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

Zamros

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Just gave it a watch now and I have to say I agree a lot with its setting not being appropriate. Joker kept trying to make statements about post-crash austerity, viral videos and a whole bunch of other things and then just shoving it into an 80s aesthetic. The film definitely would have felt more appropriate in a more modern setting.
 

TM2YC

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Zamros said:
Just gave it a watch now and I have to say I agree a lot with its setting not being appropriate. Joker kept trying to make statements about post-crash austerity, viral videos and a whole bunch of other things and then just shoving it into an 80s aesthetic. The film definitely would have felt more appropriate in a more modern setting.

Yeah the bit where his bad performance "goes viral" was the most awkward clash of time periods. However, setting Joker in crumbling, bankrupt, punk, hellhole 70s/80s New York worked much better for the character, story and themes, than it would have done if it was set in cleaned up, shiny 2019 NY. They just needed to pay more attention to some story details, like the stand up routine being filmed, to make it natural. It wouldn't have been that hard. e.g. if De Niro had a gimmick where performers at that club would be regularly filmed for a shot at appearing on De Niro's show. Like a talent showcase.
 

Moe_Syzlak

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TM2YC said:
Zamros said:
Just gave it a watch now and I have to say I agree a lot with its setting not being appropriate. Joker kept trying to make statements about post-crash austerity, viral videos and a whole bunch of other things and then just shoving it into an 80s aesthetic. The film definitely would have felt more appropriate in a more modern setting.

Yeah the bit where his bad performance "goes viral" was the most awkward clash of time periods. However, setting Joker in crumbling, bankrupt, punk, hellhole 70s/80s New York worked much better for the character, story and themes, than it would have done if it was set in cleaned up, shiny 2019 NY. They just needed to pay more attention to some story details, like the stand up routine being filmed, to make it natural. It wouldn't have been that hard. e.g. if De Niro had a gimmick where performers at that club would be regularly filmed for a shot at appearing on De Niro's show. Like a talent showcase.

I actually think a post-Giuliani NYC would’ve been perfect for the themes. As NYC is now great if you’re rich, nothing has really changed for those that aren’t. Basically NYC just has a nice new coat of paint that allows the “haves” to more effectively ignore the “have nots.” Again, it should be a statement about its time. In an era when we have regular school shootings, etc. I think it plays very differently due to its historical setting.
 

Moe_Syzlak

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Marriage Story. Probably my favorite film from Baumbach, who I’ve only ever really been lukewarm on. It was certainly interesting watching this with my lawyer wife. :p the acting is top notch across the board, but i want to single out Julie Haggerty in particular.
 

DigModiFicaTion

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Abonimable (2019)
Put this on for the kiddos the other day. I didn't fully pay attention to the movie partly because I couldn't make sense of anything special in the narrative. The story is pretty straightforward and is more about themes of family than it is any real profound narrative development. It's definitely a run of the mill kids point A to point B film. Little to no surprises and no explanation of why things happen. That being said, it was light, even during what might be thought of as scary parts, and had some funny moments. I'm getting fatigued by the current character models in these cgi models. It all just looks the same now. My kids enjoyed it. I was indifferent. 6.5/10
 

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Dolemite Is My Name. I really enjoyed it. It kind of reminded me of Bowfinger, which obviously could be because of Murphy. But it shares obvious themes as well. I haven’t seen Bowfinger in forever but I remember liking it. I want to see the real Dolemite movie now. Looking it up, I loved the photo they used for the screenplay writer and cast member.

77687-A64-FCC7-4-E7-B-8-EEB-65-DE92465337.jpg
 

DigModiFicaTion

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Once Upon A Deadpool (2018)
Still too vulgar and grotesque for me, but it was better than First Class, Apocalypse and Phoenix combined. Ryan Reynolds could have been Tom Cruise under the suit in some of those last dialogue scenes. Mannerisms and tone of voice. It was kind of sad to see the alien go as I had a toy of him when I was a kid and got a little bit more invested when he showed up. Brolin did a great job as Cable. I'd like to to see more of him in the future. Perhaps I'll do some edits of these in the future. 6/10
 

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The Lighthouse. Beautifully filmed in black and white. At first I disliked the aspect ratio, but it does give a sense of claustrophobia. Both leads are top notch. The story can be viewed on multiple levels from a straight read to a archetypal myth to a Lovecraftian horror movie and probably more. I need time to digest all of this and perhaps I’ll expand in the longer reviews thread. Suffice to say I enjoyed it.
 

DigModiFicaTion

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Mortal Engines (2018)
Not the greatest, but certainly not the worst movie ever. This seems to be another John Carter. I wish there was more back story and a more focused narrative story what was given. Too much world building and not enough character development. I didn't really care about anyone because I didn't really know what was going on with any of them. Even the speculating doesn't have a payoff as the ending is more of a situational end than a character arc conclusion so the investment into who these characters are is ultimately wasted. Acting was fine, but this is more made for TV movie quality than big budget blockbuster. 6/10
 

DigModiFicaTion

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Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)
I remember trying to watch this years ago but never got passed Caesar going home with Franco''s character. The CGI looked bad then and worse today. I'm not a Franco fan at all either. The most engaging part were the ending credits watching the Simian flu spread across the world. This movie was more the precursor to Contagion or World War Z than it was a Planet of the Apes movie. 5/10

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)
Seeing that everyone is dead that we knew from the first movie the viewer is forced (if they haven't yet) to care about Caesar and the Apes. Granted, this movie spends a lot of time on character development that makes it more interesting. Caesar and Koba's characters play out the struggle of the apes, but the human characters are pretty flat. The CGI is better in this one but still pretty distracting, until that last close up of Caesar's eyes. Wow. 6.5/10

War of the Planet of the Apes (2017)
The CGI of Maurice is simply fantastic in this movie. The little odd zoo ape was pretty incredible too. This one is driven by the inner turmoil of Caesar and of the apes. The antagonist is more the hate and fear towards apes than it is the colonel and his soldiers. One can't help but notice the obvious connections in human history such as the Nazi's treatment of the Jewish people or the United States' treatment of the indigenous Native American tribes. The ending isn't a great payoff for a 3 movie investment. 6.75/10
 

TM2YC

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DigModiFicaTion said:
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)
I remember trying to watch this years ago but never got passed Caesar going home with Franco''s character. The CGI looked bad then and worse today. I'm not a Franco fan at all either. The most engaging part were the ending credits watching the Simian flu spread across the world. This movie was more the precursor to Contagion or World War Z than it was a Planet of the Apes movie. 5/10

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)
Seeing that everyone is dead that we knew from the first movie the viewer is forced (if they haven't yet) to care about Caesar and the Apes. Granted, this movie spends a lot of time on character development that makes it more interesting. Caesar and Koba's characters play out the struggle of the apes, but the human characters are pretty flat. The CGI is better in this one but still pretty distracting, until that last close up of Caesar's eyes. Wow. 6.5/10

War of the Planet of the Apes (2017)
The CGI of Maurice is simply fantastic in this movie. The little odd zoo ape was pretty incredible too. This one is driven by the inner turmoil of Caesar and of the apes. The antagonist is more the hate and fear towards apes than it is the colonel and his soldiers. One can't help but notice the obvious connections in human history such as the Nazi's treatment of the Jewish people or the United States' treatment of the indigenous Native American tribes. The ending isn't a great payoff for a 3 movie investment. 6.75/10

I'd probably order them in reverse from what you have in terms of quality but similar average scores. My enjoyment of the first one was greatly enhanced by having watched the brilliant 'Project Nim' documentary beforehand. It's shows Rise as surprisingly close to reality... minus the ape insurrection :D .


Mrs Lowry & Son (2019)
Timothy Spall follows up his 2014 "Best Actor at Cannes" biopic 'Mr. Turner' with another artist, L.S. Lowry. Sadly as the title implies, this one isn't really about the painter and his art but is mostly about the man and his suffocating relationship he had with his elderly mother. That it's based on a two-person stage play will be obvious but despite my disappointed hopes for what the film would be, you can't object to 91 riveting minutes spent locked in the Lowry household with two actors of Spall and Vanessa Redgrave's quality.


I Lost My Body (2019)
'I Lost My Body' ('J'ai perdu mon corps') is a beautiful and odd French animated film about a severed hand trying to get back to it's owner Naoufel. It's journey through the dark secret spaces of a city is inter-cut with Naoufel's lonely life leading up to the accident and flashbacks to his happy youth. It's action-packed yet poetic, bleak yet romantic, sad yet uplifting. In the UK at least, distributor Netflix defaults to the English dub but thankfully it also had the option to play it in the original French language.

 

DigModiFicaTion

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Ghost in the Shell (2017)
I don't like anime at all so I have no frame of reference for this story and I'm also not a big Scarlet Johansson fan either. That being said, I don't really see why this movie got so much hate. It feels like one of those dystopian teen movies in that the plot is more implied than actually fleshed out, but the aesthetic seemed to be spot on. The story was intriguing as well, almost a reverse Matrix. I hope humanity never ends up like this. 7/10
 

Moe_Syzlak

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American Factory. A fascinating documentary that gets a surprisingly unvarnished look at its subjects, Chinese and American, workers and executives. It was particularly interesting for us living and working in Germany. While the cultural differences between America and Germany are not as stark as that of Americans and Chinese, they are there.
 

mnkykungfu

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DigModiFicaTion said:
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)
War of the Planet of the Apes (2017)
The ending isn't a great payoff for a 3 movie investment. 6.75/10

I liked these a lot more than you did, particularly the last 2, in which I thought the CG was very impressive.  I really disagree about the ending, which I found to be a great payoff.  I think Caesar should go down as one of the great tragic heroes in movie history.  What an amazing arc.
 
DigModiFicaTion said:
Ghost in the Shell (2017)
I don't like anime at all so I have no frame of reference for this story and I'm also not a big Scarlet Johansson fan either. That being said, I don't really see why this movie got so much hate. 

Well, you've probably hit a big part of it right there.  You don't know the hate of an anime fan scorned, lol.  You're right, this got a disproportionate amount of hate for the changes it made to the original.  It's actually surprising how faithful it is.  

The big quandry of the film is that (like a lot of anime, even now) many of the main characters look far more Caucasian than Japanese.  So when you cast the film, it would bear more visual resemblance (and usually more star power and bankability) to cast a Caucasian.  The film's efforts to try to explain that and lend an extra layer of depth where almost uniformly rejected.  You had a huge portion of the potential audience who decided the movie was an abomination based on casting alone.  Then of the people who wanted to see the story and were willing to move past that, most found the in-movie explanation unnecessary.

Personally, I think it was a valid choice, if uneven.  It's very rare to have a film with depth that handles everything in a completely diversely balanced and totally inoffensive way to everyone.  I feel like the filmmakers were caught in a bad spot on this one... if the film was released 5 years earlier, or maybe even 5 years later, it might've gotten a fairer assessment.  It's not perfect, but it did a lot pretty well, certainly more so than many big action films these days.
 

Moe_Syzlak

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Uncut Gems. It certainly achieves what it sets out to do, which is induce a two hour panic attack. If that’s your thing and you enjoyed the directors’ Good Time, you’ll likely “enjoy” this. I think I liked Good Time a bit more. I think it’s getting a lot of attention because of Sandler. He’s good, but I don’t think the role would get the amount of attention it has if it were another actor in the role.
 

DigModiFicaTion

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Signs (2002)
I decided to revisit some M. Night Shyamalan films and will star out with Signs. I remember that I liked this initially, but felt the end was a bit too revealing. Now over a decade later, life has presented some new experiences that have made this particular story very familiar and impactful. Beyond the alien not-quite-horror film, this is a beautiful movie about family, grief and the loss of faith. I didn't even mind the revealing ending this time around. The story is fairly easy to follow and predictable, as most Shyamalan films are, but that allows for the themes and characters to shine and drive the story forward. This movie definitely jumped up in my list, both as a Shyamalan film and overall. 8.5/10
 

asterixsmeagol

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I would like it more if the weakness of the aliens wasn't so lame (and if they didn't pick a planet that is covered with their one weakness).
 

DigModiFicaTion

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asterixsmeagol said:
I would like it more if the weakness of the aliens wasn't so lame (and if they didn't pick a planet that is covered with their one weakness).

As Merrill's character says, "It's like War of the Worlds". Morgan shares some possibilities about why they are here, including resources, but this time around I noticed that Merrill shares some dialogue that indicates that they weren't here for resources.
 

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Nightmare on Elm Street remake

I've been told that this wasn't good, but I quite enjoyed it. I'm not sure if enjoyed is the right word, I wasn't necessarily happy watching it, the subject matter is very real and uncomfortable, but I was throughly engaged. I found this Freddy to be terrifying because of the subject matter, and Jackie Earle Hailey plays the role too well. This is a completely different movie from the original despite not changing too much. Then again, I haven't watched the original in years.
I can't say I recommend this, it can be hard to watch. I would definitely watch this again though, but I'm known to have bad movie opinions.
 

Moe_Syzlak

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Miss Americana. Pretty good documentary but not great. I was struck by how Swift always seemed ten years younger than her actual age. Is this a result of her fame or her generation? For example she seemed to have the same political activism as I would expect someone to have in their late teens/early twenties when she was in her 30s. Honestly this feels pretty consistent with those of her generation I know so I’m not sure it was about her fame, though that’s how they tried to frame it. I also found it interesting that they sidestepped the whole Ryan Adams thing, given the prominence of the larger issue [Violence Against Women Act] to the story. It was interesting, but I think it would be much more for someone who is a fan.
 
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