What movies have you seen recently?

[Blzer]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

I've seen a few of the other Bond films, but the only ones I have cared for are the Craig ones, even if they are bad.

Casino Royale is one of my favorite movies, ever. Skyfall is probably a better Bond film and obviously has some TDK influences which helps, but isn't anywhere near CR regarding movie quality. QoS is bad but runs quickly (plus continues the CR storyline) so rewatches are still decent, and Spectre has a good opening and fight sequence and that's it. The rest is boring, and Daniel Craig looked bored as well.

All that being said, I am really itchy for No Time to Die. Still haven't seen any previews whatsoever. Can't wait!

[bigbob]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Venom: Let There Be Carnage.

I liked it.

My biggest complaint was that I did not feel that there was enough Cletus/Carnage.

I also was not a huge fan of the party scene.

Other than that, I would watch it again. I know those who are used to the comics probably do not enjoy that it is more of a comedy, but that has not stopped me from enjoying it for what it is.

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[Blzer]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Venom: Let There Be Carnage.

I liked it.

My biggest complaint was that I did not feel that there was enough Cletus/Carnage.

I also was not a huge fan of the party scene.

Other than that, I would watch it again. I know those who are used to the comics probably do not enjoy that it is more of a comedy, but that has not stopped me from enjoying it for what it is.

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It seems most people didn't like the party scene. I liked that scene a bit personally. One of the "weirder" moments that I was more a fan of than less.

The breakfast scene didn't start off strong, but ended up pretty funny.

[TripleCrown9]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Just saw it myself.

That was a doozy of a mid-credit scene.

[DieHardYankee26]

What movies have you seen recently?

No Time to Die (4.5/5), going to put everything in spoilers but trying not to really spoil anything, until the ending section

Spoiler

The Good:
- 2 hours and 43 minutes, I was never bored which is damn near inconceivable
- This movie is Bond as ****, beautiful locations, beautiful cars, gadgets, one liners
- Hans Zimmer letting the theme ring early and often, he heard me
- Probably the second most beautifully shot Bond movie behind Skyfall, Cary Joji Fukunaga and Linus Sandgren did their jobs and well
- Awesome sound design, I'm a sucker for an explosion followed by muffled sound, but they take it a step further with the earpieces
- Finally stopped telling us how old Bond is and showed us

- Ana de Armas as Paloma kills it, they wanted to do a spinoff with Jinx back in the day from Die Another Day (but she was terrible), they could really do it with her
- Lashana Lynch as Nomi/the new 007 is great
- Interactions with the MI6 team are great, Moneypenny and Q both, and M is awesome (and there's a nice shout out in the MI6 headquarters with M where they acknowledge his predecessors, Bond fans will appreciate it)
- Daniel Craig's eyes are still blue as hell, and they've found a way to make it story relevant lol
- Madeline (Lea Seydoux) is much better, they sell the relationship much better here
- Bond with the one take going up the staircase
- Brofeld is back and I think he's better than Spectre, but he's on more of his Vince McMahon "It was me all along" bull**** and I just rolled my eyes

The Bad:
- Safin, the villain played by Rami Malek, was just bizarre. His motivations were bad, they tried to give him a more personal attachment but that was bad to me as well. It really felt like they just wanted to tell a Bond story and realized they had to have a villain at some point.
- Some of the one liners didn't hit as hard as others, but I respect the attempts
- I feel like they tried to have it both ways with the 007 number and they should’ve either gone with “it’s just a number” or “no that’s Bonds number” and just stuck with it
The Ugly:
- These henchmen have storm trooper level aim, like what in the world? I wish they could just come up with set pieces where they don't have guns if they're going to miss like this

The Ending

Spoiler

I'm fine with it. They tied these movies together in a way that there was never going to be a continuation from Craig's movies so he had to die. I don't mind him dying, I just really don't like the way it happened. The whole bio weapon thing with the nanotech was nonsensical to me, not to mention they kept using EMP tech and it would not affect half of the things they were using.

New Rankings (Daniel Craig, the new GOAT, with 3 of my top 5, I need to see it again, I honestly like it more than Casino right now but I always give Casino a boost because it is one of the worst theater experiences I can remember and it has come such a long way in my mind since then. Basically, I saw it with a friend who is a Bourne fan and he was so happy that Bond was going the way of Bourne and I thought, pretty much until Skyfall, that it had ruined the franchise.):

Spoiler

Goldfinger
Skyfall
Casino Royale
No Time to Die
Licence to Kill
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
Goldeneye
From Russia with Love
The Spy Who Loved Me
The Living Daylights
Dr. No
Tomorrow Never Dies
The World is Not Enough
You Only Live Twice
Spectre
The Man with the Golden Gun
Moonraker
A View to a Kill
Thunderball
Live and Let Die
Octo*****
Quantum of Solace
For Your Eyes Only
Diamonds are Forever = Die Another Day

[bigbob]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

It seems most people didn't like the party scene. I liked that scene a bit personally. One of the "weirder" moments that I was more a fan of than less.



The breakfast scene didn't start off strong, but ended up pretty funny.

It kind of felt out of place, but rethinking it, I guess it kind of fits because I feel like most "buddy cop" movies, there is some tension that causes a split, some grief, and then a climax that brings them back together.

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[Blzer]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

No Time to Die

I'll mostly stay away from content, as I tend to.

I marathoned the four Craig Bond films before it, feeling the same way on all of them as previously posted. Glad I re-watched Spectre though because NTTD definitely wants you to be caught up on that story going into this one. There was even a specific line in it I didn't even remember that was a pretty big plot point in this.

Anyway, this movie is easily behind Casino Royale and Skyfall for me, but also easily ahead of Quantum of Solace and Spectre. Although I was definitely okay with the movie's runtime in watching it, I felt it by the end a little bit and I'm sitting wondering what filled it all up ultimately. I was able to re-run the entire story in my head, and in a way I also can't believe it ran that long. I'm not saying it should have been told in two hours, but I'm also saying I'm surprised that it wasn't told in two hours if that makes sense. Despite the action, I'm still questioning its rewatchability with all of that in mind.

As many of you know, I avoid everything going into movies now and I did here, which includes the Billie Eilish song. I didn't love it or hate it, but the credits themselves weren't memorable. I'm also not a fan of the fact that we had three slow songs for three films in a row after CR and QoS had pretty fast-paced tracks. Maybe if this came right after QoS I would've dug the song more, or maybe if Spectre's was just different lol.

The real winner in this movie, though, was the sound. Holy mother of goodness, everything about it was impeccable. You could hear everything, from the dialogue to the sound effects to the score all mashed together in the same moment. And the score was fantastic. I don't know if this pandemic gave Zimmer more time to do what he needed to do, but bless that delay then if so. I think one score insert was out of place, but that seems a little more of a directorial decision than anything else. It's also beautifully shot; not on the level of Skyfall, but with IMAX cameras and all they really shine on the color palette, scenery, and the beauty of the women.

There is one character I selfishly wish I saw more of, but their use in the film was appropriately served and I understand them for leaving it at that. I'm also confused about a character decision and a writing decision (from the perspective of an audience member), but maybe with more discussion I'll make sense of why those decisions were made for our sake.

Anyway, Craig didn't look bored this time around and really gave this role something. He definitely has performing highs that match anything he had served in the past, and I think we're all glad he had one more film. It's not the greatest, but I guess it also didn't have to be. It was definitely strong enough for me to claim that the "every other film is good" thing applies to his movies, though.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Did the ending song do anything for you? Honestly, if you’re not a big Bond fan you probably wouldn’t care, and even having just rewatched all of these movies the only reason I recognized it is because I was listening to The Best of Bond…James Bond for half the day before I went to see the movie but

Spoiler

it’s the song from OHMSS, which to my surprise is a lot of peoples favorite Bond movie, including our boy Nolan.

Once Bond said it during the driving scene, I already knew what was going to happen.

That song choice and taking so much inspiration from that movie is interesting to me, but mostly because I feel like it’s Nolan’s turn next.

[Blzer]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Did the ending song do anything for you? Honestly, if you’re not a big Bond fan you probably wouldn’t care, and even having just rewatched all of these movies the only reason I recognized it is because I was listening to The Best of Bond…James Bond for half the day before I went to see the movie but

Spoiler

it’s the song from OHMSS, which to my surprise is a lot of peoples favorite Bond movie, including our boy Nolan.

Once Bond said it during the driving scene, I already knew what was going to happen.

That song choice and taking so much inspiration from that movie is interesting to me, but mostly because I feel like it’s Nolan’s turn next.

The ending song definitely caught my attention. I don't necessarily have a positive opinion on it so to speak, but I guess I'm just used to always hearing the main score so anything it played that wasn't that would've made me go "Hmm?" Interesting bit of trivia, though! I also managed to stay through the credits.

I agree with your criticisms, by the way. I had many of the same ones.

[Blzer]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Halloween Kills

Definitely lives up to the name. This movie doesn't care who it kills or how many people, which I think was really awesome. And wow, thank goodness I didn't watch the trailer beforehand.

This does a lot of what the past two Halloween sequels did, from Halloween II (1981) to Rob Zombie's Halloween II (2019): it picks up right where the past one left off, so much so that I'm convinced some parts were even filmed a few years back for the first film and were left on the cutting room floor. There are also flashback elements where they do really well in capturing the 1970s look, almost making you think you're watching a version from back then.

As Halloween (2018) acts as a direct sequel to Halloween (1978), a forty-year-later sequel would definitely have a lot of 'splaining to do for an audience that did not necessarily see the first film. I'll say that while the last film did its thing here and there, this one spares no expense in doing as many callbacks as it possibly can. If you didn't watch Halloween (1978), after watching this one I don't even think you'll need to. Obviously you'll be rewarded for having seen it, but whatever "story" you may not have known will be understood by now, imagery and all. Perhaps even some new elements will surface from long ago. But yes, early on Halloween Kills wants to lend as a commentary to the films of the past, a bit to a fault I might add. It is way too exposition-heavy in this regard, and I could have done without a lot of it.

This actually brings me back to Halloween (2018), which I would call my favorite of the bunch but it always kind of did something that irked me: although it ignores the older sequels, it plays as if Laurie Strode had seen those movies, and she is fully aware of The Shape beyond her only minimalistic interactions with him forty years back. I'm not saying killing a few people isn't a heinous act, but she always treated him as something more than she even witnessed for herself, and as long as those other sequels are supposed to be ignored I wasn't ever really accepting of that. She also always made it about her, as if Michael cared about pursuing her more than others... and besides her being the one who got away, it almost was again one of those things where I felt she was controlling a narrative that wouldn't exist if she didn't say anything about it. In a way their relationship actually reminds me of Wanda and Thanos in Endgame ("You took everything from me" followed by "I don't even know who you are"). I won't say whether Halloween Kills addressed or further frustrated my concerns about that, but it definitely exacerbated it enough that it made me bring up these thoughts again.

What it does do, however, is this weird thing where people who aren't aware of the lore are so easily willing and accepting of the presented evil. Like you mention it in passing, and others are so willing to buy in so quickly and act on it. Like: "You don't know Michael Myers? He is evil itself. Come help me kill him, once and for all! Evil dies tonight!" And suddenly others are on board. Heck, few character interactions are really that great overall. Many characters reprise their roles, but if you didn't watch the 2018 film you wouldn't know a lot of the turmoil or trauma that some characters faced with one another, because they aren't really brought up much again. I think part of the problem is because some of our main characters in the last film fall to the wayside without really being made aware of it beforehand, and then side characters kind of hit the forefront and are a mainstay almost longer than expected. If the balance was shifted back, they probably would have written more of those moments back in. I get the message of this film though keeping that shift in mind, and I think that part actually worked well (when it wasn't stated in our faces so often that is).

One of the only problems with the kills is that most characters could've avoided being killed so easily. Anyone who tries to attack him often only engages him one at a time, people will keep themselves inside when they know he is inside with them, characters are slow to respond to the cries of somebody nearby them, people who evade him won't continue going out of their way of him, and no one has ever heard of a double tap. I don't mean they would survive if they were a little more ahead of things, but I wish they were written as such as to make the kills themselves "smarter" as a result. The other thing, and this happened in the 2018 film as well, is as characters have already been hurt plenty by Myers to the point of death, they sure spend a lot of time not dying as if it seems like they only took their first minor blow at that point, and I'm wondering why they're not dead, unconscious, or unable to move at that point. It doesn't get me a good feel of when they're supposed to die, if that makes sense. This is me nitpicking, though. Many deaths are fantastic and they absolutely have their striking blow.

Lastly, a lot of people shame Rob Zombie's Halloween for trying to humanize Michael Myers a lot (which I was fine with, personally). I wouldn't say this does this at any level, but it does give some characters a chance to try and explain him to themselves. When there isn't a Samuel Loomis around to just scream he's evil all of the time, the goal of this film being that they try and play offense and kill Michael means they have to really understand what it is they're up against, so you get conversations from eye witness accounts about what they believe he is or his intentions are, and again this worked for me.

I chose to be critical here and there when talking about this film, and in many ways I am. The movie is most certainly entertaining, but it is not as strongly written as the 2018 sequel. It probably has one of the better "hold your breath" tense moments that I've seen in a Halloween film, and Michael Myers is ruthless as ever. It's the popcorn horror movie you want to see, and you definitely want to have seen the previous film before this. It really did feel like the middle movie of a trilogy as the whole film kind of felt like a 100-minute middle act, so I'll just say that it was mostly a fun watch and I look forward to see how HALLOWEEN ENDS next year (and I think I know how it does).

As for whether there is an after-credits scene...

Spoiler

... there is not.

[Holmesy]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Watched Green Knight last week.

One of those movies that have a lot of symbolism that youtube channels will love to digest. Most of them flew over my head until I read up on it afterward.

[dubcity]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

I feel like The Green Knight would be an awesome watch at home with the sound off while listening to music. I have a lot of movies that I associate with albums for that reasons. Can be a really cool experience when it works.

[Smallville102001]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

James Bond no time to die really good movie lots of emotion and very different.

[KSUowls]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Eurotrip

It's been forever since I've seen this, and I really only have 1 thing to say.

Scotty Doesn't Know

[LambertandHam]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Kinda going on an older action movie binge, stuff I haven't seen in years. Decided to rewatch Desperado via Netflix. Love most of the movie, film oozes style from Robert Rodriguez. Underrated comedy bits as well. Antonio Banderas is great and man, Salma Hayek. Reading about how low budget it was, how they did the stunts and the explosions were real makes the movie better imho.


You're kind of expecting

Spoiler

a big showdown and shootout at the end with Bucho but you get a screen fade after his death. Read it was more of an MPAA thing than Rodriguez not wanting to shoot it

.


Also want to give a shout out to Joaquim de Almeida. A "hey it's that guy!" actor for me in vein of Tom Hollander, I enjoy him in most of the roles I see him in.






Next up is a rewatch of Midnight Run.