What movies have you seen recently?

[Blzer]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

I'd really like to join the AMC Stubs A-List program, but there aren't any AMC theaters that close to me. The closest one to me is in the city of San Francisco, and normally I either have to deal with rush hour traffic or heavy-ish parking costs. Otherwise the deal really seems great.

[GAMEC0CK2002]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

I'd really like to join the AMC Stubs A-List program, but there aren't any AMC theaters that close to me. The closest one to me is in the city of San Francisco, and normally I either have to deal with rush hour traffic or heavy-ish parking costs. Otherwise the deal really seems great.

Same. Closet AMC is an extra 40 min away.

[Scott]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

I'd really like to join the AMC Stubs A-List program, but there aren't any AMC theaters that close to me. The closest one to me is in the city of San Francisco, and normally I either have to deal with rush hour traffic or heavy-ish parking costs. Otherwise the deal really seems great.

Look into Sinemia...

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[Blzer]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Look into Sinemia...

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I did, I even got a card from them. Then I found out that the card isn't all that's needed, a Smartphone also is because you need to check in with the app. I got an app on my computer that mimics it, but you need to be at the theater location to do so.

And the awesome brand new flip phone that I got doesn't get apps, so...

That being said, I'm sure that this AMC thing probably requires the same kind of thing, and if so then I guess I'm just S.O.L. with reaping what I sow on the fone front.

[tdawg3782]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Look into Sinemia...

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That seems like a pretty solid deal. 2 movies is about as much time as I'd have to see something per month anyway. Didn't even know this existed.

[JayBee74]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Has anyone seen 8th Grade? It's not showing around here.



EDIT: Just saw the trailer.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/y8lFgF_IjPw" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[Blzer]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

The wide release date is later, not sure when. I got a pre-screening invite for it this Thursday but passed it up because I have something else committed for that time. Sadly, I cannot for the life of me remember what that thing is!

It may even be releasing this Friday, in which case a Thursday pre-screening really is nothing. I don't know when the wide release is though.

[GAMEC0CK2002]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Want to Be My Neighbor was very very good. Great documentary about Mr. Rogers. I walked out knowing a lot more about him and his ethics. Easy recomendation.

[Bard]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Watched Blockers last night.

May be my comedy of 2018, and one of my favorite movies in that genre...ever. Yeah, I liked it that much.

From the start it had a solid story, and the girls played their roles perfectly. Each one of them brought something different to the table, and honestly from back in high school with my then girlfriend (now wife) this movie kind of hit home with us, haha.

John Cena was phenomenal in his role, and was extremely funny. Honestly, everyone had multiple moments. My wife usually looks at her phone or tries to get work done during movies she doesnt want to watch, but this turned into one that she couldn't keep her eyes off the screen and was laughing the whole time with me.

I very much recommend getting this at Rebox, and I am kind of disappointed we didn't catch this on theaters!

8/10 (comedies I struggle giving more, so this is basically a 8/8 comedy)

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[DJ]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Watched Blockers last night.

May be my comedy of 2018, and one of my favorite movies in that genre...ever. Yeah, I liked it that much.

From the start it had a solid story, and the girls played their roles perfectly. Each one of them brought something different to the table, and honestly from back in high school with my then girlfriend (now wife) this movie kind of hit home with us, haha.

John Cena was phenomenal in his role, and was extremely funny. Honestly, everyone had multiple moments. My wife usually looks at her phone or tries to get work done during movies she doesnt want to watch, but this turned into one that she couldn't keep her eyes off the screen and was laughing the whole time with me.

I very much recommend getting this at Rebox, and I am kind of disappointed we didn't catch this on theaters!

8/10 (comedies I struggle giving more, so this is basically a 8/8 comedy)

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I wasn't expecting to like this movie as much as I did. A pleasant surprise.

[Bard]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

I wasn't expecting to like this movie as much as I did. A pleasant surprise.

Yeah, I was very unsure about it as well. John Cena is truly the only reason I picked it up, and he is what made my wife okay with renting it as well. Then it turned out to be a very funny movie that I am pretty sure we will be buying on Black Friday.

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[ODogg]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Yeah, I was very unsure about it as well. John Cena is truly the only reason I picked it up, and he is what made my wife okay with renting it as well. Then it turned out to be a very funny movie that I am pretty sure we will be buying on Black Friday.

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We watched it just now, really funny!!


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[RockinDaMike]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

I liked Blockers as well, I thought Cena's daughter was pretty funny

[marshallfever]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Just saw 10 Lane Cloverfield for the first time last night, what an awesome movie. How the heck did they mess up the Paradox one so bad!?? Lane was wonderful, I understand their goal is to tell a bunch of "one-off" or different stories in this universe but I would really like a direct sequel to either the first Cloverfield or 10 Lane. It's an interesting world going from a monster attack to an alien invasion, I'm intrigued!!

[Blzer]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Just a heads up on Unfriended: Dark Web...

My impressions spoilered for length, not content.

Spoiler

Unfriended: Dark Web

BRIEF REWIND:

I rented Unfriended through Redbox and saw it with a date, and I'll give it kudos that we did not turn it off and even talked about it afterward. I can't in all good faith call it a good film, but it was the first of its kind that I had seen and I merely tolerated it. Unfortunately it fell into a lot of issues that start and end with the characters/actors, and the teeny-bopper horror elements that leave you laughing and eye-rolling almost as if they intentionally wrote and directed it that way made it extremely mediocre, forgettable, and worst of all passable. What seemed like it was serving its style as nothing more than a cheap gimmick, I easily would only rate it a 4/10, but I was on board as I watched it and it did not turn me away from seeing a sequel.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

PRESENT DAY:

I didn't know anything about this sequel going into it, never mind the fact that I didn't even know it was a film until yesterday evening. But when the pre-screening invite fell into my lap, I bit the bullet and hoped for the best even though I planned for the worst. Needless to say, this was a pleasant surprise. Before I go on, I'm going to admit that this is probably getting an extra star or two just for the surprise factor alone (kicks this up to a 6.5 and rounding it up to 7).

I totally understand why this film has the 'Unfriended' tag: it's a found footage screencasting film where an anonymous intruder joins a Skype group chat, and torments them as a result of their past mishaps onto intruder. This is where the premise similarities end, though. This is not only not a story continuation of the first film in any way (you can watch this without watching that and you won't lose a single beat), but this also does not have a supernatural element, and although Facebook may be one of the applications in the film it has nothing to do with unfriending somebody through it. Though if this film just had the title The Dark Web, people would hark on it for being too similar to Unfriended, so they were stuck. This can either help or hurt the film because I know a lot of people who won't see this on the name alone, but you may be mistaken by passing it up.

As I said before, this isn't bogged down with anything supernatural. That's not to say it's the most realistic thing in the world either, but if you suspend enough disbelief you can feel that it has a lot more grounding to it. This is the first plus. There's nothing wrong with supernatural horror flicks, but the first film holds a strong stigma around Facebook that it just couldn't be taken seriously. At least they did it better than Friend Request, but that's still not saying much. This circumvents that completely. Everything involved is through the power of individuals, all of which seem to be very computer-savvy, but making that decision won me over significantly more. I'd say it teeters more toward the suspense/thriller genre than it does the horror genre, and for this that can only be a good thing. Just don't expect anything scary so to speak, though there are a couple of disturbing ideas that only strengthened the film's mystique.

This also had some clever writing. Compared to the original, it's just nice to know that there was some actual thought into telling this story and not just throwing it out the window. The way the plot develops may leave you very curious as to how some items are slowly discovered, and some small nuggets (as well as character traits) throughout the film play a larger part by the time the credits roll in a fascinating way. Can't say I didn't like how things went down, but what's interesting to me is that halfway through watching it you could have predicted a million ways they should have done the back-end, and even if you ultimately feel they didn't go the route you may want it's still ahead of the other film on potential and wonder alone.

Unfriended: Dark Web grabbed me pretty fast with the relationship between two of the central characters. I cared enough about the situation to be concerned for their well-being. I can't necessarily say the same for the other characters. One was a little annoying but you grew into the personality, two were kind of bland (but one outshined the other both with acting and backstory), one was wasted entirely to the point that wanted more from that one than any of the others, and one was compelling but served the plot exposition and advancement so well you could nearly call out "deus ex machina" at times, because that character also has no development. It kind of worked out though because the "main" character (the screen we're watching all the time) mutes them or goes to different windows for long times on end. Neither the film nor the characters were that funny either, but the film didn't try to be funny too often either; wasn't laughing with them, but thankfully I also wasn't ever really laughing at them. The first film had laughable characters that were unlikable to the point that I couldn't wait to watch them be killed.

Those who read my reviews know that I like to be vague so you can enjoy the film for yourself without still really knowing anything about this film, so that is where I'll leave you regarding content. Most of what I mentioned was the good stuff, and some of the lesser things in the film for me lie in parts that would probably spoil too much. I'd say they still make some decisions in the sequel that make me think they didn't learn everything from making the original, but they definitely self-corrected so much, probably more so than going from Annabelle to Creation or from Ouija to Origin of Evil.

This film also did one more thing for me: it made me realize that the found footage screencasting sub-genre is one that can actually work and be used more and more. It is very inexpensive and tailors perfectly to our generation around the social media realm. I thought it was far too gimmicky in the first film, but then I saw the film Searching and found how it could be used correctly... and just a short two weeks later I can clearly say that in the right hands there is enough creativity there to do more and more things. That being said, I liked Searching more as a film but I can't say that I would have liked it as much as I do if I saw it after seeing Dark Web. I think the novelty of the filming style meshed so well with the story and really grabbed me, and this was entertaining enough overall that I didn't care I was seeing this style again. I think seeing it in the other order might exhaust me to see Searching second. So, here goes: I recommend you see both films, but if possible I recommend you see Searching first to get the best bang for your buck. Unfortunately it releases in a few weeks while this releases just next week.

Do as you must, but ultimately I suggest you give this one a crack and you may leave as surprised as I was.

Since coming out there have been reports of two different endings playing in theater. I have now read about the other ending, and from what I read I can gather the version I saw in my pre-screening was certainly a better ending for the flick.

Anyway, your experience can possibly vary based on the ending that you get and you have no true control as to which one that theater is showing until you see it. Kind of bizarre.