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The Last Movie(s) You Watched... (quick one or two sentence reviews)

mnkykungfu

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A Quiet Place - Part II (2020)
Debatable if this works better as a Mother's Day film or a Father's Day movie, as the relative absence of Krasinski's character is like a shadow over the whole story. It's a beautiful continuation of the family drama amidst the grounded sci-fi in the first film, though I wouldn't go quite as far as to agree with some people that it's even better. Still a visceral experience with amazing sound design and rather clever editing that provides great re-acting moments for both the characters and audience.

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
The next appearance of Dr. Strange, though obviously it's more a follow-up to Captain America: Civil War and a way to bring the Guardians of the Galaxy into the mix with Spider-Man and Marvel's other mainstays. A wildly ambitious film that swings for the fences but takes a lot of narrative shortcuts, resulting in the first MCU film that's both impossible to appreciate on its own while also failing to keep all the characters and plot threads consistent between movies. (This rewatch led to my fanedit idea for how to make the film "Perfectly Balanced, as all things should be."
 

mnkykungfu

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Run (2020)
Another one I watched around Mother's Day, essentially a two-hander between the iconic Sarah Paulsen as the mom and wonderful newcomer Kiera Allen as her homeschooled daughter on the verge of running off to college. A suspenseful Thriller about growing up, letting go, and the restrictions our parents can put on us (not only actually physical, but emotionally) due to their own unresolved issues. Best not to know any more about this, because it's a really wonderful surprise gem!

Avengers: Endgame (2019)
I have the unpopular opinion that this is not, in actuality, the end-all be-all Marvel film, and actually has a number of flaws that can be fixed. Still a wonderfully satisfying film that is Dr. Strange's last appearance before the possibly even-more-satisfying Spider-Man: No Way Home. He gets to do quite a bit more wizarding in that one than here.
 

DigModiFicaTion

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Encanto (2021)
I've tried to watch this movie with my little unit, but fell asleep each time. I ultimately write this movie off because I couldn't get into it. Well this time I made it through. Feelers. That is all. 9.5/10.
 

Masirimso17

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Encanto (2021)
I've tried to watch this movie with my little unit, but fell asleep each time. I ultimately write this movie off because I couldn't get into it. Well this time I made it through. Feelers. That is all. 9.5/10.
Should def find time to watch this one, heard so much good about it
 

mnkykungfu

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Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)
The end of my mini Dr. S marathon, and what a depressing end it is. Here is a film with a new (very, very bad) writer and a director who does not have the same knowledge of or passion for the character that Scott Derrickson has. They jettison all the threads from the first film and decide to follow up on WandaVision instead, but "follow up" in a way that actually completely disregards, disrespects, and walks back the story. A film full of surprisingly bad CG, often questionable campiness, and the laziest fan service and plot construction in a Phase of MCU films getting known for all that. Goes straight to the bottom row of my MCU ranked list.

The Breakfast Club (1985) - The John Hughes Extended Edition
Ah, a palate cleanser. Finally viewed this fanedit from @blueyoda and it made for such an interesting watch. The film of course is iconic, though it seems sometimes hard to relate to for Gen Z. For me, the big realization on this rewatch is that the soundtrack was a lot thinner than I remembered, and the movie a lot deeper.
 

Masirimso17

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Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)
The end of my mini Dr. S marathon, and what a depressing end it is. Here is a film with a new (very, very bad) writer and a director who does not have the same knowledge of or passion for the character that Scott Derrickson has. They jettison all the threads from the first film and decide to follow up on WandaVision instead, but "follow up" in a way that actually completely disregards, disrespects, and walks back the story. A film full of surprisingly bad CG, often questionable campiness, and the laziest fan service and plot construction in a Phase of MCU films getting known for all that. Goes straight to the bottom row of my MCU ranked list.
…Lol.

It’s my second favorite film in the MCU :p
 

addiesin

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30 minutes GIF
 

mnkykungfu

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l can't help but notice that you skipped over Thor Ragnarok :p
You know what? It honestly totally slipped my mind. Dr. Strange is so inconsequential to that story, and serves purely just for the undermining of Loki, the Norse equivalent of Lucifer, making him look like a street magician. Ragnarok is my least favorite Marvel film for a million reasons, so I must have just mentally blocked out that Dr. Strange was in it.

@addiesin Yeah, I hated that joke. It's emblematic of everything that's wrong with newer Marvel films. The humor doesn't come from the characters, as a result of the story. It's put in by people to poke fun at the characters and at the story, to show that "hey, we know this is just a comic book movie and none of us are taking it seriously; let's just screw around and have fun, eh?" This is the central problem with Ragnarok. You can't tell a story with real pathos and meaning when you're constantly telling the audience to not invest in this as a real story and that these aren't actual 3-dimensional characters.
 

DigModiFicaTion

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You know what? It honestly totally slipped my mind. Dr. Strange is so inconsequential to that story, and serves purely just for the undermining of Loki, the Norse equivalent of Lucifer, making him look like a street magician. Ragnarok is my least favorite Marvel film for a million reasons, so I must have just mentally blocked out that Dr. Strange was in it.

@addiesin Yeah, I hated that joke. It's emblematic of everything that's wrong with newer Marvel films. The humor doesn't come from the characters, as a result of the story. It's put in by people to poke fun at the characters and at the story, to show that "hey, we know this is just a comic book movie and none of us are taking it seriously; let's just screw around and have fun, eh?" This is the central problem with Ragnarok. You can't tell a story with real pathos and meaning when you're constantly telling the audience to not invest in this as a real story and that these aren't actual 3-dimensional characters.
That was very similar to my original issue with Ragnarok. I was ready to just walk away from Marvel films until editing the movie.
 

mnkykungfu

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Reds!

Red Cliff - Part I (2008)
Watched a fair few war movies for Memorial Day, and this is China's big epic one, the most expensive the country had ever made. I heard the International Version was somewhat of a mess, but John Woo's two-part Chinese cut was much better received. This first part is more than a return to form, it's an elevation of it, where all his character drama and "bullet ballet" style is used to bring poetically visualize the Chinese counterpart to the Trojan War epic...

Red Cliff - Part II (2009)
....however, Woo throws almost all of that away in the 2nd part. The tone bizarrely shifts almost immediately into slapstick, and instead of the battle of wits of the first film, the plot becomes dependent on who's stupider. Woo's trademarks become weaknesses here instead of strengths, the high drama turning to ridiculous melodrama, epic battles being reduced to his typical three way standoff...with swords. Because of course the fate of a whole country comes down to three guys happening to draw their swords all at the same time right next to each other on a battlefield of 100s of 1000s of troops.

Red Dawn (2012)
I am almost ashamed to say I liked this more than Red Cliff? Perhaps because the expectations of the first part of that film were so high, I became bitterly disappointed. However, I expected this remake of a beloved classic to be an absolute s#** show, and it's actually fine? Sure, they 'yadda yadda' over some pretty key stuff in the middle like why North Koreans would even have this small Midwest town as a location they want to invade, or how these kids manage to train up to become a pretty competent guerilla unit, but overall it's got a pretty good cast and some fairly credible updates to compensate for the lack of Red Scare from the '80s.
 

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I just watched Movie 43 after my mother insisted that it was funny. It was so, so, so bad. Parts of it were imo less tasteful and harder to stomach than Human Centipede 2, and not in a good way. I did find the kids in machines short to be kinda funny tho.
 

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Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
Saw this last week. Absolutely better than the 1st one and easily had one of the best 3rd acts I've seen since Mission Impossible 6.
 

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Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
Saw this last week. Absolutely better than the 1st one and easily had one of the best 3rd acts I've seen since Mission Impossible 6.
l literally just got home from the theater gnd immidiately came here to post about this. I come from a unique perspective in that l've never seen the original and have no nostalgia for it, and it definitely stands well on its own. I honestly was mainly interested for Val Kilmer, he hasn't been acting much in recent years of course and when l heard that he was back for this it made me happy. But even beyond him, the movie managed to enthrall me, l generally really liked it. I'm a Robotech fan, and Maverick is very much Rick Hunter, so l immidiately latched onto his character. And thankfully the movie gives enough context for everything so the Goose/Rooster plot thread wasn't lost on me. In terms of legacy sequels, this was more Creed than Force Awakens, take that as you will.
 

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Decided to revisit Blade II. Still not that good. As much as I love Del Toro, his style just clashes too much with the first Blade and lacks the world-building of it as well. And the plot just makes no damn sense. That Name of the Game scene was aces though.
 

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Just saw Grindhouse for the first time, trailers and all! Reviewing this film is reviewing two films, so I'm splitting them up.

Planet Terror
This one's my favorite of the two because it gets straight to the point and doesn't hold back. A prostitute feels useless. A zombie outbreak occurs. She ends up with a bunch of fighting southerners and goes on a journey to discover how useless (or useful) she actually is. A lot of blood, guts, oozes, and wounds happen in between. The movie knows what it is, and doesn't pretend to be anything more, and I respect that! Gross, gritty, hilarious, cheesy, and most of all, fun! Recommended Friday night viewing!

Death Proof
I found this one underwhelming. The main issue I have with it is that it's a bunch of women talking for about 90 to 95 minutes, with only 10 or 20 minutes of actual car chases. I get it. Tarantino's emulating the low-budget realities of these films, but the end result is a boring film! If Planet Terror was made to be the ideal grindhouse experience, Death Proof was made to be the real-life one, and I liked the ideal more than the real in this case. There were many times where I wished something would happen, and little happened. I hate to say it, but this is tied with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood as my least favorite Tarantino film.
 

mnkykungfu

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^I've always thought of Death Proof as Tarantino trying to do Reservoir Dogs for girls. RD has very little actual action, it's mostly these real characters sitting around chewing on dialogue. If you like the dialogue and the characters, it's a rip. The problem is, I don't think many of the actresses pull it off, and Russell just steals the movie out from under them.

West Side Story (2021)
Deserved all the accolades it got, and more. Better than the original film in every objective way, and more loyal to the original stage play and original music and lyrics. Ansel Egort has gotten a disproportionate amount of hate in some reviews of this, too. His singing and dancing is surprisingly good, and he's certainly a far better Tony than...oh, what was that guy's name? That's right, nobody even remembers.

Belfast (2021)
Another film that I was absolutely flabbergasted by how much I loved it. I normally think nearly every film in awards season is overrated, but this one is just an absolute gem, and not "Oscar bait" at all. Every stylistic choice in the movie is a perfect execution of Branagh's own personal story, done because it fits his story. This was probably the 2nd-best theater experience I had last year.
 

Eyepainter

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^I've always thought of Death Proof as Tarantino trying to do Reservoir Dogs for girls. RD has very little actual action, it's mostly these real characters sitting around chewing on dialogue. If you like the dialogue and the characters, it's a rip. The problem is, I don't think many of the actresses pull it off, and Russell just steals the movie out from under them.

That is a good point. I think the reason it worked for Reservoir Dogs is because of expectation vs. reality. Because Reservoir Dogs was Tarantino's debut feature film, there were no expectations for it, save for Harvey Keitel, so it became a welcome surprise. But with Death Proof, all you know is that Kurt Russell is in it, and he's driving a car he uses to kill people. So when the movie is a bunch of girls talking to each other, it's too easy to be disappointed. The fact that it plays right after a zombie movie doesn't help, either.
 

Moe_Syzlak

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West Side Story (2021)
Deserved all the accolades it got, and more. Better than the original film in every objective way, and more loyal to the original stage play and original music and lyrics. Ansel Egort has gotten a disproportionate amount of hate in some reviews of this, too. His singing and dancing is surprisingly good, and he's certainly a far better Tony than...oh, what was that guy's name? That's right, nobody even remembers.

I always thought the criticism of Elgort was more for his offscreen issues. That said, he was good—even great—for a non-musical actor. But the comparisons, IMO, should be to the other actors on screen and his singing and dancing to me were noticeably a notch below. And he wasn’t so captivating as an actor as to make me think a more pro musical actor wouldn’t have been a better choice. Still a minor nitpick for a great film. And that’s coming from someone who usually despises musicals.
 

mnkykungfu

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^I think you're right in that some people's issues with him outside the movie might've had them set to find fault with his performance disproportionately. Regarding comparing him to the other actors...I mean, Lin-Manuel Miranda was complete crap compared to about 6-8 other people in the Hamilton cast, sorry. But he didn't get the level of hate I've heard for Egort in this. I feel like the democratization of the internet has led to a culture of expectation, where everyone goes online to complain about the bad instead of dwelling on the good. It shouldn't be relative like that. Everyone in the cast is good. Several people are amazing. That one isn't amazing is no cause for complaint. People need to just chill and count their blessings.
 
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