Movies: Last Movie You Watched and Rate it | {Insert Appropriate Seasonal Greeting Here}

[Babe Ruth]

Leprechaun 3 (1995)

A cinematic triumph..

The Leprechaun takes Vegas.. and it's what you would expect from a straight to video Leprechaun sequel.
And it isn't too bad, the two leads were pretty good. Has the feeling of an extended Tales From the Crypt episode.

 

[kihei]

Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (2024) Directed by Radu Jude 7C

Angela is a disgruntled, exhausted production assistant who is working on an industrial safety film sponsored by some Austrian conglomerate. We watch her fight the heavy traffic jams of Bucharest trying to gather interviews with workers who have been injured on the job who will participate in the making of this video. Her bosses keep asking her to do more and more and she does so, though hardly with good humour. Eventually the video is made, taking up nearly the last 40 minutes of this long 160 minute film. DNETMFTEOTW clearly will not to be to everybody's liking. However, if you have a taste for ultra-subtle humour, then DNETMFTEOTW will fit in very nicely with other wonderfully droll, super-dark Romanian comic films such as The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, Police, Adjective and California Dreaming.

Probably more conservative viewers will wonder who called this film a comedy in the first place. Most of the time we just follow Angela around, listening to her complaints, but as we do so, more and more is revealed about how lousy life is in Romania, and many of the problems with corporations and workers rights extend far beyond its borders. The approach to this material is deliciously bent, neo-Godardian even. There is a movie from the '80s occasionally spliced in that deals with a minor character; Uwe Boll pops in out of the blue and has some choice things to say about film critics; Angela has a foul-mouthed alter-gender, alter ego who keeps occasionally showing up saying disgusting things; and the construction of images is often lively and unexpected. The whole vibe is a rather cheerfully resigned but flippant rant on how everything has gone to hell in a bushel basket and ain't getting better anytime soon. I really enjoy Romanian humour so I thought the movie was very funny and in a universal, thought-provoking way. I especially enjoyed the long making of-the-video final scene which was a goldmine of off-kilter humour i. But caveat emptor on this one.

subtitles


Best of '24

Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World, Jude, Romania

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

Just Rewatched:

8.5/10

 

[CDJ]

Strangers Chapter One


Clear money grab. It’s the original but without the suspense that movie did incredibly well. It’s just mean-spirited and drawn out and redundant. I didn’t walk out but I went into this movie blind without reading reviews and after it was done i turned to the person I went with, said “this is a pile of shit”, and then immediately checked rotten tomatoes and saw 13%. Good to know that I know what I’m watching lmao

Movie is so drawn out and you can tell they were doing it because they only have so much story and they’re making 3 movies out of it. I’ll go watch the next one because I have a monthly pass for my local theater and don’t have to pay for the ticket but god damn.

2.8/10


Put this in the horror thread too but wanted to post it here as a warning lol

 

[Osprey]

Arcadian (2024) - 6/10

A father (Nicolas Cage) and his two teenage sons defend their farmhouse against nocturnal monsters. It's a post-apocalyptic survival drama/thriller similar to A Quiet Place, It Comes at Night and several other films. It felt very familiar at times, but was elevated by its writing and acting. The two brothers, especially, are believable and sympathetic. There's some friction because one is less responsible than the other, which affects the plot. Cage fans might be a little disappointed because his role is more of a supporting one, his character is underdeveloped and there are no moments of craziness, but I was glad to see him in a serious, low-key role and eventually was interested enough in the brothers to not mind that they become the focus of the story. It's a family drama during the day, but turns into a horror film at night. There are several suspenseful scenes with the creatures trying to enter the house. Their design is somewhat unique and creepy and they're revealed very slowly to draw out the mystery of what they look like and are capable of, which I think was handled well. No explanation is given for where they came from, but that's not uncommon for the genre and keeps the film lean and focused on the humans. It's only 90 minutes and I found it to be well paced. My one major criticism is the camerawork, which is all handheld and makes the film feel like it was shot on a boat. I guess that the filmmakers spent all of their budget on Cage and CGI and left nothing for a tripod. I suppose that I got used to it, though, because I ended up liking the film more than I expected to. It's generic, but competently made (outside of the camerawork) and I'm glad that I watched it.

 

[Puck]

Cannes Film Festival has been on since May 14.

Here is a quick look at the (supposed) biggest releases at the festival

2024 Cannes Film Festival Preview

From George Miller's Mad Max prequel and a Kevin Costner Western to new films from Paul Schrader, Francis Ford Coppola, and Yorgos Lanthimos, here's what we're looking forward to the most at Cannes.

editorial.rottentomatoes.com

The following link has a more in depth look

2024 Cannes Film Festival - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The official Cannes webpage

2024 Cannes Film Festival Preview

From George Miller's Mad Max prequel and a Kevin Costner Western to new films from Paul Schrader, Francis Ford Coppola, and Yorgos Lanthimos, here's what we're looking forward to the most at Cannes.

editorial.rottentomatoes.com

 

[CDJ]

Ezra by Tony Goldwyn

dude hasn’t directed a ton of films but it seems like comedy drama is his niche- I thought this was a sweet movie. Made me cry a little bit, if you have a relationship with your father it will hit you in the feels. The movie stars Bobby Cannavale, Rose Byrne, and Robert DeNiro. Good performances all around, really liked DeNiro in this one. General premise is a divorced comedian fighting for his autistic child. I tend to consider it more drama than comedy but it has funny moments. The film was authentic as it was written by somebody with an autistic son and the role was played by an autistic actor (William Fitzgerald). Kid did great. The associate producer is also autistic. Very good job in portraying autism especially when compared to a piece of shit like The Predator- Hollywood is getting better at it. Movie won’t be released until the 31st but I would recommend. Kinda like Rainman meets Pursuit of Happiness

6.6/10

its funny I checked the early reviews after and IMDB has it as a 6.6 and RT has it at 77% with a limited number of reviews (I think the RT # will fall a little). If there was gambling on movies I’d be an expert handicapper

 

[Buck Naked]

Decided to fire up an old standard - A Few Good Men. Talk about a movie they don't make anymore...

This movie brings up a few things for me. I want to go grab Rob Reiner and figure out what the f*** happened to him. I don't think this is a perfectly directed movie (note below), but it's really f***ing competently done and it's near the end of his absolutely legendary run.

I MISS MOVIE STARS! This is the perfect example of a movie you can't make today because movie stars don't exist. When you hire Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson and ask them to just be Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson for 2 hours and 10 minutes and you have a movie. The statement that offends so many MCU nerds is an absolute truth. Outside of literally still Tom Cruise and maybe Leo a little bit (and honestly maybe Zendaya but to a much lesser degree), I can't think of a single actor that can sell a movie by force of personality anymore. Ryan Gossling (who I like for the record) can't do that. Chris Pratt can't do that. A decade plus of such heavy studio control has left us with a terrible landscape for movie stars. IP is the new movie star and it f***ing sucks. Anyway moving on.

Jack Nicholson may be the most engaging screen presence in the history of film. What an insane career. He just dominates every scene he's in. Obviously this is one of his iconic performances, and it's earned. So good. Cruise is still in his transition era, but this is also a solid performance for him. There was that period where he tried to work with every auteur he could in the 90s and while I don't think he's the most gifted actor, he is certainly very good and has such natural charisma. Kevin Pollack was also in a nice little run of this era with this and The Usual Suspects in a few years with good supporting performances. Demi Moore was very solid here as well and it's easy to forget how good of a run she had for awhile - don't think she ever really made the shift to great actress but she has a fairly solid filmography in the early 90s.

So one weird note. The structure of this film is weird. You open with the code red. Then you get to the whole internal politics of Cruise getting assigned the case. And then... you get a flashback of the brass in Gitmo discussing Santiago? And then you go right back to the linear storytelling - this is the only nonlinear event, it isn't noted as a flashback, and then you just pick it up and keep going. There's a lot of exposition here and all of that, but it just feels like a lazy edit? Either do a reshoot to get that information out elsewhere or find a way to restructure the flashback (during the testimony later maybe?) Idk it's kind of jarring.

That being said? Still a perfect movie. 10/10.

It's weird when you agree with literally every letter used in a post this long, but wow, you truly spoke my mind.

One of my top favorite movies of all time, without a doubt.

 

[The Great Mighty Poo]

Rewatched Shin Kamen Rider, holy balls is it still great, think classic Kamen Rider but gory and if was directed by 80s Japanese David Cronenberg.

 

[The Macho King]

Last night I fired up a movie I haven't seen since I was a teenager: They Live

John f***ing Carpenter just did not miss in the 80s. I know a lot of the criticism of this movie centers around how entirely unsubtle it is. You know what I say? Good - f*** subtlety when we're talking about social issues. This movie is a f***ing mirror and it's so good. Piper brings a surprising amount of pathos in his performance. Keith David can do no wrong. The alley fight.... oh god the alley fight.

My only note is the pacing around the end isn't ideal, but at the same time... the message has been delivered and received, and we don't really need to waste much more time do we? I'd almost like to see this movie updated to just kind of improve the action a bit - probably not in the quasi-realistic way that the John Wick films do but more in the theatrical George Miller style. Pump everything up to 11. The 90 minutes fly by.

Pithy letterboxd review: I'm here to chew bubblegum and dismantle capitalism. And I'm all out of bubblegum.

9/10