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

[danutz_plusplus]

I couldn't disagree more. Boxing movies are always worth watching. All the Rockys, Creeds, the boxing movie with Christian Bail, the one with Damen Waynes, all of them. The Cinderella one is one of the best movies ever made. I never watch any sports event or game, but sports movies tend to be like pizza - even when it's bad, it's still pretty good.

I still need to watch The Fighter (I assume that's the Christian Bale one you're referring to). The same for Cinderella and Raging Bull. I did see the Wrestler, which was great. Mickey Rourke is awesome. Too bad he's been blacklisted by Hollywood.
As I said, I think the first 2 Rockys are pretty decent to even good. So is the first Creed. But then it kind of goes overboard. But as you say, they're still campy and enjoyable, even if bad.

 

[Redglyph]

It's not really my cup of tea, but the first Rocky had some character and I don't regret watching it.

 

[SirJames]

Beau is Afraid

Have you ever seen a film that's so bad it makes you reevaluate all the directors prior work?

 

[algold]

Having a Mission Impossible marathon seeing as the new one is out next month.

MI: Rogue Nation - 9/10

Definitely one of my favourites. Great action scenes and plot, also Rebecca Ferguson!
Absolutely loved it.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

Beau is Afraid

Have you ever seen a film that's so bad it makes you reevaluate all the directors prior work?

I started watching it, and saw around 5-10 mins. It's weird and intriguing. Generally my kind of movie, if I'm in the right mood.
But I was way too tired for this sort of film. I will watch it, since I like both the director and Joaquin Phoenix.
But I did hear it's quite divisive. I'll be curious what I come away with. If anything.

 

[Carnifex]

Last night we watched Charade, a damn-near perfect film with Hepburn, Grant, Coburn, Matthau and a host of others. Compared to current garbage, this film hit me in all the right places, even the often pointed out factor of how clueless Grant's character is (which, I think to this day is kind of the point).

 

[SirJames]

I started watching it, and saw around 5-10 mins. It's weird and intriguing. Generally my kind of movie, if I'm in the right mood.
But I was way too tired for this sort of film. I will watch it, since I like both the director and Joaquin Phoenix.
But I did hear it's quite divisive. I'll be curious what I come away with. If anything.

Yeah, at 5-10 mins it was weird and intriguing. By 3 hours it leaves you feeling like you've been stuck in a conversation with someone who hasn't let you say a word all night and won't shut up about their mother.

edit: Did you ever hear the saying "you can't polish a turd but you can roll it in glitter"? It's sort of like that. The movie could have had a serious tone and it would be laid bare that it's a very boring story and a very boring main character who we can pity but not like and a few throw-away side characters with zero development. But then he's gone and rolled the turd in a glitter of surrealism which I'm not sure is an attempt to be more entertaining or just more disguised. It's really more of a series of bad short films that don't really interconnect in any clever way. The production quality is high and, at times, the directing is pretty good but it's a turd, without a doubt.

The whole affair reminds me of times like when everyone thought Donne Darko was the work of some mad genius until he made a new film and we realised DD was just a fluke or succeeded due to talent somewhere else down the line like a talented editing team. Or when Refn had the success with Drive and was given free reign to do whatever he liked and made Only God Forgives, which bombed but I thought was actually pretty good, but it was still the beginning of the end of his career and now he's stuck making rubbish TV shows for streaming services.

 

[Drithius]

That's oddly specific

 

[SirJames]

That's oddly specific

What do you mean?

 

[danutz_plusplus]

Seems Beau is Afraid is a movie I'm gonna see in chunks. I'm halfway through it, since it's pretty long. And man is it weird.
It feels like a sort of mad fever dream, where you don't know what's real and what's hallucinated.
But one thing is certain, parts of it don't flow that well. It certainly isn't your regular hollywood movie. I think you really need to be in a certain mindset.

 

[Carnifex]

I do plan on watching the Magnificent Ambersons tonight. I've heard such great reviews and thoughts on this film over the years yet have never sampled for myself, well, that stops this evening!

 

[danutz_plusplus]

I managed to turn my Steam Deck into a movie viewing device, which I used on a 2h flight.
I saw 2/3s of You Were Never Really Here, since it really kills the battery. I was surprised, it seems to eat into it faster than games.
And it was only a 1080p bluray rip I ripped off of the official disk.
I was also surprised that the mkv file that is good to play on VLC on windows is perfectly fine to play on the Linux version of VLC.

The movie itself was pretty solid. I enjoyed it, and will likely finish it on the flight back.

 

[SirJames]

Seems Beau is Afraid is a movie I'm gonna see in chunks. I'm halfway through it, since it's pretty long. And man is it weird.
It feels like a sort of mad fever dream, where you don't know what's real and what's hallucinated.
But one thing is certain, parts of it don't flow that well. It certainly isn't your regular hollywood movie. I think you really need to be in a certain mindset.

Oh, that's cheating! You won't get the full effect if you're not held captive against your will for the full 3 hours at once.

 

[JDR13]

Murder Mystery 2

Not as good as the first one. I had a difficult time even staying interested enough to finish it. The plot was mostly a lazy rehash of the first film, and Adam Sandler just wasn't as funny this time around. Skip it unless you're a diehard Sandler fan.

 

[Tony]

I still need to watch The Fighter (I assume that's the Christian Bale one you're referring to). The same for Cinderella and Raging Bull.

Cinderella Man is a must watch. Truly one of the best films ever made (in my opinion). The Fighter is really good, but not in the same category.

We saw Transformers this weekend. Pretty good. I would have said it was only okay, but the big fight at the end was fantastic and redeemed the whole movie.

 

[Carnifex]

We watched the first half of Tar last night and I think we both enjoyed it. I suspect we'll finish it off tonight, and then I'll have more to say on it.

And I completely agree on Cinderella Man, I saw it when it first released and at least once since, it's most excellent. Truly a masterpiece.

 

[algold]

Mother/Android (Netflix). I've not seen it all yet though I'm near the end, but this was a pleasant surprise. Actually quite good. I'm glad I stuck with it.

 

[Carnifex]

Tar was really good, it took us three nights to get through it all as it was well over two hours. I'm not sure exactly what the resolution was other than the protagonist was certainly diminished and might have been laying down a soundtrack for a film, telly show or video game at the end, I'm not sure which. Since the audience was mostly dressed up oddly I'm leaning towards the latter.

How the film was shot and the story told was masterful, and talk about a point of view where you could hardly trust anything. Well done and a film I'm sure I'll be watching again.

 

[Carnifex]

Last night I watched a film that I recall viewing when it first came out and wondered if I'd still enjoy it. Tender Mercies, starring Duvall and a host of other names, is just as enjoyable now as it was back then. I think I could pretty much watch anything with Barkin and Duvall in it.

 

[algold]

Mission Impossible - Fallout 9/10
I think I slightly prefer Rogue Nation but it's marginal.