What I've Been Watching: The Catch-All Film Thread

[Philistine]

War for the Planet of the Apes

It's 5 years old at this point, but I never saw it for some reason despite liking the previous films well enough. Like the other Apes movies, it's a decent popcorn flick but nothing special. Woody Harrelson plays the antagonist in this one and is his usual solid self, while Andy Serkis reprises his role as Caesar. Worth seeing if you enjoyed the prequels, but watch those first if you haven't.

"War" disappointed me because it wasn't Sci-Fi enough. It played as a straight war movie that just happened to have apes as POWs. "Dawn" was much better.

 

[JDR13]

"War" disappointed me because it wasn't Sci-Fi enough. It played as a straight war movie that just happened to have apes as POWs. "Dawn" was much better.

What was so Sci-Fi about Dawn? To me, they were both Post-apoc.

The 2001 remake of the original with Mark Wahlberg was more Sci-Fi.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

I saw Men (2022). Had some great visuals, and it was ok as a film, but the main idea behind it wasn't that compelling. At least, I felt like I saw that same idea tackled in other films.

 

[Shagnak]

I saw Men (2022). Had some great visuals, and it was ok as a film, but the main idea behind it wasn't that compelling. At least, I felt like I saw that same idea tackled in other films.

Saw that recently, too. I was so so looking forward to it - big fan of Ex Machina and Annihilation - but was left a bit disappointed. I was fine with the subject matter, but the execution was way off IMO. I think it was a bit slow to get started (though there were some effectively eerie bits), and then got a bit too silly too quickly. And it really went off the rails in those last 10 minutes.

Tonight I watched The Bay (2012), which is technically a found-footage film (which I'm not big on usually), but more in the style of a documentary interspersed with stitched together footage from various sources. Essentially, it details how a coastal town gets decimated by some sort of... thing... that causes graphic symptoms like blisters and boils and exploding stomachs.
I thought it was very effective, much more so than its IMDB score would indicate. It's helped by the feeling that in these days of COVID, climate change, and ecological disasters, the scenario seems all the more believable.

 

[bjon045]

Tonight I watched The Bay (2012)

I see it is directed by Barry Levinson. Talk about a blast from the past. 80 years old and still making movies

 

[danutz_plusplus]

I saw Judas and the Black Messiah. Pretty great movie. Fred Hampton was a seriously impressive dude. Some pretty shocking moments in that movie, played very straight and matter-of-fact.

 

[Ripper]

Hmm... The critics seem to think the new Predator movie is actually good.

Prey

Set in the Comanche Nation 300 years ago,

www.rottentomatoes.com

 

[Philistine]

I re-watched Marvel's The Eternals last night and I must say it's my favorite Marvel movie in quite some time. It has a much more interesting story than anything from them since Thanos, and it's all about the characters. The end wow, what was the last Disney movie that ended with murder-suicide? Compare that with Spider-man: No Way Home that has a 'plot' you could write on a gum wrapper. Sadly the greater public liked the bubblegum movie more, so there is no Eternals 2 on the horizon.

 

[JDR13]

@Philistine Um.... Spoiler tags maybe??

At least I don't need to see The Eternals now.

 

[Philistine]

@Philistine Um.... Spoiler tags maybe??

At least I don't need to see The Eternals now.

I didn't bother with tags because I didn't reveal specifics. This is a movie with a LOT of characters.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5G_hiJZcao0


"Great" news for hbo fans. Fucking corporate tools.

 

[Myrthos]

It was only launched a few months ago in The Netherlands.

 

[JDR13]

I didn't bother with tags because I didn't reveal specifics.

You can't be serious.

 

[JFarrell71]

Thanks for giving me a solid looking channel to watch for movie/TV stuff, Danutz

 

[bjon045]

I saw that Prey movie on Hulu. I thought it was solid enough, certainly better than the last but still not really close to the original.

A lot of the critics talk about it being suspenseful but I don't think that is the case at all. It is made blindingly obvious to the audience what is happening in the first few minutes of the movie and pretty much every time something is going to go down. The original is suspenseful.

The lead actress does a good enough job but doesn't get a lot of support from the rest of the cast. I'm fine with a strong female lead and she isn't a superwoman apart from some highly suspect ropework involving an axe. Anybody who has a bit of experience using an handaxe for cutting firewood will get a few smirks.

The scenery is beautiful and you almost get your moneys worth from that alone. Good supporting music but not memorable.

Good action but I'm not fond of the overly acrobatic combat styles in the film.

Story makes sense and it follows established predator lore well and doesn't really invalidate any of the other entries in the series in an obvious way.

I'd give it a 7.5 out of 10 and I would recommend a watch when you have a free evening.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

It was only launched a few months ago in The Netherlands.

Sort of the same with Romania. It's been available before as HBOGo, and a few months ago became HBOmax. And now apparently it's been sold and will be merged with the same owners of Honey Booboo, 90 day fiance and other shitty reality tv shows. This really could be the beginning of the end for anything good coming from HBO.

 

[Philistine]

You can't be serious.

... so you don't care about the who, why, what, where, or how??

 

[Carnifex]

I watched the first half of Prey last night, looking forward to seeing the rest tonight or tomorrow. I quite enjoyed what they showed of the Comanche lifestyle back then, they could have done a whole film about that and I would have been riveted.

 

[JDR13]

... so you don't care about the who, why, what, where, or how??

Are you being intentionally obtuse here?

 

[Philistine]

Are you being intentionally obtuse here?

I feel obtuse for allowing you to keep trolling me like this. So no more. Watch it or not, your choice.