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

Yeah early Sandler and Nicolas Cage were great but the quality of their movies has varied greatly over the last ten years. Sandler at least has decent movies.

Nicolas Cage on the other-hand went bankrupt and makes any movie he can for cash nowadays. Some of his latest movies are average, but most are bargain bin trash.

It's the same for Steven Seagal, and Jean-Claude Van Damme, They both used be some of the best action stars but nowadays both are almost has-beens at best.

At least Arnold, Stallone, and Statham make good action movies.
 
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Another one who's all over the place is John Travolta.

I watched an old Siskel and Ebert while having my lunch today: their "worst movies of 1991", and, lo and behold, a John Travolta movie was right up there.

Some things never change. Their final comment about it: "he can do so much better than this". And, yeah, Travolta is either top or bottom of the barrel, he has no middle ground, lol.
 
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Travolta is either top or bottom of the barrel, he has no middle ground, lol.

haha.. have you seen ;



watch the review, it's pretty funny but comes with spoilers..
 
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And given how much money he has made it was quite impressive that he managed to go bankrupt.

Nicolas Cage on the other-hand went bankrupt and makes any movie he can for cash nowadays. Some of his latest movies are average, but most are bargain bin trash.
 
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And given how much money he has made it was quite impressive that he managed to go bankrupt.
Same old problem he spent to much money on his lavish lifestyle.
Cage’s extravagant purchases included 15 residences — a Newport Beach, Ca., waterfront home for $25 million, and two European castles worth a collective $12.3 million were among them — as well as a deserted island in the Bahamas for $3 million. Other seemingly ill-advised buys: A collection of shrunken pygmy heads, a Lamborghini owned by the late shah of Iran for $450,000, a pet octopus for $150,000, and a seven-million-year-old dinosaur skull for $276,000. All told, that spending spree left Cage, the star of the “National Treasure” film franchise, facing foreclosure on several properties, and owing $6.3 million in property taxes to the IRS.
 
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I saw Midsommar. Really good!

Hereditary was really good too, though not a movie I want to watch again.

I think this Ari Aster guy is one to keep an eye on.
 
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Kudos to Sandler for stepping outside of his normal dreck (not sure I like a single movie of his).
(I sure don't)
Nicolas Cage on the other-hand went bankrupt and makes any movie he can for cash nowadays. Some of his latest movies are average, but most are bargain bin trash.
Noone knows the whole truth, but it's obvious that Cage accepts any offered role which means he needs $.
From his latest movies I've watched Mandy, a retro light and borderline trash&grindhouse entry where he was the only one making things interesting, still couldn't save the utter fail of the dumb script.
The word on the street is that Kill Chain and Color Out of Space are good, he appears in both, but I have yet to see them.
It's the same for Steven Seagal, and Jean-Claude Van Damme, They both used be some of the best action stars but nowadays both are almost has-beens at best.
Can't remember the last Seagal movie I gave a chance, I remember thinking after some I did watch that I'll never watch another one of his. ;)
Van Damme has a relatively new above average flick where with some great fighting scenes there is, imagine this, a proper story! Yes, I've expected an action with acrobatics no story lullaby to cure me insomnia, got surprised and I really liked it. It's Lukas.

Anyway, you've forgot Wesley Snipes case. Back in the day I've fallen in love with his interpretations yet seems he can't get a proper role postprison. His recent appearances are a few minutes in some movies not giving him enough time to show anything. Apparently he shines, again a few minutes max support role, in Dolemite Is My Name, but it's a biography movie so I'm not sure I'll ever watch it.

I saw Midsommar. Really good!

Hereditary was really good too, though not a movie I want to watch again.

I think this Ari Aster guy is one to keep an eye on.
Ari Aster is a style over substance hack. Nothing even remotely interesting to see in those two overrated flicks.
If you're a florist, find out where he'll film next, hundreds of thousands of $ profit guaranteed.

While I can't recommend those to anyone, in a discussion with an unexperienced acquaitance she admitted it's deaths that shocked her so much which made those two movies her favorites.
I guess if you never watched movies that glorify different ways to kill someone (example Valhalla Rising) the above can be true. To me Aster's deaths were - boring.
Then again, I know if you're stuck in a burning building, you'll get poisoned with monoxide, die (choked) and not feel the actual burning of your body. On the other hand, if you're stuck in trunk tyres, someone pours oil on you and lits a fire, now that's what would make me shiver. And it did. In a brazillian gem we mentioned a few times in this thread Elite Squad.
 
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haha.. have you seen ;

[YouTube Vid snipped for brevity]

watch the review, it's pretty funny but comes with spoilers..

Yes, I often find myself popping in to get Stuckman'ised. Of all the critics on YouTube I find him to be the most consistently in line with what I was thinking. He's what I would call "The New Barry Norman", which probably means nothing to people outside the UK and under a certain age.

Similarly to Norman though, he has his weak points and he can't satiate some of the more varied reasons why people watch reviews. For example, he's not very good at fully roasting bad movies and he's not very substantive when it comes to intellectually heavy weight films. These aren't negative criticisms about the guy, if he was good at those things he probably wouldn't be as good at understanding the 'normal' movie going experience, his forte.

Here's a taste of Barry Norman, the UK's version of Siskel and Ebert rolled into one:



His program ran from 1972-2011, though he stepped down from the show in 1998. Everyone in Hollywood knew him, but outside the UK he's relatively unknown. Here's his retirement highlights reel:

 
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Ari Aster is a style over substance hack. Nothing even remotely interesting to see in those two overrated flicks.

I've watched a few of your recommendations and I'm pretty sure what you like is police dramas so I think I understand why these two films were not for you.

But don't go thinking I've never seen gore. I've been on the internet a long time. ;)
 
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Just to be clear.

What I like the most are thrillers of any kind. But that doesn't mean I'm not watching other stuff, I'll check police dramas too.

I do discriminate and tend not to bother with movies marked as combination of couple or more genres from drama/biography/history/war.
Also I've recommended many different types of movies, especially trying to bring up those that in case of amnesia I'd want myself to watch again.

In case of Aster, I find both of his movies (Hereditary and Midsommar) absolutely pointless timewasters in a shiny package. In both I was almost bored to death. Taste or not, sorry, I just cannot suggest watching them.
 
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Well your taste sucks. :p

That aside as everyone's taste should be respected, lemme bring up again certain oscar nominations, in this post for the best animated full feature:
https://oscar.go.com/nominees/animated-feature-film
- How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
- I Lost My Body
- Klaus
- Missing Link
- Toy Story 4

A fine list, right? Well, no!



It's not only last year's, I dare to say in history of animated movies, it's visually one of the most breathtaking folktales brought to screen:
White Snake.

You know the ancient wisdom that says "a bird and a fish can fall in love, but where can they make a nest together?". This sentence doesn't make any sense in modern society and oddly, from a heavily censored cinematography, we received a romance between a human and a demon. Somehow lately those censors let fantasies off the hook, and the result is near spectacular.

Near, because I'm nitpicky.
The story lacks of some more sauce. Of course I have to blame censors for that. And I bet some was there as from the very first minute it's obviously a romance on steroids movie.
Male MC seeks knowledge and studies everything, he says it. At two points he'll go puzzlesolving, but it would have been nice if we, the audience, were involved in it instead of just passively looking at his skill.
The certain tragic moment is toned down too much, censorship, censhorship, *sigh*. I wanted to shed some tears, cmon!
Finally, english subtitles should have been better. The adaptation wasn't good in some cases and certain lines feel completely out of place. Luckily, not many.

Where's Alrik? Man, get this one asap!
This goes for everyone else. Watch it and explain to me why oscars decided this ain't no good as nominee.

 
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"Love Takes Flight"

Yes, as I have said - my wife and I watch entirely too many Hallmark movies (mediocre, predictable, formulaic, etc. and depending almost entirely on the natural chemistry of the leads… also Netflix has gotten in on it lately). BUT - now THIS movie, in spite of being formulaic … I will go so far as to call it the best Hallmark movie we have watched yet - sure, low bar, but if you are in the mood for a light romantic comedy movie, you could do much worse.

 
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Crazy Rich Asians: This is not a new film and i saw it in the theater when it first came out. I saw it again last night. Yes it is predictable and not an uncommon story as well as stereotyping of various people - but it is still very good. If you like that sort of movie i highly recommend it. Seeing it the second time was better than the first.
 
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I viewed One Night with the King last night, what a complete bore-fest. I don't even know where to begin with the complaints, suffice it to say that the story has been told before and in much better ways. Avoid this one unless you really have a couple of hours to write off to nothing.
 
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Jay & Silent Bob: Reboot
Whilst I thought J&SB Strike Back was meh, I did enjoy Clerks/Mallrats/Chasing Amy, so thought I'd give this a go. Bad idea.

It was alright.

I think it's geared towards Smiths early rebel audience that now finds themselves as responsible parents. The movie was basically saying "we've had our mid-life criseseseses, and we're old and not like we used to be, but that's ok because we've now passed the legacy on to our kids".
 
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Just watched Alita: Battle Angel today and loved it. It's a shame critics were praising Captain Marvel over this movie. Critics scored it low and called it a summer movie flop.

When in fact it made over $400+ million with DVD/BD sales.

So for me I'd give it a 8/10 and hope they make a part 2.
 
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Say what? I don't remember seeing any praise on cpt. Marvel, at least not from critics I follow. For those who still didn't watch it but plan to - expect a display of no talent and overall mediocrity.

Alita is fun. I remember writing about it somewhere, but god knows now where, can't find it.
Anyway, the story got some small changes from the original, but nothing critical was cut away like Jackson did with Tolkien's masterpiece. Alita is not some mustwatch, but I loved it and suggested it to every friend of mine.
Why critics didn't like it is easy to answer. It's not used for political correctness preaching (it can't be PC pamphlet as MC has human brain in a cyber body). As Alita isn't really human, a critic can't "measure" the acting talent but also can't criticize looks per Hollywood plastic standards (in Alita case, eyes are bigger than tits). Finally the movie is not boring at any point. "Modern" critics praise only movies that can save them money - if boring they don't have to pay for sleeping pills.
Anyway, do watch it.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Media ignorance regarding timeloop genre strikes again.
https://www.thewrap.com/groundhog-day-movies-repeat-same-day-over/
The list there has several problems.
- Primer is not a timeloop movie. Time travel it is, but loop it is not. Still it's a good one, do watch.
- Run Lola Run is a masterpiece, but not timeloop. It's butterfly effect movie (chaos theory). This is the only movie on the list that wasn't Hollywood's.
- See You Yesterday… For all I've heard it's not time loop and refused to watch that one. If someone did watch, please tell. I have a timeloop fetish and have to "catch them all". ;)
- They did state Naked was a remake, what they didn't say is that both Naked and the original Naken are rubbish for brain impaired. If only it (both) dared to be more pervy, maybe I'd recommend watching. Just can't.
- 50 First Dates? No. No time loop there. Nada.

It's not completely bad, they did mention 12:01 which is a fine piece of cinema that for whatever reason never gets mentioned anywhere. Do watch (Amazon streams it).
Still, the list for what it's supposed to be is pathetic. I'll definetly make a "proper" one later today or tomorrow. I promise. No gaming.
 
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