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

The Brothers Grimsby

An English action-comedy written by and starring Sacha Baron Cohen. I saw it back when it first came out, but a friend and I were looking for something to watch last night and we ended up with that.

It was a box office bomb, and I can understand why, but it has some scenes that I think are pretty funny. I'm a fan of Cohen and his style of humor though. If you're not, don't bother watching it.
 
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Justice League Snyder cut: same original story but of course much better story telling, cinematography, atmosphere, dialogue, introduction of Darkseid and there are many distributed hits and particularly in the end of what may follow.

Much better than Joss Whedon version (Louis asks superman after brought back to life, how was it down there. superman replies: its kinda itchy!).
 
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The Brothers Grimsby

An English action-comedy written by and starring Sacha Baron Cohen. I saw it back when it first came out, but a friend and I were looking for something to watch last night and we ended up with that.

It was a box office bomb, and I can understand why, but it has some scenes that I think are pretty funny. I'm a fan of Cohen and his style of humor though. If you're not, don't bother watching it.

 
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I watched the third and fourth Predator films over the past few days. Predators I actually liked. It went back to the One Little Indian thing in the jungle and was probably better for it. Cast was very solid. I got bored toward the end but overall I liked it as background noise.

The Predator started off relatively promising, but as it went along the issues just kept stacking up. The best way to tell a bad film from a good one is not the acting or how it looks, it's in counting how many stupid contrivances it has. To name just one from this film, why in the world would Olivia Munn's character take off all her clothes when she's trying to avoid being killed in the lab? The one and only reason she did so was so the film could show that the Predator won't harm helpless targets, but there is ZERO reason why any sane (or most insane) human would do that. By the end of the movie I was mostly just mad at it.
 
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Predators I quite liked, but it also frustrated me. The opening act I thought got off on the right foot, and seemed quite promising. The rest wasn't that bad, but I think they could have done more with a decent setup.

The Predator I thought was dire. All the more disappointing given that it was a Shane Black film.
 
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The Brothers Grimsby

An English action-comedy written by and starring Sacha Baron Cohen. I saw it back when it first came out, but a friend and I were looking for something to watch last night and we ended up with that.

It was a box office bomb, and I can understand why, but it has some scenes that I think are pretty funny. I'm a fan of Cohen and his style of humor though. If you're not, don't bother watching it.
That movie is one of the biggest fails when it comes to comedy genre.
Not a single joke, not a single scene that were supposed to be humorous - were funnily disgusting. Everything was only sadly disgusting on the level of a 5 yo child imagination.
Then again perhaps it's audience never saw goatse and tubgirl pics so they might have appreciate the kind of rip off.

If I was that friend, after making me watch that waste of time I'd tell you that we better go separate ways. But you can fix it!

There are movies that are funnily disgusting, so next time watch criminally underrated: Movie 43.
Unless your friend is SJ/PC police.
 
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Like I said, if you don't like his style, don't bother watching it.

I thought there was some genuinely funny material. It's Cohen's mannerisms that made those scenes funny to me though. If it was anyone else, those scenes wouldn't have worked.
 
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I might be a little late to the party on this one, but I saw Victoria (2015), a German film done in a single camera shot about a girl in Berlin whose night out on the town goes a little nuts. I thought it was very good and would recommend it to people who value artistic merit over superheroes in their films.
 
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godzilla vs kong
better watch some paint dry than this shit

baseketball
think i watched it 10 times, still funny as the first time lol
 
I re-watched Chinatown last night for the….well, no idea how many times I've seen the film, at least a dozen I'd guess offhand. I love it, never seems old or boring. Tonight I plan on watching the Two Jakes, which on the other hand I've only ever watched once before, and I hardly remember it.
 
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There are movies that are funnily disgusting, so next time watch criminally underrated: Movie 43.

So I watched this tonight, and… it was pretty terrible. I don't know if it actually deserves the 4/10 review average, but that's probably not far off.

For those who are wondering what it's about, it's a collection of short comedy scenes that feature different actors and are unconnected to one another.

It started off well enough. I thought the first skit, which features Hugh Jackman and Kate Winslet, was decent enough, and I actually got a few laughs out of it.

It was all downhill from there though. The remaining scenes were all very forgettable and unfunny for the most part. I can only wonder how they got people like Richard Gere, Halle Berry, Liev Schreiber, and Uma Thurman to show up for this. I also wonder if they look back on it and think "Wtf was I doing?"
 
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It is a masterpiece.
And they all knew exactly what were they doing and why.
As about being forgettable, you won't forget it for a long long time.
 
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I did watch the Two Jakes, and during that time I realized why I'd never re-watched the film: it just pales in comparison to the first. I mean it's ok, an adequate film, but when you measure it against the first, it doesn't hold up. At least not for me.
 
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The Prestige (2006) was the last remaining Christopher Nolan directed film I had yet to see, aside from his obscure debut film Following (1998), and I'm afraid I didn't think too much of it.

Don't get me wrong, like all his films it's a visual joy to behold, is full of great actors all doing stellar performances and the plot is, initially, quite interesting. However, it was the plot which kinda killed it for me from about the halfway mark.

The twists were no surprise & I was waiting for them to happen rather than be enthralled by them and then the ending half hour offered so little in what was potentially promised that it felt like a cartoon bomb where the fuse fizzles out before it explodes.

It's not even very good for pure Victoriana escapism as there's very little here that is relevant to the era specifically and the best we get is some vague similarity to steampunk. Unfortunately it's more in the vein of Cowboys vs Aliens or Wild Wild West than anything.

One of my least favourite of his, for sure 2.5/5

image.jpg


Big Trouble in Little China (1986) is a cult classic I'd somehow managed to not watch over the past 35 years, which seems incredible to me. So another bucket list gap filler here.

It was a good fun film that is part comedy and part action film, self-parodying while enacting pretty much every cliche of the genre in often spectacular and unabashed glory.

It didn't really do that much for me though and since I missed it at the time it doesn't hold much nostalgia for me either. Similarly to The Prestige, even its 80s factor doesn't play much into what we see and there's very little 80sness to be found as most of the film takes place in a fantasy dungeon/palace.

I enjoyed watching it a lot more than The Prestige though, its well paced and does everything a good action movie should for the most part. Something you can munch packet of popcorn to and then sit back and enjoy the ride, brain turned off.

Enjoyed it enough the first time, but not excited enough to rewatch it anytime soon 3/5

Big%2BTrouble%2Bin%2BLittle%2BChina%2B18.jpg


Thor Ragnarok (2017) Is one of the Marvel movies I missed upon release that I was quite interested in, having seen and enjoyed the previous two. So another catch-up here.

It was a good rip-roarer that did everything I hoped it would. The comedy and action combo was very similar to Big Trouble, in that it constantly self-parodied while going through the expected scenarios, but in a way that was careful not to overrun the more serious aspects to the plot.

I've not been one to be completionist for all the Marvel movies, so there quite a lot of them I haven't seen yet, but this one completes the Thors and ties into The Avengers, which I've also seen all of. Come to think of it, that's pretty much all I've been following since phase one ended, what, nearly a decade ago.

A highly visual and beautifully well-paced piece full of the unexpected along with the cliches, and it's version of punk on the trash-planet was much more wholesome than The Presitge's attempt. It was almost more Star Warsy than the modern Star Wars tat.

Watched twice already 4/5

Stills-from-Thor-Ragnarok-trailer-12.jpg
 
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Big Trouble in Little China is a film I tend to watch yearly, ever since I saw it on the first run in a theatre decades ago now, I've adored this film. It's one of those movies that you're likely to learn something new about it on every viewing.
 
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I've not been one to be completionist for all the Marvel movies, so there quite a lot of them I haven't seen yet, but this one completes the Thors and ties into The Avengers, which I've also seen all of. Come to think of it, that's pretty much all I've been following since phase one ended, what, nearly a decade ago.

You've seen all the ones worth seeing imo. I thought Thor and the Avenger flims, at least the last two, were the best of the bunch. That said, I'm not the biggest fan of the whole superhero movie thing.

You might want to check out Guardians of the Galaxy 2 if you haven't seen that one yet.
 
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Yes, thanks for reminding me, I did enjoy the first Guardians of the Galaxy and was going to see the second one but got distracted. I'll make a stronger mental note to pick that one up next time I go shopping.
 
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Big Trouble in Little China is a film I tend to watch yearly, ever since I saw it on the first run in a theatre decades ago now, I've adored this film. It's one of those movies that you're likely to learn something new about it on every viewing.

Yes, I can easily imagine how if I'd seen this as a younger person it would have been much more enthralling and held a stronger position with regards to rating.
 
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Yeah, I loved Big Trouble, but I'm a big fan of John Carpenter.
 
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Well, tastes matter.
I can't use numbers as are basically meaningless and say nothing. Instead I'll share my opinion differently:
- BTiLC is a mustwatch movie, pure art, make sure you don't die before seeing it!
- The Prestige is made only to entertain you and you won't be disappointed (unless disturbed by fake animal cruelty).
- Thor Ragnarok is an irrelevant bs, a few funny scenes can't redeem it's overall dullness and I have no idea why is Hollywood pushing Tessa Thompson everywhere lately, she's either always miscasted or almost as talentless as Jessica Alba.

JDR didn't tell you, so I will. GotG had no right to be as fun as it is, if you think about the banal movie script after watching it. It was pretty much saved by top notch cast performances, especially the diarrhea performer from Movie 43.
 
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