General Movie Thread

[Beast]

I've watched Wrong Turn (2021) expecting deformed cannibals to roam the woods and try to hunt the dumb-ass teens down but actually got something completely different. Surprisingly, I thought it was really good. I thought it was the best one. It really could've done without calling it Wrong Turn but you know, anything to make money, I guess.

I've been watching all of the Karate Kid movies again and falling in love with them again. I got them on blu-ray recently and they look beautiful. I still don't understand why they rated the Karate Kid 15 and the others PG though. Still, great films to watch. I have The Next Karate Kid left to watch and then it's on to binge-watching Cobra Kai again for the fourth time (I love it so much!)

[Magnus]

6 hours ago, MindFreak said:

New Pixar movie Luca. So, here we go again, "Pixar's movies aren't what they used to be" or "This looks like a return to form! Pixar's back, yeah baby!"

I hope someone dies in this just to annoy Bob.

[Ashley]

It looks great and just makes me wish I could be in Italy right now 😭

[bob]

I hope someone dies in this just to annoy Bob.

I expect one of the boys is going to have to make a decision at some point to let the other one die in order to become a real boy himself.

Or maybe they're made orphans at the beginning of the film.

Or maybe an asteroid just hits the town halfway through.

[Sméagol]

http://home.kabelfoon.nl/~arthiele/images/pictures/lion_king.png

[Beast]

I've just finished watching Master of the Universe after people were surprised I've never seen anything to do with He-Man. I have no idea what I just watched but I feel like it's something that would happen after a bad trip from taking drugs! I think some of the actors and actresses were lucky they still managed to get decent roles after that film, haha.

[Josh64]

On 26/02/2021 at 5:36 PM, Beast said:

I've watched Wrong Turn (2021) expecting deformed cannibals to roam the woods and try to hunt the dumb-ass teens down but actually got something completely different. Surprisingly, I thought it was really good. I thought it was the best one. It really could've done without calling it Wrong Turn but you know, anything to make money, I guess.

I've been watching all of the Karate Kid movies again and falling in love with them again. I got them on blu-ray recently and they look beautiful. I still don't understand why they rated the Karate Kid 15 and the others PG though. Still, great films to watch. I have The Next Karate Kid left to watch and then it's on to binge-watching Cobra Kai again for the fourth time (I love it so much!)

I love the trilogy man, though for some reason I never thought to try them on Blu-ray! The audio/visual quality of the original film has always been a bit iffy so if they managed to get the original film reel and update to bluray then that's mega, I honestly think the DVD I have, despite being official, is just a rip of a VHS lol. 

I only half watched 2/3 for all these years as they were regular showings on Sky Movies and we always had Sky Movies on at the care home so between rooms I'd always catch snippets and try to piece it all together - It was nice to actually watch them both properly last year.

I really really loved the third film, despite being the least eventful and revisiting the now tired formula of meeting girl and getting rival in such a convoluted way. Just the whole making of the shop and starting a new life in the city with Miyagi felt so wholesome to me, by this point Ralph Macchio was also pretty cute, though not the hot daddy he ends up becoming in Cobra Kai, ho mama. 

I got The Next Karate Kid on the Microsoft Store recently (thank you Bing Rewards!) and am probably 3/4 of the way in but I got sleepy and stopped. I swear I will finish it at some point! I kinda like it for how cheesy it is and more Mr Miyagi is always a good thing but I'm genuinely shocked at how bad the acting from Hillary Swank is, and this is coming from a big Saved by the Bell fan  No knock on her as I appreciate it was one of her first roles, but couldn't the director have stepped in at some parts and asked for a retake? Some of the scenes she delivers are so stiff lol. 

[Happenstance]

 

[MindFreak]

I'm probably going to watch it but I don't think it'll be good. Some things are better kept in the past. 

[Josh64]

I hope we get a totally random and unnecessary Dan Castellaneta cameo like last time!

Anyway, I'm ready:

 

[Beast]

On 03/04/2021 at 1:13 PM, Josh64 said:

I love the trilogy man, though for some reason I never thought to try them on Blu-ray! The audio/visual quality of the original film has always been a bit iffy so if they managed to get the original film reel and update to bluray then that's mega, I honestly think the DVD I have, despite being official, is just a rip of a VHS lol. 

I only half watched 2/3 for all these years as they were regular showings on Sky Movies and we always had Sky Movies on at the care home so between rooms I'd always catch snippets and try to piece it all together - It was nice to actually watch them both properly last year.

I really really loved the third film, despite being the least eventful and revisiting the now tired formula of meeting girl and getting rival in such a convoluted way. Just the whole making of the shop and starting a new life in the city with Miyagi felt so wholesome to me, by this point Ralph Macchio was also pretty cute, though not the hot daddy he ends up becoming in Cobra Kai, ho mama. 

I got The Next Karate Kid on the Microsoft Store recently (thank you Bing Rewards!) and am probably 3/4 of the way in but I got sleepy and stopped. I swear I will finish it at some point! I kinda like it for how cheesy it is and more Mr Miyagi is always a good thing but I'm genuinely shocked at how bad the acting from Hillary Swank is, and this is coming from a big Saved by the Bell fan  No knock on her as I appreciate it was one of her first roles, but couldn't the director have stepped in at some parts and asked for a retake? Some of the scenes she delivers are so stiff lol. 

Same. I absolutely loved it. The Next Karate Kid isn't too bad. It's just cheesy and feels a lot like a direct-to-video movie sequel that has one of the stars from a successful franchise in but tries to do something different. Hilary Swank was bad in it but it's just 90s cheese and nothing more. The Karate Kid Part III is also my favourite as well. It felt like Daniel had grown up, they successfully branched away from the romance routine but still remained faithful to the series and its formula of good people vs. arseholes, which is why I love Cobra Kai so much.

I've set myself a challenge to watch my entire blu-ray collection this year (not counting TV series but just movies). So here's what I've seen so far...

Scream- 8/10 (a classic horror for me)
Scream 2- 9/10 (best one for me)
Scream 3- 5/10 (worst one for me)
Scream 4- 7/10 (when I have a kid, I'm going to tell them this was Scream 3)
Prometheus- 5/10 (some great scenes but why does almost every character have zero common sense?)
Alien: Covenant- 7/10 (surprisingly really good and had a lot of fun with this)
Alien- 7/10 (a classic sci-fi with a great tense atmosphere)
Aliens- 9/10 (thoroughly enjoyed this one)
Alien3- 6/10 (it's a good end to a great trilogy)
Alien: Resurrection- 1/10 (like I said...a great end...to a great...trilogy...)
Alien vs. Predator- 7/10 (a lot of fun and just enjoyable)
AVPR: Alien vs. Predator Requiem- 0/10 (ew! why is it so bloody dark?!)
Predator- 6/10 (I know people love this but apart from the last 35 minutes...it was a bit bland with no tension)
Predator 2- 6/10 (I just felt like I jumped in the middle of the story but a great thrill ride nonetheless)
The Predator- 7/10 (I was very surprised at how good this was after the last two. Very enjoyable and definitely the best of the Predator series)
Predators- 6/10 (It was a good concept and I enjoyed the 'game')
Child's Play (1988)- 6/10 (I love the practical effects used in this and the Chucky revelation scene)
Child's Play 2- 8/10 (I just love me some Chucky and this has always been my favourite one)
Child's Play 3- 6/10 (Has a few good kills and one-liners but Andy was quite boring)
Bride of Chucky- 7/10 (A lot of fun and Tiffany makes a great addition to the series)
Seed of Chucky- 4/10 (Glen/Glenda is okay but I think it would've been better if he wanted to kill but didn't know why or how to stop or something)
Curse of Chucky- 7/10 (Iconic return to the series and definitely turned up the gore as well as adding an interesting backstory)
Cult of Chucky- 8/10 (Very close second favourite because of returning characters from the original series as well as the gory kills and interesting twist to the story)
Child's Play (2019)- 7/10 (I think a lot of people were way too harsh with this)
The Lost Boys- 8/10 (CRRRRYYYYYY LITTLE SISTER!)
The Lost Boys: The Tribe- 3/10 (ew! The vampires looked way too weird...it reminded me of a cross between the Buffy vamps and 30 Days of Night vamps)
The Lost Boys: The Thirst- 6/10 (a great end to the series with some flaws)
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)- 9/10 (a near enough perfect horror film for me)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge- 5/10 (It lost it's scariness for me but it's also not a terrible film?)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors- 8/10 (Love this and it's the best out of the sequels)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: Dream Master- 6/10 (not bad, not good...it just exists)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: Dream Child- 1/10 (not even worth the view)
Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare- 1/10 (ew!)
Wes Craven's The New Nightmare- 9/10 (my favourite of the lot. It's very unique and very dark)
Freddy vs. Jason- 7/10 (Just a lot of fun)
A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)- 5/10 (I liked the new Freddy. Unpopular opinion but he felt more realistic)
IT (1990)- 6/10 (I loved Tim Curry as Pennywise but the constant flashbacks were a little annoying even though they were needed)
IT (2017)- 8/10 (I love the book and I loved this. I love the characters and Pennywise was absolutely brilliant)
IT: Chapter Two- 7/10 (Although it's not as strong as the last one, I still loved it nonetheless and I loved the finale)
The Conjuring- 8/10 (great scares, great story and just an overall different feel to the usual 'haunted house' shit we seem to always get)
The Conjuring 2- 7/10 (A strong sequel that gives me hope for the third)
Annabelle- 3/10 (No)
Annabelle: Creation- 5/10 (It's alright)
Annabelle Comes Home- 5/10 (What is it with characters having no common sense?!)
The Nun- 5/10 (I expected better, honestly. She was great in The Conjuring 2 but this felt off the mark)
The Evil Dead (1981)- 7/10 (I love practical effects but everything else was lacking. It felt more like a showcase of talents over anything)
Evil Dead 2- 8/10 (I appreciate the effects more in this and the humour is definitely in this more but again, it lacked everything...maybe I missed the point?)

I'm now on Army of Darkness so I'll probably update this next Sunday and go from there! haha. The quest continues!

[Beast]

On 03/04/2021 at 9:38 PM, Happenstance said:

 

SO MUCH AWESOMENESS! Space Jam was one of my most watched movies as a kid. I feel like I owe it to my 90s self to watch this!

[Glen-i]

Looking at @Beast's Blu-ray collection...

You certainly have a genre down-pat, huh?

Channel 4 showed BlacKkKlansman a few days ago. Never seen it before, so why the hell not?

It's described as "Dark Comedy", not too certain about that. It had it's moments (The final phone call was hilarious and very satisfying), but it doesn't feel like that was what the movie was aiming to be.

If you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan before watching this (Yeah, extremely unlikely, just roll with it), you'd be forgiven for thinking that they look like some kind of Saturday morning cartoon villain group, their views and beliefs are so extreme, it should be laughable. But it's not, and that's depressing.

It's a good movie, starts a bit slow in the first 20 minutes, but kept my interest once the main plotline kicked in. Would recommend.

Spoiler

I'm actually quite surprised none of the good guys died by the end. Was going through the whole movie expecting tragedy to strike, but nope.

Wouldn't call it a happy ending though, what with all of Ron's hard work getting covered up and then the fact that he's very likely made himself a massive target for the KKK.

And the way the movie ended really hammered home the fact that things haven't changed all that much these days, especially in America.

 

[Beast]

28 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

Looking at @Beast's Blu-ray collection...

You certainly have a genre down-pat, huh?

Channel 4 showed BlacKkKlansman a few days ago. Never seen it before, so why the hell not?

It's described as "Dark Comedy", not too certain about that. It had it's moments (The final phone call was hilarious and very satisfying), but it doesn't feel like that was what the movie was aiming to be.

If you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan before watching this (Yeah, extremely unlikely, just roll with it), you'd be forgiven for thinking that they look like some kind of Saturday morning cartoon villain group, their views and beliefs are so extreme, it should be laughable. But it's not, and that's depressing.

It's a good movie, starts a bit slow in the first 20 minutes, but kept my interest once the main plotline kicked in. Would recommend.

  Spoilers now (Hide contents)

I'm actually quite surprised none of the good guys died by the end. Was going through the whole movie expecting tragedy to strike, but nope.

Wouldn't call it a happy ending though, what with all of Ron's hard work getting covered up and then the fact that he's very likely made himself a massive target for the KKK.

And the way the movie ended really hammered home the fact that things haven't changed all that much these days, especially in America.

 

I love my horrors. My collection is in genre order because its the only way to maintain a bit of order and find the movies I want. I still need to put them in alphabetical order. Overall, I have 585 blurays (I've got rid of some I didn't want) and scanned them in the Bluray app to keep track. I have most Disney blurays (bar 5 and this does include Disney animation, Disney Pixar, Disney Channel Original Movies and Disney Direct-to-DVD but I'm only going on what's available in the UK and its scarce compared to the US). 

The genres I'm going through are horrors, boxing, crime/gangster, drama, romance/romcom, Christmas, action, family, comedy, fantasy/sci-fi, music/Musicals, Disney, Star Wars and Superheroes (Marvel and DC). 

Actually, a question if anybody knows as I'm not massively familiar with them but want to be: There's a watch order of how to view the MCU films but is there one of the newer DC films?

[Julius]

On 04/10/2020 at 12:44 PM, Julius said:

Still no release date, but can't wait for Minari to finally be out. Really hoping it's released before the end of the year, but at least we got another trailer the other day. 

 

@LazyBoy @Agent Gibbs you two seemed interested, so thought I'd share with you that it's been going up several places over the last week for rental  you can find a list of ways to watch it here. 

Going to be picking it up myself on rental from Prime Video, probably watch it tonight or tomorrow evening, and have pre-ordered the Blu-ray from Amazon too (at the very least to share the experience with my family). I've been waiting to watch this for a while now, because I don't think I've ever identified with a trailer as strongly as I have as the one for this film, so I'm really excited to finally check it out! 

Just been keeping a general eye out on other Oscar contenders we're waiting to come out over here, and it seems like Sound of Metal should be releasing here in the next few weeks (I've seen April 12th floated out there, but couldn't find anything official). 

Also started wading my way through a massive pile of Blu-ray's I've had build up over the last year or two, and started keeping a bit of a brief film journal on my phone to try to motivate myself to get to them, which has been going well so far! 

Edited April 6, 2021 by Julius

[Julius]

Don't think I've ever related to a film as much as I have Minari. 

Growing up I really never understood why everyone made such a huge fuss about having idols from your own racial background, watching shows or movies with people who share your skin colour, and to be honest, I still don't all that much. Maybe part of that is growing up and not having that, but for me, one of the greatest things about being a child is the pure innocence of being able to see the world through just about anyone's eyes. My skin colour and racial background never once came into account when I thought of my bond to characters like Anakin and Luke, Peter Parker, Bruce Wayne, Aang and Zuko, or anyone other fictional character I could possibly list from my childhood as having a big impact on me as a person. It still remains the case for me that a good character is a good character, regardless of skin colour, gender, sexuality, or any other reason people might possibly find to divide themselves further, and there's nothing I hate more than what can oftentimes feel like tokenism (whether that be recruitment quotas, role casting, etc.). For me, what has always mattered most is that everyone is given fair consideration, but beyond that, consideration for the most suitable person for whatever role should come squarely down to their capabilities above all else. 

I can understand more about the importance of characters like Black Panther and Miles Morales in the West, where I do feel like there is a much clearer divide between black and white people (for obvious historical reasons) than there is between white people and Asian people (I'm half English, half Filipino), and so I really don't think the importance of those characters can be overstated. Being of mixed race is its own can of worms, where growing up I didn't feel like I truly belonged anywhere: in England I was Filipino, and in the Philippines I was English. Because of this, despite having shared childhoods with many friends, my experience was wholly different to theirs, and it is still often difficult to relate to them in that sense. 

I mention all of this because for the first time last year in The Last of Us Part II, a core character, Jesse, was of Asian heritage, and though it doesn't play into his character (pretty much at all from what I can remember), it was the first time I had ever experienced some type of media and actually noticed what they were trying to do. Okay, it was borderline being inclusive for the sake of inclusivity (again: really doesn't play into Jesse's character from what I can remember), but hey, I guess this all has to start somewhere if we are going to see more people from different backgrounds being given equal footing, and so I'm all for it. 

Which brings me back around to Minari: it feels like it perfectly captured my early childhood experience, in a way nothing else I've experienced has. The awkwardness of feeling isolated in a new place, being surrounded by people who are quick to point out that you look or sound funny (different), but smiling through it all with this unwavering innocence. I swear some scenes could easily have just been taken straight from my childhood, it's scary just how much is clearly shared by first- and second-generation Asian immigrants when it comes to this. The cast blew me away (especially Steven Yeun and Alan Kim, who carries so much of this film on his tiny shoulders), it all just felt so tangibly human to me, and many of those high and low points of the film hit very, very close to home. I definitely found myself welling up a couple of times. 

These are the types of stories that need to be told when we talk about inclusion, not just having a token black or Asian character shoved into the main cast of some big budget film, but something intimate and personal, because anyone with the slightest hint of empathy will be able to come away from this with more of an understanding of what it has been like for so many. I can't think of many things more important today, in a world unfortunately increasingly divided, than being able to relate to just one more person. 

[Julius]

Spielberg rolling up his sleeves for some Oscar bait with the West Side Story teaser. 

One of the few shows I saw in a theatre growing up, and I remember really enjoying it, so I'm looking forward to this 

Edited April 26, 2021 by Julius

[bob]

Watched Godzilla vs Kong yesterday.

It was ok. Visually, it looks pretty good, but as always, they introduce a load of dull humans to follow around that you really don't give a fuck about. I realise that making a 2hour long film just about one long fight would be difficult, but the gaps between the monsters fighting is just lame.

Also, the massive ramp up in technology in this film felt a bit jarring. In the previous films, it feels like it's set in the present day, but then in this one they have weird space ships, magnetic tunnels through the earth, magic scanning robots, etc. 

Anyway, I would give it 7 monke/10.

[Sméagol]

Some films I've enjoyed online this year:

Love and Monsters (Netflix)

This was fun.

The Mitchells vs The Machines (Netflix)

Edit: so ehm yeah do not watch the trailer. It's fucking 3 minutes. who came up with that? i couldn't quickly find something shorter.

This was VERY fun. Go watch it.

The Trial of the Chicago 7

Interesting film based on a real trial. Couple of laughs, excellent cast. Should have seen this last year while I still had the chance to see it in a cinema.

Alien on Stage

 

Fun documentary about an amateur drama group trying to adapt Alien to theatre.

Vicous Fun

Horror comedy about a guy accidentally stumbling on a support group for serial killers.

Al Morir la Matinee

Just straight up retro slasher from Uruguay.

Minor Premise

Sci-fi thriller about a guy who ehh breaks his mind.

Possessor

Sci-fi about a female assassin who hi-jacks other bodies to do her job.

Gagarine

French social drama with a bit of a space theme.

I als enjoyed Censor, a British horror about a woman working for the BFCC to censor horror films. But this doesn't seem to have a trailer.

I wish I could have seen these in cinema.

 

Edited May 1, 2021 by Sméagol

[BowserBasher]

8 hours ago, Sméagol said:

Love and Monsters (Netflix)

This was fun.

The Mitchells vs The Machines (Netflix)

Edit: so ehm yeah do not watch the trailer. It's fucking 3 minutes. who came up with that? i couldn't quickly find something shorter.

This was VERY fun. Go watch it.

I’ll give Love and Monsters a +1 too. Very good film. 
 

I will try to see The Mitchell’s vs the machines. Sounds like it’s a fun film. And yeah I’m not watching a 3 minute trailer. No point in watching the film after that. 

[Glen-i]

BBC showed Citizen Kane and I took the opportunity to finally watch it for the first time.

Often cited as one of the most important films in the history of cinema and first released 80 years ago, it only just recently got usurped from it's throne of "Highest Rated Film" by Paddington 2.

The movie is probably most well known for it's opening scene, where super famous media mogul Charles Foster Kane is on his deathbed, utters the word "Rosebud", and then dies. The rest of the movie follows a journalist as he interviews various important people in Kane's life in order to find out exactly what "Rosebud" is.

Before I even went into this movie, there was one massive flaw, and I think you all know what I'm going to say. The problem with this movie is everyone already knows what Rosebud is.

It's one of those spoilers that's so famous that there's almost zero chance that you'll find a person who doesn't know what it is. It's like how every gamer worth their salt knows who dies in Final Fantasy VII, even if they've never played it.

I first found out about this twist from that Family Guy joke about Peter Griffin taping over a video of the movie, immediately telling the viewer what Rosebud is. Because of that, I kinda thought that my enjoyment of Citizen Kane would be hampered, but two boob-less hours later, and this is what I have to say.

Spoiler

I'm surprised at how little impact Rosebud (It was his sled) had on the overall plot. It's reveal at the end of the movie serves as a symbol of how Kane wanted to recapture his lost childhood, but that's about it. The journalist doesn't even find out what Rosebud is! He gave up on it, despite being in the very room that held the answer. How's that for irony? It's surprisingly depressing for a movie of it's era, which is most likely why it was so universally praised. You don't really see that kind of ending back then. Truly revolutionary.

It's weird, having such a famous twist turn out to be pretty unimportant like that. The reputation this movie has is focused on that when in actuality, the story of how Kane desperately tries to buy happiness with the ridiculous amount of money he has seems to be pushed to the background just because of a sled.

Of course, in the actual film, said gradual desperation of Kane is most definitely the main focus. And it's a story that holds up really well today. You can see all sorts of things that would go on to influence countless films here and it's fascinating to watch.

That said, if I had to criticise one thing, it would be the completely unnecessary moment when a scene transition is punctuated by A COCKATOO SCREECHING AT THE TOP OF IT'S LUNGS!

It's so jarring to the overall tone of the film and I can't help but imagine Orson Welles giggling to himself when he put that in and saying something like "I can't wait to see their reactions when this happens!"

Overall, it's a brilliant movie that should be watched not just for it's historical value, but for the genuinely good plot, even by today's standards. It really is the "Paddington 2 of Film"

Also, this GIF is forever changed for me, now that I know that 90% of people who use it are using it wrong.

Man, you just feel so sorry for Susan in that scene.

[MindFreak]

1 hour ago, Glen-i said:

It's one of those spoilers that's so famous that there's almost zero chance that you'll find a person who doesn't know what it is. It's like how every gamer worth their salt knows who dies in Final Fantasy VII, even if they've never played it.

I don't know what Rosebud means except that it's a cheat code for infinite money in The Sims. 

I also have no clue about who dies in FFVII. Is that the one that has Cloud in it? And Sephiroth? 

[Glen-i]

11 hours ago, MindFreak said:

I don't know what Rosebud means except that it's a cheat code for infinite money in The Sims. 

I also have no clue about who dies in FFVII. Is that the one that has Cloud in it? And Sephiroth? 

Holy crap! Watch Citizen Kane now. Wish I could've been in your position.

And yeah, FFVII is the one with Cloud. Also play that.

[bob]

I don't know what Rosebud means except that it's a cheat code for infinite money in The Sims. 
I also have no clue about who dies in FFVII. Is that the one that has Cloud in it? And Sephiroth? 

Do...do you know who Luke Skywalker's father is?

[drahkon]

16 hours ago, Glen-i said:

Before I even went into this movie, there was one massive flaw, and I think you all know what I'm going to say. The problem with this movie is everyone already knows what Rosebud is.

I've watched Citizen Kane for the first time a few weeks ago. Sadly I was spoiled by a podcast (thanks Conan O'Brien) a few days earlier...However, I don't really think it matters that much.

It's an incredible movie.

Also: Gotta agree with that one transition you talk about...it's odd, to say the least