General Entertainment ~Rate The Last Movie/TV Show You Watched Thread~

[thewhyteboar]

6 hours ago, Dre801 said:

Rebel Ridge - 7.5/10.  The lead actor was excellent in this.  

Yeah I really liked it. I just wish the ending 

Spoiler

didn't pull its punches.

That actor is going to be a star. He has such expressive eyes.

[Greatoneshere]

The weekend recap: not much again this week due to other plans but here we go.

 

-Rebel Ridge (2024; dir. Jeremy Saulnier): 8/10

-Trap (2024; dir. M. Night Shyamalan): 7/10

[TheShader]

I've been trying to add some more anime to my watching list. I've been rewatching Ranma 1/2 through most of the year, think I'm about 2/3s of the way through the whole series. Not much to say there, it's still the same Ranma it's been for 30 years. Some of it surprisingly holds up over the decades. Others...not so much. But more holds up than you'd think. I'd love to see an updated Ranma that actually has a continuous story. It's very much a 'traditional television' show in which every single episode is almost completely disconnected from every other episode. There's very little in terms of actual continuity.

 

Couple weeks ago I started Log Horizon, I wanted to get into it since my FFXIV guild was watching it when it first came out, enjoying it so far. I'm enjoying it so far although I don't know what to say about it beyond that. 

 

And wanted to pick something up a lot more recent so finally watching Spy X Family tonight. I'm currently typing this up during the second episode. Enjoying it so far but obviously not far enough in to give much more of an opinion. I'm enjoying the balance of serious and goofy.

[Keyser_Soze]

20 minutes ago, TheShader said:

I've been trying to add some more anime to my watching list. I've been rewatching Ranma 1/2 through most of the year, think I'm about 2/3s of the way through the whole series. Not much to say there, it's still the same Ranma it's been for 30 years. Some of it surprisingly holds up over the decades. Others...not so much. But more holds up than you'd think. I'd love to see an updated Ranma that actually has a continuous story. It's very much a 'traditional television' show in which every single episode is almost completely disconnected from every other episode. There's very little in terms of actual continuity.

 

Maybe if the remake takes off?

 

 

[TheShader]

3 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

Maybe if the remake takes off?

 

 

I forgot about that announcement but I also have grown to barely pay attention to news of a Ranma Remake. It's one of those anime you hear about once every 1-2 years and then nothing comes of it. Glad it's actually happening and looks like there's a trailer that came out just a couple weeks ago. Gonna pause Spy X Family and go watch the trailer.

[EternallDarkness]

Rebel Ridge had a great start but then it kind of slows down and felt a bit anticlimatic, was still good. I was just expecting more after that start. 

[EternallDarkness]

The Killer's Game was a pleasant surprise. I wasn't expecting it to be so violent, almost a campy John Wick

[Greatoneshere]

18 hours ago, EternallDarkness said:

Rebel Ridge had a great start but then it kind of slows down and felt a bit anticlimatic, was still good. I was just expecting more after that start. 

 

I think that was actually what impressed me about the film because I had the same feeling (but not in a bad way for me).

 

Spoiler

Our urges want the film to go in one direction (just like I'm sure the main character wanted to but clearly had become a pacifist at some point in his life) but the movie primarily goes in a different direction, not allowing the audience any real indulgence, just like for the main character. That's how I read the subtext of it anyway. I missed his post but also for @thewhyteboar. The point of the film was to pull its punches. 

 

[thewhyteboar]

3 hours ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

I think that was actually what impressed me about the film because I had the same feeling (but not in a bad way for me).

 

  Hide contents

Our urges want the film to go in one direction (just like I'm sure the main character wanted to but clearly had become a pacifist at some point in his life) but the movie primarily goes in a different direction, not allowing the audience any real indulgence, just like for the main character. That's how I read the subtext of it anyway. I missed his post but also for @thewhyteboar. The point of the film was to pull its punches. 

 

Spoiler

I don’t have a problem with him not killing anyone. I liked how his goal was to disarm and de-escalate. I just was kinda put off by the ending that seemed to say “look, there are a few bad apples, but there are still a lot of good cops too!!”

Still a really good movie though! 

[Greatoneshere]

4 minutes ago, thewhyteboar said:

Still a really good movie though! 

 

Yeah, I agree, the movie kind of gave cops a semi-good name, and as an ex-public defender first generation Pakistani-American who has never really trusted cops my whole life, I didn't like that aspect either, but I think the movie earns the benefit of the doubt.

[Keyser_Soze]

[Netflix]

 

Field of Dreams: 7/10

 

With the passing of James Earl Jones I decided I should watch more of his movies. Not only is the late Jones in this movie but also Ray Liotta. Kevin Costner plays Ray Kinsella, a guy who got to know his dad too late in life. Ray moved away and his father passed away while he was gone and then decided to start a farm in Iowa. Soon after you hear the famous line, "If you build it, he will come," uttered by an uncredited voice (a mystery to this day). Ray takes that as sign to demolish his corn field and build a baseball field there. The deceased Shoeless Joe Jackson appears on the field shortly after and then the film is kind of a quest to figure out how everything is connected. You can mostly infer the whole purpose of the film on Ray's return trip to Iowa. It's a somewhat whimsical lighthearted film with a touch of emotion. My biggest gripe with the movie is it should be called Field of White Dreams since there is no negro league representation. Something felt off just seeing a baseball field of white dudes.

[thewhyteboar]

3 hours ago, Keyser_Soze said:

[Netflix]

 

Field of Dreams: 7/10

 

With the passing of James Earl Jones I decided I should watch more of his movies. Not only is the late Jones in this movie but also Ray Liotta. Kevin Costner plays Ray Kinsella, a guy who got to know his dad too late in life. Ray moved away and his father passed away while he was gone and then decided to start a farm in Iowa. Soon after you hear the famous line, "If you build it, he will come," uttered by an uncredited voice (a mystery to this day). Ray takes that as sign to demolish his corn field and build a baseball field there. The deceased Shoeless Joe Jackson appears on the field shortly after and then the film is kind of a quest to figure out how everything is connected. You can mostly infer the whole purpose of the film on Ray's return trip to Iowa. It's a somewhat whimsical lighthearted film with a touch of emotion. My biggest gripe with the movie is it should be called Field of White Dreams since there is no negro league representation. Something felt off just seeing a baseball field of white dudes.

Burt Lancaster's final movie!

 

If you want another James Earl Jones movie, watch Matewan. I just watched it. Chris Cooper is a union organizer in the coal fields of West Virginia, James Earl Jones is the leader of black miners brought in to break the strike. The movie is by John Sayles and it is incredible. Gripping and poetic, beautifully shot and just filled with insanely good performances. 

[Greatoneshere]

I didn't have a lot of time this weekend, so a very short weekend recap:

 

-Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In (2024; dir. Soi Cheang): 7.5/10

[Moa]

Hell or High Water: 8/10

Great dialogue, soundtrack, and cinematography. All the leads steal every scene they're in. The movie is formulaic and predictable, but that doesn't really detract from how engrossing it is.

 

Wind River: 6/10

This could be a 7 but I felt like it's two points less than Hell or High Water (same writer.) Jeremy Renner is fantastic in it, and the conclusion is surprising and abrupt, but it's a little masturbatory in just how much of a male fantasy it is.

 

Under Paris: 4/10

One of those so bad it's good movies. Gets off to a slow start but it was fun seeing just how stupid it could get by the end. I particularly enjoyed the mayor, who was hellbent on hosting a triathlon in Paris like that would be what finally put the city on the map.

[thewhyteboar]

Hell or High Water rocks. 

[Greatoneshere]

19 hours ago, Moa said:

Wind River: 6/10

This could be a 7 but I felt like it's two points less than Hell or High Water (same writer.) Jeremy Renner is fantastic in it, and the conclusion is surprising and abrupt, but it's a little masturbatory in just how much of a male fantasy it is.

 

Man, I loved this movie. I agree with your criticisms but the light it shines on a unique issue and Renner's just flat out incredible acting (the scene in the cabin is just hands down excellent) make this an 8/10 for me. Taylor Sheridan's Sicario and Hell or High Water are better, but that's why Sicario is a 10/10 and Hell or High Water is a 8.5/10 for me. 

[Keyser_Soze]

[Prime Video]

 

Scorchers: 5/10

 

Scorchers is almost like a two section play. It's like a play because the majority of it is just actors on one set talking. The first half of the movie is about a girl named Splendid on her wedding night. She's afraid to have sex with her husband, flat out refuses to do so and the husband is trying to force it. But her dad, Jumper, gets into the mix to figure out what the problem is. While the issue is a bit more poignant than the film lets on, before that point it feels kind of gross seeing a guy and the woman's father trying to coax her into having sex she's not prepared for. The solution is probably a talk they should have had a long time ago.

The second half of the movie is James Earl Jones as Bear, a bartender, and his friend Howler (Denholm Elliott in his 2nd to final film role) a failed actor turned drunk shooting the breeze at night. This is clearly the best part of the movie and it's just them talking. Faye Dunaway joins them shortly, she's a sex worker (Thais), and then later Jennifer Tilly comes in because she finds out that Thais slept with her husband and then is wondering what she did wrong to make her husband go see a sex worker. A slightly interesting conundrum but overall kind of a mixed movie.

 

[SoberChef]

Finally got around to watching Scorcese's 'Bringing Out the Dead' w/ Nic Cage, Tom Sizemore, Patricia Arquette, Ving Rhames, & John Goodman. What a fucking film. To see NYC, yet again through Marty's direction & the stellar Robert Richardson behind the camera to give us this insanity was just such a good time. Darkly funny, lots of dealing with death, and life in ways as well. The feeling of being haunted by those you couldn't help, and also seeing that despite it all, just keep persevering and it will help someone along the way. I got a lot out of this & am glad it's now a part of my collection. 

 

Bonus points for the fact that this had been both my wife's, as well as my own, first viewing, AND we paired it immediately after with LONGLEGS. What an amazing double feature, to which I couldn't recommend enough!

[thewhyteboar]

I rewatched My Cousin Vinnie for the first time in years. I’d caught bits and pieces on tv, but this was the first full rewatch. Man it still holds up. The entire second half with the trial is just so funny and so good. Marisa Tomei…

[Greatoneshere]

Really late with this one, the weekend recap: 

 

-Longlegs (2024; dir. Osgood Perkins): 7.5/10

-Blink Twice (2024; dir. Zoe Kravitz): 7.5/10

[thewhyteboar]

Ronin is so good. I hadn’t seen it since high school. Incredible car chases. Michael Lonsdale! I need to rewatch Day of the Jackal. 

[Greatoneshere]

7 hours ago, thewhyteboar said:

Ronin is so good. I hadn’t seen it since high school. Incredible car chases. Michael Lonsdale! I need to rewatch Day of the Jackal. 

 

Ronin is great! I think it's a little undercooked, meaning it needed a few more extended scenes as the film's plot feels a bit truncated, but I love how everyone talks around each other and it truly feels like spy work, etc.

[thewhyteboar]

The Criterion Channel has a giallo collection. I've watched three Dario Argento movies so far (The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Deep Red, Tenebrae) and enjoyed them all. Love the synth soundtracks. I also like how so many Italian directors all seem to film in the EUR neighborhood. And all let it represent Italian disillusionment. 

[Moa]

 

Sucker Punch: 5/10

I was in the mood for a girls doing hot action movie and that's what I got. I don't think that meshes all that well with the whole lobotomy thing, and the whole thing is just kind of the movie equivalent of the neckbeard in a This Is What A Feminist Looks Like shirt. Oscar Isaac continues to prove that he's great in everything by even being great in this.

 

Baby Driver: 7/10

Fun, stylish, great soundtrack, and action, just generally pretty kickin. The romance plot worked well, but Baby's backstory felt like it either needed to be a bigger or smaller part of the movie.

 

The Fault In Our Stars: 7/10

The trophy rampage was hilarious. The movie walks the line well of having the teens be authentically cringe without being unlikable. It's also in that era of millennial ascendance that is both nostalgic and now anthropologically interesting. The V for Vendetta poster over Gus' bed really takes the cake and the fact that even kids with cancer are going outside and socializing.

 

Cancer plots are always kind of cheating, the stakes are baked in, survival and death are both interesting outcomes. I think this movie did it well and felt authentic. It plays with tropes without abandoning them, which is wise since cancer is ubiquitous enough that you don't really get to tell new stories about it.

 

I think the movie is very effective as a cancer story, but I feel like it's messaging is almost too specific. I don't really know what to take away from it other than being sad.

 

It doesn't surprise me that the actor who played both Gus and Baby turned out to be an actual creep.

 

[5timechamp]

On 9/20/2024 at 2:11 AM, Moa said:

 

Wind River: 6/10

This could be a 7 but I felt like it's two points less than Hell or High Water (same writer.) Jeremy Renner is fantastic in it, and the conclusion is surprising and abrupt, but it's a little masturbatory in just how much of a male fantasy it is.

 

 

Sounds like a Taylor Sheridan project alright. He goes all in on this whenever he pops up on Yellowstone as well..  If he gets a partner that reins his work in when he goes full loony his products would be really great

[Moa]

1 hour ago, 5timechamp said:

 

Sounds like a Taylor Sheridan project alright. He goes all in on this whenever he pops up on Yellowstone as well..  If he gets a partner that reins his work in when he goes full loony his products would be really great

 

Yeah, it's definitely there in Hell or High Water and Sicario. It seems like every woman is written as either a wife or a daughter, defined primarily by how their male counterparts think about them. All good movies despite that.

[Keyser_Soze]

[Prime Video]

 

In the Name of the Father: 8/10

 

It seems like the IRA was a hot topic for movies in the '90s. Being a 9 year old stupid American I missed out on this craze. The film follows Daniel Day-Lewis as Gerry Conlon, an Irish guy who finds himself in one of those wrong place at the wrong type of situations. In this case Gerry finds himself in England during terrorist bombings. Further proving that ACAB, the police come up with an excuse to round up any Irish person and hold them for seven days. In those seven days they are free to torture and force a false confession out of people, shades of what the United States did to the people in Afghanistan. So Gerry and his friends all sign a false confession under duress, go to court and are sentenced for life. Then with hope waning Gerry fights for his innocence

 

While a terrible situation I found myself thinking that these British prisons don't seem half bad compared to an American prison. You can read books, smoke, walk around. It would be even easier to serve if Pete Postlethwaite was your cellmate. Certainly a powerful film. Maybe some jarring tonal shifts towards the beginning of the movie. It feels very lighthearted and innocent at the beginning, even with the looming military threat. Then turns into a bleak prison drama. The acting is quite good of course. Personally I think Postlethwaite steals the show here. Keep your eyes peeled for the late great Tom Wilkinson too. Of course if you're a fan of Day-Lewis you're going to want to see this as well.

[Fizzzzle]

Sisu - 6/10

 

I mean, it's fun, but it's John Wick in WW2. At a certain point it's just ridiculous, and yes I know it's supposed to be - but beyond a few chuckles and great editing choices that I appreciated, it didn't do that much for me.

 

Decent movie, fun time, I doubt I'll ever watch it again.

 

 

~WW2 history that doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the movie~

 

I do think the Finnish perspective in WW2 is lost a bit because of how complex it is. This movie takes place near the very end of WW2, after the Finns had made a peace with the Soviets while the Soviets were still at war with Germany. See, a common start date for WW2 is September 1939, which I think is fucking arbitrary and stupid, because the ONLY event that marks is when Britain and France declared war on Germany because Germany invaded Poland. The Soviet Union ALSO invaded Poland on the same day, did Britain and France declare war on them? No! Because France and Britain only had a defense pact with Poland in the case of an invasion *specifically* by Germany.

 

Fast forward a few months and the Soviet Union invades Poland in what would become known as the Winter War. The war ended up becoming a pyrrhic victory for the Soviet Union, and while Britain and France were nominally on Finland's side (another reason why September 1939 is a stupid fucking date for the start of the war), they basically did nothing but send thoughts and prayers.

 

Fast forward a little over a year later and Germany launches their invasion of the Soviet Union, and Finland goes "FUCK YEAH!" and joins Germany. It should be noted - Finland was never part of the Axis powers, but they WERE allied with Germany and DID face war reparations after the war. And there absolutely were some Finnish SS units. So, like... yeah. But do you see what I mean about how complex their role in the war was? Finland was on the side of Finland - they were first and foremost enemies of Stalin, which led them to becoming allies of the Nazis, then they flipped again in 1944 after assurances the Soviet Union would respect their territory, but there definitely WERE Finnish Nazis.... it's messy.

[Greatoneshere]

15 hours ago, Keyser_Soze said:

In the Name of the Father: 8/10

 

It seems like the IRA was a hot topic for movies in the '90s. Being a 9 year old stupid American I missed out on this craze. The film follows Daniel Day-Lewis as Gerry Conlon, an Irish guy who finds himself in one of those wrong place at the wrong type of situations. In this case Gerry finds himself in England during terrorist bombings. Further proving that ACAB, the police come up with an excuse to round up any Irish person and hold them for seven days. In those seven days they are free to torture and force a false confession out of people, shades of what the United States did to the people in Afghanistan. So Gerry and his friends all sign a false confession under duress, go to court and are sentenced for life. Then with hope waning Gerry fights for his innocence

 

While a terrible situation I found myself thinking that these British prisons don't seem half bad compared to an American prison. You can read books, smoke, walk around. It would be even easier to serve if Pete Postlethwaite was your cellmate. Certainly a powerful film. Maybe some jarring tonal shifts towards the beginning of the movie. It feels very lighthearted and innocent at the beginning, even with the looming military threat. Then turns into a bleak prison drama. The acting is quite good of course. Personally I think Postlethwaite steals the show here. Keep your eyes peeled for the late great Tom Wilkinson too. Of course if you're a fan of Day-Lewis you're going to want to see this as well.

 

A real movie by a legitimate director, it's been awhile!  

[Greatoneshere]

Another brief weekend recap, but the movies were good: 

 

-Girl Picture (2022; dir. Alli Haapasalo): 8/10

-The Rover (2014; dir. David Michod): 7.5/10

[thewhyteboar]

I had to give my guy Kris Kristofferson a proper send off so I rewatched Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. The best western and my favorite movie of all time. 
 

 

I’m gonna drift out of this damn territory. 

[Keyser_Soze]

[Netflix]

 

Arthdal Chronicles (Season 1): 7/10

 

I've seen this touted as "The Game of Thrones of Korea" and I can kind of see that. Not in subject matter but in scope and budget. It's an epic show that takes place around the end of the stone age, seemingly when mankind is at a crossroads between neanderthals (sort of) known as Neanthals in this, and what humans are now, homo sapiens. The "evolved" humans came to a meeting with the neanthals asking for their land, well to neanthals there is no such thing as owning land, so they declined. So the humans though, maybe we could try genocide instead. So they wipe out all the neanthals, or so they think. Neanthals also have the ability of super strength and are identified by their purple blood and lips. In any case someone makes off with a neanthal baby over the course of 10 years or something to flee from the nation that would become Arthdal. Years later those people are enslaved and so on and so forth. That's basically like maybe the first few episodes. It's hard to give a full synopsis because the show is so epic it actually feels like it goes on forever. 18 episodes at 120 minutes each, that's nearly 18 full movies worth of TV show.

 

The headliner for this show, or at least most recognizable for me, is Kim Ok-vin (You may recognize her from The Villainess or Thirst). Another one, personally for me is Go Bo-gyeol who was on Queen for Seven Days. But this show has an enormous cast and it keeps growing and introducing characters even till the final episode. A lot of the show is about suffering and backstabbing each other. Slaves suffering, killing and people in power trying to somehow seize power back and forth which is why I gave it a 7. The show is so long and there is so much bleakness that it really wears you down after a while. There is a second season but it's on Disney+ for some reason, so I guess I'm already committed to watching it since the first season doesn't really wrap anything up, if anything it sets up the second season.

[thewhyteboar]

I know Kim Ok-vin from The Thirst very well. 

[5timechamp]

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F: 7.5

 

Such a relief that it turned out as well as it did. Just enough proper usage of callback of characters… It is definitely the characters that carry this because the action is serviceable at most… really nails that early Bruckheimer aesthetic. Eddie does a better job inhabiting Axel than he did Akeem in Coming to America 2 

 

3 things:

- The old Eddie Murphy laugh is part of the Axel Foley character, this was the exception where he should have used it.. it was a major part that made the character somewhat incomplete, there were a couple of obvious spots where it would have fit and the silence highlighted that fact

 

-the “i dont want to die in a helicopter..” felt as an incomplete/edited Kobe joke.. seemingly withheld for good taste

 

-The music that played during the helicopter portion sounded like a bootleg Airwolf theme for some reason

[Dre801]

Rewatched Captain America: The Winter Solider.  Still one of my favs of the Marvel films.