How was the movie?

[2D8HP]

So we have the Perfect Movies thread for really, really good films, and we have the Movies you regret watching thread for truly awful flicks.

Big movies get their own threads (example: not one but two Wonder Women threads), but we don't have a general "I just saw it" thread for movies like the What are you reading right now? thread for books.

So...

What did you just see?

How was it?

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Unusually for me, I saw three movies this week.

Elle
I already posted about in the "Regret Watching" thread, the other two movies I saw on the same night (almost all movies I see are from DVD's that my wife gets from the library, so I don't pick them).

The first was
Sicario
starring Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin, and Benicio Del Toro.

The background is the U.S/Mexico border, and it's about militarized police fighting the drug war.

If you like Special Forces/SWAT stuff (and a Bourne/Bond-ish "Marty Stu") more than I do, you might like it.

It wasn't real bad, but I found it pretty boring

I'd rate it 4 out of 10.

The other movie was
'71
starring Jack O'Connell, which takes place (a little bit) in Britain, and a lot in Belfast in 1971, and actual has similar themes as Sicario.

If you know something about, and have an opinion on the actual history that the film uses as a background, than the movie may bug you with inaccuracies, but I just watched it as a thriller/action movie, and it delivered.

The only actor I recognized was Sean Harris from The Borgias, and Game of Thrones, but the performances were so much better than the other movies I saw this week, Elle and Sicario.

I give it a 7 out of 10.

Spoiler: My ratings for some old movies

Show

1 out of 10: The 10 minutes (or less) that I endured of
Caligula.

2 out of 10:
The American
starring George Clooney.

3 out of 10:
The Sword and the Sorcerer,
A "fantasy genre" movie that no one else remembers (lucky them!).

4 out of 10:
The Return of the Jedi.
Why so low?
Ewoks.

5 out of 10:
The Matrix.
Released just after the similarly themed Dark City which did it better.

6 out of 10:
Excalibur.
I loved it but I really can't recommend it to anyone who isn't a 13 year-old D&D playing boy in 1981.

7 out of 10:
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad.
My son found the stop animation jerky and ridiculous compared to the CGI special effects he's used to.
He's wrong, the movie is still as fantastic as I found it to be over 40 years ago.

8 out of 10:
Double Indemnity.
Noir at it's noir-ist.

9 out of 10:
The Princess Bride.
My wife doesn't like this, she likes "grittier" fare like Game of Thrones. She's wrong, this movie rocks!

10 out of 10:
Casablanca.
Do I really need to defend this?

[Dienekes]

You do, I guess. Honestly I always thought a lot of Casablanca doesn't really hold up. There are moments that are really good: "You despise me don't you?" La Marseilles. "I'm shocked! Shocked to find gambling is going on in here!"

But whenever it focuses on that insipid love triangle the movie just halts. Holy cow I don't care that this woman has trouble deciding between two awesome guys. Focus on the Resistance!

Personally wouldn't give it more than an 8.

In any case, nice idea for a thread.

[Kato]

I'm not that much of a movie goer but I have a habit of irregularly going to the weekly sneak previews at my cinema... last week it was Wonderwoman so I tried my luck again.

This time happened to be Fassbender's new movie "Trespass against us". It... well, it's totally not my kind of movie. Just a. I guess realistic depiction of a totally uneducated thug who lives with his gang of criminals somewhere as far from society as possible, making his living with stealing and a bit of focus on car chases. It's not bad in what is does I guess but it lacks any real climax or such. But as I said, it's absolutely not the kind of movie I'm into.

[solidork]

It was a while ago, but I LOVED The Grand Budapest Hotel. I've always been mildly interested in the aesthetic displayed in the previews for Wes Anderson movies, but this is the first one that I actually watched. Unrelentingly amusing.

[FreddyNoNose]

It was a while ago, but I LOVED The Grand Budapest Hotel. I've always been mildly interested in the aesthetic displayed in the previews for Wes Anderson movies, but this is the first one that I actually watched. Unrelentingly amusing.

I watched The Grand Budapest Hotel twice in the theater. It puts a smile on my face every time I watch it. I give it a 10.

John Wick: Loved it. So many head shots! Give it a 10.

LA Confidential: Love the period. It was amazing how they got the three different styles of cops to work together on various threads of the then unknown super plot. I give it a 10.

Goodfellas: Jimmy Two Times. Forget about it. Perfect 10.

Stripes: Slept late. Give it a 9.

Caddyshack: Just cracks me up everytime. 9.

Minority Report: Despite Tom Cruise, it is a very good movie: 9.

The Devil Wears Prada. Not a chick flick but a workplace flick. Great cast: Merle Steep, Stanley Tucci, Anne Hathaway and Emily Blunt. 8

Bound: Come for the girl on girl, stay for the mafia mystery. solid 9.

[Honest Tiefling]

Just saw Neon Demon last night. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, even if I did find it hilarious. By the way, it's supposed to be an artsy movie, so don't go thinking that it was meant to be funny. It's so pretentious it gave me quite the case of the giggles.

I'm giving it a 2/10 for some pretty shots that had absolutely nothing to do with the plot, mood, characters or logic itself. I'd bump it up to a 6/10 if you're high as a kite and have seen campy gore flicks before. The blood effects are bad and unconvincing, but it is a very squicky movie. You won't get nightmares, and you probably won't be uncomfortable due to the pretentious nature of the movie, but I sure as heck wouldn't mention it to Grandma.

And hey, 2d8HP, if you didn't like the Sword and the Sorcerer, you should see the rifftrax. I found that very enjoyable, a solid 5/7.

I too enjoyed John Wick, through I found one of the characters very weak and the whole subplot around her frustrating, but the rest of the movie is stylish and a good action film. My only wish is to see the actor Andy in more movies.

[2D8HP]

It was a while ago, but I LOVED The Grand Budapest Hotel. I've always been mildly interested in the aesthetic displayed in the previews for Wes Anderson movies, but this is the first one that I actually watched. Unrelentingly amusing....

I watched The Grand Budapest Hotel twice in the theater. It puts a smile on my face every time I watch it....

I liked The Grand Budapest Hotel as well:

The Grand Budapest Hotel.

..it was probably the most enjoyable movie that I've seen in the last couple of years, maybe even longer.

...hey, 2d8HP, if you didn't like the Sword and the Sorcerer, you should see the rifftrax. I found that very enjoyable, a solid 5/7..

Thanks for the tip!

I've never heard of rifftrax before, the description sounds hilarious!

As for Sword and the Sorcerer , I last saw it in 1982, and it did leave an impression on me, because I remember the title (unlike the many "Mad Max" ripoffs I saw in the 80's), but I've never been tempted to view it again (and I'm one of a few that liked Conan the Destroyer!)

[FreddyNoNose]

I liked The Grand Budapest Hotel as well:




..it was probably the most enjoyable movie that I've seen in the last couple of years, maybe even longer.




Thanks for the tip!

I've never heard of rifftrax before, the description sounds hilarious!

As for Sword and the Sorcerer , I last saw it in 1982, and it did leave an impression on me, because I remember the title (unlike the many "Mad Max" ripoffs I saw in the 80's), but I've never been tempted to view it again (and I'm one of a few that liked Conan the Destroyer!)

Yes, it is great. I love all the attention to details too.

[2D8HP]

My wife brought home two more movies from the library this weekend:

20th Century Women, and Office Christmas Party .

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20th Century Women is about a single mom who asks for help from two other women, a 29 years old boarder, and a 17 years old neighbor, to help raise her 15 years old son in 1979 Santa Barbara.

A little bit of comedy, and action (a brief fist fight), but this movie is mostly a "weeper", I had tears so it works.

It gets 1979 mostly right, and it gets the experience of being 15, or raising a teenager right.

I'd rate this at least a 6 out of 10,

---

Office Christmas Party is a comedy, and I laughed so it works.

Of other recent comedies that come to mind, it's funnier than:
Bad moms, and
Hangover 2.

It's less funny than
Hangover,
Horrible Bosses, and
Tropical Thunder.

I'd say it was roughly about as funny as Horrible Bosses 2.

I'd rate it a 5 out of 10.

..I LOVED The Grand Budapest Hotel. I've always been mildly interested in the aesthetic displayed in the previews for Wes Anderson movies, but this is the first one that I actually watched. Unrelentingly amusing.

Of the other Anderson movies that I've seen, I don't remember Rushmore that well, but I remember it being good.

I remember Moonrise Kingdom better, and I'd say that it's not quite as good as The Grand Budapest Hotel, but it was still a lot better than most movies I've seen lately, I'd rate it at least a 7.

[Kato]

This week in Kato's Sneak Preview (German schedule): The Beguiled.
Cast: Nicole Kidman, Colin Farell, Kirsten Dunst and some decent young girls.
Are you looking for a live action harem anime set during the American Civil war with your main character a Yankee and a small school full of Southern females to conquer? No? Then this movie is not for you. I mean, it has it's entertaining parts and I won't say it's terribly made but it still feels like 30 minutes worth of plot stressed out to 90 minutes...

[Anonymouswizard]

The last film I saw (last week) was The Handmaiden, I'll try to avoid spoilers in case people are planning to see it.

So in 1930s Korea a young woman gets a job as a maid in order to help scan a wealthy Japanese heiress out of her money via marriage and then sending her to an insane asylum. The two women bond and end up taking in love, gracious lesbian sex ensues. To explain it briefly I liked the actual plot of the film and the characters, but found the lesbian sex scenes to be too detailed.

Spoiler: Longer and spoilers

Show

Yeah, so not assisting spoilers in this tag. There's actually three scams being run here, 'get money from heiress', 'send Sookee (apologies for poor spelling) to insane asylum and split the money', and 'send the conman back to heiress's uncle and run off with the money to have gracious lesbian sex', of which the last succeeds. The story is told in three parts, roughly one for each scam and chronicling how they go, and it's well paced and keeps you engaged.

As I said the chargers are lovely, we have the seemingly sweet and innocent but actually devious (but still sweet) heiress, the naive pickpocket and maid who manages to be the most oblivious lesbian ever, and the crafty conman who manages to be both understandable and despicable. The way these three interact is really the core, especially how the film using m users the three parts to change your perceptions of certain interactions.

The few bits of comedy generally worked well as well, the entire holding up the person trying to hang themselves was funny in a dark easy, especially when Sookee wanted to remote and dropped Hideko.

Oh, and I was hoping for more payoff with the octopus, discovering what it was meant for.

And did we really need all the lesbian sex scenes? I found the first one to add to the story, the second one served a similar purpose but went on far too long, and the third was just weird. Am I supposed to be finding these hot or something?

8/10, cut the gracious lesbian sex and it would easily be a 9/10.

[eggynack]

I just rewatched Moana. It's kinda ridiculous the extent to which I buy literally everything in that movie that's presented in song form, and nearly nothing presented otherwise. Like, she'll be going on about how she's useless, how her being chosen by the ocean was a mistake, despite the fact that she's been solving basically every problem presented to her without using the ocean at all and on her own initiative, and I'll be surprisingly down on her voice acting. Then she starts singing about how she's descended from voyagers and whatnot, and it's amazing and emotionally stirring and junk, and for that moment in time there are no problems whatsoever with anything being done by the movie. Then the movie goes back to being not a song, and she's stupidly (from a narrative perspective) being helped out by the ocean that she's just expressed that she can do junk without, and I'm back to being mostly not into it.

And that happens all the frigging time, though that's perhaps the biggest case. Maui sings an awesome song, and every aspect of his character, including the tattoo thing, comes together and makes sense. He says or does something later, and it's sometimes good, often meh, and never as good as in that opening number. Moana's doing leadership stuff while simultaneously liking the ocean, and it's just okay, and then she's singing about it, and it's the best thing ever. Moana suicidally jumps into that monster pit, cause she had actual zero apparent chance of surviving that (less courageous hero hoping to get a 30 on a 100 sided die to save someone, more someone just deciding to jump off a skyscraper because hey, there's cool looking stuff down there), and it's dumb, but then Shiny happens and the whole monster pit trip makes sense as a thing to happen.

I dunno how to rate all that. Maybe an 8/10, or 7.5? I feel like some incredible things and some things that range from idiotic to average is better than or equal to a whole run of pretty good or even maybe very good. Can't help but wish that Lin had just opera'd it up like he did for Hamilton, with literally everything just being songs. Jeez, at the very least they could have had a wayfinding song. How did that not happen? Wayfinding is awesome, training songs are awesome, everything there was calling out for a song. Her development as a wayfinder was arguably the most important element of her arc, given that her saving junk with an awesome plan that she executes largely solo isn't exactly a new thing by the time the climax happens. And yet no song. Might go with 7.5 just for that absence.

[Sapphire Guard]

Superman I and II. They both stand up fairly well.

[Anthony222]

The last movie I really liked was Blade Runner 2049. {Scrubbed} Ryan Gosling, my favourite actor, plays one of the main roles. I can say that film kept me on the edge of my seat right up to the end. I can recommend it for those people who like thrillers, mystery and Sci-Fi.

[Clertar]

Blade Runner 2019 is one of the only good thing to come out of the reboot-sequel fever. Easily the best mainstream movie of 2017. Denis Villeneuve could bring us a very interesting Dune.

[Darth Credence]

Just so you know, you aren't the only one to remember The Sword and the Sorcerer. That was the one with the sword that shot extra blades out. I even have quoted that movie from time to time - "I have no quarrel with you." and if I'm lucky and they respond in a way that works "Now we have a quarrel."
But, yeah, it wasn't very good.

[rooster707]

Last movie I saw was The Greatest Showman. I liked it a lot, and I don’t even like musicals usually. The songs are good, the characters are good, and it has some nice messages without being too preachy about them (in my opinion, at least).

[Eldan]

Downsizing. Which is weird. Not bad, as such, though. Just a bit... I don't know.

It starts out with half an hour of a really interesting sci-fi movie. Then it becomes a... comedy of manners, maybe? I'm a bit sad that they didn't actually talk more about society's reactions to downsizing. Especially about possile dangers. No mention of a small person ever being eaten by a cat. Stomped on in a bar fight. Washed away by three fingers of rain. Just a few mentions of political dissidents being downsized for easier imprisonment. Still, I think it doesn't hold up as badly overall as I thought from some reviews.

[Anonymouswizard]

Last movie I saw was The Greatest Showman. I liked it a lot, and I don’t even like musicals usually. The songs are good, the characters are good, and it has some nice messages without being too preachy about them (in my opinion, at least).

Yeah, it's amazing.

A bit of a shame, because of what I know of the actual story it would have made a brilliant film, but for a more family musical they had to change it up. Still an amazing film though.

I will admit that, as an avid fan of circus, that I was disappointed at the lack of it in the film. Sure, there's bits and pieces of it, especially with the Rewrite the Stars number (an amazing song that accompanies what's essentially an enhanced circus routine), but a lot of the choreography is still more dance than circus. I know it's not meant to show off the sort of stunts done in modern circus, but I think it's a shame they couldn't work more into it.

Downsizing. Which is weird. Not bad, as such, though. Just a bit... I don't know.

It starts out with half an hour of a really interesting sci-fi movie. Then it becomes a... comedy of manners, maybe? I'm a bit sad that they didn't actually talk more about society's reactions to downsizing. Especially about possile dangers. No mention of a small person ever being eaten by a cat. Stomped on in a bar fight. Washed away by three fingers of rain. Just a few mentions of political dissidents being downsized for easier imprisonment. Still, I think it doesn't hold up as badly overall as I thought from some reviews.

I couldn't get interested in it, maybe it's because I've recently seen the Out of the Unknown episode 'The Tunnel Under the World', which manages to make the concept of people being made smaller as a great plot twist while still being a good story without it.

Downsizing looked to me that it made the downsizing process too important to really pull off an unconnected story with it as a fantastic element, but didn't actually want to base it's story around the affects of the procedure on people and society. I'm glad to see my fears might not have been totally unjustified.

[Eldan]

Yeah, it's weird. They start out talking about it a lot, and then completely ignore any effects it might have for the last two thirds of the movie.

[eggynack]

Yeah, it's weird. They start out talking about it a lot, and then completely ignore any effects it might have for the last two thirds of the movie.

I kinda liked Downsizing. I agree that I would've liked more of that sociopolitical stuff, because the movie was brilliant whenever that came up, and wasserface was a kinda baffling character sometimes (getting weirdly demanding about the way that a person who's putting a lot of work into helping you is helping you is endearing, I guess?), but it was a really novel experience. Reminded me a lot of Joe vs. the Volcano, what with the pseudo-mystical life affirming episodic adventure, except, y'know, worse, because Joe was incredible and this was just pretty good. There's something to be said for a movie where I have no reasonable means to predict what's going to happen next at any point.

Spoiler: On the economics of downsizing

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That being said, the thing that really bothered me about Downsizing was the economics of it, on both a large and small scale. So, downsizing multiplies your money. By my recollection, it does so by about 100 times. So first problem, why, after getting a downsized divorce, does our noble protagonist lose all his money? It's implied that the divorce itself took said money, but that makes pretty little sense. He'd presumably be left with quite a lot after the multiplier,
enough for his fancy super home.

This extends into the second problem. This guy is now poor enough that he needs to work at a telemarketing job. We must assume that said job is for people on the outside world, so he's getting paid big person dollars for the job.
Assuming he's paid five dollars an hour, which would be weirdly low given he lives in future-America with its presumably even higher minimum wage, he'd be pulling in the equivalent of 500 dollars an hour. That is a ton.
He could easily have a really nice place and/or retire from said telemarketing job early on such a salary. Even one dollar an hour would put him in a comfortable position.

Which brings me to the final problem. What's with all these poor people? The movie, through both of these structures,
seems to be saying something like, "Even this system can't remove inequity, and we shouldn't blind ourselves to these structural problems." But multiplying your money by 100 is about enough to shunt you upwards by an economic class. Any lower class person gets pushed to the middle class free and easy, meaning that all of these people were supposed to be 100% destitute in their former life. Which, gotta say, is a weird population to have occupying this massive structure. Are they all refugees? But all that is kinda plausible, I guess. We got really really poor people. What's weird is the same thing that was weird with the protagonist. How little are these people making? Money is all over the place in this economy, both internally from all these rich people around and externally from a surrounding super-economy that can flood them with dough at any moment. The main lady is a house cleaner. If she made 50 cents an hour, she'd be decidedly middle class.

It's all really strange. It's perpetually unclear where exactly money is coming in, where it's going out, what employment opportunities there are, or anything. Was the economic promise of downsizing a lie, because it's basically impossible to make more money any more efficiently than it was in big world? These questions matter, because a lot of the conflict in the movie comes from these issues which have an unclear source.

[Eldan]

Yes, I did quite like it too, more than I expected from the trailers and reviews I've seen. The economy, though...

Spoiler

Show

I wondered mostly the same things.

Though, I mean, his apartment is smaller and less luxurious now than the giant mansion he had before, but I wouldn't exactly call it crappy. It's hard to tell how big it is, and it certainly isn't Dusan's giant penthouse party palace, but it still looks like the kind of place that would go for hundreds of thousands in any kind of city.

One thing that also bugged me is how many luxury items the small people have. Not materials, like food, I understand that. Materials are cheaper, because they need less. But crafted items, like furniture, art, etc. THey aren't expensive because of amount of materials, i nmost cases. The expensive part is the time and craftsmanship required in making them, which should be the same or more for tiny items, because tehy had to build the infrastructure for making that stuff first.

[Liquor Box]

I saw 3 billboards outside ebbing missouri.

Good movie, and I would recommend it to lots of different people. For me, I liked it because the dialogue was hilarious (especially from the Woody Allan character). But I think others would like the story.