[Movies] Talk about the last movie you saw 2: Electric Threadaloo

Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

The Legend of Hell House: Unnerving throughout a good chunk of its running time, but the climax seems to be pulling together a lot of threads with a great eagerness to explain itself in just a few minutes. I'm sure that worked better and felt like it took more time in the Matheson novel, but it kind of fell apart for me. There's an interesting argument over whether there's such a thing as spiritual haunting, or if all hauntings are just poltergeists aka a psychic footprint. Trying to find an answer just didn't work with the movie's atmosphere. It threw away investment for cleverness. There was also no reason anyone should've made it out alive, based on the rules established.

It wasn't a bad movie, but I feel like I should've watched something else and saved this to watch with someone who might've had a different perspective.

Kind of want to watch Clown, directed by Spider-man: Homecoming's director Jon Watts, but everything I've read says it completely drops the ball on its body horror premise, and maybe I've watched enough horror movies for the weekend, seeing as it's only the beginning of September.

Cannot wait to be alone at midnight after all that. Yes, good decision-making skills on my part.
 
Gruebeard

Gruebeard

I finally got around to watching Ghostbusters last night.

It was funny and entertaining. And is, by far, the best remake I've seen in a long time. Indeed, it has repaired some of the damage that Robocop remake did do my childhood.
 
drawn_inward

drawn_inward

Little Evil. Funny movie. It's a horror/comedy like Shaun of the Dead or Dale and Tucker. It's not nearly as good as those two, but still worth watching.
 
Denbrought

Denbrought

drawn_inward said:
Little Evil. Funny movie. It's a horror/comedy like Shaun of the Dead or Dale and Tucker. It's not nearly as good as those two, but still worth watching.
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Watched it last night, pretty much the same opinion... Though I have a weak spot for Adam Scott, so it was well worth it for me.
 
Yoshimickster

Yoshimickster

Justice League: Gods and Monsters

DAMN-that was a fun little elseworld story, and like EVERY DC Elseworld story I've ever liked I'd like some continuance...but experience says it wouldn't work out. LOOKING AT YOU-"The Kingdom", the mere fact that Nightstar had to say "Its barely incest" PROVES how creepy her relationship with I'bn Al Xufasch is!
 
Fun Size

Fun Size

Suspiria: Having heard about it forever, it was interesting but showed its age.

Death Note: Took a basic premise, threw away almost everything beyond the bones of it, and made a cheesy horror movie. I liked it. That said, I only read some of the manga and never watched the anime, so I'm not beholden to some other vision of the material. I would love for them to make a sequel, as it ended with things set up well for such a thing.
 
Frank

Frank

Saw Lucky Logan. Did not expect to enjoy it as much as I did. What a funny little heartfelt movie.

The bear scene is the funniest thing I've seen in a movie in a decade. I literally missed the next 30 seconds of the movie from laughing.
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

Saw the new adaptation of Stephen King's It tonight. Really great, creepy horror. Not entirely scary, but definitely creepy. Fantastic special effects; quite a bit was (from what I could tell) practical. I was skeptical on them splitting this new adaptation into two movies, but I think it works quite well. Definitely can't wait for Part 2. Great performances by everyone involved, which is hard to say sometimes with child actors. Given that I grew up on the original TV mini-series adaptation, it's hard for me to separate the two, but the mini-series hasn't aged well and this film adaptation does a LOT of things better than the cheesy made-for-TV adaptation.

Skarsgard's approach to Pennywise is a vast departure from Tim Curry's memorable but hammy performance. His performance is constantly unsettling. His enunciations and mannerisms come across as alien, like something inhuman trying to emulate how a human acts or talks.

Some criticisms:
-Several times, I wanted to shout, "You fucking idiot!" to something one of the kids did. Like entering a room separated from their friends when it'll obviously close behind them. Or investigating something unnatural. I know it's a horror trope, but it was particularly stupid here.
-Another trope I'm tired of seeing in horror films: a crawling victim dragged away by the unseen monster. It worked maybe once, but it's overused in so many horror flicks now that it's just a bad cliche.
-Unlike the TV mini-series, some of the kids' development was less than others. Mike, Stan, and Richie, for example, get little attention compared to rest. They still get screen time and get some great moments, but their characters aren't quite as fleshed out.
-The final showdown with Pennywise is infinitely more satisfying than the TV mini-series.
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

ThatNickGuy said:
Saw the new adaptation of Stephen King's It tonight. Really great, creepy horror. Not entirely scary, but definitely creepy. Fantastic special effects; quite a bit was (from what I could tell) practical. I was skeptical on them splitting this new adaptation into two movies, but I think it works quite well. Definitely can't wait for Part 2. Great performances by everyone involved, which is hard to say sometimes with child actors. Given that I grew up on the original TV mini-series adaptation, it's hard for me to separate the two, but the mini-series hasn't aged well and this film adaptation does a LOT of things better than the cheesy made-for-TV adaptation.

Skarsgard's approach to Pennywise is a vast departure from Tim Curry's memorable but hammy performance. His performance is constantly unsettling. His enunciations and mannerisms come across as alien, like something inhuman trying to emulate how a human acts or talks.

Some criticisms:
-Several times, I wanted to shout, "You fucking idiot!" to something one of the kids did. Like entering a room separated from their friends when it'll obviously close behind them. Or investigating something unnatural. I know it's a horror trope, but it was particularly stupid here.
-Another trope I'm tired of seeing in horror films: a crawling victim dragged away by the unseen monster. It worked maybe once, but it's overused in so many horror flicks now that it's just a bad cliche.
-Unlike the TV mini-series, some of the kids' development was less than others. Mike, Stan, and Richie, for example, get little attention compared to rest. They still get screen time and get some great moments, but their characters aren't quite as fleshed out.
-The final showdown with Pennywise is infinitely more satisfying than the TV mini-series.
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This is gonna be a long two weeks to wait. :/
 
Denbrought

Denbrought

It was great. I greatly enjoyed not having the split/flashback narrative going on. Didn't enjoy every single change from the previous rendition, or deviation from the written story, but on the whole I have a heckuva lot more praise than I do complaints.

The Stranger Things kid (Richie) was probably the worst actor in the kids group (which surprised me). Not that he got an easy character to play, but ehhhh... Mike's actor did a great job, I enjoyed their body language.
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

Oh, one criticism I meant to mention: the occasional reference or call back to either the book or mini-series.

Examples:
-The whole "Do they float?" exchange with George isn't there, yet there are several "You'll float!" line by It. Which falls flat without that initial set up with Geogie asking like he did in th miniseries. Mind you, everything else about his exchange with It is phenomenal. One thing happened that legit shocked me.

-The kids say "Shut up, Richie!" instead of the memorable "Beep beep, Richie!" Then It says it once mockingly, but it doesn't work if the kids aren't saying it.

It's like Star Trek Into Darkness with Khan's reveal. It means something to part of the audience, but not to the story on its own.

They're minor nitpicks, though. The moview as a whole is great.
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

ThatNickGuy said:
Oh, one criticism I meant to mention: the occasional reference or call back to either the book or mini-series.

Examples:
-The whole "Do they float?" exchange with George isn't there, yet there are several "You'll float!" line by It. Which falls flat without that initial set up with Geogie asking like he did in th miniseries. Mind you, everything else about his exchange with It is phenomenal. One thing happened that legit shocked me.

-The kids say "Shut up, Richie!" instead of the memorable "Beep beep, Richie!" Then It says it once mockingly, but it doesn't work if the kids aren't saying it.

It's like Star Trek Into Darkness with Khan's reveal. It means something to part of the audience, but not to the story on its own.

They're minor nitpicks, though. The moview as a whole is great.
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Those are weird decisions, especially taking out Georgie asking if the balloons float. They use it all over the advertising. Makes me wonder if they had filmed it, but edited it out, because the only reason Pennywise starts saying anything about floating is because it tickled him when Georgie asked that.
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

Zero Esc said:
Those are weird decisions, especially taking out Georgie asking if the balloons float. They use it all over the advertising. Makes me wonder if they had filmed it, but edited it out, because the only reason Pennywise starts saying anything about floating is because it tickled him when Georgie asked that.
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I MIGHT have missed the line because the conversation was longer than the miniseries version. But I doubt I'd miss an iconic line like that.
 
Jay

Jay

Dunkirk.

I loved all Nolan's films but this is the first one that's a miss for me. What exactly did I watch?? The editing/story-telling in this movie is BAD. I think he tried to make it Nolan-esque in a way but it came out so damn convoluted. I didn't care for most of these characters.... and most of the young actors all looked the same.

The cinematography though was glorious though, some of the action shot are legit amazing.

Yet, the lack of CGI made some scenes seem empty. I didn't get to see 300,000 soldiers on the beach. The English sent 40 military ships and 300 civilian ones who went front and back several times.... in a scene everyone cheered when 12 yachts showed up.

I also would have liked to see a shitload of air battles but it seems like the English consisted of 3 airplanes vs 6 for the Germans. Literally there that 3000+ sorties by the English and played a huge part keeping the damage from the Luftwaffe as low as possible.

Meh.
 
Far

Far

Taking it away from Georgie is disappointing but in the context of the movie it still works despite it not being mentioned by him.
While Pennywise isn't referencing a balloon floating anymore, It is referring to how they float once being subjected to the deadlights, where in the book they are "webbed" up, here they physically float. As well as the obvious implication that dead bodies would float in the sewer.
I loved the dead stare, sometimes drool dribbling down that Pennywise would occasionally get. Like @ThatNickGuy said, it lent a very alien air to It. The kids were well cast with Bill, Beverly, Eddie and even Georgie being the stand outs for me. I agree that Mike and Stan fell a little flat. I sort of understand Stan, knowing what happens, but was ultimately a bit underwhelmed with Ben as well, likely because I identified with him the most while reading the book.

I do think there are large deviations from the book but there would be and I'd even say had to be. In fact, one of my favourite scenes wasn't in the book at all.
It was one of the only scenes that genuinely scared me. In the span of a few minutes it goes from education and deduction to terror with the Pennywise slides rapidly flipping and animating to calm for a brief second when they knock over the projector to HOLY FUCK! We are going to die! The way that scene was presented with the projector slowly flipping through, illuminating the garage for a few seconds and then plunging back into darkness was much more than I expected from the camera work of this.

That said I really enjoyed it and and am eagerly awaiting the second chapter. It was also a MUCH better adaptation than the mini-series.
 
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GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
Batman and Harley Quinn (2017)

Summary:
It's nice to find a DCAU movie that, among the countless gritty "what if" JL alternate universe movies, re-origin stories, and Teen "MY EMOTIONS" Titans offerings from DC of late, we finally get a good ol' Bruce Timm return to what works - in direct contrast (and perhaps in reaction to) the much derided adaptation of The Killing Joke. This is the movie I'd hoped for years ago when I first saw that DC was doing animated movies instead of renewing TV serieses. It was like Batman:The Animated Series but with a bigger budget, cleaner/better art, an act 1 crime mystery that turns into an act 3 save-the-world fight, and (just to make sure things don't get too grimdark) a couple musical numbers and a scene that is entirely, explicitly, egregiously based on fart jokes.

The movie gets to stretch its content legs a little bit for not being confined to the E rating that B:TAS was while on TV - the fights actually show fists contacting on-camera, there's blood/stabbing, there's death on-screen, and even one non-explicit instance of off-screen sex (that will probably go over the heads of any 7 year old who is watching) - but unlike some of the other recent DCAU movies it doesn't gratuitously indulge in PG-13 stuff simply for the sake of doing so - in fact, I'd say it stays safely PG. The voices for Harley and Nightwing are different (though Nightwing is the same voice actor - I don't know what happened to Loren Lester's voice over the years), but they're close enough - and Kevin Conroy is Batman, which anchors everything nicely. Try not to hold it against the movie that Melissa Rauch (Bernadette from Big Bang Theory) voices Harley... Arleen Sorkin is regrettably too old to do the voice without creaking any more, and Tara Strong is probably too expensive. She does OK. Not great, but OK.

Spoilers beyond this point.
While overall I'd say the movie is definitely worth watching, I do have a few nits to pick with it.

I like a good fart joke as much as the next red-blooded american male, but the aforementioned scene felt like it was going beyond what was necessary - in fact, maybe trying a little TOO hard to prove that the movie doesn't take itself seriously. If that's the motivation though, I can forgive it.

What's less forgivable is the movie's ending, which starts off looking like it will be a disappointing Deus Ex Machina in the form of a Swamp Thing cameo, but then turns out not to be, but THEN is over literally the instant Harley reminds the boys that Floronic man is essentially a plant and therefor flammable - which apparently was a thought that had failed to occur to anybody over the entire storyline. And the double-cheek-kiss right before the iris-out is going too far. It's completely out of character for this Batman, and made me start to suspect that perhaps this story was being told from Harley's perpsective/memory or something (see: Unreliable Narrator). And that it happened right at the very end of the movie worsens its effect, as there's very little content after that to assuage the viewer's maimed suspension of disbelief. If I'd written this review immediately after watching the movie, I'd have given it a C simply because of the ending, whereas right up until that moment it had been an A. Fortunately, I slept on it first, and now I remember the rest of the movie BEFORE the ending, so I'd split the difference and call it a B.

A lesser gripe is that the first musical number goes on longer than it needs to, given that it is being sung by Min and Max, two minor henchmen from an old TAS episode (in fact the scene is full of old TAS henchmen, ranging from Captain Clown, and one of Catwoman's goons tries to buy Batman a glass of milk, then does the Batusi to annoy him), so I guess the movie is banking on viewers being enraptured by the sound of Rob Paulsen's voice doing a duet with himself. As I was not, it felt like it was trying to pad for length.
But, despite its flaws, I can definitely recommend it to anyone who was a fan of the DCAU from 88-06.
 
AshburnerX

AshburnerX

GasBandit said:
Batman and Harley Quinn (2017)

Summary:
It's nice to find a DCAU movie that, among the countless gritty "what if" JL alternate universe movies, re-origin stories, and Teen "MY EMOTIONS" Titans offerings from DC of late, we finally get a good ol' Bruce Timm return to what works - in direct contrast (and perhaps in reaction to) the much derided adaptation of The Killing Joke. This is the movie I'd hoped for years ago when I first saw that DC was doing animated movies instead of renewing TV serieses. It was like Batman:The Animated Series but with a bigger budget, cleaner/better art, an act 1 crime mystery that turns into an act 3 save-the-world fight, and (just to make sure things don't get too grimdark) a couple musical numbers and a scene that is entirely, explicitly, egregiously based on fart jokes.

The movie gets to stretch its content legs a little bit for not being confined to the E rating that B:TAS was while on TV - the fights actually show fists contacting on-camera, there's blood/stabbing, there's death on-screen, and even one non-explicit instance of off-screen sex (that will probably go over the heads of any 7 year old who is watching) - but unlike some of the other recent DCAU movies it doesn't gratuitously indulge in PG-13 stuff simply for the sake of doing so - in fact, I'd say it stays safely PG. The voices for Harley and Nightwing are different (though Nightwing is the same voice actor - I don't know what happened to Loren Lester's voice over the years), but they're close enough - and Kevin Conroy is Batman, which anchors everything nicely. Try not to hold it against the movie that Melissa Rauch (Bernadette from Big Bang Theory) voices Harley... Arleen Sorkin is regrettably too old to do the voice without creaking any more, and Tara Strong is probably too expensive. She does OK. Not great, but OK.

Spoilers beyond this point.
While overall I'd say the movie is definitely worth watching, I do have a few nits to pick with it.

I like a good fart joke as much as the next red-blooded american male, but the aforementioned scene felt like it was going beyond what was necessary - in fact, maybe trying a little TOO hard to prove that the movie doesn't take itself seriously. If that's the motivation though, I can forgive it.

What's less forgivable is the movie's ending, which starts off looking like it will be a disappointing Deus Ex Machina in the form of a Swamp Thing cameo, but then turns out not to be, but THEN is over literally the instant Harley reminds the boys that Floronic man is essentially a plant and therefor flammable - which apparently was a thought that had failed to occur to anybody over the entire storyline. And the double-cheek-kiss right before the iris-out is going too far. It's completely out of character for this Batman, and made me start to suspect that perhaps this story was being told from Harley's perpsective/memory or something (see: Unreliable Narrator). And that it happened right at the very end of the movie worsens its effect, as there's very little content after that to assuage the viewer's maimed suspension of disbelief. If I'd written this review immediately after watching the movie, I'd have given it a C simply because of the ending, whereas right up until that moment it had been an A. Fortunately, I slept on it first, and now I remember the rest of the movie BEFORE the ending, so I'd split the difference and call it a B.

A lesser gripe is that the first musical number goes on longer than it needs to, given that it is being sung by Min and Max, two minor henchmen from an old TAS episode (in fact the scene is full of old TAS henchmen, ranging from Captain Clown, and one of Catwoman's goons tries to buy Batman a glass of milk, then does the Batusi to annoy him), so I guess the movie is banking on viewers being enraptured by the sound of Rob Paulsen's voice doing a duet with himself. As I was not, it felt like it was trying to pad for length.
But, despite its flaws, I can definitely recommend it to anyone who was a fan of the DCAU from 88-06.
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Min and Max? Wow, they were in like two episodes of Season 1. That's reaching back. I also saw Captain Clown in one shot of that bar scene, which is strange because...

A.) He's an android. What's he doing at a bar?
B.) He gets melted into slag in the only episode he's in!
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
AshburnerX said:
Min and Max? Wow, they were in like two episodes of Season 1. That's reaching back. I also saw Captain Clown in one shot of that bar scene, which is strange because...

A.) He's an android. What's he doing at a bar?
B.) He gets melted into slag in the only episode he's in!
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It is also implied Min and Max were killed in that 2-parter. Apparently Bruce timm has said that this movie takes place outside of canonical continuity.
 
Dei

Dei

Saw IT. I dunno, I feel like knowing what was going to happen made the movie less interesting to me. Though I did appreciate all of the humor thrown in to lighten the mood.
 
Far

Far

I will say that while I do think it's a fantastic movie I wasn't particularly scared often. Ill at ease, unsettled and creeped out constantly but there were only 3 or 4 scenes I found genuinely frightening.

As I said in the other thread though I did have people talking through much of the movie behind me and it did take me out of the experience a bit. That may have contributed to not being as scared as some seem to be while watching it.

I am going again on Thursday in an effort to see it undistracted.
 
Fun Size

Fun Size

Sick day yesterday, so many movies.

The Blob (1988) - Really gross, in a good way.
Star Trek Beyond - It's fine. I miss intellectual Trek, but am still happy to watch these.

The standout of the group, however, was Hell House, Llc., a fake documentary about an incident at a haunted house attraction. It doesn't explain everything well, and it's another found footage thing, but it was a great setup and some of the setups were terrific for slow burn scares. It's been a long time since I found myself thinking about a horror movie scene later when I'm trying to sleep, but they got me. It's free with Amazon Prime, features almost no jump scares (I would say none, but I was playing my DS at the same time and don't want to do that if I missed one), and I highly recommend it.
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
Justice League: Dark (2017)

Aaaaand here we are back in familiar territory. The new Justice League movies that are grim and... well, look at the title. The actual Justice League itself features surprisingly little screen time in this movie, it'd have been more accurately titled "Batman and his Magic Pals."

All over the world, people are going insane and committing murder, then telling the arresting authorities they were "fighting demons" when really they were killing normal people, ranging from innocent bystanders to their friends and neighbors to their own spouse and children.

Batman doesn't believe magic is at play until Deadman (Boston Brand) posesses him and writes "CONSTANTINE" all over Bruce Wayne's bedroom in blood, ostensibly blood from a shaving nick.

This sends Batman to Zatanna, of course, and they go about rounding up the merry men - well, just Constantine and Jason Blood/Etrigan, and go on a wild goose chase that checks all the boxes of why I find magic-based superhero stories to generally only be good in small amounts. Everybody's a snooty elitist completely full of themselves, no explanations are given other than "it's magic" for anything, and the answer to any given problem is always a deus ex machina, sometimes literally. It gets kind of tiresome by the end of the film.

Also, somebody needs to show Etrigan and Jason a calendar and re-teach them to count, because they're always moaning about how they've been "cursed by Merlin to be bound together for the last 500 years" when I'm pretty darn sure Camelot was in the 6th, not the 16th century.

But least satisfying of all is that
this is apparently a one-and-done for Jason Blood. Origin story, playing second-banana to Constantine, and death all in one movie. Even Brave and the Bold managed to use Etrigan more than once.

And for that matter, there's a rewrite on Doctor Destiny's origin - now just "Destiny" - to turn him from a superscience villain to an ancient sorcerer, and it just feels lazy. In fact, the whole thing does. The hallmarks are there that this is brazenly just a script they cobbled together over a weekend and sent off to korea for animation.

It does have its good points, though. It's amusing to see Batman relegated to de facto team sidekick, and the very "Batman-ish" way he comes to terms with the nonsense he's seeing ("Hrm") and he gets one good witty rejoinder. The hospital sequence features a monster that I refuse to believe is NOT a reference to the Golgothan from Dogma (yes, the Kevin Smith movie) and actually manages to make it a fearsome threat instead of just toilet humor with a pun for a punchline.

But all in all, this is a mediocre film still trying to make hay from the Justice League: War reboot (as if Throne of Atlantis wasn't bad enough). Unless you just feel compelled to consume all DCAU movies available, I'd say you can safely give this one a miss.
 
Celt Z

Celt Z

I'm watching Amazing Spider-Man 2 right now and geez, did they put any effort into this? Andrew Garfield delivers his lines like he's half-asleep (in and out of the mask), the guy they picked to play Harry is terrible, the plot is all over the place, and even the music they choose is weird and out-of-sync with the mood of the scene. The only two people that seem to doing any acting are Sally Field and Emma Stone.
 
drawn_inward

drawn_inward

DarkAudit said:
He'll always be Oswald from the Drew Carey Show to me.
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I always think of his character in Office Space. I didn't watch Drew Carey. I like the show (from the bits that I've seen), but there's a large chunk of tv/movies from mid90s to early 2000s that I missed out on due to being super poor and over-worked (paid my way thru undergrad).
 
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