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

[danutz_plusplus]

Triangle of Sadness

Pretty smart movie. Just came on hbomax. Very much enjoyed it. I heard about it initially on RLM.

 

[Carnifex]

I caught the most recent film regarding the Boston Strangler, as a whole I enjoyed it save for the ending. As we know only one murder was actually resolved, the other dozen are still pending resolutions. I'll pretty much watch anything with Carrie Coon in it, yet she was hardly in the film at all. Where it lost me was near the end, rather than picking one theory on what might have happened and who the true perpetrator(s) could have been, the movie hedged it's collective bets and went with about every possible theory I've ever read/heard/seen to date. So, keep that in mind should you take a gander at this one.

 

[Shagnak]

Saw Knock at the Cabin recently. I didn't hate it, but it was certainly lacking some oomph. The problem for me lay entirely with the plot and direction - the acting etc was fine.
I looked up the plot of the book it's based on, and that seems to have a much more impactful (though nihilistic) climax:

Spoiler

The daughter gets accidentally killed in the struggle with one of the visitors. Though it's a heart-wrenching event, they come to the conclusion that it apparently "doesn't count" (I guess shit keeps going bad). The distraught couple decide fuck the world, and walk off into the chaos.

 

[JDR13]

Saw Knock at the Cabin recently. I didn't hate it, but it was certainly lacking some oomph. The problem for me lay entirely with the plot and direction - the acting etc was fine.
I looked up the plot of the book it's based on, and that seems to have a much more impactful (though nihilistic) climax:

Spoiler

The daughter gets accidentally killed in the struggle with one of the visitors. Though it's a heart-wrenching event, they come to the conclusion that it apparently "doesn't count" (I guess shit keeps going bad). The distraught couple decide fuck the world, and walk off into the chaos.

That sounds significantly more compelling than the ending of the film. I wonder why he changed it.

 

[JFarrell71]

That sounds significantly more compelling than the ending of the film. I wonder why he changed it.

He's kind of a hack, so that probably had something to do with it.

 

[JDR13]

He's kind of a hack, so that probably had something to do with it.

I didn't realize someone else wrote the book until you said that. I assumed he wrote it like most of his past films. After looking it up, I see 'Old' was also based on someone else's writing. Perhaps it's not a coincidence that both films were mediocre. He needs to go back to writing his own stuff.

Of course that's no guarantee it'll be better. He wrote 'The Happening' and 'Lady in the Water', which were, imo, both boring as shit. Still, his good films were ones that weren't based on someone else's work.

 

[Shagnak]

After looking it up, I see 'Old' was also based on someone else's writing.

Oh wow, I didn't know that. Looks like it's based on a graphic novel called "Sandcastle". I'll have to have a look for it (or sail the seas) so I can compare.

 

[Tony]

My girlfriend hates action movies and usually falls asleep a couple minutes after starting one. For some reason she wanted to watch John Wick 4, and she loved it. When we got home she watched 1, 2, and 3 in a row. I love action movies, but I'm not crazy about over the top ones like John Wick. 4 had some great scenes, maybe too many too often. Sometimes less is more. Like, Old Dog didn't have a lot of action, but that long fight scene in the hallway is so, so memorable.

I think it's the same with RPGs for me. Diablo-like games and bullet-hells and any game with fast, non-stop action and endless hordes never really appealed to me.

 

[JFarrell71]

For some reason she wanted to watch John Wick 4, and she loved it. When we got home she watched 1, 2, and 3 in a row. I love action movies, but I'm not crazy about over the top ones like John Wick. 4 had some great scenes, maybe too many too often. Sometimes less is more. Like, Old Dog didn't have a lot of action, but that long fight scene in the hallway is so, so memorable.

"For some reason" = Keanu Reeves. For reasons I've never really understood, the dude is very, uh, popular.

It's Old Boy, btw.

 

[Tony]

We saw Dungeons & Dragons last night. I thought it was a lot of fun and a lot of laughs. I really enjoyed the last fight. It did seem a little too long and dragged some towards the middle, but pretty great overall. My girlfriend fell asleep near immediately without Keanu Reeves to keep her interest.

Lot of blatant disregard for D&D rules (as expected), but some info was nicely incorporated. Lore issues too (also expected), but not too bad.

 

[JDR13]

I watched Smile this past week. I wasn't impressed. It had a few semi-creepy moments, but overall I didn't find it particularly scary or disturbing, and the ending sucked.

I was disappointed in the ending, too. The CGI monster stuff was a mis-step. The quiet creepiness (with occasional jumps!) of the rest of the movie was much more effective.

What I didn't like about the ending was that

Spoiler

it was just a repeat of the same thing that happened to everyone else. They kept talking about "breaking the chain", so I was expecting some kind of twist or at least something different.

 

[JDR13]

Daisy Ridley to Reprise Role as Rey in New ‘Star Wars’ Film

The “Star Wars” movie future just came into sharper focus: Daisy Ridley’s Rey will be the center of the first “Star Wars” feature film since 2019’s “The Rise of Skywalker,” Lucasfilm presiden…

variety.com

 

[Tony]

Super Mario is basically the only movie playing in every theatre near me for all matinees. I didn't want to see it, but it was Super Mario or basically nothing. I wanted to see Shazam, but that isn't playing until after 4pm anywhere near me now (and I'm too old to be able to enjoy movies with tons of teens talking through the whole thing).

This movie was surprisingly good. We laughed a lot, and enjoyed it way more than we expected to. Bowser was great. I thought Jack Black was Ian McShane until he started singing, and then I thought they both voiced Bowser. It was just Jack Black. I recognized the voice doing Luigi too, but couldn't place it. Charlie Day from Always Sunny. He did great. I have no idea why the critic's scores for this are so low, other than critics are just awful, inhumane, elitist pricks that hate anything light and fun and joyful. Was the plot sensible? Not at all. Was it good? Definitely.

 

[Tony]

We saw Renfield last night at the drive-in. Excellent and hilarious movie. Three or four cars left their lights on the whole movie and it was driving me nuts, but the concession stand at the drive-in is much better than theatres, and no being surrounded by teens talking the whole time. Cheaper too.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

We saw Renfield last night at the drive-in. Excellent and hilarious movie. Three or four cars left their lights on the whole movie and it was driving me nuts, but the concession stand at the drive-in is much better than theatres, and no being surrounded by teens talking the whole time. Cheaper too.

The trailer looked really fun. I'm gonna see that one.

I don't usually like rom-coms, but this was a sweet and actually funny one. The Big Sick.

 

[Corwin]

The Big Sick is a Great film; I loved it!!

 

[Carnifex]

Last night I was deciding which Nicholson film is my favourite of all time, and it came down to two: Five Easy Pieces and Chinatown. So last night I rewatched the first, and tonight or later this week I'll do the second! A tight entry at third for me would be About Schmidt.

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

Watched Super Mario yesterday. Good popcorn cinema. No deep thinking, no deep meaning. Just good, fluffy entertainment.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

Started re-watching a movie I had seen ages ago. Superbad.
It's still charming and funny. I can't remember 90% of it.

 

[Tony]

This weekend we saw Sisu. I was eagerly awaiting this one, hyped from the trailer. I was really disappointed. The weekend before we saw Evil Dead, and it was much better than I expected it to be, but not really great. I can't wait for the new Guardians of the Galaxy.

Oh, if anyone is into it, we saw a movie on Netflix called "Furies" that was pretty good. Over the top violence and action like "John Wick," doing the gun-fu stuff, but with young, hot females like Charlie's Angels. Takes place in Saigon, I think. Silly, but with good action.