Movie News, Reviews, and Discussion Super-Thread

[Joe Molotov]

The Suicide Squad was okay. It was worse than both Guardians of the Galaxy movies, and I might have been more down on it if I'd actually paid to see it in theaters, but since I saw on da Max with someone else's login deets, it was a decent dumb popcorn movie. I like how Idris Elbow just walked in off the Hobbs & Shaw set and didn't even bother changing costumes, he was the best part. But ffs, can't these jerks just make comic books movies that are 90 minutes long? Some of us have adult ADHD and can only stay focused on flashing lights and sounds for a limited period of time.

Other stuff I watched this weekend:

The Swarm: French family drama about a widowed mother, her two kids, their failing locust farm, and their bloodthirsty swarm of locusts. For a movie that was advertised as being about "locusts with a taste for blood" I was expecting more of a b-horror flick, but really most of the horror is existential; the locust farm is failing, it's getting hard to pay the bills, the mom doesn't want to give it up because it was her late husband's, the kids get picked on at school because their mom is the weird bug lady, the mom is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Rather than turning the movie into an full-on insect murder spree, the locust's blood frenzy just becomes another other source of stress in their lives.

Blood Red Sky: German action-horror movie about a women on an international flight with her son that gets hijacked by criminals. It turns out the woman is a vampire that's been using medication to suppress her vampirism, but to save her son she's willing to unleash the beast. It was okay.

Pray Away: Documentary about members of the ex-ex-gay movement (people that were once in the ex-gay movement but have recanted their involvement). It's kind of a tough watch because even though these are broken people that did what they did because they felt like it was a way to be accepted and now they all seem genuinely really sorry about it, it's still pretty fucked up what they did. These were the people that were going to megachurches and giving eloquent speeches to get people fired up to vote for Prop 8. As long as they were getting praise and acceptance from their group, it didn't matter that they knew that conversation therapy was a sham and they were hurting other people for no reason.

[GreatSageEqualOfHeaven]

Blood Red Sky: German action-horror movie about a women on an international flight with her son that gets hijacked by criminals. It turns out the woman is a vampire that's been using medication to suppress her vampirism, but to save her son she's willing to unleash the beast. It was okay.

I saw this a few weeks back, and didn't like it or dislike it enough to have much to say about it, but I think they did themselves a disservice putting all the vampire stuff in the trailers as it would have been way more interesting if they'd Dusk Till Dawn'd it and played Act 1 straight as a heist flick, Act 2 as Die Hard on a plane with a vampire, then Act 3 as Plane Of The Dead.

[Quaker]

https://twitter.com/idriselba/status/1425174698007138305

[Tasty]

Who's gonna play Shadow?

I'd hope Mark Hamill, but that might be considered whitewashing.

[team filler]

seems like a threat 

who is playing chris chan 

[Tasty]

Someone at Paramount casting definitely watched Awesome Chaotix.

[Nintex]

Guess Elba did never Google Sonic & Knuckles

Or did he

[chronovore]

https://deadline.com/2021/08/sonic-the-hedgehog-2-idris-elba-to-play-knuckles-1234812424/

Edit; beaten:

https://twitter.com/idriselba/status/1425174698007138305

[Madrun Badrun]

The first movie was very solid.  Have big expectations for the second one. 

[Tasty]

What's everyone's thoughts on the Sonic movie?

[chronovore]

I’m shocked to hear Father Mike call it “solid.”

[Madrun Badrun]

I have watched it 3 times!  of my own free will!

[Bebpo]

I still think Idris needs to start leading more movies like Suicide Squad and not just be the villain over and over.

[Joe Molotov]

I watched Sonic the Hedgehog, and then a week later the country locked down due to Covid-19. Make of that what you will.

[Sman]

What's everyone's thoughts on the Sonic movie?

Big Sonic fan in the Genesis days, not so much anymore.

Movie's ok. More geared to a younger audience though. Could have been much, much worse (see first trailer)

Best part is the end credits animation.

[chronovore]

[Pissy F Benny]

watched fast 9 and its probably a top 3 film the franchise for me, what a gloriously distinguished film

spoiler (click to show/hide)

ludacris in space

[close]

[Pissy F Benny]

my favourite part of the fast universe is how you can fall 50 feet in the air but if you land on a moving car you'll be unscathed

[BadAss2961]

I prefer the first Suicide Squad. Not that the new one is bad -- it's okay... The characters are all solid and the action is pretty good. The problem is the same one I have with the last few Fast & Furious movies, it's all just way too over the top. Hard to take anything seriously and ends up being forgettable.

The original fell into the same trap in its finale, but the new one jumps the shark (no pun intended) early on and just dials it up from there. While TSS has a better final act, the original offered a far more grounded approach and feel overall which fit the source material better. Suicide Squad needs to be way more street level than this shit.

Feels like Marvel movies and their fans largely dictate the genre. The bigger, dumber, and jokier it is, the better. I still don't get it.

[team filler]

I prefer the first Suicide Squad. Not that the new one is bad -- it's okay... The characters are all solid and the action is pretty good. The problem is the same one I have with the last few Fast & Furious movies, it's all just way too over the top. Hard to take anything seriously and ends up being forgettable.

The original fell into the same trap in its finale, but the new one jumps the shark (no pun intended) early on and just dials it up from there. While TSS has a better final act, the original offered a far more grounded approach and feel overall which fit the source material better. Suicide Squad needs to be way more street level than this shit.

Feels like Marvel movies and their fans largely dictate the genre. The bigger, dumber, and jokier it is, the better. I still don't get it.

[Joe Molotov]

Don't Breathe 2

In the first movie, the "intruders" were criminals but they also had motives that made them somewhat sympathetic. In this movie the "intruders" are absolute scumbags that you can't wait to see get murked by this insane old man. They don't even look like good people, they all look shifty and slimy and you just hate their dumb faces. This movie is like a later Friday the 13th sequel where you just wanna see some dumbass teens get Jason Vorhees'd, and it's glorious.

[GreatSageEqualOfHeaven]

Looks like this is a TV show rather than a movie (still looks entertaining)

[Bebpo]

The Green Knight was good. I didn't love it because it was mighty indie artsy slow and the ending left a bad taste in my mouth, but it was pretty and overall a neat little story/journey. Wish it had a bit more meat to the story and less lingering long shots in its 2 hours.

Never saw A Ghost Story, but if it's like that but without the cool Arthurian Folk Tale stuff, I probably wouldn't like it.

[Joe Molotov]

Godzilla vs Kong sucked. I liked the Hollow Earth part though because it reminded me of watching Mole People on MST3K, a better movie.

https://m.

[Bebpo]

Godzilla v Kong is probably the worst movie released in the past few years.

[Joe Molotov]

Why do they hire the most boring actors ever to be in their 200 Billion dollar franchise movie? Skull Island had Samuel L Jackson, John Goodman, and John C. Reilly. GvK has Eleven and a bunch of fucking randos that they stick the camera on for 80% of the movie. Could they not even get Charles Dance to come back and be the bad guy? He was better than the new bad guy.

[Bebpo]

Oh no, Niel Blomkamp's horror movie Demonic has 14% RT after quite a number of reviews. Down from Chappie at 32% RT (and I like Chappie!).

Blomkamp, man, what happened to you??

[team filler]

it's going to be great 

[Madrun Badrun]

Green Knight was really good. 

[Rahxephon91]

Yeah it was the perfect movie for 30-year-old millennials who don't know what they are doing, just like me.

[Don Rumata]

Oh no, Niel Blomkamp's horror movie Demonic has 14% RT after quite a number of reviews. Down from Chappie at 32% RT (and I like Chappie!).

Blomkamp, man, what happened to you??

RT score is pretty meaningless, but i think Blomkamp just works better in the short format.
I don't think any of his feature films were particularly great, even District 9, which was his best one, was kind of uneven.

[Madrun Badrun]

Paper Tigers was a good little feel-good movie.

[team filler]

was alexander good? I don't remember anything about it except for rosario dawson's delicious dominican titties   

[Bebpo]

Paper Tigers was a good little feel-good movie.

Was thinking about watching this the other day. Seems like a nice wholesome and funny movie.

[Tasty]

Dunno how long this has. The previz stuff is actually super fascinating.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Disappointed they do the Han-in-TFA-trailer thing with Ock, wanted more of him and the other Spider-Men front-and-center, but presumably they're saving that for trailer 2.

[close]

[Joe Molotov]

The Night House
A well-crafted supernatural horror movie with a great performances by Rebecca Hall. She plays Beth, a schoolteacher dealing with the sudden suicide of her husband and the strange occurrences in their remote lake house. She's the only actor with much screen time in the movie and she totally carries it. Her husband's death already has her barely keeping a grip on things, then when she starts uncovering dark secrets that he had kept from her, it pushes her closer to the edge. Some really chilling moments and a great story.

other stuff I watched this weekend

The Ritual - This is the first feature film of the director of Night House, David Bruckner. Not as good as Night House, but pretty decent. Deals with some of the same topics, like loss and grief.

The Wolf of Snow Hollow - It was s'aight. The horror and the comedy didn't quite meld together and the plotting was a little off, but there were some good scenes and funny moments.

As Above So Below - Really just watched this because the Paris Catacombs are pretty cool, I wasn't expecting much from the movie. The plot's kinda interesting, it's like "What if Indiana Jones was a horror movie?" The shaky-cam, found footage style didn't do this film any favors, it would have been much better without. It still wouldn't have been a great movie, but maybe it wouldn't make me wanna throw up.

[Tasty]

I really loved The Ritual, guess I should get on Night House.

I went into As Above So Below expecting the worst (having been burned by many found footage flicks), but it was surprisingly decent and compelling all the way through.

[Bebpo]

As Above So Below is my favorite Tomb Raider movie

[team filler]

aa,sb should have starred nic cage as a more badass indie jones and then at the end it becomes a ghost rider origin story 

[Tasty]

Reminiscence was quite bad.

[Great Rumbler]

Reminiscence was quite bad.

That sucks, but it tracks with what I've heard about it. Might as well just rewatch either Blade Runner, Inception, Minority Report, Strange Days, or 80s trashsterpeice Split Second starring Rutger Hauer.

[Tasty]

Reminiscence

It was incredibly overwrought. None of the dialogue feels natural.

I have a particular aversion to first-person narration. I know it's a noir thing but it's hard to pull off well.

Another noir thing that made me LOL was the lounge singer trope played totally straight, and with zero scifi aspect to make it congruent to the world. Reminded me of RLM's review of Partners.

Most of the plot hinges on some weird inheritance plot which wouldn't make much sense in the 90s, let alone the 2050s or whenever this supposedly takes place.

The world is pretty cool and the acting is good, but every other scene has at least one dumb contrivance. It's trying really hard to be Blade Runner 2049 + Inception (director Lisa Joy is Chris Nolan's sister-in-law...), but the screenplay really feels like a first draft of something I'd find on r/screenwriting asking for comment & critique.

2 / 5

[Tasty]

Just when I thought I was over the MCU, they pull me back in.

[Madrun Badrun]

The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf was really solid.  Like surprisingly so. 

[Madrun Badrun]

Just when I thought I was over the MCU, they pull me back in.

This looks amazing

[Bebpo]

That Spider-Man trailer looks dope. Dr. Strange as a non-main-character makes every Marvel film better. He's a shitty lead but a great support character. Just like in the comics.

[Don Rumata]

"Hey Dr. Strange can you make a spell to make everyone forget i'm Spiderman?"
"Sure thing!"
*reality starts to fall apart*
"Peter you dumbass, we understand nothing about multiverse, why did you ask me to do that spell?!"

Is Dr. Strange supposed to be mentally challenged, in the Marvelverse? 

[Transhuman]

He's doing it to teach Peter a lesson. At the end of the film J. Walter Weatherman is going to come out with his missing arm and tell Peter never to mess with the multiverse.

[Joe Molotov]

Then Mephisto makes him divorce Mary Jane to fix it.

[Bebpo]

Freaky wasn't as good as I heard. It's ok entertainment, but it rides the middle too much. Not funny enough to be a good comedy and not body counter enough to be a good horror/slasher. Just plays it real safe in the middle and is kinda whatever. Fun performance by Vaughn but that's about it. The concept is fun, but should've been a better movie with a better script.

[bork]

He's doing it to teach Peter a lesson. At the end of the film J. Walter Weatherman is going to come out with his missing arm and tell Peter never to mess with the multiverse.

Could be, but he's also too cocky at times (similar to Iron Man) and it comes off more as he figured he'd have no problem, then Peter fucked it all up. 

Just when I thought I was over the MCU, they pull me back in.

I'm all about the multiverse stuff (that they teased with the last Spider-Man movie and then with Wandavision- a-holes!) and it made Loki fun to watch.  Give me Spider-Man 3 and Doctor Strange 2- they're gonna be fun.  Can do without Black Widow, Shang-Chi, and The Eternals.

[bork]

Vacation Friends: This is a dumb comedy that was better than I thought it would be.  The plot takes too long to get going- the main character and his girlfriend go to Mexico, their room is trashed, and John Cena and his girlfriend offer to let them stay with them in their suite, then there's like 30 minutes of insanity.  Following this, the main story actually starts.  Seven months later, the main characters are going to get married, and here comes the titular 'vacation friends' from Mexico to crash the party.  There's nothing you haven't seen before, but it made for a fun "free" Hulu movie.

[Tasty]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/zhao-wei-france-1235004948/

Last Thursday, upon orders from the government, all entries related to Zhao on Chinese social media platforms such as Weibo were removed, her name was scrubbed from the credits of films and TV shows, and all content featuring her — including film, TV, chat show appearances and more — was removed from major streaming sites like Tencent Video and iQiyi.

All discussion of Zhao on social media is also censored. No official explanation for the blacklisting was given but the Chinese government is in the midst of a crackdown on the entertainment industry and the excesses of celebrity fan culture.

Christ, that's scary.

[Tasty]

This is where I am until I see Tobey and where the plot is going.

Spider-Man 2 is really special. Tread carefully, Marvel/Sony.

[Don Rumata]

I have zero expectations with Disney and their tired trick of nostalgia bait.
Completely soulless, tbh.

And all it'll do, is remind me how Raimi's Spiderman movies are still the best superhero movies made yet, even after all the billions spent. 

[Quaker]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/zhao-wei-france-1235004948/

Last Thursday, upon orders from the government, all entries related to Zhao on Chinese social media platforms such as Weibo were removed, her name was scrubbed from the credits of films and TV shows, and all content featuring her — including film, TV, chat show appearances and more — was removed from major streaming sites like Tencent Video and iQiyi.

All discussion of Zhao on social media is also censored. No official explanation for the blacklisting was given but the Chinese government is in the midst of a crackdown on the entertainment industry and the excesses of celebrity fan culture.

Christ, that's scary.

I had a "wait, where all the Chinese movies at?" moment when I got into foreign movies and noticed the Asian movies in conversation were almost always Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese and maybe a few from Hong Kong. Even for the latter, it seemed like there was a strong drop off after the handover in the late 90s and there's not been anyone on the level of craft or influence of John Woo or Wong Kar Wai since then.

See:

https://letterboxd.com/chicofireman/list/time-outs-100-best-hong-kong-films/by/release/

I assumed it was due to censorship because they obviously have a strong culture and a big domestic film industry and presumably no shortage of talent. It seems like Jia Zhangke is the main dude right now but I assume despite his prolific output it's not going to get any easier for him to get stuff made.

Basically, I find it very sad/frustrating that for such a large and storied country, China's culture output via film is basically 0 with no chance for improvement.

[Don Rumata]

Diao Yinan's latest was pretty great (Wild Goose Lake).
Some like Johnnie to even made a decent transition from Hong Kong to mainland, even though he basically retired in the last decade (from what his crazy output was anyway).
Creative hindrance is undeniable, though personally i think i still like Chinese cinema, as a whole, more than any other East Asian country, just going off the top of my head.
It's a shame they don't have the international appeal of Korean cinema, as they usually aren't as flashy.

Also to be honest i don't see Japanese cinema in an amazing position atm, considering their past, but i also haven't been following it that closely.
Who's a big name nowadays, aside from Sion Sono perhaps? I mean genuine question, i can't really come up with much.

[Great Rumbler]

Who's a big name nowadays, aside from Sion Sono perhaps? I mean genuine question, i can't really come up with much.

Seems like most of the big movies coming out of Japan recently are animated.

[Madrun Badrun]

The Equalizer -- late to the party, its good

[Quaker]

Diao Yinan's latest was pretty great (Wild Goose Lake).
Some like Johnnie to even made a decent transition from Hong Kong to mainland, even though he basically retired in the last decade (from what his crazy output was anyway).
Creative hindrance is undeniable, though personally i think i still like Chinese cinema, as a whole, more than any other East Asian country, just going off the top of my head.
It's a shame they don't have the international appeal of Korean cinema, as they usually aren't as flashy.

Also to be honest i don't see Japanese cinema in an amazing position atm, considering their past, but i also haven't been following it that closely.
Who's a big name nowadays, aside from Sion Sono perhaps? I mean genuine question, i can't really come up with much.

Yeah, Wild Goose Lake was great and surprisingly graphic for a Chinese movie.

There's a few guys still doing good work out of Japan but they're mostly working around melancholy melodramas.

Hirokazu Kore-eda's the biggest one right now. Shoplifters got a lot of attention before it got eclipsed by Parasite the year after. Unfortunately he did an English language movie last year which just came and went and wasn't up to the quality of his Japanese work.

Kiyoshi Kurosawa started off doing J-Horror 20 years ago but he's pivoted over to more slightly off-beat personal dramas. As a mopey bitch, To the Ends of the Earth was one my favorite movies from last year. It's just this slow melodrama about a meek, lonely Japanese TV presenter having an existential crisis in Uzbekistan.

Ryusuke Hamaguchi is up and coming in the same vein. He adapted a Haruki Murakami short story and won the Cannes prize for best screenplay last month. I just watched his previous movie (Asako I & II) the other night and thought it was a really good quiet relationship drama.

They obviously have limited appeal but as I get older I don't think I have have the same appetite for the kind of stuff that was coming out of Japan 20 years ago. I think Korea has been picking up the slack anyways.

That being said, Takashi Miike had a yakuza/boxer movie a year or two ago(First Love) that was kind of fun and not as edgelord as I remember his work being. Looks like he's been mostly working on live action adaptations of manga/videogames(JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Phoenix Wright..) recently?