What MOVIE(s) have you been....seeing? watching?

I watched Drag Me to Hell on HBO, solely because it was directed by Sam Raimi and I like him. It's a competently written horror film, but not very exciting. Not very scary, either.

hotseatgames wrote: I watched Drag Me to Hell on HBO, solely because it was directed by Sam Raimi and I like him. It's a competently written horror film, but not very exciting. Not very scary, either.

I 100% adore that movie. I don’t think scary was the point though, and let’s be fair, Evil Dead isn’t about being scary as much as it is about being gross. It’s Raimi doing what Raimi does best.

I checked out First Reformed from the library. There are a ton of reviews if you want to know which auteurs influenced the film. It's interesting, and definitely an art film with the mandatory ambiguous ending. Dark, beautiful, a little boring at times, yet also interesting, it depicts the struggles of a priest over a fading church who struggles with maintaining hope in a similarly fading world. Worth seeing if you're a film person or are in the mood for something like this.

Josh Look wrote:

hotseatgames wrote: I watched Drag Me to Hell on HBO, solely because it was directed by Sam Raimi and I like him. It's a competently written horror film, but not very exciting. Not very scary, either.

I 100% adore that movie. I don’t think scary was the point though, and let’s be fair, Evil Dead isn’t about being scary as much as it is about being gross. It’s Raimi doing what Raimi does best.

Seconded on loving Drag Me To Hell. I put it in the same Category as Creepshow, which is not so much “scary” as it is just bonkers on the subject of death.

I dunno. First Man does play it safe, and I'm not sure we really "learn" all that much about Armstrong, and the movie's certainly no "Right Stuff" ambition wise, but I found it often engrossing, maybe in part because we were at a "Dolby" theater that had all-around sound that sometimes shook the seats.

I felt about the 2018 Halloween sort of like I did about the 2017(?) It, which is that it was a horror movie for people who don't like horror movies and don't really want that intensity but do want to say that they went to one. It's a fair movie--and I vehemently disagree with the one reviewer I read who said Hell Fest was better--and it does the franchise no embarrassment, but for me its ending didn't redeem what to me seemed like flaws in character development.

I won't make a strong case for the plot-deficient and generally forgettable mostly-submarine movie Hunter Killer, but it was nice to see a non-sequel, and the movie looked pretty good and professionally competent considering it had a budget of $40 million. Given that it's only made about a quarter of that back so far, I'm guessing Hollywood will become further entrenched in the mindset of putting out only $250m effects-laden blockbusters and single-digits-million cheapos, which is lamentable.

Just saw an advanced screening of Suspiria. It's extremely good. If you like horror (I generally don't) absolutely you have to see it in the theater.

Bohemian Rhapsody is an absolute disaster. I have a soft spot for biopics, especially about musicians, and I couldn't sit through it without laughing. It is the most complete list of boring hero worship tropes I've ever seen assembled in one movie.

That’s good to hear, I wanted a reason to skip that

I took Emily to see Disney’s Nutcracker and it wasn’t very good at all either. It might be the worst editing I’ve ever seen in A movie . Some of the cuts made no sense in terms of continuity of posture and facing. Really unsettling . And Keira Knightley was a disaster. I just wanted her to get blown to shit on a Corusant landing pad

I’ll write a brief review next week

BaronDonut wrote: Bohemian Rhapsody is an absolute disaster. I have a soft spot for biopics, especially about musicians, and I couldn't sit through it without laughing. It is the most complete list of boring hero worship tropes I've ever seen assembled in one movie.

Wtf? Laughing? Hero worship tropes?? I’m in the opposite spot here, because usually I don’t love musician biopics, but this one was well done, both in showing off the music and the man. I really don’t get the “hero worship trope” thing at all, especially compared to most other biopics. I mean yeah, he could sing like a motherfucker. We’ll always revere him for that. What else do you expect? The film shows his difficulties and contradictions, and ways he could be shitty. But there were a lot of great moments that defined the career of him and the band, depicted and written very well.

One quibble I had was that...



Also, so glad they used Freddy’s voice for all of the singing. Rami Malek did great acting his part, and has a decent voice from the little audition piece near the beginning. But Freddy’s voice is the subject of the movie in a way, and they were right to let that star. (And it’s unlikely anyone could do it justice, anyway.)

Sorry, Barney. I’m pulling you back in.

Ah crap, you know good movies too . Dammit


Hey so I’m watching The Last Witch Hunter and it’s surprisingly not terrible. Blade Runner mixed with John Wick I guess? I’m enjoying it so far. I don’t even know when this came out

Ygritte is actually quite good in it. I don’t know why she doesn’t find more work

Eh, I’m reading some reviews where people are down a bit on it, and I don’t get it. Maybe I’m the outlier. I’m seeing things like, they didn’t focus on his AIDS, or show his promiscuity, or whatever. They totally did cover that stuff, but it was meant to be broader than that, as was his life. Other than the quibble I mentioned in the spoiler, I thought it was all really well depicted.

I too liked Bohemian Rhapsody. It is very odd in tone, jumping around all the time. Freddy will be going through some intense personal drama and the next scene will cut to the studio with a fun recreation of how the band came up with a hit song. It doesn't really give the Freddy story the justice it deserves and all the stuff with the rest of the band is just blatant light hearted hero worship, but I don't think that I am mentally in a place where I could have enjoyed the unadulterated Freddy story, so breaking the tone and lightening it up worked for me quite well, giving me a chance to rest emotionally in between the intense stuff.

Valkyrie was better than I expected. Despite playing a Nazi, Tom Cruise is still the good guy. But this isn't a normal Tom Cruise movie. It's based on the true story of an attempt to assassinate Hitler and overthrow the Third Reich... by German officers. Anybody who knows a little about World War II knows that this will end badly, but the movie remains suspenseful precisely because Tom Cruise is the protagonist. We have seen him pull out a heroic victory in so many other movies that it seems plausible that it will happen again thanks to his confidence and courage. If anybody else had been cast in the lead, I would say that this movie would only be of interest to history buffs. With Cruise, I think that it's a good movie for anybody to see, and of particular relevance to those of us living under the Trump regime.

My wife and I were baby sitting the grandson this weekend. He's 3 years old. I was looking for something to put on the TV other than the mindless driver that is most entertainment aimed at kids. I noticed that Amazon Prime was streaming Chitty Chitty Bang Bang so I put that on.

First, I was somewhat astounded to see that the novel upon which this movie is based was written by Ian Flemming of James Bond fame. Although, where the lead female role's name came from is a lot more understandable; Truly Scrumptious.

I haven't seen the movie since I was a very small child and while I know it's about a car, kind of, the only thing I really remembered of it was the Child Catcher with the long nose to sniff out hidden children. Which I have to say terrified me as a kid.

Anyway it was fun to watch as it is really two movies smashed together. The first being the trials and tribulations of the crack pot inventor trying to provide for his family. The second is his "pirate" story which is where the car becomes a boat, a plane, and sort of comes to life. It is also where they travel to Vulgaria, their version of Prussia, to strike down the evil German king and free the kingdom's children.

Maybe it was just nostalgia for those Saturday afternoons when mom would take us to the local theater to watch movies that made me enjoy it so. Those live action movies of the 60's and early 70's do have their charm though.

repoman wrote: My wife and I were baby sitting the grandson this weekend. He's 3 years old. I was looking for something to put on the TV other than the mindless driver that is most entertainment aimed at kids. I noticed that Amazon Prime was streaming Chitty Chitty Bang Bang so I put that on.

I was literally thinking about watching this the last weekend when my Niece was over. Netflix didn't have it and I didn't think about using prime since I currently don't have an account but I do have "accesss" to one. Now I want to watch it more.