What movies have you seen recently?

[Caulfield]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Atomic Blonde. Bond aint got jack on Theron. I hope there are sequels.
Wished there were more to the John Goodman character.

Valerian and the city of a thousand planets. Visually stunning but the movie is drivel. 1 part star wars (prequels) 1 part 5th Element and 998 parts I dont know what. Feels like this is one of those movies that was written by someone on a bad acid trip. Avoid at all costs. Now if you can see it for free, thats another matter. All you lose is time. If I had my money back I'd rather had seen Atomic Blonde twice.

[Lieutenant Dan]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Snowpiercer

This one was a pleasant surprise, I really enjoyed it. Great style and sets, and very well paced. Kudos to Chris Evans and Tilda Swinton, great acting job here. Solid sci fi.

The Hateful Eight

Let's add this to the list of Tarantino films I really like, and it's BEAUTIFULLY shot. I really don't want to go on about it much because it's hard to not spoiler, but I recommend this film. This one doesn't catch Pulp or JB, but it's as good or better than IB for me.

[SPTO]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

I binge watched a few movies over the weekend. There are a couple standouts that I felt should be mentioned here:

Carry On Cowboy (1966): My first exposure to the famous "Carry On" films from the UK. There were 31 of these things produced! Anywho, this one is a send up of the western genre and I thought it was pretty good. The humor is very broad as they pepper the film with jokes aplenty. Most don't really work but when they do generate a laugh it'll get you going. In some ways the construction of their parody of the western is just as good as Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles. I will definitely have to check out more of the Carry On films.


Harper (1966): According to online sources this movie completely cemented Paul Newman's place as a certified Hollywood big shot. The movie is based on one of Ross MacDonald's Lew Archer detective novels and it's quite good. A lot of credit has to go to screenwriter William Goldman who gave the film a solid structure and more importantly GREAT dialogue. It almost plays like a hard boiled detective in the wrong era as Newman's Harper is cut out of the same cloth as Humphrey Bogart's Sam Spade portrayal. This is juxtaposed by the atmosphere and ambience of the Swinging Sixties with people spouting "hip" dialogue. A lot of the players in this flick are excellently portrayed which is a good thing as the characters are a bit kooky.

Here's a great example of the dialogue aspect of the film. (i'm sorry that this guy apparently stuck a camera in front of a screen but you will get the gist if you listen carefully) In fact, this is probably my favorite dialogue scene of the entire film:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/No38T392wpI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[daflyboys]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Got me intrigued to watch Harper now. Love Newman in just about everything. And I don't know how I never came across Tiffin before! A hottie indeed!

[SPTO]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Got me intrigued to watch Harper now. Love Newman in just about everything. And I don't know how I never came across Tiffin before! A hottie indeed!

Yeah it's a pretty damn good movie. Newman isn't completely hard boiled as there's humor throughout but it doesn't detract from the detective aspect of the film. A young Robert Wagner is great in it as well as Arthur Hill. (long before his Law & Order years) There was a sequel 9 years later (The Drowning Pool) which I also watched. It pales in comparison to the first film and the story gets a bit confusing/meanders along. Newman is worth watching in that one but it's not something i'd go out of my way to see unless you're a Newman completist or you want to see a young Melanie Griffith being a bad girl.

[Majingir]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Saw Doctor Strange for the first time. Despite it's generally good reviews, I didn't really like it. If it has a sequel, I doubt I'll watch.

[Scott]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Watched Guardians of the Galaxy 2 in Dolby Vision. Picture quality was demo level. Loved Baby Groot too.


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[JayBee74]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Saw Boogie Nights again. I was made aware that I got the dialogue wrong in the short prison scene

Spoiler

where the large black guy is brutalizing the Colonel. He said, "Shut up Colonel!", not, "Shut up Girl!".

A question.

Spoiler

Did that type of prison arrangement exist in the early 1980's? I thought pedophiles were kept apart from general population for quite some time before that.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

The Witch
I loved this. It is more dramatic horror that builds tension and intensity through character development/descent rather than relying on jump scares and overt gore. The atmosphere is crafted wonderfully as the viewer is never able to fully relax; tension weaves it's way throughout the whole of the film and builds through the film's score and lingering shots. It is a haunting tale that I'm still racing to think about 12 hours later.

The cast were all superb and the dedication to the Germanic-based folklore is obvious and appreciated. This is a film that has all its pieces working together building upon each other to create a lingering haunt. It feels like a literary work with its attention to subtleties and development of themes.

I'll be watching this again once October rolls around.

[Blzer]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

I'm hoping to see The Witch and Blair Witch pretty soon (I know those are not connected haha). Now that I know what kinds of films I'm expecting, I'm hoping to appreciate them plenty.

I did see Annabelle: Creation last night. I left impressions in its own thread (click here).

[Blzer]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

(There may be some thematic spoilers in the below post)

The Belko Experiment

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zoMiYklHvjk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

This is one of those films where you're as interested in the "why" as you are in the "what." Sure, I'm curious what the outcome is, but I really want to know the reason behind all that is happening to begin with. So no matter the result of this film, I think I would have left with some sense of satisfaction if I got a bit of an explanation. Perhaps you can enter the writer's mind (James Gunn, by the way), find out their ultimate message or intent behind the creation of the film to begin with. However, to get pretty much nothing elaborated on is a bit unnerving. I'm sure that was purposeful, but it leaves the film very shallow in the end.

Regarding plot structure, I saw a blend of very many films here: The Purge, Hostel, The Hunger Games, Cabin in the Woods, Exam, etc. It certainly wasn't uninteresting, but it was very one-note and thinly-layered. I'm willing to give this the benefit of the doubt if it tries to hit me over the head with ultimately being a complex thing, which it very well may be within the universe that this is built around, but the audience is left with the door hitting them on the way out. Leading up to it though was still pretty neat though in that nobody was untouchable: good, bad, indifferent. Not many deaths felt rewarding and many of them felt punishing to the viewer, which is kind of a nice way of going about a film: for once, you kind of just want to see everybody live if they could. Knowing that outcome simply wasn't possible, you're playing the game with them but watching it on a screen.

Yet, I keep jumping back to "why." Closure for a film is nice, and this didn't provide me it. I understand it was a social study, but I don't understand its larger purpose in this universe. Despite the crappy low-budget effects and the anger I felt with each death that happened (or didn't happen, in some cases), I could live with all of that if I am given more to it. Hell, even the films I mentioned above justify themselves. That's where this one falls short. Otherwise, I appreciated that the stakes were high and the rules were clearly defined... although they were sometimes made up along the way so what could be done ultimately was done. Not going to recommend, but not going to turn others away either. Just know that if your curiosity is stricken for anything more than the outcome, look elsewhere.

[Blzer]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Phoenix Forgotten

I thought it was alright. It got a little showy when all was said and done, but damned if you do and damned if you don't, right?

Don't think this deserved a theatrical release of any kind, though. Doesn't do anything that The Fourth Kind didn't do, and that was a bit of drivel by the end as well.

Why do I think it's okay, though? What kind of film do I expect to be watching? Exactly this. So it was okay. Don't know what others expected when they saw it.

[Lieutenant Dan]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Gettysburg

It's very well done, though with some too-long stretches of dialogue for my taste. I think it might have been better an hour shorter. More concise but still epic.

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[Quint75]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

The Witch

I loved this. It is more dramatic horror that builds tension and intensity through character development/descent rather than relying on jump scares and overt gore. The atmosphere is crafted wonderfully as the viewer is never able to fully relax; tension weaves it's way throughout the whole of the film and builds through the film's score and lingering shots. It is a haunting tale that I'm still racing to think about 12 hours later.



The cast were all superb and the dedication to the Germanic-based folklore is obvious and appreciated. This is a film that has all its pieces working together building upon each other to create a lingering haunt. It feels like a literary work with its attention to subtleties and development of themes.



I'll be watching this again once October rolls around.

I recommend watching it with subtitles. I understood so much more the 2nd time I watched it thanks to this. The dialogue is terrific.

If you don't go in expecting a horror movie and appreciate atmosphere and great acting, it's a wonderful film. I seriously believe Ralph Ineson should have taken the Best Actor Oscar for this.


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[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

I recommend watching it with subtitles. I understood so much more the 2nd time I watched it thanks to this. The dialogue is terrific.

If you don't go in expecting a horror movie and appreciate atmosphere and great acting, it's a wonderful film. I seriously believe Ralph Ineson should have taken the Best Actor Oscar for this.


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There were only a couple scenes that I didn't understand what they were saying. Still, I never felt like I didn't comprehend what they were saying or what was going on.
I think a lot people expect horror to be explicit with jump scares and gore. For me the best horror movies invoke a psychological intensity and this movie certainly does that.