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

[Sarpedon]

Dunkirk 9/10:

I may very well promote it to 10/10 once I have a chance to see it again a few times and digest it. This was not disappointing in any way. The most unbearably tense film I've ever seen. It somehow maintains the tension through the entire film. It follows a group of deliberately uncharacterized soldiers trying to get off the beach, an old fellow, his son, and his hired helper who take their pleasure boat to aid in the evacuation, a couple of stressed out officers and a pair of spitfire pilots. Despite that rather stodgy line-up, it makes wonderful drama and never loses steam or makes a mis-step. This may become my new favorite World War 2 movie.

 

[Shadowy Man]

Finally got around to watching Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

I didn't want to watch it because everything that has come out since the original series was in theaters has been a disappointment on some level.

The prequels. The animated series. Star Wars 7, Electric Boogaloo. Over and over again the efforts to recapture the magic of that movie I saw in 1977 (and the sequels in '80 and '83) have all fallen short to some degree.

This did not. I was wrong to put off seeing this film. It took a story I didn't know that I needed to hear, and told it in a way that pushed all my Star Wars fan boy buttons without seeming like a shameless cash grab. Was it a shameless cash grab? Maybe...but it didn't seem that way. It had the emotional impact that was sorely lacking in the prequels.

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In the prequels, everyone dies, and it is the same here, but in this movie all their deaths meant something. Like Obi-Wan sacrificing himself so that Luke could escape. Every single rebel that bought the farm in this movie was important.

I just re-watched this, and to be honest, I liked episode 7 better, but to each their own. I did enjoy both.

I really wanted to like Rogue One. I did like it better than Ep 7, but R1 had it's flaws. I wish maybe they had had fewer characters that they could focus on a little more, get you connected with their motivations, so that the ending had more impact. As it was, there were characters who just seemed to be along for the ride for no reason and some weird plot devices to make the final ending work.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

I just re-watched this, and to be honest, I liked episode 7 better, but to each their own. I did enjoy both.

I really wanted to like Rogue One. I did like it better than Ep 7, but R1 had it's flaws. I wish maybe they had had fewer characters that they could focus on a little more, get you connected with their motivations, so that the ending had more impact. As it was, there were characters who just seemed to be along for the ride for no reason and some weird plot devices to make the final ending work.

The entire film suffered from Fate related issues. Rogue One was so disappointing especially in light of the heralding it was receiving.

It is odd, how some people are so forgiving to the latest Star Wars films. VII was a remaster/remix of IV, released as a new movie. Rogue One simply didn't try to develop reasonable conflicts / resolutions and relied heavily on 'just because'.

'Sir, the resistance's fleet has arrived, do we attack them?'
'Nope, get me someone at a higher pay grade to make that decision.'

'Captain, we have the plans, should we light speed out of here?'
'No, not dramatic enough!'
'But we've only lost 1/3 of the fleet here, we'd still do well to leave now. There is a big ass ship arriving for the Empire.'
'No, they'll remember our sacrifice.'
'But we don't have to die!'
'Today is a good day to die.'
'But...'
'Look Ensign... there is a single line of dialogue from Star Wars IV we are stuck with, so we are dying today.'
'I should have joined the Peace Corp.'

 

[Underseer]

Valerian 6/10

• The female lead was OK.
• The male lead stunk. I don't know if the problem is with the actor, the screenplay, or the director, but I just didn't care about the character nor did I care about anything he did.
• The "whodunnit" aspect of the story was too easy to figure out. I had the "badguy" identified pretty early, so the big reveal had zero impact.
• On the plus side, if you're getting sick of same-old same-old in Hollywood summer blockbuster movies, at least this one is based on a European comic book instead of an American or Japanese comic book, and it definitely feels like a European comic book brought to life.

 

[Thomas II]

Valerian 6/10

• The female lead was OK.
• The male lead stunk. I don't know if the problem is with the actor, the screenplay, or the director, but I just didn't care about the character nor did I care about anything he did.
• The "whodunnit" aspect of the story was too easy to figure out. I had the "badguy" identified pretty early, so the big reveal had zero impact.
• On the plus side, if you're getting sick of same-old same-old in Hollywood summer blockbuster movies, at least this one is based on a European comic book instead of an American or Japanese comic book, and it definitely feels like a European comic book brought to life.

The male lead stank!!!

Bad casting!

 

[Sarpedon]

Upon reflection, I am promoting Dunkirk to 10/10.

Also, here is my ranking for World War 2 films that I have seen. Make of it what you will. Note that I would rate all the movies in the top 10 at a 9 or 10/10.

I'm sure I will later remember ones that I omitted. While this list contains both fiction and non-fiction, I did omit movies that only were tangentially related to the war, such as Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Holocaust films, which are a separate category.

Name Rank
Dunkirk 1
Letters from Iwo Jima 2
Battle of Britain 3
Come and See 4
Diplomacy 5
Saving Private Ryan 6
A Bridge Too Far 7
Bridge over the River Kwai 8
Das Boot 9
Guns of Navaronne 10
Downfall 11
Flags of our Fathers 12
Valkyrie 13
Where Eagles Dare 14
That one about the Louvre art theft. 15
Run Silent, Run Deep 16
Tora! Tora! Tora! 17
Stalingrad 18
That one about Nanking 19
The Longest Day 20
Mr Roberts 21
Red Tails 22
That one about the russian snipers 23
Memphis Belle 24
White Tiger 25
That one about the Danish resistance guy 26
Mosquito Squadron 27
Operation Petticoat 28
Battle of the River Plate 29
Return to Navaronne 30
Inglorious Basterds 31
Inglorious Bastards 32
Fury 33

 

[Thomas II]

The Great Escape

Enemy at the gates

Hacksaw Ridge

Von Ryan's Express

The best years of our lives

The dirty dozen

Kelly's Heroes

The Big Red One

 

[Sarpedon]

Oh Crap!

 

[Thomas II]

Oh Crap!

Can't wait to see "Dunkirk"

 

[jonatha]

Oh Crap!

Can't wait to see "Dunkirk"

I've seen it twice in two days.

The soundtrack is extremely loud, and the first cinema had their audio messed up so I couldn't understand most of what little dialog there was. So I went to another cinema the next day.

You might consider earplugs. Seriously.

(A very good film with a novel narrative structure, but of the ones Sarpedon listed that I've seen I'd put Letters from Iwo Jima, Downfall, and perhaps Enemy at the Gates ahead of it.)

 

[Sarpedon]

Ah yeah, that's the one about the russian snipers.

And too loud? Seriously? War is Loud.

And there are several classics I haven't seen.

 

[ZiprHead]

Oh Crap!

Hmmmm, I don't remember that movie.

 

[repoman]

Luc Besson needs to work with a co-director who works on narrative and characters. His other skills are so good, it is a shame these other aspects drag it down.

Perhaps this is the result of too little studio meddling.

 

[Jayjay]

Valerian 6/10

• The female lead was OK.
• The male lead stunk. I don't know if the problem is with the actor, the screenplay, or the director, but I just didn't care about the character nor did I care about anything he did.

Sounds like it was at least faithful to the source material in that regard.

I can't go see this in a few more weeks, but based on almost all the reviews I've seen, I won't be missing much.

 

[bilby]

Ah yeah, that's the one about the russian snipers.

And too loud? Seriously? War is Loud.

And there are several classics I haven't seen.

War is loud; It's also deadly, but cinema audiences should still reasonably expect to survive watching the move, and not to leave the theatre with bleeding ears or partial hearing loss.

I am really hating the recent trend for movies with incidental music and/or sound effects that completely mask the dialogue; If they are going to pay the actors millions of bucks, then the least they could do is let the audiences hear what they say.

 

[Opoponax]

Point Break (the new one)

This movie is unbearably stupid.

 

[Ford]

Point Break (the new one)

This movie is unbearably stupid.

Honestly, the original wasn't terribly brilliant, either.

That bit where they were shouting at each other while skydiving was particularly hilarious. You can't hear shit when you're in free fall, let alone carry on a conversation.

 

[Opoponax]

Point Break (the new one)

This movie is unbearably stupid.

Honestly, the original wasn't terribly brilliant, either.

That bit where they were shouting at each other while skydiving was particularly hilarious. You can't hear shit when you're in free fall, let alone carry on a conversation.

Haha. Yeah, the original wasn't that great either, but it's level of stupidity was in line with action movies of the day, so it can have excuses made for it. This one though... from the dialogue to events to everything, was fucking awful in every way. So, okay, there were a lot of hot women, which, 20+ years ago would have kept teenage boys watching. Now though? That idea just doesn't work because well, internet porn is as accessible as TV Guide was back in the day.

In the opening scene I got a belly laugh when Utah's friend died. In the middle of my laugh, involuntarily came forth the words "what a fucking idiot." When you're rooting for awful things to happen to the good guys/protagonists, you know it's bad.

 

[repoman]

That opening scene with a bit of tweaking could have worked. But that shows the director is kind of lame. He has a decent career as director of photography and it looked good, but the story didn't gel well.

At least it didn't exactly copy the original.

The concept of an anti industrial leader is intriguing and plausible (kind of an eco warrior John Brown) and some of it was done well.

I think the biggest flaw was the shortcuts the movie took with him figuring out what this eco/anarchist cult was doing. Too convenient.

Some serious rewriting could have turned this into a decent movie.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Luc Besson needs to work with a co-director who works on narrative and characters. His other skills are so good, it is a shame these other aspects drag it down.

Perhaps this is the result of too little studio meddling.

The truth is Besson ran out of unique ideas a while ago. The Transporter and Taken work well as he offers input on creating the protagonist, but honestly, his protagonists are very similar. Leon is one of my favorite all time movies and The Fifth Element is a mastery of telling a story with unique visuals. And The Messenger, while not widely praised, was decently honest with history. But since then, not much.