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

[mnkykungfu]

World's Greatest Dad
What an upsetting film. I mean, I loved it, but it's upsetting. A Robin Williams movie about suicide is inherently upsetting given certain circumstances, I wonder how it felt watching it when it first come out. I miss Robin Williams.

I love this movie and saw it shortly after it came out. It felt really refreshing...? Like, I went down this whole rabbit-hole finding out about Bobcat Goldwaithe's directing and how he and Robin had been friends for forever, and it just made me love the film all the more. It's a real gem, and I twistedly rewatch it every other Father's Day or two.

 

[Eyepainter]

Wayne's World 2 (1993)

I'm not gonna shock anyone when I say that this was nowhere near as babe-alicious as the first movie. Some of the jokes don't land, and there are moments of dead space throughout the film. Is it still worth seeing? I suppose so. When the movie does have something hilarious going on, it's worth it. I was entertained enough to like it. I understand if it isn't everyone's cup of tea, though.

 

[mnkykungfu]

Oppenheimer (2023)
A must-see in the theater, for technical reasons if nothing else. This may not live up to the impossibly-demanding claims of "best film of the century" and such, but it's the height of filmmaking and will easily stay in the conversation even amidst the typical sandbagging of Oscar bait in December.

Empire of the Censors (1995)
A BBC doc that I believe I was recommended by @TM2YC which focuses on the history of British film censorship. For the salacious among you (us), it does actually show all the bits that had been previously cut out of these films, which is interesting to reappraise now.

 

[Moe_Syzlak]

Barbie. Kids wanted to see it and I’m glad we went. Really great messages and themes for tween/teen aged kids. My nearly 11 yo boys loved it. I thought it was good not great. It had some laugh out loud moments (hello Snyder Cut) but a lot of the humor didn’t land for me. It felt like it fell just short of what it was aspiring to be. But it’s a solid social satire that isn’t about selling dolls.

 

[TM2YC]

Empire of the Censors (1995)
A BBC doc that I believe I was recommended by @TM2YC which focuses on the history of British film censorship. For the salacious among you (us), it does actually show all the bits that had been previously cut out of these films, which is interesting to reappraise now.

Not me, maybe you're remembering my review of 'Censor' ? (https://forums.fanedit.org/threads/a-few-reviews.9937/post-381949), a horror film set in the era that doc is talking about, but your review makes me want to watch it now. It sounds like a snapshot of what film censorship was like in the UK pre-1995. I don't exactly when or why but something happened in the 10-years after that because I remember watching 2006's 'This Film Is Not Yet Rated' (a fantastic doc about the US censorship system) and thinking bloody hell, thank heavens we've got such a chilled, permissive and sensible ratings system in the UK (compared to what looked like the secretive, prudish and irrational US censors). Officials from the UK board appear on the radio to talk to the public and discuss how they can rate films better. I imagine the doc you watched covers the Thatcher government years, the infamous Mary Whitehouse and the "Video nasty" panic era of the 80s, the bad old days but like I say, I don't know exactly when things changed for the better. The only thing that gets censored these days is animal cruelty (or at least it used to). I've got a US blu-ray and a UK blu-ray of 'Heaven's Gate' from 10-years ago the UK one is a few seconds shorter because all the "horse falls" (horses dangerously tripped with wires) are trimmed out. I'll give that doc a watch for sure .

 

[kinnikuman]

Oppenheimer (2023)
A must-see in the theater, for technical reasons if nothing else. This may not live up to the impossibly-demanding claims of "best film of the century" and such, but it's the height of filmmaking and will easily stay in the conversation even amidst the typical sandbagging of Oscar bait in December.

Empire of the Censors (1995)
A BBC doc that I believe I was recommended by @TM2YC which focuses on the history of British film censorship. For the salacious among you (us), it does actually show all the bits that had been previously cut out of these films, which is interesting to reappraise now.

Been meaning to check out Oppenheimer - but the 3 hour run time makes me think twice. Do you think it’s a movie you have to see in a movie theater ?

 

[kinnikuman]

I saw smoking causes coughing - what weird movie. It was like an anthology. French. Puppets. No plot. Maybe it had a deeper message that I just didn’t pick up ?

 

[WilliamRedRobin]

I watched Guardians of the Galaxy 3 today. I was pretty disappointed by it after how good I thought the first two were. The High Evolutionary had some potential but turned out to just be a "kicking puppys" type of villain. The Adam Warlock stuff was fun (they probably could have made the whole movie about him tbh). Overall it wasn't bad, I just can't see why I'd recommend it to anyone.

I also rewatched How I Met Your Mother for the first time since it aired, and it came off a lot better than I thought it would. I was a big fan of it as a kid, but I always remembered it as a kind of footnote between Scrubs and The Big Bang Theory. I didn't realise the show went on for 9 years!
It's really good in the early seasons, too. Lots of genuine laugh-out-loud moments. It does dip in quality towards the end, mainly because of the dumb character drama, but it still manages to be pretty funny.
I don't think I ever saw the finale as a kid but I remember the controversy over how shallow it was, and it does feel pretty pointless. I thinkbit was probably a mistake to frame the story as "How I met your mother". It's a cool gimmick, but it obviously limited the writers and I can't think of many times that it made the show better (except for the sandwich joke, that was pretty funny).

 

[mnkykungfu]

Been meaning to check out Oppenheimer - but the 3 hour run time makes me think twice. Do you think it’s a movie you have to see in a movie theater ?

Firstly, I'll say that the editing is a miracle and the 3 hours doesn't exactly fly by, but it really does keep you engaged for most of it. The sound mix is phenomenal and something I think you'd need to see in the theater unless you have an amazing home system. Visuals came off as just good in my cinema, but I reckon if there was an IMAX nearby it'd be a transcendent experience. TM2YC can speak to that.

I don't exactly when or why but something happened in the 10-years after that because I remember watching 2006's 'This Film Is Not Yet Rated' (a fantastic doc about the US censorship system) and thinking bloody hell, thank heavens we've got such a chilled, permissive and sensible ratings system in the UK (compared to what looked like the secretive, prudish and irrational US censors).

Well, the main thing that struck me about the UK system was the criminalization of penalties for distributors. Like, going to prison is just not even a tangential possibility for a US distributor. It's purely an artistic struggle, and the studio in theory always can take a gamble and just release a film without submitting to MPAA rating, or with whatever they've slapped on it. Basic Instinct for instance, after trying to play along and making several cuts, released an "NC-17" version to the theaters and promoted it, ending up with tons of ticket sales and hype as a result. The appeal was such that the distributor decided to put an "R" version into wide release, where it became a smash hit rather than a little genre flick. The director's original cut was then released on home video, which had the stuff the censors (UK and US) typically really get their hackles up about: sexual gratification simultaneous with violence. There's a feature on the DVD that talks about the cuts frame-by-frame!

Watching Empire of the Censors, the thing that struck me was that after the '50s, I kept waiting for the censorship to ease up...but nope, every couple of years there was some new film that the British populace seemed to get their knickers in a twist about, often leading to new legislation penalizing release of the (usually American) cuts of films! This was all the way up until the release of the doc in 1995! So my guess is that the internet is what really broke things open, making it practically impossible to contain these alternate cuts of films and prevent them from being seen in the UK.

 

[Eyepainter]

3:10 to Yuma (2007)

First half is a chore to watch, but the second half saves the film. Not perfect, but worth seeing if you have the patience. Perhaps if I saw this one 10 years ago, or watched the original, I might be more enthusiastic. It's still good, though. Christian Bale and Russell Crowe are perfectly cast here, and they're the two reasons to watch this one. Great ending, too.

 

[TM2YC]

Re: UK Censorship. One that just crossed my mind is 'Dawn of the Dead', which I own a silly number of copies of from various labels and countries. The UK 4:3 DVD I bought in 1999 of the Director's Cut has an amazing exclusive Tom Savini commentary but he's recording it for a lightly censored version, so you can hear him say in surprise "You didn't see it! They cut the effect" when it gets to the (in)famous shot of the guy's head exploding during the police raid. According to this list:

Video nasty - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

It says: "Dawn of the Dead – Originally passed with heavy cuts for cinema. Passed with cuts for video in 1989 and 1997. Released uncut in 2003."

So I guess that DVD is the 1997 version and I guess "1997-2003"-ish is the answer to my question "between 1995 and 2006, when exactly did censorship completely relax". Although I believe the BBFC had a public consultation in 1999 about it and overhauled their rules in 2000. That's an interesting time for me as it more or less coincides with when I was old enough to watch these movies (18), so I might have been at just the right age to have never really experienced censorship.

The BBFC site has an article on the history of censoring DotD here: https://www.bbfc.co.uk/education/case-studies/dawn-of-the-dead

 

[catferoze]

Cartoon Saloon's Irish folklore trilogy
The Secret of Kells (2009), Song of the Sea (2014), and Wolfwakers (2020) are three gorgeously animated, beautifully crafted, wonderfully scored, thoughtful, provocative and moving hand-drawn films. I'd place them among the best of Studio Ghibli's work (which I consider the pinnacle of their craft); not just some of the best animated films, but some of the best films I've seen.

 

[Possessed]

Lonesome Dove

I guess technically a mini series. I also guess technically awesome whether you love westerns or not. That's my two sentences, here's a third one on the house.

 

[mnkykungfu]

Wham! (2023)
A pretty engaging doc, esp. for non-Brits who likely haven't seen the absolute wealth of first-person interviews and video footage which comprise this walkthrough of the pop duo. It's firmly focused on the 4-year career of the group rather than George Michael's later highs and lows, so this might feel incomplete for some, but it's a well-assembled and fitting tribute to the pop confectionary and growing pains of these besties.

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011)
This is like a test for people who say they like "slow cinema" to put their money where their mouths are. It's a movie where we don't see the crime, catching the criminal, the punishment, or really hardly any of the emotional fallout or consequences. We do see writing reports, getting lost on long drives, talking about remembering to pick up prescriptions, and old dudes leering at a teen girl.... hard pass.

Empire of Light (2022)
Another kind of slow film that takes a while to reveal what it's about, but everything people have said is in the above film^ is actually in this one, and a million times better. Gorgeous cinematography, amazing framing and editing, wonderful performances, a moving score, and a script that gradually reveals multiple layers of meaning and hidden depths. Audiences really slept on this.

 

[Driver]

Been meaning to check out Oppenheimer - but the 3 hour run time makes me think twice. Do you think it’s a movie you have to see in a movie theater ?

I saw it on Laser IMAX with my brother last week, and it's one of those movies that you should absolutely see in a theater, especially in higher quality versions, like we did.

 

[mnkykungfu]

Kicking off my month of Japanese cinema!~

Sanjuro (1962)
The 2nd of four proper appearances of "the man with no name" who first starred in Yojimbo. It's often mentioned in the same breath as a "not as good" film, but it's really a totally different animal that is having a lot of fun deflating the conventions of the sub-genre.

Deep Imagination (2002)
Sometimes mistakenly called "Sweat Punch" since four of the five short films here were released as part of "The Sweat Punch Series" before being collected in this anthology. They're a chance for various animators at Studio 4C to play with ideas, and while a lot of the animation lives up to their reputation, the plots stay as rough ideas.

Junkers Come Here (1994)
A Japanese tween slice-of-life anime that happens to co-star a magical talking miniature schnauzer. Surprisingly, this is not much of a plot point for most of the film, which I think stacks up nicely for those who vibe with Studio Ghibli work and are looking to branch out with something not dissimilar.

 

[kinnikuman]

The gunfighter - straightforward one room western about the legend vs the man. Really liked it some parts were a little cheese . 4/5

The woman in the window - murder cover up drama. Loved this movie! It just captivated me . 4.5/5

Oppenheimer- nuclear weapon biopic. I liked it fine looks great has great performances but some of the wriggling bad guy scenes were a little too Hollywood sentimentality. Still great movie. - 4/5

 

[kinnikuman]

I saw it on Laser IMAX with my brother last week, and it's one of those movies that you should absolutely see in a theater, especially in higher quality versions, like we did.

I tried to catch an imax show but couldn’t fit in my schedule - I’m sure it was amazing !!

 

[Eyepainter]

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022)

Despite the positive word of mouth, I went into this one with low expectations. I wasn't a kid when Shrek became a household name. As such, the franchise never connected to me like everyone else did. I went into this only because of peer pressure and positive reviews.

This... was a phenomenal surprise. The only criticism I could dish out was that the animation is capitalizing on Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Even then, it's still impressive. The story was great. The voice acting was ingenius, and I didn't even notice that Florence Pugh was voicing Goldilocks. The message revolving around how we deal with death is one I respect given that this is a PG-rated animated film. If you haven't seen it yet, heed my words and do yourself a favor.

 

[mnkykungfu]

Nemuri Kyōshirō: Sword of Villainy (1966)
This is the 8th entry in the "Sleepy Eyes of Death" series, the loose translation for samurai Kyōshirō's nickname, but it was where I started since the first film doesn't tell his origin anyway and this one is critically well-liked. It's well-shot by Lone Wolf & Cub director Kenji Misumi but the writing is godawful, exposition-heavy, and worst of all: boring.

Belladonna of Sadness (1973)
This anime sometimes gets held up as some kind of high art as an excuse for the rampant nudity and sexual abuse of its main (female of course) character. While it has a fanciful art style, the animation itself is cheap to non-existent and the story is as cringey and lascivious as you'd expect from Japanese anime dudes trying to say something about oppression of women.

Big Man Japan (2007)
Now THIS is a bizarre one! It's an absurdist comedy done largely in documentary style following the live-action exploits of a guy who turns into a giant fighter to defend Japan against repeated giant monster attacks. Much of it is a drama about the curse of fame and a fickle public, but the fights themselves are intentionally cheap, weird, and ridiculous, especially the meta-aware ending. Could be a big hit with some but I found it hard to connect with.