Last Movie You Watched.

trevanian wrote:

I've never seen that film, but the image you have there has got Carrey looking about as Connery-esque as he could possibly get!

It's set in the 50s so that at least explains the haircut.

Phantom Commander wrote:

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3
This one was pretty creepy. Pretty dumb of me to watch this just before going to bed. Thankfully, nothing happened. I hope.

I saw that movie in the theater one Halloween when it came out. Perhaps my favorite movie theater viewing ever. Obviously I'm like 100% of everyone else who hates when people talk during the movie, which happened here...but it was the whole theater yelling out commentary and jokes nearly the whole time. It was like watching tv with 150 people. It was great.

Maybe it worked because there's extended periods of silence as the surveillance footage plays out, I dunno.

But now I know what it felt like to be a groundling.

Need For Speed from 2014 with Aaron Paul and Imogen Poots.

I thought it was good! But I'm a car guy so they were going for my demo. I actually used to play the games this was based on when I was a kid. Honestly wasn't expecting much because it's in the low 20s on RT, but I ought to know better by now I suppose.

Driving stunts were good. Paul and Poots can act, and their characters were written well enough I cared to see what happened to them. The side characters were entertaining. Rami Malek seemed to be having fun for once.

I enjoyed it more than but one or two of the Fast and Furious movies I've seen. Which...I think I left off the gas after #6.

Salomé wrote:

The Pale Blue Eye

Far from perfect but definitely worth seeing. I would say the main selling point is Harry Melling's performance as Edgar Allen Poe, which is truly astonishing at times. A great ensemble cast as well, besides Melling and Bale we also get Toby Jones, Gillian Anderson, Timothy Spall, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Simon McBurney. And even some recognizable young actors among the West Point cadets, like Ozark's Charlie Tahan.

On, and Salome I ended up watching this the other night. Melling was indeed excellent. The film as a whole is probably nothing terribly memorable in the long term but I thought it was well executed. Bale, Jones, Gillian...all great, all make it worthwhile.

Somerset wrote:

Need For Speed from 2014 with Aaron Paul and Imogen Poots.

I thought it was good! But I'm a car guy so they were going for my demo. I actually used to play the games this was based on when I was a kid. Honestly wasn't expecting much because it's in the low 20s on RT, but I ought to know better by now I suppose.

Driving stunts were good. Paul and Poots can act, and their characters were written well enough I cared to see what happened to them. The side characters were entertaining. Rami Malek seemed to be having fun for once.

I enjoyed it more than but one or two of the Fast and Furious movies I've seen. Which...I think I left off the gas after #6.

I thought the first Fast And Furious was nothing special, and haven't bothered with any of them since.

Supernova from Walter Hill (well, he shot most of it anyway before walking away, walking back again and then putting a pseudonym on the thing.) Probably watched it again (first time in over 15 years) owing to current rewatch of BOSTON LEGAL, both starring James Spader.

It is still an utter mess ... way too many cooks, with Jack Sholder and FFC both taking hands-on roles in reshaping the post process. Hill's choice to shoot a claustrophobic spaceship-bound movie on long lenses, creating an overabundance of shallow focus, seems an odd one, but he did the same thing to slightly less distracting effect on GERONIMO years earlier, so maybe just a passing taste change on his part. I know that a superb 22 foot miniature spaceship was built for the film, but with the amount of gauziness to the space shots (forerunner to how STAR TREK looks on the tube these days in some ways), you can only rarely get any sense of the effort that went into it, because it just comes off like mediocre CGI.

Casting on the film also seems weird. When I read the script, I saw Spader as the baddie and Lou Diamond as the lead, but the former is actually the hero and the latter just a supporting player. Perhaps Spader is there because he is supposed to be a reflection of the baddie, as they are both ex-druggies.

Nobody seems to phone it in, but the guy playing the villain would have been better off doing so, because he simply isn't credible most of the time (I think his greatest claim to real-world fame was classlessly dumping Jenny Garth after she bore their children and moving on in time-honored showbiz style), coming off like a low-rent mix of Tom Cruise in wack-job mode and Matthew McConahey.

Have to figure Hill wanted to do his own take on ALIEN; otherwise can't see why he took this on after the YOUNG GUNS director was let go for insisting on the ship scenes to be done entirely with microgravity environments, which would have necessitated wirework for the bulk of shooting. This film features a fair amount of casual nudity, which was also the plan on ALIEN at first, so perhaps this does drop a few hints about how Hill would have directed ALIEN if he hadn't had to do THE WARRIORS instead. (and I love THE WARRIORS. I love all-the-warriors ... send the word.)

If anybody feels intrigued enough to watch, try to see the deleted scenes on the disc too, instead of just streaming the film, as they suggest a more interesting approach was in place while also pointing up a different ending. When I saw it on Pluto last night, it had an ending I don't recall ever seeing, even though I owned the DVD for a couple years.

Falls into the interesting-misfire category for me, along with RED PLANET (which had more production problems than this one by far, enough that somebody should have done a book about it), but still placing way above MISSION TO MARS and WING COMMANDER, to mention some losers from the batch of space movies in the late 90s that didn't work (though I liked SPACE COWBOYS just fine.)

Somerset wrote:

Salomé wrote:

The Pale Blue Eye

Far from perfect but definitely worth seeing. I would say the main selling point is Harry Melling's performance as Edgar Allen Poe, which is truly astonishing at times. A great ensemble cast as well, besides Melling and Bale we also get Toby Jones, Gillian Anderson, Timothy Spall, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Simon McBurney. And even some recognizable young actors among the West Point cadets, like Ozark's Charlie Tahan.

On, and Salome I ended up watching this the other night. Melling was indeed excellent. The film as a whole is probably nothing terribly memorable in the long term but I thought it was well executed. Bale, Jones, Gillian...all great, all make it worthwhile.

That is how I saw it as well.

JUNG_E

Interesting new Korean sci-fi that deals with themes such as personality, individuality, integrity, identity, love and morality. I liked it a lot.

Juniper.

Rampling is as wicked as ever.

Blunt Instrument wrote:

I thought the first Fast And Furious was nothing special, and haven't bothered with any of them since.

The third one (Tokyo Drift) I thought the best. Has nothing to do with the prior two, more of its own thing. Had a good heart. They shifted from racing and "car culture" movies with the fifth one (Fast Five) into fisticuffs and gun-toting and large explosion quasi-heist films and unbelievable retconning of prior films. I mean, Fast Five was entertaining enough and it's probably regarded by most as the best one, but I thought the approach was better as a one-off. They went the same way with the sixth one (the last I saw) and I hear that's where they are currently.

Think they are finally ending it this year with the tenth one. Don't know if it's true but I heard they were going to go into outer SPAAAAAAAACE.

"In space no one can hear your tires scream."

Yes, I'd heard that too. Can only imagine that somewhere Sir Rog is dryly commenting 'We did that back in '79', eyebrow aloft.

The Fabelmans - Spielberg's autobiographical love-letter to his parents (in all their flaws and foibles as well as their decency) and to the movies themselves. Nostalgic, poignant and amusing if maybe a little long and slightly lacking in Spielberg 'magic'.

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: THE MARKED ONES
Not the best in the series, but still manages to keep my attention. I like the naturalism, and that each film takes a slightly different approach yet similar.I also like that there are some actual surprises. Eventually, this one ties in with other PA entries.

MIDSOMMAR.

A lot to digest (and apparently more if you see the 1/2hr longer version.) My wife thinks this is a good example of how misogny has trickled down to more youthful generations.

Art direction is wonderful. Found a nice feature on it: https://www.semipermanent.com/stories/midsommar

THE OLD WAYS
Horror from Mexico about demon possession. Or is it really about something else? Not bad, but nothing special.

Cobra - some pretty decent action sequences enliven this standard mid-80s 'bad-ass cop does witness protection' Stallone number.

COVEN OF SISTERS (AKEL ARRE)
I loved this. Basque (I think) film about a witch trial in the early 17th century. It is both funny and horrendous.

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

OK. Liked it more when I first saw it on release years back. Keira is stunning. The action and suspense is nothing noteworthy but all is entertaining.

I'm not really sure what happened to Chris Pine as a leading man. I like his Ryan but I'm not sure where he fits amongst Harrison, Baldwin, Affleck and Krasinski.

He had several good shots over the years. Kirk and Ryan being the two highest profile.

His best role is probably the one in Unstoppable. Playing opposite Denzel, that's probably where he would've moved the dial on people's radar if he was ever going to.

5 different lead actors across 5 movies and a TV show and an all-over-the-place timeline ... they've never quite been able to make the Ryan franchise 'stick', IMO.

Strange Days - mid-90s Kathryn Bigelow cyberpunk thriller co-written by James Cameron that bombed at the box-office. It's technically impressive, has Ralph Fiennes in a less-than-typical lead role and raises pertinent questions about voyeurism, abuse of power etc. But at 145 minutes, it's a bit of a slog towards the end and hard not to feel that it could've been a good 15 minutes shorter at least.

Blunt Instrument wrote:

Strange Days - mid-90s Kathryn Bigelow cyberpunk thriller co-written by James Cameron that bombed at the box-office. It's technically impressive, has Ralph Fiennes in a less-than-typical lead role and raises pertinent questions about voyeurism, abuse of power etc. But at 145 minutes, it's a bit of a slog towards the end and hard not to feel that it could've been a good 15 minutes shorter at least.

STRANGE DAYS was very nearly the movie I took my future wife to for our first date -- in retrospect, am glad I demurred from her request, because while it is a pretty good movie, it had some stuff that, while thought-provoking, was clearly not date material (I think 12 MONKEYS was our first date; either that or GOLDENEYE.)

Yeah, probably just as well lol (I'd argue Twelve Monkeys isn't really a traditional 'date movie' either).

Croupier - combine Clive Owen's 'detached' title character from this cool, snappy late 90s thriller and his ruthlessly efficient assassin from the first Bourne, and you have a very strong argument that he definitely had Bond in him. Also features a smokin' hot Alex Kingston with her kit off, if you like that sort of thing .

SPIDERHEAD
Interesting semi-scifi about a group of prisoners who get experimented on by a pharmaceutical company. The inmates are not the scumbags here. So the realism is there.

Blunt Instrument wrote:

Croupier - combine Clive Owen's 'detached' title character from this cool, snappy late 90s thriller and his ruthlessly efficient assassin from the first Bourne, and you have a very strong argument that he definitely had Bond in him. Also features a smokin' hot Alex Kingston with her kit off, if you like that sort of thing .  

I've had Croupier sitting in my watch queue about as long as I've seen his look in the film in use as an avatar on Bond sites.

I only really know Owen from Inside Man and the Bourne flick.

Phantom Commander wrote:

SPIDERHEAD
Interesting semi-scifi about a group of prisoners who get experimented on by a pharmaceutical company. The inmates are not the scumbags here. So the realism is there.

Kosinki redeems himself for you following Top Gun: Maverick?

Somerset wrote:

Phantom Commander wrote:

SPIDERHEAD
Interesting semi-scifi about a group of prisoners who get experimented on by a pharmaceutical company. The inmates are not the scumbags here. So the realism is there.

Kosinki redeems himself for you following Top Gun: Maverick?

I did not realize that was him, but I would say so, yes.

Jojo Rabbit - satirical comedy-drama written and directed by and starring Takia Wakiki in which a young German boy (Roman Griffin Davis) is such a fanatical member of the Hitler Youth his imaginary friend is an avuncular version of the Fuhrer himself (Wakiki). However, when he discovers his mother (Scarlett Johansson) is hiding a young Jewish girl (Thomasin Mackenzie) at their house, his perspective begins to shift.

This movie is a delight, managing to be very funny whilst not pulling its punches about the evils of Nazism. Also starring Sam Rockwell, Rebel Wilson, Alfie Allen and Stephen Merchant.