Rate The Last Movie You Watched

[Buccaneer]

Just watched Timecrimes and loved it a lot, thanks again for the rec. One of most clever scripts and loved the twists, with the only negative being a quite unappealing lead. I will also check out the two similar movies panerd mentioned.

[QuikSand]

Hail Caesar - */10

Okay, the Coens are the best we have seen. I'm sold. A couple genuine masterpieces and a monstrous body of work.

Now, this movie. Hmmmmmm...I have room for people who might dislike it, even. I didn't, but I can see that place from here. My lack of real rating is a deference to them, as I suspect the things I really liked about the movie (a good share of it) might in time overwhelm the things I didn't (a lesser share).

The movie does challenge the conventional "story arc" concept. I (personally) am supposed to be highbrow enough to be immune to that, but here I wasn't, for whatever reason. At least not completely. Anyway...if the storylines and setup of this movie were presented as, ay, the first 4 hours of a new TV show, I would be running here (and presumably join a thread already started by those ahead of me) to urge people to go watch it post haste. I liked the characters, I liked some of the germ ideas, and I liked what I felt could have been done with the various plotlines.

But, in 1:40 or so, almost none of what I wanted happened. Not tragically so, but they just didn't feel the need to draw things out much more than the sketches.

I'll also volunteer that I was haunted a bit by another movie here. Despite being separated dramatically in time/era, a film about the struggles of a movie exec is just going to make me think of The Player...and that movie is basically an 11/10 for me. So, despite the well acted and well conceived main plotline around the movie exec (that, at least in micro level, did have a very reasonable conflict and resolution cycle), I'm unfairly thinking how rich that vein turned out to be elsewhere.

Anyway...I enjoyed it. As always, wonderfully conceived and executed. Acting was really good, too, virtually all around. So, I'm reluctant to say that I know better than the Coens on what their movie ought to have been. Very reluctant to hand out something like a 7/10, on the grounds that I'll look back and regret it later after time has brought me around on this one.

[Suicane75]

The Method: Spanish film about a group of applicants for a job at a financial firm, locked in a room and given a series of tests to see who gets the job.

It starts off fine enough despite losing a little in translation, nuances and such, but still it sets itself up finely. And then about halfway through it sort of goes off the rails and becomes much more of a psychological drama between characters who seem to make decisions, bad and good, out of the blue and for no real reasons I understood.

Again, I may have lost something in translation, but I'm leaning more towards it just not being a very strong film.

[flere-imsaho]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

Hail Caesar - */10

We saw it this weekend, too (wife & I). I'll offer the "standard" review as a follow-up to yours, QS, though I think you've hit on several key things in your review.

Clever script, some very hilarious parts, a plot that's an actual plot, and subtle but very good-to-exceptional performances (except Tatum, who was given a non-subtle part and did very well with it*).

There are some great gags that are set up in one scene and delivered a few scenes later. Fiennes' struggle with the actor and its payoff in the editing room had me hooting with laughter.

As usual with the Coens you walk out of the film knowing you've watched a quality film, one that assumes you thought your way through it (but not in a mind-bendy kind of way) and you'll continue to think about it afterward.

"O Brother, Where Art Thou" remains my favorite of theirs, but this was very good.


*My wife & I remarked he's probably the best "camp" actor working in mainstream film today.

[Suicane75]

Sunshine: From 2007, set 50 years in the future, our sun is dyeing and the only thing that can save it is a crew of astronauts charged with dropping all the nuclear payload earth can muster, into the center of it to recharge it. Okie dokie.

The movie is just preposterous with a capital osterous. The very premise, while silly, could have been overcome if anything in it was remotely good, but it's not. All the astronauts look like extras from 90210, sometimes it's all sciencey, except for when the plot needs to be moved along, then it's just dumb idea, followed by human mistake, followed by coincidence and then the movie takes a dramatic shift in the 3rd act and becomes something else completely, but still shit.

It's got a 7.2 on IMDB, so a lot of people liked this movie, I'm just not sure any of them had an IQ above 72.

[Groundhog]

I was disappointed by Sunshine too. Went from cheesy sci-fi to another genre that I won't spoil for folks who may want to see it. I had high hopes for it because Hiroyuki Sanada was in another movie a few years before that is a favourite of mine, Twilight Samurai. I was hoping he could make the jump to English-language cinema, but he's pretty much done nothing but drek.

[whomario]

I liked it ... So there * Boyle has a certain tendency to muddy up the 3rd act by one-upping himself and in this instance banks hard on the audiences ability to suspend disbelieve which is added to by sketchy acting and weird timing. So i get why one could be less than impressed. But the pictures are amazing and the premise interesting to me with some nice deep-thinking (?) to it. Would have been a rotten assesment for a book, but as a visual Medium i liked it (soundtrack/score is also fabolous). Then again, i am generally a Glas half full type when it comes to movies that have great Elements and crappy ones. Boyle at least commits to his vision and makes a great technical movie.

* as did multiple critics i respect for their view on movies and that are not easily swayed. i think its simply a matter of how you approach the movie and where you draw the “ah, hell no !“ line between vision and lunacy



Speaking of non-new scifi-flicks, i just saw Total Recall for the first time. While it has aged terribly effect-wise, its actually a sneakily interesting movie. Heck, even a rare sight of Arnie actually acting

I also finally saw The Martian, which was awesome. Although i was at times distracted by Will McAvoy doubling as NASA director (he is literally acting both as the same character).

[Suicane75]

Yeah, I wasn't even blown away by the visuals. I felt like a lot of the same shots were thrown in over and over and drawn out. Considering that I'm guessing they didn't have a big budget it did exceed expectations in that regard, but still. It's like 10 minutes into the movie before the first bro-fight breaks out and none of the characters drew me in in the slightest. I'm willing to suspend disbelief but there's almost nothing done in the movie that hasn't been done in every other space movie ever, except it's more silly here because they're going towards the sun. The 3rd act was utter shit, but it's not like it took down an already good movie.

[Suicane75]

Europa Report: Technically sound, well acted and dramatic, yet somehow felt severely lacking. The story of the a manned mission to Europa to explore it's icy depths, It's a solid movie based as much on science as any movie like this you'll find, but it just didn't resonate with me. The final 30 minutes sort of delves more into sci-fi but it never really gripped me, ymmv.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Sunshine wasn't good. At all.

It did have a great cast (that was pretty much wasted) and some of the visuals were impressive, but the ending was a weird tonal shift and stupid.

Also, I finally saw this while I was reading "The Martian." And couldn't wrap my head around just how incompetent and stupid some of the supposed "astronauts" were on the ship in Sunshine. Astronauts have PhDs and shit. These guys were, largely, moronic and they were the ones tasked with saving earth?

I had a similar problem with another shitty movie Promotheus. Some of the dumbest so called "brilliant smart" people ever assembled by a billionaire to explore another planet.

[Suicane75]

The Signal: Three MIT students, two guys and one of the guys girlfriend, are making their way cross country to drop the girl off at Cal where she's set to spend the year. Along the way they're toyed with by a hacker whose intrusions get more and more agitating. It may seem like I'm spoiling the story, but the problem with the movie is that by the time it ends, the summary I gave will have long been forgotten because the fucking movie twists and turns and piles on surprises and false finishes to the point of tedium, taking a very fun setup and rendering it useless. Even at the halfway point there's still hope, despite the fact that it feels like the movie is painting itself into a corner. Unfortunately it gets itself out of the corner with stuff that makes less and less sense and gives very little thrift to everything that's come before it.

Ambitious to the point annoyance, with so much stuff thrown at the wall that the writer may very well have had a torn rotator cuff by the time it was over, The Signal falls apart like a 20 year old pair of underwear.

[korme]

ANOMALISA
Saw this, Charlie Kaufman's animated pic about a lonely traveling businessman. Would have been more prepared for the circumstances had I remembered he did BEING JOHN MALKOVICH and ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND. It's one of those where my initial reaction is to say I didn't really like it, but after time and some absorption I might feel differently.

[Groundhog]

Zoolander 2 - 5/10

It has some funny moments, but it feels like they pasted about 5 different scripts together.

[Suicane75]

Originally Posted by korme

ANOMALISA
Saw this, Charlie Kaufman's animated pic about a lonely traveling businessman. Would have been more prepared for the circumstances had I remembered he did BEING JOHN MALKOVICH and ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND. It's one of those where my initial reaction is to say I didn't really like it, but after time and some absorption I might feel differently.

I've been wanting to watch this forever, but I have a feeling it's a heartstring puller the likes of which I can't handle at the moment.

[Suicane75]

Blue Ruin: Simple story of revenge that's masterfully directed and perfectly paced. The writer/director did a movie about a decade ago called Murder Party that I absolutely loved. That was a low budget slasher, this is a much bigger film, and while it feels much more mainstream, the honesty and craftsmanship of quality indy film making remains. The tension in spots is off the charts and the performances are superb. I highly recommend it.

[korme]

Originally Posted by Suicane75

I've been wanting to watch this forever, but I have a feeling it's a heartstring puller the likes of which I can't handle at the moment.

I rewrote that pretty quickly in the moment, I had a nice review that got lost in an impromptu Windows update, but the more I think on it the more I like it. But based on the trailer, it's not a heartstring puller like you might envision. The 'you're extraordinary' quote/scene in the trailer is kind of misleading for the vibe of it all. Worth a watch for sure.

Spoiler

Things like the name of the hotel really drive home the idiosyncrasies of the film that I've come to appreciate after the fact.

[stevew]

Joy-7/10

Definitely the first movie about mops I've seen. JLaw is really in the zone in her non XMen/Hunger Games stuff. Strong performance by her, rest of the movie was kinda meh. It did have a few pretty strong sequences. I love DeNiro but he was a bit too "DeNiro" and not really a character

[Suicane75]

Unknown: From 2006, Five me wake up, trapped in a warehouse with no memory of who they are or how they got there. At times it feels like it's about to get just a tad too silly, but it's always able to reign itself in, slowly letting the story unfold and showing how each man reacts as their memories incrementally come back. There's A parellel story involving the police and a ransom that at times feels a little too much like your run of the mill tv crime drama, but that also comes together pretty neatly near the end as the two stories intersect in a pretty brilliant way. By the third act, the story starts to unfold in small but clever doses and you may still find yourself guessing as the credits roll. Caviezel, Pepper and Kinnear all give good performances even though the script isn't that strong at the start. I Highly recommend it.

[revrew]

Deadpool - */10

Can't rate this one. Had it been an R-rated film, I would have given it extremely high ratings for being clever, witty, and funny, despite its relatively thin character development and plot.

But I honestly feel this movie should have been rated NC-17. There's only so much nudity and sex a movie can have until it crosses the line into p*rn. And IMO, this one crossed the line.

[Dutch]

I'm going to see it tonight, I'll guess my threshhold is a little more lenient, but we'll see. R-rated and NC-17 basically mean the same thing, right? As far as who is supposed to be able to watch anyway.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by revrew

Deadpool - */10

Can't rate this one. Had it been an R-rated film, I would have given it extremely high ratings for being clever, witty, and funny, despite its relatively thin character development and plot.

But I honestly feel this movie should have been rated NC-17. There's only so much nudity and sex a movie can have until it crosses the line into p*rn. And IMO, this one crossed the line.

Uhhh... Did we watch the same movie? Or are you joking? Can't tell if serious.

The only nudity in the film was the brief scene in the strip club and I think that only showed breasts.

Yes, there was that montage of sex scenes between Deadpool and his girl (hilariously depicting how they celebrate sex for various holidays), but other than Reynold's bare ass, I don't think there was any nudity. Maybe a flash of the woman's breasts (maybe, OMG NIPPLES!!!), but that's it.

It didn't come even /close/ to the line.

If you wanted to comment on the gratuitous violence, the excessive gore, the crude jokes/humor (none of which I had a problem with, I knew I what I was seeing), I could understand, but this movie was pretty light on the nudity.

I really enjoyed it. It was pretty much a perfect Deadpool movie.

8/10

[Logan]

Watched a lot of movies this weekend...

Spotlight - 9.5/10. I had heard so many good things but my expectation was for this to be a much slower burn. It definitely wasn't that which was great. The performances were excellent and there were just so many that were knockouts.

Bridge of Spies - 7.5/10. Very solid overall but I didn't find much of it to be overly compelling, outside of the relationship between Hanks and one other character which I wish we could have seen more of.

Straight Outta Compton - 8.5/10. Really enjoyed this and despite my familiarity with the story, still felt like I saw a lot more than what I expected. Acting was excellent. Dropped a half point for length.

After seeing Bridge of Spies I realized that only left Room and Brooklyn for me among the Best Picture nominees, and I don't think I ever saw all of them before the Oscars, including when the field was smaller. My wife has been wanting to see Brooklyn so think I'll give it a shot to knock them all out.

[stevew]

Originally Posted by Dutch

I'm going to see it tonight, I'll guess my threshhold is a little more lenient, but we'll see. R-rated and NC-17 basically mean the same thing, right? As far as who is supposed to be able to watch anyway.

Not really. Only 18+ year olds can go into an NC17 movie.

[sovereignstar v2]

Originally Posted by revrew

Deadpool - */10

Can't rate this one. Had it been an R-rated film, I would have given it extremely high ratings for being clever, witty, and funny, despite its relatively thin character development and plot.

But I honestly feel this movie should have been rated NC-17. There's only so much nudity and sex a movie can have until it crosses the line into p*rn. And IMO, this one crossed the line.

wow

[PilotMan]

Straight Outta Compton 9.5/10

How did this movie not get nominated for best pic? Best of I've seen for 2015 imho. Better than the Martian. It had no business being left off that list.

[stevew]

I liked Straight Outta Compton but the second half really felt compressed. I think there were easily 3 movies worth of stuff there.

[CraigSca]

Goodnight Mommy - 7.5 out of 10

German film I watched last night via Amazon prime while falling asleep. Ended up watching the entire thing. Plot consists of two approx. 10 year old twins living at home with their mother. Their mother returns home after having plastic surgery and, as the story continues, the children become more and more convinced that the person who returned home is not their real mother. Interesting story, relatively slow build-up, and though listed as a horror movie, it's more of a psychological one than a "jump scare" type of movie. Overall I found it compelling.

[Pyser]

Bridge of Spies - 5/10

Not really sure this deserved to be a movie. An interesting story worth knowing? Yes. A major motion picture? Well, movies usually have drama, or tension, or bad guys, or some general obstacle to overcome. This didn't really have any of that. Without Hanks (and possibly Spielberg) this is borderline unwatchable.

I mean, at least don't cut away from a pilot being shot down and captured in enemy territory. Why didn't he kill himself? How was he captured?

Kudos to Tom Hanks for being the first character in movie history to cough on screen and not die of a disease by the end.

[Dutch]

Originally Posted by stevew

Not really. Only 18+ year olds can go into an NC17 movie.

Sorry, I grew up not able to see R-rated movies ... at least, not with parental consent....so they are the same to me. But yeah, I understand that difference....

[Dutch]

Originally Posted by Dutch

I'm going to see it tonight, I'll guess my threshhold is a little more lenient, but we'll see. R-rated and NC-17 basically mean the same thing, right? As far as who is supposed to be able to watch anyway.

The R rating is fine, but it was best for the 18+ crowd, tbh. It was effin amazing! Loved every second of it.

[Suicane75]

The Killing Room: 4 volunteers are put in a room under the auspices of a medical trial, but soon learn that the motives are much more sinister, and only one of them will survive the day. Chloe Sevigny, Nick Cannon, Timothy Hutton and that Russian guy from Prison Break, star in what should be a much more tense and intriguing film than it is. The biggest problem with the movie is that it tries to fit too many angles into it's script. There are 4 people in a room, there are questions that need to be answered, there's murdering to be done, but none of it ever feel like it has much weight behind it. Unlike most movies of this sort, we're plainly shown the people behind it and the script tries to give their motives as much thrift as the story of the people in the room, but each story sort of just detracts from the other instead of assisting and coming together. The performances are all pretty good, but pretty much every other aspect of the film, from script, to direction, let them down.

[BillJasper]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

Uhhh... Did we watch the same movie? Or are you joking? Can't tell if serious.

The only nudity in the film was the brief scene in the strip club and I think that only showed breasts.

Yes, there was that montage of sex scenes between Deadpool and his girl (hilariously depicting how they celebrate sex for various holidays), but other than Reynold's bare ass, I don't think there was any nudity. Maybe a flash of the woman's breasts (maybe, OMG NIPPLES!!!), but that's it.

It didn't come even /close/ to the line.

I've seen it twice and Baccarin's tits go by in a flash. There's another tit shot when they're at the strip club, but that's it. And a Reynolds bare ass shot.

I agree that it didn't come anywhere near crossing the line.

[Neon_Chaos]

Originally Posted by BillJasper

I've seen it twice and Baccarin's tits go by in a flash. There's another tit shot when they're at the strip club, but that's it. And a Reynolds bare ass shot.

I agree that it didn't come anywhere near crossing the line.

To put it into perspective. You'd see more tits and male ass on an episode of Game of Thrones.

The gratuitous violence was spot on. Loved the film.

[BillJasper]

Originally Posted by Neon_Chaos

To put it into perspective. You'd see more tits and male ass on an episode of Game of Thrones.

The gratuitous violence was spot on. Loved the film.

I really enjoyed the film. Definite Blu-ray purchase when it hits home video.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

Straight Outta Compton 9.5/10

How did this movie not get nominated for best pic? Best of I've seen for 2015 imho. Better than the Martian. It had no business being left off that list.

Great movie.. brings back so many memories of High School.

[Johnny93g]

I watched The End of the Tour yesterday.

If i watched it earlier, it would have made it into my top 10 of 2015. Great movie. It's deep, thought provoking, touching. I really enjoyed Jason Segal's performance. I know nothing of the character he played, and found myself reading all about him last night. Well done flick!

[revrew]

Eddie the Eagle - 7/10

The plot is simple, and couldn't be any more predictable ... but then, when isn't that true of a sports movie? But this one is very funny, charming, and a good date movie. The right balance of quirky, but still accessible to wide audiences. And you don't have to know a thing about skiing or ski jumping to enjoy. Seriously, if you and the gal are going to hit the movies just for fun, this is an excellent choice.

And I still can't believe the actor who played Eddie is the same kid who was in "Kingsman." Great performance from Taron Egerton.

[Logan]

Originally Posted by Logan

After seeing Bridge of Spies I realized that only left Room and Brooklyn for me among the Best Picture nominees, and I don't think I ever saw all of them before the Oscars, including when the field was smaller. My wife has been wanting to see Brooklyn so think I'll give it a shot to knock them all out.

We were away last week so time was limited and we didn't get a chance to watch Brooklyn, but yesterday I had time for:

Room - 9/10. I was blown away by the little kid's performance. I really thought he was better than Brie Larson. How did he not get nominated? It wasn't just a kid playing a kid.

My final rankings of Best Picture nominees:

1. Spotlight
2. The Big Short
3. Room
4. The Martian
5. Mad Max: Fury Road
6. The Revenant
7. Bridge of Spies

I would have slid Straight Outta Compton after The Martian and Creed right in after that.

[Suicane75]

Room: Neck and neck with Spotlight for my favorite movie of the year. Builds tension in a way that almost made me sick to my stomach, it was that intense. That being said, I'm not sure it's overall as good a movie as Spotlight, but it's close.

[Groundhog]

Ratter - 2/10
Yikes. Somehow this had a 67% fresh rating on RT so we gave it a shot. A film about digital stalking, shot entirely from the hijacked camera on devices the main character is carrying/owns like smart TVs, phone, etc. (well, filmed to look like it, at least). Interesting idea, really bad execution. Some creepy moments, but completely ruined by (to not give too much away) the ending.

[sabotai]

Theory of Everything - 5/10
Redmayne did an incredible job as Hawking and deserved the Oscar, and the first 30 minutes did a good job of setting everything up, but once they get to his condition, it's 99% about his ALS and how it affected his friendships and his marriage with Jane. Just really "meh" from that point on. Would have liked more about his career. Or maybe even just cutting it down by 10 minutes or so would have helped make the plot move faster.

[Groundhog]

Spectre - 7/10
Not a particularly great movie, but as per usual with Bond movies if you just switch your brain off and enjoy the action it's not a bad way to spend a couple of hours. Better than the last one solely due to a few less eye-rolling moments of coincidence in the action scenes.

One thing that does annoy me though is...

Spoiler

When a long-running series brings in a new bad guy who is suddenly revealed to be the guy behind all the other bad stuff that has happened in a series. You know, despite the fact that we've seen/read the rest of the series and it clearly wasn't the case. I don't like it mainly because not only is it overdone, but at the same time it subtracts from the other movies/books in the series...

[MizzouRah]

The Visit - 6/10

Wasn't really all that great, but the suspense and twist at the end at least made it so we wanted to see what would happen.

[Julio Riddols]

Krampus - 9/10

They don't make movies like this anymore.. Except now they do. It was funny, legitimately pretty creepy/scary at points, and just good. I loved every minute of it. Had the feel of a classic 80's type creature horror film, kinda like Gremlins. Really well made and worth a watch for sure. The kind of film you can re-watch regularly just to relive the fun.

[revrew]

The Young Messiah - 5/10

I saw an advance, screener copy of this movie, set to come out March 11.

Based on the Anne Rice novel and starring Sean Bean ("One does not simply walk into Mordor"), it speculates on a gap in the biblical story of Jesus: his life as a child.

It's an interesting speculation, and the characters are well-balanced, funny at times, good performances. This isn't a cheesy, "Christian" movie, but a solid, Hollywood production.

Yet it's only so-so in the entertainment value category. A few flaws are just flat-out weird. I can see Christians enjoying and debating about it, but I'm not seeing it for wider audiences. I saw "Risen" a couple of weeks ago (starring Joseph Fiennes), and that, I thought, was a much better movie.

[NobodyHere]

Is it just me or does Sean Bean die in pretty much every movie he's in? I haven't seen The Young Messiah so don't worry about a spoiler for that movie.

[Groundhog]

There's a funny video about Bean's tendency to die in every single thing he's in that was shared all over Facebook around the time he died in Game of Thrones.

[NobodyHere]

Apparently Sean Bean does die more than other actors according to this internet analysis.

Does Sean Bean Really Die More Than Other Actors? | Nerdist

[Julio Riddols]

Frank Darabont's The Mist - 8/10

Bear with me here, this gets an 8 not because it is good, but because it is batshit crazy. There are absolutely hilarious parts, including some particular anguish for the main character at one point in the film that had me in stitches.. Some great characters, people who you end up rooting for if you like underdogs.. It's got a lot of the cast of Walking Dead's first season or so in it. It is a great popcorn movie to sit back and just take in the insanity. The effects are bad, but it added to the appeal for me in a way. Its the kind of movie where you admire the effort, even if the results are a total shitstorm.

[MikeVic]

Originally Posted by Julio Riddols

Frank Darabont's The Mist - 8/10

Bear with me here, this gets an 8 not because it is good, but because it is batshit crazy. There are absolutely hilarious parts, including some particular anguish for the main character at one point in the film that had me in stitches.. Some great characters, people who you end up rooting for if you like underdogs.. It's got a lot of the cast of Walking Dead's first season or so in it. It is a great popcorn movie to sit back and just take in the insanity. The effects are bad, but it added to the appeal for me in a way. Its the kind of movie where you admire the effort, even if the results are a total shitstorm.

Spoiler

The ending gives it a 5/10 for me right away, and the rest of the movie bumps it up a bit. But seriously, that ending is just something.