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Movies You’ve Watched Lately [OT] - 2023

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lachesis

Member
Finally watched Oppenheimer. I was afraid that I won't be able to understand all the dialogs, so I requested the closed caption device. Loved it. I think I will use that device more often.
The explosion was little underwhelming - but knowing he probably built that stuff for real, it was a treat.

(And normally, I tend to go to bathrooms like couple times during long movies, even with empty bladder... must be some psychological thing - but since I was so engaged, I was totally fine during this movie, which also was pretty long - lol)
 

Andyliini

Member
Predator 2
The sequel moves from jungle to an urban environment, but the film itself does not change that much. Human characters are not as macho and buff as they were previously, but we still see a hunter killing down swarms of armed people, but only one lonely warrior is able to defeat it. I like how the predator race is developed more, as even more creatures are shown this time around. The predator also shows some mercy this time around, further enhancing that these are not totally bloodthirsty characters, hunting is just sport to them. A good, if somewhat predictable sequel.
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
Chimp Empire on Netflix Is good. It's one of those nature docs where they record a group of chimps but they dramatize the hell out of it. They give them names, tell you what they're thinking and play war music as the chimps go out on patrol to defend their borders. Pretty badass.
 

Doom85

Member
Predator 2
The sequel moves from jungle to an urban environment, but the film itself does not change that much. Human characters are not as macho and buff as they were previously, but we still see a hunter killing down swarms of armed people, but only one lonely warrior is able to defeat it. I like how the predator race is developed more, as even more creatures are shown this time around. The predator also shows some mercy this time around, further enhancing that these are not totally bloodthirsty characters, hunting is just sport to them. A good, if somewhat predictable sequel.

I think of all the Predator sequels (mind you, I’ve not seen Prey yet), 2 works the best of the sequels because it fits with the idea of taking a normal movie plot…..and then throwing a highly advanced alien hunter(s) into the mix.

The first movie sets up a group of mercs on an infiltration and then extraction mission, pretty standard action movie stuff...and then suddenly a Predator shows up.
The second movie sets up a cops vs. drug gangs plot, again standard cop movie stuff….and then Predators show up.

See: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OutsideContextProblem
 

JimmyRustler

Gold Member
I tried to watch the new Little Mermaid movie… I really tried.

What a colossal failure. Seems the woke messaging is everything to Disney now, they don’t even bother to make an entertaining movie any more. The acting is bad, the CGI is mediocre, the only good songs are the old ones and why the hell is this movie so long? Why did the feel the need to blow up the plot with some needless trash? I don’t get it… and what they’ve done to my boy Sebastian is DISGRACE.

do not watch this/10 (my rating)
 

Billbofet

Member
Equalizer 3:

It had a really excellent first half. The second half felt like there were a lot of reshoots or writing changes or a really bad setup to carry on the franchise. None of that shit worked.
What does work is subtle Denzel warning and threatening the baddies before he starts equalizing them. Love that shit. The ending was just okay.

The movie takes place in Italy, and there is a scene of the baddies trying to plan their next move on the Equalizer, and they are all furiously eating plates of spaghetti....
Shot after shot of spaghetti being twirled on a fork and eaten in close-up. I don't know if that was intended to be funny, but I can't stop thinking of it.

C+ overall. Not really worth rushing to the theater to see, but it's a great way to spend a rainy day or Sunday night.
 

Muffdraul

Member
I finally started playing Hogwarts Legacy a couple weeks ago, and of course it put me in the mood to re-watch the HP movies. Actually it put me in the mood to re-read the books, but my copies are long gone, so... I was about to start at the beginning, Sorcerer's Stone, and then I realized... holy shit... in all these years, I never got around to watching the Deathly Hallows movies! It was my ex gf who finally got me to read the books back when Order of the Phoenix had just come out. I read all the books, we watched all the movies... then we broke up just a few months before Deathly Hallows Pt 1 released to theaters. So I never saw it. I thought about it once in a while over the years, but I never did. So, I finally watched both parts over the last couple weekends.

I probably should have started over from the beginning and watched them all and finished up with Deathly Hallows. It seemed rushed to me. And more boring than I expected.
 

Andyliini

Member
Predators

The second sequel released 20 years after the last film (if AVP does not count) is a strange film. They clearly and openly took all the inspiration from the original film, completely sidelining all the other lore from sequels and other media, while trying to add their own visions as official canon. It does not quite work, as the group of humans is quite big, some of them die very early, leaving their backstories and motivations almost down to guesswork. Predators also loose almost all of their weapons, and now also kill unarmed prey.

Also, there are some inconsistensies I found, altough I rarely notice these. First off, there is a scene, where the protagonists see they are on a foreign planet, and there are some huge ass planets clearly visible on the sky. Not only would they have been noticeable in the jungle, but they were on an open area just before. Also, they said that the sun does not move early in the film, only for night to fall in the third act.

It has been a while since I have seen this, but I remember enjoying it more than this back then.
 

John Marston

GAF's very own treasure goblin
Talk to me (2023).

It feels at first like Evil Dead with a ceramic hand instead of a book as a conduit.

But it really is a drama about dealing with loss & mourning underneath the "horror".

A 7/10 for me 🙂
 

Andyliini

Member
The Predator

The 4th, and final theatrical Predator-solo is also the worst of the bunch. Unlike Predators, this one takes cues mostly from Predator 2. The city landscape, and multiple Predators and so on. The film is hard to follow, and completely uninteresting. I found myself looking for my phone from time to time, which is a great tell when the movie just doesn't work on me.
 
Just watched a new horror movie on Hulu called No One Will Save You. It's an alien movie, and that's all I'll say about the plot to avoid any spoilers... but what I will say is that I enjoyed the hell out of it. I looked up the writer + director afterwards and it seems like a Clive Barker situation where the guy has been writing good horror scripts for a while now (The Babysitter, Underwater, etc.) but decided to step up and direct one of his scripts himself (which is what Barker did with Hellraiser). The end result is a really well-directed movie, and it impressed the hell out of me because there is no dialogue in this film. Instead, the character's thought process is carefully filmed and conveyed to the viewer without her actually giving exposition - it's not a film for dumbasses who just want a loud startling noise every few minutes, or need the plot explained to them (especially the ending). So yeah, I really enjoyed it.

7/10

Edit: Just saw on Twitter that it's also recommended by Guillermo Del Toro
 
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violence

Member
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2001: A Space Odyssey

Another movie I had only seen parts of growing up. It was one of the VHS tapes my dad rented from blockbuster after he got a large sound system. Like star trek, it put me to sleep. My dad woke me up for trip scene and I couldn't believe it was the same movie.

I watched it again on 4k bluray and and boy, 70mm looks great on the format. Hel only feels all the more disturbing now that AI is everywhere. Being so young when I saw this movie, I never picked up on that after killing the Hel AI, he was stranded. So one interpretation of the ending is David died. I think it's a valid way to view it if you don't want to see it as him encountering ancient aliens. He was never shown entering the monolith and perhaps Jupiter radiation BBQed his brain. Of course there is audio of Kubrick explaining his intentions with the ending. Anyway, this movie is still pretty unique and may have the best on screen kill in cinema.
 
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12Goblins

Lil’ Gobbie
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Premise is stupid as shit but it's fairly well made and about as good as you'll get in the genre. Had my wife shook for a few days dx

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ryan gosling kills it, hilarious. rest of the movie is ok. I can imagine this movie being controversial 40 years ago maybe

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made it about 20 minutes before turning off this piece of garbage

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Well made and acted, but I think Wes forgets to make good movies sometimes

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Best movie I seen in a while, which is kind of sad. Good movie though


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Bit torn on this one. beautifully shot and enjoyed the Lost in Translation vibe, but ultimately couldn't really buy into their relationship and their temptation to get back together and inability to move on over some awkward interactions. felt like the only real character of the bunch was the new york guy she married. I am an immigrant kid so it did touch on some heartstrings t.t
 
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GeekyDad

Member
I'm 0 for 2 today. Sat down to watch Hillbilly Elegy. This was particularly disappointing, as there were a lot of good, raw materials there. Good acting, identifiable situations, but I guess Ron Howard just wasn't the right choice to direct this kind of story. The music kept suggesting A Beautiful Mind, the screenplay wanted to feel like Cocoon, but none of that had anything to do with the setting and premise of the film. I gave it a half hour before giving up.

Went with The Lincoln Lawyer, another disappointment, but I sat through it out of boredom. It was just plain D+ material. Played Triple Town on my phone during most of it.
 

Andyliini

Member
Expend4bles

I actually hate it when companies think that using numbers in place for actual letters is cool. Anyway, this latest part of the series is actually already quite far from the original idea of 80's action stars doing the same shit again. Most of the main cast are of a younger generation, and some of the old guard don't even appear in the film that much. These films were not reallty known for their stories, but this takes a real dive in that department. All the characters are one dimensional and cliché, you can pretty much guess all the little twists from a mile away. Most of the film is just shooting at bad guys anyway, so if you go in expecting just mindless violence, then there certainly is some enjoyment to be found. But there is not much to tell from this piece afterwards.
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
This is supposedly one of the better Pixar movies and I failed to get through it a second time yesterday.

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The concept is funny, but the human protagonist is oddly unlikable and the pulling of the hair to control the human is so lazy I couldn't look past it. Probably one of my least favorite Pixar movies.
 

JimmyRustler

Gold Member
How they pulled that movie off is beyond me. On paper its a terrible idea.

In practice? One of the greatest sequels ever to grace the big screen. Agree on the 10/10.
Because there are probably still a handful of producers in Hollywood that value artistry in blockbuster movies - and most of them seem to be friends with Villeneuve. Thank god, that man is a gem. May he never stop making movies.
 

JimmyRustler

Gold Member
This is supposedly one of the better Pixar movies and I failed to get through it a second time yesterday.

p_ratatouille_19736_0814231f.jpeg


The concept is funny, but the human protagonist is oddly unlikable and the pulling of the hair to control the human is so lazy I couldn't look past it. Probably one of my least favorite Pixar movies.
I have never read so many wrong things in such a short paragraph. *slaps you in the face with a silk glove*
 

violence

Member
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Prey (2022)

I managed to watch the 4K Blu-ray version of this movie. While it’s not a huge difference, the higher bit rate made it a nice bump up from the Hulu stream. My biggest complaint is the movie's fascination with CGI animals. It was no better the second time. As a fan of this franchise but more it’s villain, I think this movie was pretty excellent overall. Probably the second best Predator movie after the first. The historical time period really elevates the film. And the final image of female protagonist with the predator DNA all over her face was… hot.
 
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bender

What time is it?
My biggest complaint is the movie's fascination with CGI animals

Stuff like this ruins movies for me. My biggest pet peeve is CGI blood. I miss squibs. It really holds back the Wick movies for me. Funnily enough, I turned off Dread this weekend because of this.
 

Andyliini

Member
Elle

Watched some special features of Total Recall a few weeks ago, and became fascinated by Paul Verhoeven's style, so I decided to see some of his other films. This French Thriller was on TV, so I decided to catch it. While the story itself is quite captivating, it is completely ruined by pacing and he unnatural characters. In the first half of the film, the story is difficult to follow, and then later the characters start bugging you to a point it breaks the immersion. It is difficult to think that the main character was nominated for academy award for best actress, because nobody in real life would ever act like that. Can't recommend this one.
 
Elle

Watched some special features of Total Recall a few weeks ago, and became fascinated by Paul Verhoeven's style, so I decided to see some of his other films. This French Thriller was on TV, so I decided to catch it. While the story itself is quite captivating, it is completely ruined by pacing and he unnatural characters. In the first half of the film, the story is difficult to follow, and then later the characters start bugging you to a point it breaks the immersion. It is difficult to think that the main character was nominated for academy award for best actress, because nobody in real life would ever act like that. Can't recommend this one.

I seen from him

Robocop
Total Recall
Starship Troopers
The Hollow Man
Basic Instinct

I loved all those movies. Wish he was still making Ultra Gory Sci Fi Movies. He has alot of talent
 

bitbydeath

Member
No one will save you.

Shame no one saved me from this. Clue was in the title, avoid.
I tried to watch this but the whole no talking thing just ruined it for me, especially when she goes into town and their are literally people everywhere, it just came off as a dumb decision.
 

Andyliini

Member
The Last Stand

Bought this after seeing it in theaters January 2013, but never actually rewatched it until now. It seems like my memory failed me, since I remembered this was funnier than this. The film tries to take itself surprisingly seriously most ot the time, though I think it would have been better than it is now. Most of the film is a slog where nothing important really happens, and the action is dull and repetitive for the most part. I guess they really tried to cash in with Arnold, since he returned to acting after the governor gig, but they should have thought some other hooks as well. This generic action film offers nothing new, and I understand now why it underperformed at box office. And probably in retail as well.
 
Can't remember the name but it was a foreign movie in some unknown country trying to smuggle people out of it from evil police?

They kill everyone in the container then dump the container at sea and there's just some solo woman trying to survive who's pregnant for the whole movie.
 


haven't watched it in years, but its still entertaining

"They never see you coming, do they, Bob?"

Elle

Watched some special features of Total Recall a few weeks ago, and became fascinated by Paul Verhoeven's style, so I decided to see some of his other films. This French Thriller was on TV, so I decided to catch it. While the story itself is quite captivating, it is completely ruined by pacing and he unnatural characters. In the first half of the film, the story is difficult to follow, and then later the characters start bugging you to a point it breaks the immersion. It is difficult to think that the main character was nominated for academy award for best actress, because nobody in real life would ever act like that. Can't recommend this one.
This movie was preternaturally unpleasant. And I'm a big fan of every other Verhoeven movie I've ever seen.
 

bitbydeath

Member
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Not bad, I didn’t like them making fun of what was clearly a better/simpler time, but otherwise was a fun movie.
 
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Not bad, I didn’t like them making fun of what was clearly a better/simpler time, but otherwise was a fun movie.

Finally watched it. I hated it. I'm not nostalgic at all for that time period or any time period I lived through. Nostalgia doesn't effect me at all. But the constant woke jokes just came off as cringe. I wasn't triggered by those not funny jokes but it kind of brought the whole movie down. It's just like oh that shirt is so problematic or that's homophobic. It was said constantly, it felt forced
 

Billbofet

Member
Shin Godzilla (2016)

Not sure why it took me so long to watch this one. I am a huge Godzilla fan, and this was a fascinating take.
It's more about how the government would handle an attack by Godzilla at all levels of bureaucracy within the government(s).
Never thought I would watch a Godzilla with so many conference room meetings, but it works. It was funny, sad, patriotic.....
Plus, the parts with Godzilla's destruction are fucking fantastic. Really, really liked this one!!
 

bitbydeath

Member
Finally watched it. I hated it. I'm not nostalgic at all for that time period or any time period I lived through. Nostalgia doesn't effect me at all. But the constant woke jokes just came off as cringe. I wasn't triggered by those not funny jokes but it kind of brought the whole movie down. It's just like oh that shirt is so problematic or that's homophobic. It was said constantly, it felt forced
It’s a shame she didn’t learn how people just didn’t give a shit. Even with the shirt the guys partner said she like it so it seemed to be one-sided insanity.
 

violence

Member
The Flash - Pretty good. Really nice seeing Michael Keaton. One of the better DC movies.

Beetlejuice - Pretty good. Really nice seeing Michael Keaton. I saw this many times on VHS so the bump up to 4K Blu-ray was quite crazy. I wasn’t sure if I should buy the movie but I’m glad I did. Early Tim Burton is much better than later Tim Burton. It was not a situation where the movie wasn’t as good as I remembered.
 
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Andyliini

Member
Retribution

I have to admit, these action thrillers starring Liam Neeson are my guilty pleasure movies. They are not really good, but thoroughly entertaining. Also Neeson is such a powerful character I would follow him to Mordor if asked. Most of the movie takes place inside a car, put there is quite a lot of suspense. There is a lot of dialogue, of course, and little action, but I had fun time watching it, like I always do.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
Moonfall

Watched it on the plane on Friday. It is so cliche that I was riveted by the anticipation of whatever the next trope was going to be.
 
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