Which movie did you watch today and how would you rate it?

[Ford]

Way, way behind on my Pixar movies, and it was last night (Monday), but...Ratatouille. I went out to dinner with an old high school friend, and when I came home my mom and sister were watching the Disney Channel. Um...what? Not Masterpiece Theater? Not Call the Midwife? Some BBC murder mystery? Nope. Disney Channel.

But the movie had just started so I gave it a chance, and...was not disappointed! It was really, really good. Great performances from the voice actors, really great animation, great direction, and some neat twists and turns. Marvelous movie.

 

[Elixir]

You never know where much needed entertainment might come from.
I just laughed for the first time in days, watching a stupid slapstick Sci-Fi British comedy series called Red Dwarf, replete with sight gags. I love stupid sometimes.

 

[Patooka]

You never know where much needed entertainment might come from.
I just laughed for the first time in days, watching a stupid slapstick Sci-Fi British comedy series called Red Dwarf, replete with sight gags. I love stupid sometimes.

That show was smegging brilliant. My favourite episode was the time travel one where they explained why why JFK was assassinated.

Show

technically, it was because of curry

 

[bilby]

You never know where much needed entertainment might come from.
I just laughed for the first time in days, watching a stupid slapstick Sci-Fi British comedy series called Red Dwarf, replete with sight gags. I love stupid sometimes.

That show was smegging brilliant. My favourite episode was the time travel one where they explained why why JFK was assassinated.

Show

technically, it was because of curry

Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, who wrote the show, started out on BBC Radio with a comedy sketch show that had lots of Sci-Fi gags (many of which they recycled for Red Dwarf - I particularly recall the NORWEB Federation). I remember listening to it as a teenager, and being very excited when they moved to TV.

It really was smegging brilliant.

 

[Swammerdami]

Silent Partner 7/10

This stars Elliott Gould, Christopher Plummer and Susannah York in a crime caper/thriller where Gould plays a bank employee trying to game bank robber Plummer out of his modest take. I've heard about this movie for many years as an unsung gem, and I would agree. Liked the style and performances and the jazzy score.

There is some jarring violence and titillating nudity if that helps. And it's free on Kanopy.

Oh and it can count as a Christmas movie.

I'm sure I watched this movie once upon a time, though I don't even remember the title. Mainly I recall it as a good movie.

An advantage of very poor memory, is that I can rewatch good movies and enjoy them multiple times!
I'd never heard of Kanopy but it looks like it'll need a few keystrokes from me before usable. My kids have 2 or 3 paid streamers, and other options but I strive for minimalism. I'll just access the movie via that famous site A Party I Be.

 

[Elixir]

You never know where much needed entertainment might come from.
I just laughed for the first time in days, watching a stupid slapstick Sci-Fi British comedy series called Red Dwarf, replete with sight gags. I love stupid sometimes.

That show was smegging brilliant. My favourite episode was the time travel one where they explained why why JFK was assassinated.

Show

technically, it was because of curry

I suspected as much (about JFK).
Anyhow, it’s on a “bonus view” channel that won’t let me record it. But I have a reminder marked for Saturday -looks like it’ll be on all day and into the night.
It really did make me laugh out loud a couple of times - the writing is perfectly off the wall.

 

[Colonel Sanders]

Seen and Heard

This one attempted to be a more upscale horror/ghost story movie, so I appreciated that. It does a good job of leaning heavily into marital problems and dynamics, which was refreshing, as opposed to now comatose tropes of hack and slash.

However, the horror/spooky elements just don't hit like the viewer would want. It's present throughout, but given the meat of the story and events therein, those elements hang off the body of the film like an extra non-functional limb. IOW, they just weren't necessary.

For example, one of the characters goes insane due to misdeeds and then does horrible things. The way that's executed in the movie would've made for a much more interesting film without the spooky elements. Another criticism is the one dimensional portrayal of the antagonist--mostly. There's some good back story there and they did attempt to build a character arc, but by the 20 minute mark it's clear that this person is pure concentrated asshole, and that there would be no redemption arc.

If you like a good but not spectacular drama with some supernatural elements, you may want to check this one out. It's worth the 90 minute runtime.

 

[unapologetic]

I usually hate British grunge/gross-out comedy. But the sci-fi insider comedy of Red Dwarf made me a big fan. I even had a red Red Dwarf jacket and cap.

I'd never heard of Kanopy but it looks like it'll need a few keystrokes from me before usable.

Your local public library needs to be signed up. and your library card/ID is your sign in.
I think most libraries in PA are users of Kanopy.

 

[TV and credit cards]

Red Rock West 8/10

Nicholas Cage, Dennis Hopper, JT Walsh, and Lara Flynn Boyle. Good film about mistaken identity and murder for hire with plenty of bad guys. Nicholas Cage and Dennis Hopper in their element in this movie. Good story line and well executed.

 

[ZiprHead]

I watched one last night called NightBitch. Amy Adams, kinda frumpy and a good bit overweight, is a stay at home house wife who used to have a career in the arts. Now she cares for her and her husband's toddler son while the husband is away from home all week long for his job. She hates her life but is too ashamed to complain about it. At the same time, she is slowly becoming a werewolf (There wolf).

It was described as a horror comedy but I found nothing funny at all and the horror was mild at best. Not worth the viewing.

 

[James Chapman]

New Years Eve, I stayed home and watched a movie, "Love, Weddings & Other Disasters" (2020) starring Diane Keaton, Jeremy Irons, and Maggie Grace. It was an amiable disaster of a movie. It is one of those movies composed of various plot strands that take place across the same city (Boston, in this case) and eventually intertwine. If I had read the reviews beforehand - or noticed that the writer/director, Dennis Dugan, was a co-conspirator with Adam Sandler on a long list of unfunny comedies, not to mention being a four-time Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Director nominee - I would probably have passed.

 

[Colonel Sanders]

Inception

When it came out, me and my girlfriend went to watch in an IMAX theater. At the time I liked it, but hadn't seen it since.

God, what an insufferable piece of excrement this one is. The cast is really good, but it's as if they were prepared by a failed high school theater coach and directed by a group of teenage girls fawning over Leo DiCaprio and Joseph Gordon Levitt.

The top of my head aches from my eyes rolling into it repeatedly for the 45 minutes of it I endured.

 

[Colonel Sanders]

What movie did you watch and how would you rate it?

Might as well resurrect this thread from the old place as well.

I finally got around to watching Falling Down. I don't remember which friend recommended it to me, but it was clearly overhyped. I found it rather mediocre. 4/10 stars sounds about right.

What really terrifies me is that a lot of people seemed to identify with the psychotic.

The movie is about a guy who tried to do everything the way we're told to do. That is, if you do this, do that, and do these other things, then you will be successful. Clearly that's a lie. The guy finally snaps after dealing with all the little and often scary things that add up to the cherry on top of the bullshit sundae--the vicious lie of "The American Dream." The final scene reveals that he was troubled all along, but that doesn't make the character unrelatable, it sheds light on who he really is.

This movie has been retconned by the ungodly sensitive left as "racist," which annoys me to no end.

If one doesn't like the movie for what it is, that's fine. Most movies don't age well.

 

[TV and credit cards]

2073
A docudrama that plays out our current world situation fifty years. They do allude to some catastrophic event in about 2036 but it is just a mention and rather irrelevant to the message. More than 50% of the movie is documentary on our current world condition covering the rise of authoritarianism, the rapid advancement of technology & AI, climate change, polarizing of the haves and havenots, the power of the big tech billionaires, and the surveillance state.
It stars Samantha Morton but "stars" overstates her role. The movie is mostly narration. As a dystopian movie, It hits the mark with me. Nothing about it is outlandish. It simply takes today and walks it out fifty years. It is less than 90 minutes and doesn't have the best of ratings. Looking at the reviews, I would venture to guess folks don't like the message. Good movie to watch if you have grandchildren who expect to see 2073.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

What movie did you watch and how would you rate it?

Might as well resurrect this thread from the old place as well.

I finally got around to watching Falling Down. I don't remember which friend recommended it to me, but it was clearly overhyped. I found it rather mediocre. 4/10 stars sounds about right.

What really terrifies me is that a lot of people seemed to identify with the psychotic.

The movie is about a guy who tried to do everything the way we're told to do. That is, if you do this, do that, and do these other things, then you will be successful. Clearly that's a lie. The guy finally snaps after dealing with all the little and often scary things that add up to the cherry on top of the bullshit sundae--the vicious lie of "The American Dream." The final scene reveals that he was troubled all along, but that doesn't make the character unrelatable, it sheds light on who he really is.

This movie has been retconned by the ungodly sensitive left as "racist," which annoys me to no end.

If one doesn't like the movie for what it is, that's fine. Most movies don't age well.

I'd say he just gave up and entered into a series of relatable and empathetic situations but started reacting more and more poorly as his breakdown became more psychotic.

Perhaps the flaw is that when he initially breaks down, he intends to murder his wife and likely child. When understanding this, it becomes lesa of a tale of a man who thought he hit all the marks coming up short to simply a guy who wanted to leave an ugly mark on the world because he thought it wasn't fair. It is inconsistant.

It'd been better had the wife angle not existed.

 

[TSwizzle]

Carry-On, 4/10; Streaming on Netflix and stars Jason Bateman and Taron Egerton in a terrorist thriller set inside Las Angeles International airport. Bateman heads up a mercenary terrorist group trying sneak a nerve gas bomb onto a plane. In order to do this they need to coerce Egerton who works for TSA to allow the bomb onto the plane as carry-on luggage. This is all happening during the Christmas holidays and Die Hard it 'aint. Give this a miss.

 

[bilby]

Carry-On, 4/10; Streaming on Netflix and stars Jason Bateman and Taron Egerton in a terrorist thriller set inside Las Angeles International airport. Bateman heads up a mercenary terrorist group trying sneak a nerve gas bomb onto a plane. In order to do this they need to coerce Egerton who works for TSA to allow the bomb onto the plane as carry-on luggage. This is all happening during the Christmas holidays and Die Hard it 'aint. Give this a miss.

Not one of Sid James and Hattie Jacques best.

 

[Swammerdami]

I just watched The Debt (2010) based on the 2007 Israeli film Ha-Hov. It's a drama about a Mossad operation 30 years in the past, and flashbacks back and forth between that operation and the present. To avoid spoilage I won't say much more.

The acting is excellent; the story is interesting; and this sort of "spy thriller" is a genre I enjoy. However I wouldn't give this film much more than the 6.8 IMDB points it gets. It just didn't enthrall me emotionally the way some drama-thrillers do; and the "thrilling" was mostly gratuitous blood. There is a romantic triangle, but it is too vague to interest. At the heart of the story is a moral dilemma, but that dilemma didn't intrigue me much. Still I would say The Debt is worth watching.

Much better than Carry-On anyway.

 

[Swammerdami]

Inception

When it came out, me and my girlfriend went to watch in an IMAX theater. At the time I liked it, but hadn't seen it since.

God, what an insufferable piece of excrement this one is. The cast is really good, but it's as if they were prepared by a failed high school theater coach and directed by a group of teenage girls fawning over Leo DiCaprio and Joseph Gordon Levitt.

The top of my head aches from my eyes rolling into it repeatedly for the 45 minutes of it I endured.

Christopher Nolan's movies have all become HUGE sensations, but I can take or leave most of them. The one Nolan movie I really liked was Memento. This is partly because I am not much of a sci-fi fan. Memento seems like sci-fi, but the protagonist's disability is a real condition, and according to experts accurately portrayed in the film. Spoiler alert: The ending of Memento has a twist.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Carry-On, 4/10; Streaming on Netflix and stars Jason Bateman and Taron Egerton in a terrorist thriller set inside Las Angeles International airport. Bateman heads up a mercenary terrorist group trying sneak a nerve gas bomb onto a plane. In order to do this they need to coerce Egerton who works for TSA to allow the bomb onto the plane as carry-on luggage. This is all happening during the Christmas holidays and Die Hard it 'aint. Give this a miss.

Sounds like a great SNL sketch though.