Movies Rate and Discuss the Last Movie You Saw v.16

[The_Renaissance]

Just left theatre where I saw “The Watchers”. It’s the directorial debut of m night shamalyans daughter. I’d give it a 5/10. Not terrible but nothing great. It moves at quick pace. I wrongly assumed based off the trailers that it would be more ambiguous in terms of who the watchers are and how the movie would wrap up with a twist of some sort. But that wasn’t the case, it clearly explains everything and leaves no room to sit back and ponder a deeper message or anything like that.

Kinda fancy this myself, maybe a bored cinema visit this weekend at some point

 

[I Am Legion]

Independence Day Resurgence--3/10
Awful. Some decent visuals. Terrible plot and acting. A waste of time.

 

[eddymotto]

Moby Dick (USA, 1956)

Adventure film directed by John Huston and based on the famous Melville novel of the same name.

In 1941, a novice sailor named Ishmael (Richard Basehart) joins the crew of the Pequod, a Massachusetts' whaling ship.

The ship is commanded by Captain Ahab (Gregory Peck). Ahab lost his leg while trying to kill a giant white whale named Moby Dick and has become obsessed with finding and killing that whale in revenge.

I read the novel about 20 years ago and I remember it fondly (albeit I could have done without the chapters dryly explaining what whales are and how they are harvested for oil). Huston has the difficult task of streamlining the plot and capturing the might and fury of the great whale on film. Given the technology available at the time, Huston does a reasonable job on the special effects but he is incapable of capturing the sheer size and strength of the legendary whale. Supposedly a massive artificial whale prop was created for the film but was lost at sea before it could be used much.

More damning is that Peck never fully embodies Ahab as a madman (or at least how I envision Ahab from the novel). Peck feels more haunted than insane. He has gravitas and a smouldering rage but never unleashes the pure fury that Ahab should have. There a a few scenes that absolutely work (Peck's face when he refuses to assist the captain of the Rachel in the search for that captain's missing son, gave me chills.) but many others never quite connect. Perhaps others saw the literary Ahab differently than I did and will enjoy Peck's performance more.

Nevertheless, the third act is very good as ship closes in on its confrontation with Moby Dick and we can see Ahab's madness start to infect the crew.

The production was, to no surprise, exceedingly difficult. Huston once said something to the effect that things got so bad that he thought that his assistant director was conspiring against him but eventually realized that it was just God who was against him. Great line.

Rating: 5.5/10

 

[eddymotto]

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (Australia, 2024)

Australian post-apocalyptic action film directed and produced by George Miller. It stars Anya Taylor-Joy, Alya Browne, Chris Hemsworth, and Tom Burke.

The film has already been discussed a lot on this forum and anybody who is even vaguely interested in it already knows the basic outline of the movie.

The performances are first rate. Browne plays the young Furiosa exceptionally well. Really impressive stuff. She is in the movie for almost half of it and she nails the role. The transition from Brown to Taylor-Joy is one of the most seamless actor swaps I have ever seen. I did not know what to make of the casting of Taylor-Joy but she is great. Miller perfectly utilizes her slightly alien appearance and huge eyes to perfect effect. She has such little dialogue that she has to tell her story physically. Miller got it exactly right.

Hemsworth chews up the scenery every time he is on the screen. He gets most of the good lines and he looks like he is having the time of his life. Burke is great too. The bond between him and Furiosa feels real.

Miller is a visual storyteller and he delivers pure spectacle. The long shots in the desert are jaw dropping. This film is filled with exceptional shots. The visuals are not quite as good as Fury Road but that is an almost impossible bar to reach (again). It makes the Fast & Furious franchise look pedestrian.

This is an action movie and everything else is secondary. Yet, I was pulled into the characters much more than I had expected.

Furiosa is one of the greatest prequels ever made and I look forward to watching a double feature with Fury Road someday.

My only disappointment is that the film has performed so poorly that we may never get another one.

Rating: 9/10

 

[HenryFlower]

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (Australia, 2024)

Australian post-apocalyptic action film directed and produced by George Miller. It stars Anya Taylor-Joy, Alya Browne, Chris Hemsworth, and Tom Burke.

The film has already been discussed a lot on this forum and anybody who is even vaguely interested in it already knows the basic outline of the movie.

The performances are first rate. Browne plays the young Furiosa exceptionally well. Really impressive stuff. She is in the movie for almost half of it and she nails the role. The transition from Brown to Taylor-Joy is one of the most seamless actor swaps I have ever seen. I did not know what to make of the casting of Taylor-Joy but she is great. Miller perfectly utilizes her slightly alien appearance and huge eyes to perfect effect. She has such little dialogue that she has to tell her story physically. Miller got it exactly right.

Hemsworth chews up the scenery every time he is on the screen. He gets most of the good lines and he looks like he is having the time of his life. Burke is great too. The bond between him and Furiosa feels real.

Miller is a visual storyteller and he delivers pure spectacle. The long shots in the desert are jaw dropping. This film is filled with exceptional shots. The visuals are not quite as good as Fury Road but that is an almost impossible bar to reach (again). It makes the Fast & Furious franchise look pedestrian.

This is an action movie and everything else is secondary. Yet, I was pulled into the characters much more than I had expected.

Furiosa is one of the greatest prequels ever made and I look forward to watching a double feature with Fury Road someday.

My only disappointment is that the film has performed so poorly that we may never get another one.

Rating: 9/10

i’m gonna make sure to go check this out before Thursday next week. i’m worried about it getting prematurely dropped from the listings at the Showcase closest to me & i’d be pissed at myself if i missed it on the big screen like i did w/ Fury Road

 

[eddymotto]

i’m gonna make sure to go check this out before Thursday next week. i’m worried about it getting prematurely dropped from the listings at the Showcase closest to me & i’d be pissed at myself if i missed it on the big screen like i did w/ Fury Road

for sure. this needs to be seen on the biggest possible screen. I am kicking myself for not getting to it when it was on IMAX.

hope you enjoy it

 

[Batjester]

Monkey Man.
6/10ish.
It wasn't bad, but didn't wow me either. I did like having India as the setting for something new. Standard revenge film.

 

[HenryFlower]

La Bête (France/Canada, 2023) - 4.5/5


a hypermodern rom-sci-fi tale about unrequited/unfulfilled love, apathy admist quiet chaos, & a fear of self-fulfilling catastrophe.

this new Bertrand Bonello joint is a dystopian nightmare that takes you on a hell of a ride. the story revolves around Gabrielle (Lea Seydoux) & Louis (George MacKay), whose DNA is imprinted w/ a romantic entanglement that persists through different points in time—past, present, & future. we witness their fated connection via visions of the past as experienced by Gabrielle while participating in a procedure to cleanse her DNA of past traumas. the reality of each moment, whether a vision or taking place in the present, has no protection from distortion, sometimes literally.

the latter half grows increasingly tense as fuck & a haunting final scene that gave me the chills. & the 146 min runtime totally flew by for me. not a second felt wasted imo

 

[revoltub]

AI: Artifical Intelligence (2001)

-

I've been planning on revisiting this one for a while, since I was always a pretty big fan of it and watched it several times when it first came out (on video).

There are definitely some weaknesses in the script and story choices that I missed back then. Whatever the flaws of the film are i think they get mostly made up for by Spielberg's direction, the adventure, immersion and atmosphere. It is a scifi film but essentially a fantasy film at heart.

Osment is good enough in the role and I get the sense he did everything Spielberg wanted from him. He cant be too robotic the whole time, but he cant appear too human too often. I think a nice balance was struck.

He gets good support from Frances O'Connor, William Hurt, Jack Angel (as Teddy), Brendan Gleeson, and Jude Law. Law is still my favorite character in the movie. Seems like an odd choice to team a child android up with an android gigolo but somehow it ends up working.

Things do get a bit wonky in the third act and toward the finale. The ending could've been a bit better also.

Overall I thought it still held up. Not a perfect movie and some things could've been handled differently but I still found myself getting invested and immersed in the film and it has a certain magic about it.

8/10 range.

 

[HenryFlower]

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (Australia, 2024) - 4/5

yezzir, this was indeed a banger.

 

[eddymotto]

Masques (France, 1987)

French mystery thriller directed by Claude Chabrol.

Christian Legagneur (Philippe Noiret) is the well established host of a terrible reality tv show where old people dance to win expensive vacations. I think it may also be a dating show but I am not sure. It seems like the sort of terrible afternoon tv show that somehow runs for 30 years.

Roland Wolf (Robin Renucci) is a young author who is writing a biography about Legagneur. Legagneur loves to be the centre of attention and Wolf's interest plays directly into his considerable vanity.

Legagneur takes Wolf to his country estate where they plan to spend several days doing interviews for the book.

Once there, Wolf meets an odd bunch of servants including a mute driver/chef, a wine expert, a secretary/nurse, and a masseuse who dabbles in tarot cards. There is also Legagneur's goddaughter, Catherine (Anne Brochet). The pale skinned Catherine wears sunglasses at all time and is ill with some poorly defined mental or physical condition. She seems instantly attracted to Wolf or maybe she is just horny AF in general.

The boyish Wolf borders of buffoonery in his oversized lime green suit but he is not what he seems. We quickly suspect that neither is anybody else.

The plot is classic thriller material where the characters dance around a poorly defined mystery until it slowly becomes clear.

Noiret makes the movie. His booming voice and self confidence is that of a man who is used to be the emperor of his little kingdoms.

The trouble is that the underlying mystery is not interesting. The cat and mouse games hold a certain interest and there are some occasional moments of real suspense but mostly it does not add up to much.

Rating: 5/10

 

[llperez22]

Under Paris (2024)
5/10

I didnt care to watch this based off the preview but I saw some people on twitter saying it was good and that it was one of netflix's top trending movies and so I gave it a watch. Not entirely terrible but also not worth getting any hype on twitter. For being your typical cgi shark goes crazy and tries to kill everyone film, the production quality on this one is actually better than most. Still a silly film.

 

[HenryFlower]

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (Australia, 2024) - 4/5

yezzir, this was indeed a banger.

some quick thoughts i’ve been stewing on since last night:

• while it’s practically impossible for our animal brains to not compare Furiosa to Fury Road, i feel like their unique individual identities in their approach to storytelling makes them perfect companions to each other. therefore, i think the focus should be more on how each film elevates the other. it’s totally kosher to prefer one to the other, but i think that’s where the comparison should end.
• in regards to the aforementioned unique identities, the raison d’être of Furiosa is world building & character depth. this movie really sinks its teeth into the politics & philosophy of The Wasteland. it’s also designed to enrich the characters that exist in this corner of Mad Max continuity. things like a character’s relationship to the power struggles & the hierarchical structures of The Wasteland, and/or how or why they exist & how they are shaped or changed by The Wasteland. obviously Furiosa & Dementus are given the full character development spa treatment, but even the War Boys (collectively, as if they were a single entity), for example, felt more fleshed out to some extent.
• i thought this installment of the Mad Max series of films was more dedicated to exploring & expressing its themes than any of the others
• i loved Miller’s decision to shrink down the scale & grandeur of the film’s climax. i thought it was a very powerful & satisfying ending, despite its restraint compared to other Mad Max movies. this ofc speaks to another obvious strength/highlight of Furiosa—the performances of Anya Taylor-Joy & Chris Hemsworth. all the performances were great, but they absolutely crushed it
• only time i was ever bothered by the CGI was a brief scene when Dementus releases his dogs from their cage & the dogs are very clearly CGI. everything else was completely fine & oftentimes felt like a necessary step to an impressive practical payoff

 

[eddymotto]

some quick thoughts i’ve been stewing on since last night:

• while it’s practically impossible for our animal brains to not compare Furiosa to Fury Road, i feel like their unique individual identities in their approach to storytelling makes them perfect companions to each other. therefore, i think the focus should be more on how each film elevates the other. it’s totally kosher to prefer one to the other, but i think that’s where the comparison should end.
• in regards to the aforementioned unique identities, the raison d’être of Furiosa is world building & character depth. this movie really sinks its teeth into the politics & philosophy of The Wasteland. it’s also designed to enrich the characters that exist in this corner of Mad Max continuity. things like a character’s relationship to the power struggles & the hierarchical structures of The Wasteland, and/or how or why they exist & how they are shaped or changed by The Wasteland. obviously Furiosa & Dementus are given the full character development spa treatment, but even the War Boys (collectively, as if they were a single entity), for example, felt more fleshed out to some extent.
• i thought this installment of the Mad Max series of films was more dedicated to exploring & expressing its themes than any of the others
• i loved Miller’s decision to shrink down the scale & grandeur of the film’s climax. i thought it was a very powerful & satisfying ending, despite its restraint compared to other Mad Max movies. this ofc speaks to another obvious strength/highlight of Furiosa—the performances of Anya Taylor-Joy & Chris Hemsworth. all the performances were great, but they absolutely crushed it
• only time i was ever bothered by the CGI was a brief scene when Dementus releases his dogs from their cage & the dogs are very clearly CGI. everything else was completely fine & oftentimes felt like a necessary step to an impressive practical payoff

I think you have this exactly right.

This film made me care about Furiosa in a way that Fury Road never quite hit. It is not a criticism of the latter but, as you say, an acceptance of where the two films fit within the larger narrative.

It is a prequel and therefore it is SUPPOSED to set the stage for the second film. The fact that they happened to be released in the opposite order changes nothing in relation to the story itself.

I can't wait to watch the two films back to back, hopefully on the big screen, to experience Fury Road in a new way (plus I want to see Furiosa again).

I also agree about the ending. I was expecting a spectacle but I preferred what we got.

As a complete aside, I watched a video where Anya Taylor-Joy says that they used CGI to alter the facial features of the young actress who Taylor-Joy says "actually does not look like me at all". Miller slowly increased the similarity in their features as the film progressed thereby making the actor swap so seamless. I was not a 100% sure at first when they made the swap; that is how well it worked on me.

 

[badascan]

The Sadness 7/10

Taiwanese horror/zombie film. Very disturbing graphic violence and tons of blood... The film was exactly what one might want if looking for something extreme to watch, taboo subjects coupled with extreme graphic violence surrounded by a "boyfriend has to find and save girlfriend from a world gone mad" plot. It's shot well and must have had a fairly large budget, worth a gander of one is inclined...

 

[GearSolidMetal]

The Sadness 7/10

Taiwanese horror/zombie film. Very disturbing graphic violence and tons of blood... The film was exactly what one might want if looking for something extreme to watch, taboo subjects coupled with extreme graphic violence surrounded by a "boyfriend has to find and save girlfriend from a world gone mad" plot. It's shot well and must have had a fairly large budget, worth a gander of one is inclined...

Now this this bizarre... I just randomly heard about this movie today when discussing Crossed, a zombie-graphic novel written by Garth Ennis, in The Boys thread. On wikipedia for Crossed it mentioned 'The Sadness' which was supposedly inspired by Crossed... a virus that causes the infected to because violent psychopaths that beat, stab, rape, etc... to death and they become infected.

I downloaded The Sadness out of curiosity and watched about 20-30 minutes of it, and then skipped to the end to see how it wrapped up.

I wasn't impressed, but I was expecting violence & chaos on comparison to Crossed.

By the way, Crossed.... I don't recommend it. Its literally the most fucked up thing I've ever read.

 

[GearSolidMetal]

I may have a nerd-card revoked, but I've always been a fan of JJ Abram's directing ever since Alias, through Mission Impossible 3, and even the first two Star Trek movies.

And I haven't watched Star Trek 2009 in like 10 years and this is another one of those movies I'm curious about possibly being not as good as I remember..... but the opening is even better than I remember.

Reminder - from wikipedia - "In 2233, the Federation starship USS Kelvin investigates a "lightning storm" in space. A Romulan ship, Narada, emerges from the storm and attacks the Kelvin, then demands that Kelvin's Captain Robau come aboard to negotiate a truce. Robau is questioned about the current stardate and an "Ambassador Spock", whom he does not recognize. Narada's commander, Nero, kills him, and resumes attacking the Kelvin. George Kirk, Kelvin's first officer, orders the ship's personnel, including his pregnant wife Winona, to abandon ship while he pilots the Kelvin on a collision course with Narada, since the Kelvin's autopilot is disabled. While Kirk sacrifices his life, Winona gives birth to James Tiberius Kirk."

Aside from the nit-pick that James Kirk's mother had the shortest labor in the history of giving birth, this opening is absolutely 10/10 filmmaking. Everything is on point, the writing, the performances, the action... I'm 100% serious when I say its perfect.

Note - I never watched the original Star Trek so I have no attatchment to it so if old-school trekkies hate it I 100% respect their opinion.

Looking forward to seeing the rest of it, and another thing I forgot - it had a 10/10 cast.
Zachary Quinto as Spock
Chris Pine as Kirk
Zoe Saldana as Ahura
Karl Urban
Simon Pegg
Anton Yelchin (RIP)
Leonard Nemoy (RIP)
Eric Bana

Will update after its over.

Edit - "Your father was a captain of a starship for 12 minutes. He saved 800 lives including your mother's and yours. I dare you to do better."
THATs how you end a recruitment scene for a rebel that looked like it was the absolute last thing he'd ever do.

 

[GearSolidMetal]

Another question popped into my head - Who Wrote This? Was JJ Abrams involved?

Writing credits go to Roberto Orci, who worked with JJ on Alias and Fringe, and later Star Trek Into Darkness.

And the 2nd credit goes to.... Alex Kurtzman? Seriously? He's the Executive Producer of all the recent horrific Star Trek TV series. But apparently he worked with JJ on Alias, Mission Impossible 3, he wrote on the first two Transformer movies, and Star Trek Into Darkness... so apparently he was a great writer & producer before he got total control of Star Trek for CBS streaming.

So apparently they, as a writing team, are the reason why the first two Star Trek movies were so great (my opinion) and the 3rd movie, Beyond, the creative team fell apart due to working on different projects, and it was written by Simon Pegg (seriously) and someone known as Doug Jun who only has two writing credits for movies - Star Trek Beyond & Cloverfield Paradox - and the rest of his career is a TV producer.

So that's why the 3rd movie sucked.

So JJ Abram's best movies are the ones he trusts his writers to write better than he can.

 

[Batjester]

I may have a nerd-card revoked, but I've always been a fan of JJ Abram's directing ever since Alias, through Mission Impossible 3, and even the first two Star Trek movies.

And I haven't watched Star Trek 2009 in like 10 years and this is another one of those movies I'm curious about possibly being not as good as I remember..... but the opening is even better than I remember.

Reminder - from wikipedia - "In 2233, the Federation starship USS Kelvin investigates a "lightning storm" in space. A Romulan ship, Narada, emerges from the storm and attacks the Kelvin, then demands that Kelvin's Captain Robau come aboard to negotiate a truce. Robau is questioned about the current stardate and an "Ambassador Spock", whom he does not recognize. Narada's commander, Nero, kills him, and resumes attacking the Kelvin. George Kirk, Kelvin's first officer, orders the ship's personnel, including his pregnant wife Winona, to abandon ship while he pilots the Kelvin on a collision course with Narada, since the Kelvin's autopilot is disabled. While Kirk sacrifices his life, Winona gives birth to James Tiberius Kirk."

Aside from the nit-pick that James Kirk's mother had the shortest labor in the history of giving birth, this opening is absolutely 10/10 filmmaking. Everything is on point, the writing, the performances, the action... I'm 100% serious when I say its perfect.

Note - I never watched the original Star Trek so I have no attatchment to it so if old-school trekkies hate it I 100% respect their opinion.

Looking forward to seeing the rest of it, and another thing I forgot - it had a 10/10 cast.
Zachary Quinto as Spock
Chris Pine as Kirk
Zoe Saldana as Ahura
Karl Urban
Simon Pegg
Anton Yelchin (RIP)
Leonard Nemoy (RIP)
Eric Bana

Will update after its over.

Edit - "Your father was a captain of a starship for 12 minutes. He saved 800 lives including your mother's and yours. I dare you to do better."
THATs how you end a recruitment scene for a rebel that looked like it was the absolute last thing he'd ever do.

I was never a big Star Trek guy but loved the JJ Abrams movies. And you are 100% correct on that opening sequence being great.

 

[GearSolidMetal]

Stopped halfway through to give an update, and these were flaws I remember from long ago.

*Kirk is cocky, cheats on tests, impulsive, disrespectful and insubordinate to higher ranking personnel than himself, fights guards as he's being escorted off the bridge... and abandoned on a snowplanet extremely conveniently close to 'Old Spock.' (Horrible Deus Ex Machina)
I can't remember exactly how he becomes Captain in the end but I can tell you, related to my own military history, he absolutely would not be a respected officer by his own crew even if he miraculously saves the universe.

*So far, Spock is the MVP of the movie. Perfect conflict development between him and Kirk (and justified on his part), and he's gone through the worst loss with his planet, his mother, and 6 billion Vulcans.

"...I estimate only 10,000 survived. I am now a part of an endangered species."

*And Zachary Quinto and Zoe Saldana have the best scene in the movie so far. In the elevator she consults him after his loss, hugging and kissing him, and his subtleties of his facial expressions, for someone who's supposed to not feel emotions, indicates he's about to break down and lose it, but he keeps it together with this line.
Ahura - "What do you need me to do?"
Spock - "I need... everyone... to keep serving admirably." And he turns to go back to work.
*Like A Boss*

Spock is the better... everything... over Kirk.
The one thing keeping Kirk somewhat likeable is Chris Pine's great performance.