The sequel is a piece of drizzling lowest common denominator shit that replaces every bit of tension in the first with more wacky traps and plot twists. It does help explain your #2 issue, though.
1. Agreed. Less gore would've served the movie better, but I always have to give love when a mainstream horror flick goes all-out on splatter.
A lot of my issues with most gore is that it feels like it's highlighted in a negative way. The cat death scene was fine
with the acid bit
but it dragged on and the
window
bit, why show the aftermath of the bisected body falling? Small maybe 2 second scene but as a viewer we can imagine/know what happened. Pointless just to show off the gore effect.
Too often gore is utilized to either pad out the run time (the case in The Collector for me IMO as it barely went an hour and a half) or to try and up the 'horror' when less would've been more far impactful.
That's partly why I don't rate/love horror movies for their gore factor because I can watch a lot of shitty horror and get the 'gore' fix. Give me great characters & plot and I'll take the gore as an added bonus that can help a movie but isn't the reason one works.
Without going into too many details, Ready Player One is in the bottom half of Spielberg's movies. Most of the problems are in the writing, but it runs about 30 minutes too long and the first half is full of dizzying "camera panning through CGI" scenes. And that voice over...god, it's cringe worthy.
There's definitely some cool stuff in this. The Rock is good as usual, Naomi Harris is good (though you can tell she probably doesn't want to be in this) and Jeffrey Dean Morgan is actually fun, and you can tell is having a great time playing a
guy you initially think is gonna be a villain but actually isn't.
The stuff with the monsters is great, and once they go to Chicago, I was having a blast watching it. Also, like "Kong: Skull Island", it's surprisingly gory for a PG-13 monster movie. People are stepped on, eaten alive, you see part of a corpse that's missing a chunk of it's waist, and a guy is crushed by rubble with and has a lot of blood splatter on the window.
On the other hand-look, it knows it's a dumb movie and takes pride in it, but my God this is a dumb movie. The end credits say the screenplay was written by four people, and I'm pretty sure two of those writers were kids. There's a scene where Rock is shot in the stomach,
but soon after he moves around a lot and does all kinds of things because "they didn't hit any vital organs
. Also, the main villains are awful. They're basically villains that could've come out of Pokemon, and Malin Akerman and Jake Lacy deliver awful performances-with Akerman somehow being worse than she was in "Watchmen." Lest I forget the end credits have Kid Cudi doing his version of "Bullet With Butterfly Wings."
As a whole, I give it 5.5/10. It's not awful, and I had more fun than not, but when a guy like me who eats up things like "Beyond Skyrim" and all kinds of stupid horror and exploitation movies (I like fucking "Zombie Holocaust" and "Hell of the Living Dead", and own "Night Train to Terror" on Blu-Ray for Christ sake) says that it's really dumb...well yeah. Fine to watch as a low matinee, on demand or on TV, but not anything you need to see.
Finally, this is the second movie I've seen where a giant ape flips people off.
Yeah, Rampage is the definition of a typical hollywood summer action-fest to me, and with that said, shocked it didnt get moved to summer. It's the quintessential turn your brain off and enjoy popcorn flick. Plus I think this specifically appeals to the type of 30+ age year old who grew up playing the game like crazy too, as there was a lot of wink wink nudge nudge to those who were familiar with the really basic storyline that was told in the game. I liked that they brazenly just had the old Rampage game in the background of a few scenes too.
To me, this might not have been as cool and fun without the 3d element in tact, but it added another layer of fun to this. Like Gary said, they pushed the pg-13 limit on this with the gore and language factor. Plus it was a hoot that JDM basically roleplayed as Negan in this in alot of ways. I figure he must have done this in the middle of Walking Dead being filmed or something and he wanted to keep the Negan character going in his mind.
Caught a handful over this weekend in the theaters....
Super Troopers 2: This has a large appeal locally as three showings on Friday sold out locally (wtf? didnt expect this) so we ended up driving an hour away to catch it. It was ok but it felt like they didn't think this story out very well as it didnt have the same cult charm as I think the first did. It had funny parts but not iconic quotes or scenes that I even will remember weeks later. Glad they finally did a sequel though, just expected more from it.
Genesis: This was, I think, some Aussie or UK import that actually was pretty well done for what it was. I hadnt heard of virtually anyone in this, though. Effects were pretty well done for this post-apocolyptic sci-fi and I enjoyed the twists and turns of the story. Had some good themes going too, regarding ethics behind AI technology taking off as an example. Feels like it was being set up for a trilogy of films as there was a massive cliffhanger at the end. Probably one of those VOD films that never should have made a theatrical release, though. It was playing at one theater in the Twin Cities with one showing a day.
You Were Never Really Here: This was fucking strange, yet thought provoking at parts. Overall a psychotic adventure of a film though. Joaquin Phoenix should maybe even get an award for this role as it was his most ambitious and extreme to date. The storytelling was wonderful how they slowly broke down the backstory of the main character and explained things in a way to where you slowly gained stronger sympathy for that character for sure. Go out of your way to see this, you will be pleasantly surprised.
Who Killed Cock Robin: A Taiwan import I saw at an international film festival. Really good noir murder mystery stuff in this. Try and seek it out if you can find it anywhere, it really could and maybe should be remade in the states.
Super Troopers 2: This has a large appeal locally as three showings on Friday sold out locally (wtf? didnt expect this) so we ended up driving an hour away to catch it. It was ok but it felt like they didn't think this story out very well as it didnt have the same cult charm as I think the first did. It had funny parts but not iconic quotes or scenes that I even will remember weeks later. Glad they finally did a sequel though, just expected more from it.
Certain jokes ran flat and kept going, certain jokes just weren't funny period (anything with Rob Lowe, gay panic jokes in 2018), and there was a Farva overload. I'd say it has a few of the best gags in either movie (Farva in the wheelchair had me dying), but you could tell it was written by guys in or near middle age trying to be edgy. It was great seeing Emmanuelle Chriqui and Tyler Labine again, though.
The Woodsman 7.5/10
Kevin Bacon gives a fantastic performance, up there as one of his very best portraying a man out of prison, on parole, after 12 years for molesting 10-12 year old girls. Gets a job at a lumberyard and meets up with a woman (played by Kyra Sedgewick), is harassed by a cop (played by Mos Def) investigating the case of a missing girl, and talks to his therapist (played by Michael Shannon).
Terrific cast and Sedgewick is also a great performance. It works as a character study of the aftermath/life of a pedophile/child molester out of prison but there's also a subplot with a character Bacon's character calls, "Candy," seen trying to lure young boys at the school across from his apartment.
What Bacon does really well is almost humanize a monster. He's a literal molester, constantly asking his therapist, "When will I be normal?" later commenting that being normal would be to see a girl, talk to her, and not feel the feelings he has. Just when the viewer almost feels sympathy, there is a scene or two that reminds you that the character isn't... a good person necessarily but a guy just trying to avoid repeating what he committed (nearly coming apart at the end of the film). The movie starts taking a sinister turn when Bacon's character follows a girl to the city park while also continuing to keep up with "Candy" outside his apartment.
It's also a smartly written script as Bacon/Sedgewick hook up and it's a point made visually that molesters/predators can have sex with adults too, which in some ways makes them more chameleon-like and easier to be predatory to those around them. There's also a lot of inter-personal relationships Bacon has (and doesn't have) with characters around him including his sister's husband (played by Benjamin Bratt) who seems pretty nice until Bacon confronts him with the question if he has feelings for his 12 year old daughter, causing him to tell Bacon he doesn't, "...I don't have your fuckin' sick... disease? Is that what you said it was?" and threatens to kill Bacon if he ever touches her.
In a lot of ways, it's a movie that tries to explore the post-prison life of a pedophile/child molester while simultaneously affirming that they basically have no life afterwards even if they get out on parole. The secretary at the lumberyard learns of Bacon's history and tries to get him to quit and go elsewhere, then lets all his co-workers know, "People have a right to know". He's estranged from his sister and Benjamin Bratt is the only family member willing to talk with him. His parole officer loathes him, hoping he'll basically die.
I finally started watching Narcos on Netflix. The Escobar stuff is great, but I so do not care about the DEA agent side of the story. It just feels completely generic and the actor is kinda bland (I like his narration at least). I only watched the pilot so maybe it gets better, but I was kinda zoning out by the end of the episode.
This is a movie whose title I've always heard but I never really knew anything else about the film.
A Simple Plan (1998)
Directed By Sam Raimi
Two brothers, Hank (Bill Paxton) and Jacob (Billy Bob Thornton), and Jacob's friend Lou (Brent Briscoe) chase their dog into the woods only to come upon a plane whereupon they discover a dead pilot and $4.4 Million in a duffel bag. The trio decide to hold onto the money and wait until Spring for the plane to be found. If nobody mentions the money/seeks it out, they'll split it up and leave town. Sounds simple, right?
The plot is pretty much what you expect given the initial setup but Raimi helps give the entire film a more serious Fargo-esque backdrop to the entire proceedings. There's some pretty sinister scenes going on, including
a murder of a local farmer by Hank after Jacob hits him with a tire iron
but the film really hinges on the growing distrust and paranoia related to the situation of the plane and money itself.
Billy Bob Thornton steals the movie as Jacob, a blue collar man out of work with a lower IQ than Hank who has the 'perfect' life (good job, pregnant wife, solid home). Bridget Fonda plays Hank's wife, Sarah, and does a really good job at insinuating herself into the ordeal while trying to stay a voice of reason but finding herself having to stick by Hank despite the stuff he does. Bill Paxton puts in a terrific performance as Hank, initially the planner/voice of reason, only to find himself quickly spiraling into paranoia after agreeing to hold onto the money at his home. His uncertainty at the situation being too good to be true carries a palpable sense of 'anything wrong'll happen at any given moment' throughout the film.
Soon all sorts of issues come to the surface including Lou resorting to blackmail on Hank to get his part of the money after owing people due to gambling. Hank's paranoia starts to extend out more and more, going so far as to ask Jacob which side he's on while Jacob sees the money as a way to really get his own life on track, particularly buying their parent's farm back. Even Sarah starts to get into the swing of things, plotting to try and set Lou up for the
murder of Dwight Stephanson
earlier on in the film via tape recorder.
Raimi utilizes a lot of close ups and framing throughout the film to help add to the tension. The editing is great including silence when Hank learns from Jacob that their father committed suicide so his life insurance would basically pay his way through college. The scene where
Hank and Jacob shoot Lou and his wife
is surprisingly intense given the stakes surrounding it all.
Really enjoyed Simple Plan back in the day. Great film there.
Tully: Took mom to this for Mother's Day....it certainly is geared (and probably not promoted well as such) towards mothers dealing with post-partum depression. That was really the underbelly of this one. Theron really outperformed the role for sure, and had to put on considerable weight. The other rest of the cast wasnt fleshed out very well, and this is probably the worst Diablo Cody/Jason Reitman pairing so far. Didn't really resonate with me at all but the twist near the end kind of tied it all up a bit but there was still some loose ends from a logical standpoint. Not the greatest film to run out and see but it's rental worthy.
Upgrade (2018)
A flawed but enjoyable slice of modern cyberpunk with some memorable action scenes and some bits of wonderful detail. If you're into Nemesis and the like then this should entertain you no problem, but don't expect a game changer. 6.5/10
I finally got around to watching Death Proof. It’s been on my DVR for a year. I found every scene without Kurt Russell in it an honest to god chore to sit through.
I thought Zoe Bell was annoying in it. Seems like the stuff I see her in she's just too joyful for the situations. I understand it was meant to have the B-Movie feel. I should have set my bar lower.
Upgrade (2018)
A flawed but enjoyable slice of modern cyberpunk with some memorable action scenes and some bits of wonderful detail. If you're into Nemesis and the like then this should entertain you no problem, but don't expect a game changer. 6.5/10
Oh man, I thought this WAS a game changer. This was so very well done and uniquely sci-fi as much as it was horror. Leigh Wannell did a knock out job directing and writing this. Felt like a modern era grindhouse-ish effect to it. Lots of good humor too mixed into this script. The revenge end of it reminded me a bit of Hardcore Henry.
This also had reminders of films like Robocop in ways, and I felt like there was a lot of Black Mirror homaging in a sense, as how they mixed technology turning on the consumers....that element was amped the fuck up in this. Really thought-provoking wtf stuff in a sense in those ways. I enjoyed the social commentary in the background with all of the technology/future stuff.
The performances were decent too....I kept thinking the main lead was Tom Hardy as he acted and looked the part for sure.
I hope this opens this subgenre more as this was VERY well done. Sequel would be gladly welcomed.
I don't think it's a game changer because the third act is a bit of a mess and only Logan Marshall Green (Tom Hardy Lite) really brought his A-game. It was still a hell of a fun time, though, and I have a feeling further watches will only make it grow on me. It gave me a real Verhoeven vibe, which is a great thing.
I'm guessing I was the only one here who did this, but I ended up catching both volumes of Best F(r)iends, which was the new Tommy Wiseau film. Some varying mixed feelings on it all for sure.
The first volume I actually saw in New Orleans during Mania week. They had a sold out premiere screening at an old theater in the city, and Wiseau and his sidekick Greg (who wrote the Disaster Artist book) were there to do a wacky as fuck Q and A before the film as well as a meet and greet. The first volume itself was almost exactly what a followup from The Room should have been and what would be expected. Another strangly disconnected story that went in so many directions you hilariously loved it because it was so over the top and bad at times. Some of the scenes Tommy was involved in were just soooooo over the top. It was really a fun trip that homaged The Room properly too. Left with a cliffhanger in a literal form even.
I had high hopes for a volume two but after going to it locally on Monday, I was really let down. The second part hardly had any Wiseau representation, and they dragged out the second part far too long to where it was a real chore to sit through it just to find out how this would tie into the first part. Greg had the most wooden performance you could imagine once the film's second part took off too, so that made it that much harder to sit through. The only redeeming quality was a guy who was intentionally doing a Clint Eastwood knockoff in a sense and he shined in the performance. The rest was pretty much unentertaining. Things made kinda sense by the end of the film, but then again it didn't.
If they could have eliminated the two seperate films idea, I think this would have been much more ideal and worthy of a look. Maybe they will end up doing so after the fact as there was pointless material particularly that you could pull from volume two to get around a little over two hour film overall.
Just got back from seeing Ocean's 8. It was.... pretty fun, but I don't know if I would say it was good. Biggest problem with the movie is just that
Everything was just too damn easy. There was no tension. The only issue they had was the clasp on the back of the necklace, and they had that solved within five minutes of finding out about it.
"Ninja III: The Domination" is the cocaine fueled result of Canon Films trying to mix a ninja movie, "The Exorcist" and "Flashdance" (or "Perfect") into one movie. It's as amazing as it sounds.
Tag (2018) is worth a Saturday afternoon viewing on Comedy Central once it makes it there. A few gags really, really work (almost exclusively involving Hannibal Buress or Jake Johnson), but most are pretty lame. The character of Jerry (Jeremy Renner) is also quite a terrible human being and I couldn't understand why they didn't outright murder him, let alone remain friends with him. He's a grade A psychopath but we're supposed to just laugh as he casually tries to kill his friends. Add to that with a terrible plot twist reminiscent of Fanboys (only executed exceptionally better there) and subplots that don't really go anywhere, as well as some really tone deaf music choices, and you get mediocrity in celluloid. 5/10
First Reformed: One of the better introspective films I've seen this year for sure. Ethan Hawke might be in line for a nomination on this one, and it may or may not be in line for some awards for the film itself. Just really enjoyed the deep social and political commentary more than anything with this, as it really brought forward how religion intersects with political interests (in particularly, this film covers the idea of climate change and the effect in the religious/private interest group sector), and the hypocrisy of it all. There are alot of really strong themes here....addiction, faith, moral consciousness, guilt, spirituality, love, etc. The third act particularly is a transcendental trip of twists and turns that you dont see coming, and an ending that fits just perfectly into the ending arc. It made me and a family member who saw it really get the discussion going about social and political directions that tie into, specifically, the big box evangelical churches, and how dangerous those churches really are, besides a total contradiction in terms of faith and hope based ideas. To me, this film illustrated that point pretty well, as well as a person who kind of hid behind his cloth as he struggled with his own personal demons, and how the environment he interacted with forced him to face his demons head on.
Go see this if you want a movie that makes you really think of the political and social structure of this country, among other themes. It was really well done.
"Society" is both Brian Yuzna's best directorial effort, and still has one of the most fucked up, disgusting third act twists in cinema history. What "Jaws" did for the ocean this does for
incestuous orgies with mutating, inbred 1%ers.
Also, best use of the word "butthead" in any medium.
That was two nights ago. Last night it was "Tau", which is on Netflix. It's well acted (does Maika Monroe have a bad performance in her?) and directed, but the script is nowhere near as deep as it thinks it is, and it's a waste of a great premise. As a whole it's okay. It's defiantly a better sci fi movie than "Mute", but man Netflix is not having good luck when it comes to this genre.
In my continuation to try and watch 80s horror fare...
Humanoids From the Deep (1980)
Directed by Barbara Peeters (and an uncredited Jimmy Murakami)
Basic summary is it's about mutant human fish monsters which terrorize a local fishing community by killing men & dogs and raping the women. It stars Doug McClure and Vic Morrow and features a side plot about a new cannery set to open, pushed heavily by Hank Slattery (Vic Morrow) while the local Indian (Anthony Pena) tries to stop it and get the land back and their escalating feud. This is mainly about the fish monsters though and it's a very 80s fare horror flick. My first sentence is exactly what you get throughout this thing almost literally from the first minute in.
It has a lot of influence from Jaws down to direction/music cues but the acting is decent, the side plot works well enough to carry some of the movie, and it has some surprisingly solid gore effects for a picture from 1980. The shots of the creature also reveal a fairly good creature suit too.
Does anyone here watch Big Brother? I watch it all the time and would love to have a discussion thread if anyone else does. Just thought I'd check here since we don't have a catch all general thread in this folder (or I missed it).
I watch it. I thought the girl with the Lisa Simpson voice was great as a robot, but not so great as a human. I was hoping for the yoga chick to go home this week but robot chick didn't handle her advantage correctly so who knows. Though I may be an episode behind.
Yeah I watch it as well. I'm not really sure if there's anyone I'm actively rooting for, but at least this season isn't boring, unlike the last few shit shows.
Baby Driver would be a start to finish masterpiece if Jamie Foxx's role, and the second act in general, didn't exist. Edgar Wright is a mad genius of filmmaking, if you didn't know that already, but every brilliant director has a few missteps now and again.
I've been watching the Cinematic Titanic collection Shout Factory put out earlier this year. There's some really good stuff here (The Wasp Woman had to have been a potential MST3K episode a couple times) and I haven't gotten to the live shows yet which, having watched plenty of Rifftrax ones, should have a good energy due to the live audience. 12 riffed movies for about $25 is a damn good deal.
As an aside, I got it on eBay and apparently the MST3K Gamera collection and the one with Godzilla vs Megalon (which I both own) are rare and going for hundreds of dollars now.
Hell or High Water is a beautifully solemn modern take on the western, not unlike No Country for Old Men, that deals with the growing cultural shift and the economic disparity that comes with it. There's a pair of great performances by Chris Pine and Ben Foster (it may be Foster's best), the ever-perfect Jeff Bridges, and a killer Americana soundtrack. 9/10
On the other hand, we have the often overlooked 1980s vampire horror comedy Vamp, about fraternity pledges AJ (Robert Rusler, NOES 2) and Keith (Mel Gibson lookalike Chris Makepeace, aka the camper that Bill Murray mentors in Meatballs) who journey to an inner city strip club to try and procure the services of exotic dancer Katrina (Grace Jones at her Grace Jones-iest) only to find out the hard way that she's a vampire. Also starring Gedde Watanabe (Long Duk Dong) and Dedee Pfeiffer (Cybill herself), along with b-movie icon Billy Drago as the head of an albino street gang, this has to have been an influence on Rodriguez and Tarantino when crafting From Dusk Till Dawn in both story and tone, albeit not as great. A fun horror comedy from the subgenre's heyday. 6.5/10
