What movies have you seen recently?

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

The New World

Terrence Malick basically wraps the story of Pocahontas and her failed relationships around some truly memorizing and beautiful cinematography. Unfortunately, its nearly 3 hours long and ages you by the end. The John Smith relationship is the most interesting aspect of the whole movie to me - thankfully much of the film is centered around that aspect of Pocahontas' life. The John Rolfe period of her life feels a little rushed and overly simplified in comparison. Perhaps that's the point, but there's a noticeable dip after John Smith leaves. The cinematography is absolutely gorgeous and the first 1.5-2 hours are fairly interesting and explores its themes in some abstract, indirect ways. I understand the premise is Pochontas and her failed relationships, but more exploration of the natives and her affects on them would have been welcome. Instead, we're left watching the trite settlers go through their trials and tribulations as we have seen many times before. Come for the cinematography. Stay and leave with John Smith.

Suicide Squad
I didn't hate it overall, but absolutely did not enjoy any of the scenes involving Jared Leto and this Bonnie & Clyde characterized Joker. Margot Robbie is fantastic as Harley, but the Birds of Prey is a much better vehicle than whatever this was trying to be. Will Smith was OK. The rest of the cast did well enough, but certainly not memorable. For all those saying Wonder Woman 1984 is the worst thing ever - DC has a tray full of other **** for you to compare to.

[Hammerhunker]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Suicide Squad
I didn't hate it overall, but absolutely did not enjoy any of the scenes involving Jared Leto and this Bonnie & Clyde characterized Joker. Margot Robbie is fantastic as Harley, but the Birds of Prey is a much better vehicle than whatever this was trying to be. Will Smith was OK. The rest of the cast did well enough, but certainly not memorable. For all those saying Wonder Woman 1984 is the worst thing ever - DC has a tray full of other **** for you to compare to.

What is your take on as to why these DC efforts have fallen so short? Big time budgets, headline actors/actresses, a non-stop source of good stories. Is it expectation and perception? Are their movies actually just as good as Marvel but expectation diffused any hope for success?

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

What is your take on as to why these DC efforts have fallen so short? Big time budgets, headline actors/actresses, a non-stop source of good stories. Is it expectation and perception? Are their movies actually just as good as Marvel but expectation diffused any hope for success?

In comparison to Marvel - they feel terribly outdated and more in-line with the Schumacher films of the 90s to me. Which, to be perfectly honest, would be fine if that's the atmosphere they wanted to go for - that campy, high contrast neon colors, and overtly convoluted plots. WW1984 was certainly in that arena.

I think its more of a organizational issue than anything else. WB doesn't want to devote the resources necessary to build a coherent cinematic universe. So they half-*** it and out comes half-baked movies in the process. We've gotten a couple gems in the muck (Wonder Woman, Shazam, Joker), but largely they're just drivel. Why they went full in with Zack Snyder is a head-scratcher, but honestly par for the course they've been on.

WB lucked out with Nolan's Batman and that set the bar that Marvel aspired to. I'm not sure what bar DC is trying to hit with any of their movies.

[Armor and Sword]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

On the DC universe these were good IMO:

Man of Steel
Wonder Woman
Joker
Aquaman

The Dark Knight Trilogy is the Gold Standard for me and not one Marvel movie has exceeded that trilogy for my money.

Marvel’s universe though is far better on film than DC has been. Agree.

Shame...because I was a DC comic kid. Superman and Batman were my absolute favorite super hero’s growing up.





Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[lions67]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

He was casted perfectly.
Ok
Next up will be SONGBIRD.
It’s available to stream now. This one is interesting for sure as it mirrors what we are all going through at the moment. Covid -23 has us all in lockdown for years.
Stay safe, sane and sanitized!

So got around to watching this.
Took me two sittings to get it over with.
This movie is baaaaddddd. Horrible actual.
The acting was ok, the story is weak and shallow and quite boring.
3out 10 for me.

[daflyboys]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

"Mortal" Started off well enough but really took an odd, almost campy turn. Avoid.

[Hammerhunker]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Watched The Little Things last night. Good ol' murder mystery and another solid Denzel Washington performance. I do have to offer the disclaimer that in my book, all Denzel Washington movies get a free pass.

I still think it's cool that one can view a movie premiere right in their living room that isn't a "straight to video" release.

[Armor and Sword]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Watched The Little Things last night. Good ol' murder mystery and another solid Denzel Washington performance. I do have offer the disclaimer that in my book, all Denzel Washington movies get a free pass.



I still think it's cool that one can view a movie premiere right in their living room that isn't a "straight to video" release.

Wife and I watched it also last night. Solid and taught thriller/mystery. Denzel was his usual awesome self. And Malek and Leto were very good as well. We love streaming brand new films at home. And IMO this is the new way movies will be released moving forward for a while. Maybe forever.


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[Hammerhunker]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

The wife and I are on a four movie happy streak. The last two weekends we've watched Uncorked, 5 Flights Up, aforementioned The Little Things, and Molly's Game. All 4 are solid 3 stars* for us.

* 3 Stars- Didn't fall asleep, didn't reach for the phone aside from looking up something on IMDB, and finished it with enjoyment.

[daflyboys]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Odd Man Rush (on Pluto for free currently). From the makers of Mystery, Alaska. Does feature Shoresy from Letterkenny. Couldn't finish it. Just didn't go anywhere. Hardcore hockey fans would probably like it though.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Justice League

I certainly put this one off long enough. Surprisingly, I did not hate it. Nothing great by any means, but I did not hate myself after or during watching it. Certainly some characters could have been better served (Cyborg and Flash, or honestly all of them) with an actual arc rather than just being a means to move and put the story pieces together. Action scenes are kind of all over the place especially with regards to CGI, but most of them are serviceable. Ben Affleck's Batman is basically on the George Clooney spectrum to me - there's definitely a lot of camp here and he relishes in it throughout. Throwing out quips. Depending basically only on his grapple gun (seriously, that thing got a ton of screen time) and generally being a reminder for how silly the whole thing really is. I can't tell if I actually like him in this role or not.

Definitely a popcorn crunching movie. No real stakes and the by the end the threat is minimized so much its almost comical. Still cool to see all these characters on screen together and there's some fun humor throughout.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Yojimbo

A homage to John Ford westerns filtered through the traveling samurai culture only to have it be "remade" as a western that essentially helped propel the spaghetti western genre (and Clint Eastwood). The foundation is really all here - the wide angle shots, the quirky music score, the hard edge, soft hearted "good guy." Art is amazing.

Mifune as Two-Bit is wonderful - charismatic, strikingly clever, and aloof enough to mold the future archetype of the "not so good, good guy." He flips a stick in the air and walks in the direction it lands which leads him to a dilapidated village suffering under the rivalry of two gangs. The surrounding characters are great. The suffering businessmen all score with their "woe is me" performance throughout the movie particularly the restaurant owner. Everyone in this film is looking for their own benefit in some way - Two-Bit included.

Today the narrative seems so familiar to almost be cliche, but there's charisma in heaps here and the performances really make the movie distinctive and timeless. Not to mention Kurosawa's timeless direction - so good that many scenes of the movie were shot exactly the same for the "remake" of Fistful of Dollars.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

The Dissident: A documentary about the Jamal Khashoggi murder, thrilling even outside of the topic at hand, just a really cool and well put together doc, definitely would recommend.

Amadeus: I'd never seen this and only wanted to because Bomani Jones references it every 3 weeks on his podcast and I wanted to see what he was talking about. I had no expectations coming in, which is good because nothing can prepare you for bro's laugh. I read a lot of critical praise before I watched it so the first time he laughed I legit thought I was watching a bootleg or something. Actually doesn't feel as long as it is, probably goes without saying that the music was awesome.

The Dark Knight Rises: This is maybe my #2 favorite hate watch behind Man of Steel, I've seen them both a bunch of times. I legit can't imagine someone sitting through this and coming away with the conclusion that it's a good movie, it's just so bad to me. It's legit exciting to watch which is the weirder thing, Hathaway I thought was really good as Catwoman. Bruce in these movies just doesn't come off the way I want/expect him to. JGL is whatever. Bane though...the gift that keeps on giving. "That would be very painful." "You're a big guy." "For you." What in the world? His voice, the way he talks, it just all sucks. His lines are terrible but I've seen this movie so many times I've come to love them. The born in the darkness bit, no one cared about me until I put on the mask, just classic stuff. Not in a good way, but classic nonetheless.

The Raid: ****ing awesome.

Captain America Civil War: One of my favorite movies to put on in the background when I've got stuff to do and just want to hear explosions and be drawn to the screen every half hour. I love this movie, and seeing Chadwick in it after everything hit me when I didn't expect it to, he really ran this role. The thing I hated, and this is more pronounced post Mandalorian, but we need to stop with the CG'ing people to make them look younger, just find an actor that looks decently close and call it a day. Seeing 50 year old Tony Stark on a teenage body was just surreal. Only thing I can think of is RDJ is owed so much money for these movies they probably want to squeeze out any screentime they can get.

A few things I want to see now, Akira, I was going to watch Ran last week but just couldn't get into it right away, also I'm gonna try to watch Raiders of the Lost Ark sometime this week, never seen an IJ movie so it'll be interesting to see how the hype affects the watching experience.

[Master Live 013]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: 7/10 [Kate Winslet must be protected at all cost.]
• The Notebook: 6/10
• Thank You for Smoking: 6/10
• Fatman: 6/10 [A pleasant surprise.]
• Firefly: 6/10 [My brief thoughts on Firefly & Serenity are here.]
• Serenity: 6/10
• Sin City: 5/10 [Not for me.]
• The New World: 6/10
• Brokeback Mountain: 6/10*
• Flags of Our Fathers: 6/10

*Re-watch

[daflyboys]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Let Him Go Slowest of slow builds to the crescendo. Pretty straight forward story and Costner and Lane still bringin' it on screen.