What movies have you seen recently?

[Gotmadskillzson]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Mind Cage - Martin Lawrence new movie. 9 out of 10.

Detective Knight: Rogue - Bruce Willis movie. Yet another one he made last year. Good lord what he make 20 movies last year ? Anyway 8 out of 10. It is part of a trilogy.

Lullaby - Horror movie. 7 out of 10. It was pretty good.

[Blzer]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

I've seen a bunch of new movies since last posting about any, but I'll bring up small impressions of three for now that I don't think anyone here has mentioned.


The Fallout

Jenna Ortega headlines this movie that focuses around the impact of experiencing trauma and grief. It is powerful and hits a grand array of emotions. Ortega is a knockout, and I'm saddened it doesn't seem that that she received Oscar consideration for this. A lot of this movie hit all too close to reality. I thought it was really well done.


Bros

Any film can get away with not delving too deeply into its genre if it still ends up being a good movie, otherwise you hope you can get by as a guilty pleasure for it delivering a lot of that genre into its own film even if the movie isn't that great. If an action movie has a lot of action, horror movie has a lot of horror, etc. you can forgive some of the other troubles.

Bros is a comedy, and although on its own merits I didn't find it to be a very good movie I knew it could save itself if it was funny. Sadly, this was a comedy that wasn't funny. It of course had a couple of moments, but I don't think I was its target audience for many of the jokes. It was also too layered with sex, preaching down the fourth wall, and having a lead character that I had no rooting interest in (it actually reminded me a lot of Trainwreck in that way).


Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

I never saw the first one, and I'm not a big fan of the Shrek franchise (they're good, but rank below HTTYD and Kung Fu Panda as far as Dreamworks Animation goes), though I believe I have seen all four of its films. I quite enjoyed myself with this one, though. The art direction in the action scenes had a wicked style to them, and this movie was delightfully funny as well. I thought Goldi's crew was a little too overplayed, but this had a brisk pace and an easily understandable plot/objective: Puss is on his last of nine lives and wishes to get his other lives back. This puts him in legitimate danger that you otherwise don't feel in other kids films at times, and the deadliest villain in this film was tremendously foreboding. Much better than Pixar's efforts this year, that's for sure.

[dubcity]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

The Two Jakes (1992)
This might be my favorite Jack Nicholson era. Late 80s/early 90s. I've seen Chinatown once forever ago, so the continuation of that story didn't connect with me very much, but it's pretty much classic Raymond Chandler style plot in a great post WW2 setting. Strange for a film noir to end with everyone having pretty altruistic motives, with a very touching conclusion, unlike the first film. I enjoyed it.

Cop Land (1997)
I have to watch this film at least once or twice a year. So many great performances, with elements of mob, cop, thriller and western genres mixed together. Aside from the main leads, Robert Patrick and Ray Liotta are amazing. It's a classic redemption story.

[Yeah...THAT Guy]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Watched The Harder They Fall last night with the family. Really fun western movie with some compelling performances from Lakeith Stanfield and Jonathan Majors as well as a great cast of other characters. Soundtrack and cinematography were really fun too. Very much looking forward to a sequel if they're planning to make it.

[Master Live 013]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Lakeith has already become one of my favorite young actors since he has one of my most appreciated qualities:

Spoiler

he doesn't mind playing unlikable characters.

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[Blzer]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Missing

This is a follow-up to the film Searching, which was my favorite film in 2018. I will continue to promote that film with my own testimonial, and not by providing a trailer but instead the film's first five minutes. I think that's the best tease and entry point to that film itself for you to go see it, and with Missing being in the exact same style I think your best entry is just by seeing the film Searching and going on good faith from that film's deliverance to go ahead and enjoy this film in the same vein (but if you don't like Searching, there is no reason you will like Missing). So without further ado, watch if you so please:


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Aneesh Chaganty (original film's writer/director) did not return to the chair or for the screenplay, but he did co-create the story. Two immediate questions to answer are: (1) it exists in the same universe, and (2) although it does a lot more tricks to keep it this way, it never leaves any sort of "screen" (whether it's a laptop, phone, or anything else). If you're unaware, everything on screen has to be created completely from scratch which is impressive in its own right, but to make it flow into an engaging film is something else entirely and they have been two-for-two so far.

On top of this, I think the editing/dynamic showed a lot of lessons learned from the first film, and the story better complemented these aspects as well. For one, the supporting actors were much better than the first film (whether on screen or just on call). For another, they zoom and pan a lot more to better highlight what they are showing, and although this isn't important in a theater it is for home viewing (I hated watching Searching with my mom and grandpa and they kept asking me what everything said), though both films do it better than Unfriended which always just shows the entire screen. Finally, Searching centers around a dad computer surfing in a fish-out-of-water way, which although was funny it was good to watch a teenager do it this time around and know what she was doing every step of the way. It made the pacing more frantic for sure, but it allowed more things to happen overall.

They also kept a score in the film, knowing this isn't a completely found footage kind of concept and embrace a lot of the cinematic elements that they can throw in. I'm wishy-washy on this, because as these films provide a lot of verisimilitude you can lose some of it when they remind you that you're watching a movie. I felt like keeping the score in made some moments feel less "realistic," but it definitely kept things pretty intense as well. I think this was definitely more intense than Searching overall, but again it may have been at the cost of overall realism.

What is nice about these films is every answer can be found if you look hard enough. It is great attention to care and detail that not every mystery film does, but since these are completely created from scratch these films pre-plan it out very well.

So far I can say this is my favorite film of 2023, haha! I won't say the novelty has worn off seeing this style of film again though, and I will watch these as often as they make them... but for Searching to do it the first time (despite the fact that Unfriended already existed) as well as they did does speak for something that perhaps Missing didn't replicate fully. Both of them contain a great emotional core though and are very engaging watches, and whether or not you see Searching first I highly recommend that you give Missing a shot! (unless you didn't like Searching, in which case you can skip out on it)

[dubcity]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Finally got around to watching The Irishmen (2019). I loved it, but I felt a bit of melancholy revisiting with some or my favorite actors from my younger years. And as well told as the story was, my dominant feeling was that I was seeing these actors that I hadn't seen in years performing in the type of film that they were known for in the past, but in kind of a detached time. The de-aging CGI added to the overall out of time feeling but I didn't find it too intrusive. De Niro's performance was probably the most affected by it.

Feels insane that this was Pacino's first film ever with Scorsese, and De Niro's first film with Scorsese since 1995. To me, when De Niro stopped working with Scorsese his career really started to fall off. After an all-time great run from the 1970s to the 1990s (best ever?), he made so many forgettable films. Think of the difference between the level of the De Niro/Pacino collaboration in Heat vs that movie they did with 50 Cent. I get that they were both older, but the aughts onward should have been way kinder for both.

[Wasking]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

The last thing that hooked me and liked was Bullet Train, which brought a lot of new emotions that I had already forgotten about after five years of very uninteresting work. The same new avatar has brought mainly only melancholy, of course to look at a beautiful picture you can admire for a long time but I would like to add at least a plot.

[Jr.]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Detective Knight: Rogue - Bruce Willis movie. Yet another one he made last year. Good lord what he make 20 movies last year ? Anyway 8 out of 10. It is part of a trilogy.

His last movies, too. He just retired from acting a few months ago due to a diagnosis of aphasia

[SuperBowlNachos]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Avatar 2

Eh. I liked the first on and am a big fan of 3D (there are tens of us!). It was just Avatar, but in water. Kind of like Home Alone and Home Alone 2. Same plot, different setting.

With that said I will probably watch it again once it is out on 4K blu ray

[LambertandHam]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

From Hell


I haven't seen it in a while, Johnny Depp movie about him being an inspector and Jack the Ripper. It's alright, bit more disjointed than I remember it. At times it feels like it would be better as a mini-series. I like

Spoiler

all the Free Mason stuff and how they frame Jack throughout the movie

.


Movie made me miss Robbie Coltrane, RIP.

[Kramer5150]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Just got done watching Orphan: First Kill....pretty good movie and was pleasantly surprised.

[Blzer]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Just got done watching Orphan: First Kill....pretty good movie and was pleasantly surprised.

I saw this last month. I had seen the first film so long ago that I forget pretty much every plot detail about it except a big reveal (that this movie immediately acknowledges) and some set design/locations, so seeing that this title made this look like a prequel I was interested in how things would "lead up" to whatever the next movie would be all about in that way.

While seeing how it ended up making sense to get there, this was... interesting. I have to stay away from spoiler-camp so a lot of those interesting things are wrapped into that area, but basically it came from a lot of things in the movie just basically being unconvincing. One is superficial in having like a 25-year-old playing a 10-year-old and not looking the part at all, but I guess they needed a certain age to do some of the things that she did and said (was this the original Orphan actress?).

I will admit that one turn this took came out of left field but made sense for how the movie was developing "so quickly," and I was game for it. Didn't make for the best movie, but made for the best original experience. It was quick and painless viewable entertainment, didn't love it in any particular way and am not going to go back to watch the first film again in remembrance, so I'll faintly echo your sentiments. I mean hey, at least it was enough backing for me to actually come out of the woodwork to post about it.

[Gotmadskillzson]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Detective Knight: Independence - Part 3 of the trilogy. This movie was utter BS. Can't believe Bruce Willis let this fly. It was just terrible from beginning to end. 2 out of 10. Part 1 & 2 was so damn good, for part 3 to be this bad is just a huge giant let down.

Wire Room - Another Bruce Willis movie, it was very good. 8 out of 10.

[Gotmadskillzson]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Megan - 9 out of 10. That doll was hilarious.