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

[Rhea]

Love, Simon.

I like the way the main character is not over-dramatic. He’s chill and when he rolls his eyes, I would, too. storyline gets a little unrealistic at the end - what if the mysterious other gay guy is someone actually awful? Big risk to publicly meet a blind date.

But very cute.

 

[Opoponax]

The Meg

God, what a disappointment. Take the dialogue from Armageddon and dumb it down by 75%, throw in every character stereotype, some really bad actors, and then take your movie way too seriously, and it still would be better than The Meg.

I thought this movie would be fun. I expected horrible science (and it certainly came through on that), unrealism, and all the things one would expect to go into a giant shark movie, but I also expected to be entertained.

If ever there was a movie that deserves to be called a "groaner," this is it.

2/10

 

[Ford]

Advantageous.

Dystopian science fiction. A near possible future where automation and AI have made life very nice for the elites, but the shiny society is on the verge of collapse. Gwen is a single mother who is a highly placed executive and public face of a technology company, but she's aging out of the work force in a world that values youth and beauty. She loses her job at the least advantageous point in her life, and decides to undergo a procedure that will restore her youth. Sort of...

It is a little slow, but beautifully filmed, and very subtle. The film lets you figure out some key plot points without bashing you over the head, and the science fiction part is almost incidental. A hologram here, a flying car zooming by there, and a few AI characters that appear in passing.

Not a great movie by any stretch, but entertaining if you like that sort of story. And I do. 6/10.

 

[DrZoidberg]

Gone with the Wind (9/10)

Pretty damn amazing that a movie that came out 1939 still holds up. It's an excellent movie. I loved it. The dialogue is perfect. Great story. And an extremely interesting angle from which to tell a war story, ie from the perspective of a young woman who is about as far removed from the war as it's possible for a person to get, while still in the country. It's a masterpiece.

Cinematography and scene dramaturgy and all of that has progressed since. But otherwise.. well done. Well worth the watch

I also saw Gremlins again. It's getting dated. Today Gremlins 2 is a better film than Gremlins IMHO. I find that a bit sad. Both are dumb. The sequel just runs with it more. Breaks my nostalgia heart.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Gone with the Wind (9/10)

Pretty damn amazing that a movie that came out 1939 still holds up.

You aren't watching enough movies if that surprises you. Lots of films from the good ole days hold up excellently. Gone With The Wind (Drama), The Petrified Forest (Gangsta), Mutiny on the Bounty (Adventure), Bringing Up Baby (Comedy).

I also saw Gremlins again. It's getting dated. Today Gremlins 2 is a better film than Gremlins IMHO.

YEOUCH!!! That is harsh.

 

[Playball40]

Still like Sharknado.

That movie franchise only works with the Rifftrax. It is such a stupid concept and yet people seem to be willing to give their time and pride away for free, just for a little publicity. And then people watch it because it is so stupid. I thought that was what Star Wars VII to IX was for.

I don't think it's meant to be serious...it's gotten to where half the fun of the SN franchise is spotting the cameos.

Correct, it isn't trying to be serious, and people have made movies like that, they are called comedies. Airplane! isn't "serious", but that didn't mean the Zuckers and Abrahams didn't have to have good jokes, gags, and viable plot. Airplane! is ridiculous, but you still cheer for Ted Stryker. You actually care about the characters, despite the silliness.

Sharknado, the jokes aren't funny, the "action" is campy, the concept is ridiculously stupid. What makes good comedy is that either it is an absurd action in a real world (girl scouts start a bar fight), there is a developed narrative (visual or script) for the joke (guy getting mauled by dog at Captain Krammers' house), a running gag (it's a building with doctors and nurses, but that isn't important right now), or simply a joke or visual gag (Nielsen walking in on stewardess trying to blow up the auto pilot).

Just because something is stupid, doesn't make it viable (see Family Guy Season 4 and onward).

Sharknado is stupid, real stupid. It isn't edited or filmed well. The jokes aren't remotely funny. The characters are less likable that the general population in Grand Theft Auto. The plot sure the heck is too ridiculous that it becomes impossible to reasonably resolve it (bombs in a tornado?!). And when everyone is a cameo, the cameos get old.

Fuck Sharknado. Goodness, I took way too much effort to put the Internet right about this.

 

[Playball40]

So do you think there's any truth to the parallels of BP and KM to MLK and MX?

Would it help if I spell out the motive step by step?

1. Racism exists
2. Many people believe that racism is a bad thing (because they are evil Social Justice Warriors out to persecute and oppress innocent white people)
3. Most of those who benefit from racism refuse to do anything to stop making things worse for their victims, for example by denying that there is a problem at all
4. Therefore, the only way to stop most societies from inflicting racism/colonialism on others is to reverse positions and make them the ruled instead of the rulers

This closely follows the same motive as Magneto, who is widely considered one of the better Marvel villains precisely because his goals are actually noble even if his proposed solution wouldn't actually make anything better.

Similarly, if you bothered reading any reviews or following any of the feedback, you would know that many consider Killmonger the best (or at least one of the best) Marvel villains to date, precisely because his goals are noble and understandable even if his methods would be doomed to fail.

For fuck's sale, they copied the motive wholesale from one of the most famous Marvel villains ever, and I'm supposed to believe it's too hard for you to follow?

It's not as if his motives were that hard to decipher, but apparently it's impossible for certain people to understand. I guess we'll never know why they are unable to understand something that is pretty clear cut. It's almost as if they don't want to understand or have some kind of self-serving motive for not understanding. Not that I would say that is definitely the case, but it sure seems that way.

 

[Jayjay]

I also saw Gremlins again. It's getting dated. Today Gremlins 2 is a better film than Gremlins IMHO. I find that a bit sad. Both are dumb. The sequel just runs with it more. Breaks my nostalgia heart.

I was always a bigger fan of Gremlins 2, for the same reason. Actually same with the Tim Burton Batman movies, I like the second one more because it's more burtonesque than the first.

 

[DrZoidberg]

Gone with the Wind (9/10)

Pretty damn amazing that a movie that came out 1939 still holds up.

You aren't watching enough movies if that surprises you. Lots of films from the good ole days hold up excellently. Gone With The Wind (Drama), The Petrified Forest (Gangsta), Mutiny on the Bounty (Adventure), Bringing Up Baby (Comedy).

I also saw Gremlins again. It's getting dated. Today Gremlins 2 is a better film than Gremlins IMHO.

YEOUCH!!! That is harsh.

But I liked Gremlins 2. It's a high budget b-movie. It's super dumb, and therefore good. Another good thing about it is that it's not at all like the first Gremlins. Which I like. I dislike sequels that just repeat the first film with some characters switched out. Like all the Jaws sequels for instance.

 

[Goodchild]

Blade Runner 2049 5/10

Having never seen the original (though a huge fan of sci-fi, go figure) I came into this movie with only the preconception that the original is hailed widely. That said, I was tremendously disappointed in this film. It was slow and plodding throughout, even the action scenes seemed to drag on pointlessly. The plot is not at all clear throughout, though the moment he finds the horse was predicted by my wife a full 10 minutes before it happened. It's worst sin to me though, is that the dialogue is too quiet. So much of the time I couldn't understand what was being said as it was all being drowned out by the background music and whatnot, which likely contributed to the plot seeming confusing.

I know the original brings up discussion of what it means to be human, but this film did not seem to have any such lofty goal in mind. Maybe to some small degree as one dead replicant was more like humans than previous replicants but it seems to be implied that the knowledge of how to create such replicants is lost so does it really mean anything anyway?

 

[Opoponax]

Blade Runner 2049 5/10

Having never seen the original (though a huge fan of sci-fi, go figure) I came into this movie with only the preconception that the original is hailed widely. That said, I was tremendously disappointed in this film. It was slow and plodding throughout, even the action scenes seemed to drag on pointlessly. The plot is not at all clear throughout, though the moment he finds the horse was predicted by my wife a full 10 minutes before it happened. It's worst sin to me though, is that the dialogue is too quiet. So much of the time I couldn't understand what was being said as it was all being drowned out by the background music and whatnot, which likely contributed to the plot seeming confusing.

I know the original brings up discussion of what it means to be human, but this film did not seem to have any such lofty goal in mind. Maybe to some small degree as one dead replicant was more like humans than previous replicants but it seems to be implied that the knowledge of how to create such replicants is lost so does it really mean anything anyway?

Get your nerd shield up in a hurry. They're gathering to attack you.

I happened to very much like the movie for myriad reasons, but since you didn't, I'm gonna guess that you really wouldn't like the original. I never saw what the big deal was about it, except that the special effects were ahead of their time. It wasn't terrible, and it was better than the average film, but I never saw it as even beginning to approach being a great movie.

 

[phands]

BlacKkKlansman 10/10

Utterly fantastic. Just see it. This movie will probably make a lot of white folk (me included) quite uncomfortable. It is worth it. Spike Lee is, as always, a genius, and this film does not disapppoint.

 

[phands]

Had a movie weekend...after seeing BlacKkKlansman, we went to see Crazy Rich Asians.

It is just sheer, glorious escapism...well worth the visit. It's a RomCom with a lot of British accents - sort of 4 Weddings and a Funeral for Chinese people, but it's very well done, and immensely enjoyable.

 

[Underseer]

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/30/movies/active-measures-review-trump-russia.html

Active Measures
9/10

Currently available on Hulu. In America, you can watch it with advertisements even if you don't pay a Hulu subscription. Should be coming to select theaters soon.

If you have been reading the newspapers, then almost all of the information in this movie will not be new to you, but presents it in a coherent narrative. When you just read the newspapers, you don't see certain connections, such as the similarity between how modern Republicans act and pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine and Georgia behaved. Well worth watching.

 

[Underseer]

Elysium
7.5/10

District 9 was Neil Blokamp's breakout movie. This one still has Blokamp's unique style and peculiar blend of thoughtfulness and action, but was unfortunately a heck of a lot more predictable than District 9. The plot seems to have been made by the same Hollywood committee that writes most Hollywood action movies.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Mamma Mia 2 - 4/10

I'm a big fan of Abba and really loved the first Mamma Mia movie, but this one was a particularly half-assed follow up to it. The third act was pretty good and kind of what I was looking for in the film, but if I'd been watching it on Netflix instead of in the theatre, I'd have turned it off long before getting to that point because of how crappy the first part was.

While the girl playing the young Meryl Streep during the flashback segments was quite good, everyone around her was garbage. What was most galling was that they were bad singers. For the first movie, they wanted to include big names in the cast and if that meant that you had to sit through Pierce Brosnan trying to carry a tune, then tough shit because you still got to have Pierce Brosnan playing a romantic lead and that's a win in anyone's book. When you cast a twenty-year old version of their characters, however, you get to make casting decisions such as "This is a musical, so their ability to sing is important". Nobody seemed to think that was the type of thing they should be considering, though.

Also, most of the cast from the first movie didn't show up until the third act and there wasn't much of a mention of them beyond a quick "Oh, they couldn't be here for reasons". Until they had a scene an hour and a half into the film, you were just left wondering if there was some kind of drama in the production and none of the main cast wanted to come back for the sequel.

 

[Opoponax]

Megamind

Maybe I don't enjoy these types of films anymore because I don't have to. I no longer have to endure abominations like Clifford the Big Red Dog that would make otherwise meh movies like Megamind seem like such a treat. More importantly though...

What the hell ever happened to real voice over actors for animated films? This one had Tina Fey, Brad Pitt, Will Ferrell, Jonah Hill, and David Cross. In not just this movie, but in others like it, I'm totally taken out of the thing because I'm picturing the actual actors, rather than the onscreen characters. I don't want to know the real-life face of the voice actor because it really fucks with the suspension of disbelief required for animated features, and dedicated voice actors are far better at it doing this kind of thing.

Anyway, the movie is horribly predictable. Within roughly 10-15 minutes, you could stop the movie and write down down almost scene by scene what's going to happen. It's a suck-fest.

3/10.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

What the hell ever happened to real voice over actors for animated films? This one had Tina Fey, Brad Pitt, Will Ferrell, Jonah Hill, and David Cross. In not just this movie, but in others like it, I'm totally taken out of the thing because I'm picturing the actual actors, rather than the onscreen characters.

Well you still have the Alan Tudyks and Hank Azarias out there.

It depends on the character. Chris Elliot did no voice acting at all for Dogbert in the short lived Dilbert cartoon, but that​ worked.

 

[DrZoidberg]

First they killed my father 9/10

Cambodian movie about the fate of a family after the Khmer Rouge takeover.

It's a tear jerker. Not particularly believable since the family is perfect in every sense. It's more of a Cambodian myth building and healing of a national scar.

It's slow, yet high tension. I liked it.

 

[Underseer]

Megamind

Maybe I don't enjoy these types of films anymore because I don't have to. I no longer have to endure abominations like Clifford the Big Red Dog that would make otherwise meh movies like Megamind seem like such a treat. More importantly though...

What the hell ever happened to real voice over actors for animated films? This one had Tina Fey, Brad Pitt, Will Ferrell, Jonah Hill, and David Cross. In not just this movie, but in others like it, I'm totally taken out of the thing because I'm picturing the actual actors, rather than the onscreen characters. I don't want to know the real-life face of the voice actor because it really fucks with the suspension of disbelief required for animated features, and dedicated voice actors are far better at it doing this kind of thing.

Anyway, the movie is horribly predictable. Within roughly 10-15 minutes, you could stop the movie and write down down almost scene by scene what's going to happen. It's a suck-fest.

3/10.

Really? I got swept up in the movie and never thought about which actor was playing what. Maybe you need to watch less TMZ? It's a pretty decent movie for a family movie.