, and horrific films I've seen in awhile. Very well done, incredibly shot/directed and acted.

[MMaRsu]

[team filler]

One of the most intense, uncomfortable, mean, and horrific films I've seen in awhile. Very well done, incredibly shot/directed and acted.

I'll take your word for it, but the trailer didn't do much for me tbh

[MMaRsu]

One of the most intense, uncomfortable, mean, and horrific films I've seen in awhile. Very well done, incredibly shot/directed and acted.

I'll take your word for it, but the trailer didn't do much for me tbh

I dont want to watch a movie where some crazy bitches cut / fuck up some people so I dont think its for me

Trailer looked like a decent movie

[team filler]

white women are terrifying and often hideous 

[Transhuman]

The Boy and the Heron
Killers of the Flower Moon
Poor Things
The Holdovers
Napoleon
The Killer

Why do they always put the movies I want to see at the END of the year??

[team filler]

award season bait or something

[Joe Molotov]

I wanna do a Stephen King movie marathon this October. Thinking about this list, we'll see how it goes.

1. The Shining
2. The Dead Zone
3. Christine
4. Graveyard Shift
5. Misery
6. The Dark Half
7. Sleepwalkers
8. Needful Things
9. Thinner
10. Storm of the Century
11. Dreamcatcher
12. 1408
13. The Mist

[MMaRsu]

I wanna do a Stephen King movie marathon this October. Thinking about this list, we'll see how it goes.

1. The Shining
2. The Dead Zone
3. Christine
4. Graveyard Shift
5. Misery
6. The Dark Half
7. Sleepwalkers
8. Needful Things
9. Thinner
10. Storm of the Century
11. Dreamcatcher
12. 1408
13. The Mist

How can you forget

[team filler]

the langoliers 

[Mupepe]

Doctor Sleep?

[Sman]

16 years late, but I finally sat down to watch No Country for Old Men.

I liked it, I think. I expected a big shootout at the end... and it did happen. But the movie doesn't let you see it, only the aftermath, which is pretty ballsy. Many unexpected things in the movie.

It's well shot too. If I wasn't aware of the main actors' real age, I could be fooled thinking this was shot only a few years ago.

[Bebpo]

Halloween Ends

was...actually alright? There was a thread on era talking about it and since I'd skipped it because the poor word of mouth and since I really didn't care about spoilers at this point I read the thread and when I read it was compared to Halloween III and was kind of a spinoff movie about a different person becoming EVIL, it made me interested in checking it out.

Maybe it helps going into it knowing the movie is about Cory and not Michael and Cory's descent into evil, but yeah, that was surprisingly decent.

It was definitely the most interesting of this trilogy and I thought the first half was pretty good and the ending was good. I feel like the main problems with the execution of the idea are that they don't really nail Cory's transition to evil very well. Like maybe the movie suffers from being under 2 hours because it felt like that needed more events/time.

The other problem, which I thought was the larger issue in execution is it felt like they killed off Cory way too early considering how much time was spent on his arc. Again, I feel like a 3 hour cut that expanded both on the transition phase and gave him a longer kill streak before the finale would've worked much better.

I feel like if the execution was better, this would be a great film and one of the best and most interesting mainstream IP horror flicks of the recent decades.

But even with the weak execution in the back half it's still solid. I'd put it about on par with 2018 which was less interesting but better executed and both are waaaaaaaaaaay above Kills which was fucking awful and ridiculous nonsense.

[team filler]

that's pretty spot on, bepbs



I watched blue beetle. I liked parts of it, but overall it suffers from trying to be a disney marvel movie and that shit is already played out. it's a little late in the game to still be putting out copycat super hero movies. maybe it's a good thing the movie bombed, now they'll have to go in another direction.

to me most of the DC movies/shows are rewatchable. I can't say the same for most of the marvel stuff. the hype machine does nothing for me to begin with and it feels like the individual movies are held back by having to be part of some grand overarching storyline that just isn't that interesting.

[Bebpo]

So those new Wes Anderson Roald Dahl short films...

They're ok, but I wasn't really down with the videobook style of essentially just reading the short stories with some images displayed. If I wanted to read the story I'd read the story, or listen to an audiobook.

I liked Ratcatcher and Poison the most because they bucked the narration more and were closer to normal character conversations. But The Swan was kind of dull and Henry Sugar was fine but just mostly a videobook.

Overall they were fine, but probably the least enjoyable Wes Anderson thing I've seen and if I hadn't watched them it wouldn't have been much of a loss.

Also just goes in the pile of "when famous directors make straight to streaming movies, they are the weakest films in their career", though that seems to apply mostly to Netflix.

[Bebpo]

Flora and Son was great. John Carney's 4 for 4 for his romance musicals. Just hope he doesn't take another 6-7 years between films again.

S-tier John Carney musicals: Once / Sing Street
A-tier John Carney musicals: Begin Again / Flora and Son

I'd say I slightly prefer Begin Again because Keira Knightley and Mark Ruffalo are just so charming and the Keira Knightley songs are really nice in that one. But Flora and Son has its moments too and all the actors are great. Songs are solid.

Sing Street was fucking great though.

[james]

Flora and Son was great. John Carney's 4 for 4 for his romance musicals. Just hope he doesn't take another 6-7 years between films again.

S-tier John Carney musicals: Once / Sing Street
A-tier John Carney musicals: Begin Again / Flora and Son

I'd say I slightly prefer Begin Again because Keira Knightley and Mark Ruffalo are just so charming and the Keira Knightley songs are really nice in that one. But Flora and Son has its moments too and all the actors are great. Songs are solid.

Sing Street was fucking great though.

Whats the singing/talking ratio?

Trailer makes it look sappy

[Bebpo]

Ya it’s sappy with that Irish attitude.

More talk to singing ratio than his other films. But has a bit of that sing street youth beats and old timer guitar sappy.

I’m actually giving Modern Love another shot since that’s what Carney did between Sing Street and this. The first ep with the doorman is so fucking bad. Second ep with Dev Patel’s ok, third ep with Anne Hathaway’s ok but idk if it’s really a good rep of bipolar. I don’t think I ever made it farther than this but going to try to watch the whole thing both seasons since Carney wrote and directed like half or both seasons.

But yeah, good to see him back on films. The more Irish the better.

[Mupepe]

The Exorcist: Believer was awful. I hated Halloween Kills and Ends too. I’m convinced DGG secretly hates the original movies. The Exorcist was offensively, unbelievably bad. It’s something that if I didn’t know it was DGG I’d believe it was a straight to streaming movie made by a no name director that had only worked on music videos or something. I hated it so much I actually did a review with one of those people that stand outside the theater with tablets to make sure the studio knows how much I hated it.

[Bebpo]

Speaking of awful horror movies Talk to Me

Man, the first half of this movie is GREAT, awesome sound design and good and creepy. The second half though is fucking terrible. Basically feels like the writers knew how to build up the spooks, but had no idea what to do once you're dealing with the spooky things. The main character is incredibly selfish and makes nothing but terrible decisions and is too dumb to figure anything out and is really unlikeable.

By the end of this, just thought what a waste of 90 mins.

[Phoenix Dark]

Speaking of awful horror movies Talk to Me

Man, the first half of this movie is GREAT, awesome sound design and good and creepy. The second half though is fucking terrible. Basically feels like the writers knew how to build up the spooks, but had no idea what to do once you're dealing with the spooky things. The main character is incredibly selfish and makes nothing but terrible decisions and is too dumb to figure anything out and is really unlikeable.

By the end of this, just thought what a waste of 90 mins.

While I agree about the main character I really liked the movie. IMO it gets progressively more unsettling as it goes on, there's a lot of great psychological horror, and I loved the ending. Just a surprisingly mean spirited horror film lol.

One thing I'll say about the protagonist:

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Films rarely upset me on an emotional level but as an older brother...that scene where she allows that kid to use the hand, after his big sister told him not to, pissed me off haha. Just thinking back to being a kid/teenager, if told my little brother not to do something, and my brother did it after a friend of mine gave him the OK behind my back? I'm never talking to that person again, and would probably punch them. Not to mention the weird boyfriend dynamic. I just can't imagine most girls tolerating all that shit from a friend lmao. All this made the ending even more satisfying.

[close]

[D3RANG3D]

[Phoenix Dark]

Really enjoyed, although the ending wasn't great due to some repetitive editing. The film looks like a...well, 90s Abel Ferrara flick (back streets, seedy underground city shit) to the point that it never truly feels "sci fi" despite the premise. It feels very present and grounded.

[D3RANG3D]

[Transhuman]

Watching Killers of the Flower Moon in a couple of hours. I asked two different friends to join me and each asked "how long is it" and when I said 3 and a half hours they declined. And these are people in their thirties!

[Bebpo]

for shame

[Transhuman]

The book was better



Scorsese losing his touch. Still worth seeing though

[D3RANG3D]

dat video title.

[team filler]

reminded me of this gem 

[MMaRsu]

[Joe Molotov]

Finally, a Fall Guys movie!

[Bebpo]

Smile - Everyone seems mixed on this. Half the people like it, half the people hate it.

Yeah, that was dumb. The concept was fine, but the main character was really freaking dumb and her being such a dumbass the whole movie kinda kills it. Plus it's a very PG-13 kids horror movie with no real horror or scary tension to it because it's just dumb people smiling a few times until the ending.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Ok, so at first when she goes to the cop ex and he starts pulling up the chain of suicides and is like wtf this is strange, she fucking tells him nothing and leaves going around telling everyone else who doesn't believe her, while this guy actually seeing the evidence would believe her and be on her side (which he later chases her down and does, but this just shows what a dumbass she is)

Then at the end, she's like "I'm going to go AWAY FROM PEOPLE" and so she just drives to the other real property house she owns, leaves her GPS-tracked phone there and her car just sitting outside. Like how is she so fucking dumb she doesn't realize this is the first place they will look and they will find her in like an hour (which her ex does, causing the ending).

Seriously, character is way too dumb to be a believable doctor. Maybe one of those science isn't real anti-vax doctors or something. Kills the movie with how dumb she is.

If she was going to try the "avoid people" method to stay alive for more than a week, she should've ditched her phone and gone off-grid living in the woods or some shit for at least a few days.

But really, she was going to die anyhow, so she should've at least taken the trauma monster with her by going somewhere no one will see/find her and offing herself trapping it with her when she dies.

Either of those would've been a better final act, but instead the whole move is kind of pointless because she's such a dumbass

[close]

[Bebpo]

When Evil Lurks - Most intense moments of violence since Hereditary, damn. Great cinematography and cool concept movie. My only issue is the lead character is an idiot just like with Smile. A movie set in this story concept with a less toxic masculinity lead would've been perfect.

[bork]

Really enjoyed, although the ending wasn't great due to some repetitive editing. The film looks like a...well, 90s Abel Ferrara flick (back streets, seedy underground city shit) to the point that it never truly feels "sci fi" despite the premise. It feels very present and grounded.

I watched Strange Days the other day and got the same vibe from it.  Nothing felt particularly sci-fi or cyberpunk about it.  The stupid-looking rubbery-plastic device that people put on their heads in the movie to experience others' memories looked cheap and the reactions to experiencing stuff were laughably bad.  It was like multiple scenes of Ralph Fiennes and co. pretending to have hilarious orgasms.

[team filler]

I got a free copy of strange days when I bought my first dvd player. as many times as I tried to watch it, I somehow never end up remembering the movie much at all. I can't say it was bad, good or mediocre. just a movie that doesn't need to exist, doesn't exist and does exist all at the same time 

[D3RANG3D]

[Bebpo]

The Killer - Was entertaining at first, but kinda dumb after a while and in the end it's a completely forgettable film because the base story and main character are pretty bland. Nicely shot, but very mediocre Fincher movie. I might even put it at the bottom of his filmography.

[bork]

(Image removed from quote.)

I saw something about there being a minor backlash against this movie for not having the cast from the awful 2016 'reboot'.  Please tell me that's not true. Who is still stanning for that shit?
 

[D3RANG3D]

Bobberts?

[GreatSageEqualOfHeaven]

Paul Feig

[D3RANG3D]

idon'tknowher.jiff

[Bebpo]

Huesera - The Bone Woman - I am not the intended audience for this and it's tough to relate and identify to the potentially extreme physical and mental horrors of pregnancy changes as a man, but it was still a well done film.

[Bebpo]

Brooklyn '45 was a good Mamet style one room play with ghosts and WWII PTSD. The cast was damn good and the character writing too mostly. Felt he nailed the suspense. Main story could've been a little better, but was definitely worth a watch. I still need to watch Geoghegan's other films that have been in my horror backlog for a while.

[Bebpo]

Deadstream - This movie was so dumb. Like it's firing off stupidity 100% of the time trying to do jackass annoying livestreamer the whole time while also doing zero budget Evil Dead; and it tries so much that there's a few dozen genuine funny laughs in it, but oh my god it's just so dumb it's not worth the runtime 

It also takes a while to get to the funny. Like the first 24mins were just annoying until there's a real funny gag. Best part of the movie were the troll stream commenters commenting the whole thing. Movie kind of missed a chance to be better if instead of just doing that for moments the entire film was trolled by commenters on the side which would've made it worth watching.

Also I think a more clever ending would've been

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Throughout the movie he keeps referencing that if he cusses they'll pull the stream and he's like strike one, strike two when he accidently says shit a few times.

Near the end he's out in the woods away from his laptop and gets spooked fighting monsters and curses more.

A great end would've been if by the time he runs back to his computer to get the solution from his stream commenters on getting rid the demon, that he sees the stream's been dropped because of the cursing and so he's doomed. That would've been a funny horror end.

[close]

[Bebpo]

This review is pretty spot on for the good & bad of that film, I'd give it about the same (2.5/4). It's trying to be Evil Dead II/AoD but it's no EDII/AoD.

Nevertheless, it’s hard not to begrudgingly admire a film as committed to its deliriously silly bit as “Deadstream,” in which a streamer threatens to “demonetize” a 19th century ghost—one that’s too busy digging one gnarled, waxy-white finger up his nose to notice.

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/deadstream-movie-review-2022

[Bebpo]

Influencer was good, but that shit was too dark for me 

[Phoenix Dark]

The Killer is great. Fincher at the top of his game again.

[D3RANG3D]

[D3RANG3D]

[Joe Molotov]

Frank Dux coming out of retirement for one last fight.

[bork]

Looks like they took the font from Kung Fury.

[Sman]

I had never seen the movie Her until today.

The movie poster was familiar, but I just assumed it was some sort of romance flick so I had no interest for all these years. When I learned it was a bit sci-fi too, I finally gave it a chance.

What a depressing movie. Good but depressing.

[D3RANG3D]

[Phoenix Dark]

Really liked this. Weird movie about fame, child actors, Hollywood and the dismantling of self that goes on there.

[D3RANG3D]

[Phoenix Dark]

This blew me away, and I'm surprised how little I knew about it before recently. It's like a perfect dude movie in the way Heat or Goodfellas is, but a different genre obviously. It just looks amazing, and expensive. One of the best directed adventure films I've ever seen.

[Polident Hive]

Saw it last year after a series of coincidences kept putting its name out there. First was some video comparing it with wages of fear, mainly the endings. Some days later I was looking into all the movies scored by Tangerine Dream. Then I watched a video of Christopher Nolan telling Cillan Murphy to watch it as they browsed a French video shop. And then, obviously, there was Friedkin passing on.

[james]

Finally saw Barbie on HBO.

Good movie, but not incredible. Felt a too long at the end. Well I guess for a shameless toy brand movie its very good. Makes you think.

The Kens singing the Matchbox 20 song killed me

[Mupepe]

This blew me away, and I'm surprised how little I knew about it before recently. It's like a perfect dude movie in the way Heat or Goodfellas is, but a different genre obviously. It just looks amazing, and expensive. One of the best directed adventure films I've ever seen.

Incredible movie. The bridge scene gets you on the edge of your seat.

[Bebpo]

Buchanan Rides Alone

Watched another movie in the 5 film Budd Boetticher set. This is the third film him and Randolph Scott did. I liked the first two, The Tall T and Decision at Sundown.

This was another good one. There's something about these movies that hold up real well all these years later. The good cinematography, Randolph Scott's charismatic performances, and the stories being way ahead of their time in moral greyness instead of just good guys/bad guys.

My favorite bit on this film, which I think encompasses what I liked about these flicks is towards the end when there's a battle on a bridge with a group on either side and a lackey's in the middle trying to decide which side to go to as both of them say they'll shoot him if he goes to the other side. The lack of clear choices for characters and unpredictability really holds up well.