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

IronBrig4

IronBrig4

The Haunted Mansion. Not the one that just came out, but the 2003 version with Eddie Murphy.

It's okay. I'd call it a light family horror-comedy that isn't too intense for the kids or grandma. It definitely has some Hocus Pocus vibes. It just had terrible timing when it was released. Disney put it in theaters the day after Thanksgiving when it was clearly a Halloween movie. Also, Return of the King was just three weeks away. If your typical moviegoer had limited funds and had to choose between the two, RotK won.
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

Barbie

I knew I'd like this, based off the trailers. But I didn't expect it to have such blatant, biting commentary. Not just how much it explores existentialism. Not just on the patriarchy and the gender gap. Not just a commentary on toxic men whose origin, more often than not, boils down to feelings of rejection and insecurity. But also just how much biting criticism against the Barbie brand as a whole. That's the most surprising, given it's heavily branded by Mattel. If anything, Mattel is one of the antagonists in this.

While this has more of a clear message to say about gender roles, I see a lot of The Lego Movie in this. Which is funny when one of the antagonists in both is played by Will Ferrell. But The Lego Movie seemed like a loving embrace of all things Lego, for both kids and adults. Here, there is so much finger pointing straight at the Barbie brand and Mattel that I'm gobsmacked the parent company would even greenlight this in the first place.

It's also a HECK of a lot of fun. The biggest laugh come from the incredibly biting commentary mentioned above. It takes several shots on toxic masculinity and isn't afraid to be completely, bold-faced blatant about it. There's even a great shot against the Snyder Cut of Justice League. The biggest laughs that came from my girlfriend and I were the smallest, almost throwaway lines.

Damn good movie.
 
bhamv3

bhamv3

ThatNickGuy said:
There's even a great shot against the Snyder Cut of Justice League.
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About 3 days after I saw the movie, I suddenly thought to myself, "Wait a minute, if the Snyder Cut exists in Barbieland, does that mean the rest of the DCEU does too? But Margot Robbie played Harley Quinn!"

I think this indicates that Barbie is the kind of movie you think about after watching it.
 
Bubble181

Bubble181

bhamv3 said:
About 3 days after I saw the movie, I suddenly thought to myself, "Wait a minute, if the Snyder Cut exists in Barbieland, does that mean the rest of the DCEU does too? But Margot Robbie played Harley Quinn!"

I think this indicates that Barbie is the kind of movie you think about after watching it.
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You thinking about Margot Robbie after watching Barbie is't especially surprising, though.
 
Krisken

Krisken

chris said:
Dark City

A great movie and a product of it's time, something Hollywood sadly doesn't make anymore.
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The cut without the voiceover intro (studio got nervous the audience was too stupid to enjoy it without the voice over telling them what to expect) is one of my absolute favorite movies. I was lucky enough to have seen it in the theatre when it was first released, and there was nobody there. My friend and I were blown away.
 
Shawn

Shawn

Krisken said:
The cut without the voiceover intro (studio got nervous the audience was too stupid to enjoy it without the voice over telling them what to expect) is one of my absolute favorite movies. I was lucky enough to have seen it in the theatre when it was first released, and there was nobody there. My friend and I were blown away.
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If I show it to anyone for the first time I mute it until Sutherland shows up on screen.
 
Thread Necromancer

Thread Necromancer

65
I have no idea if there are any post regarding this movie as our search fails on just two digits.

I'm mixed. Part of me still hates Adam Driver, but he didn't do bad.
The movie is pretty much by a formula, to a T actually, but still not badly done with that in mind.
I will say the end left a lot to be desired, do you get rescued or not? Cause if this is gonna end in tragedy, damn it, you really need to just capitalize on the tragedy.
 
bhamv3

bhamv3

Thread Necromancer said:
65
I have no idea if there are any post regarding this movie as our search fails on just two digits.

I'm mixed. Part of me still hates Adam Driver, but he didn't do bad.
The movie is pretty much by a formula, to a T actually, but still not badly done with that in mind.
I will say the end left a lot to be desired, do you get rescued or not? Cause if this is gonna end in tragedy, damn it, you really need to just capitalize on the tragedy.
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I talked about it here.
 
Shawn

Shawn

It was a day with Hailey. So we watched two films.

TMNT: Mutant Mayhem.
Enjoyed by both of us. And while it is a fun film I can’t say I’m a big fan of the animation style or the story. Again I had a good time with this as a single outing, but I feel a little annoyed that this animation style and drastic change to the story and characters is going to persist in future films for at least one sequel. I actually think as far as story and characters I enjoyed the second live action Michael Bay outing more.

Slumberland (Netflix)
This was a really wonderful surprise. Hailey and I both loved this one, and it really hit the feels for me. As most are aware I have a difficult relationship with my daughter in that she has disconnected herself from showing certain types of affection to me, mostly as a result of her mother’s influence and her attempts to alienate Hailey from me.
So a story about a girl and a father figure who is trying to connect with her is going to pluck my heart strings. I think it affected Hailey too. During part of the movie she snuggled up with me. We both commented how the uncle was trying to be a good dad. I think she noticed that I’ve been trying too.
 
Yoshimickster

Yoshimickster

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mutant Mayhem

A PERFECTLY good TMNT story. Not the best TMNT story I've seen, but it was Definitely enjoyable.

Few criticisms, I feel Super fly's crew was a BIT too big, could've easily just had four, BUT got to sell those toys!

Another thing is sometimes the Turtles felt less like 4 individuals and one single character with 4 bodies.

But yeah, fine film.
 
Shawn

Shawn

chris said:
That's a general problem with the franchise with some exceptions.
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I heard that for this film especially they wanted to emulate just teens in general and how they talk as a group. They had the teenage voice actors record in the same room and just let them talk over each other.
 
Celt Z

Celt Z

TMNT: Mutant Mayhem
Honestly, this may be one of my favorite Ninja Turtles depictions ever. This may be the first time they didn't feel like :notes: "Early-20's Ninja Turtles". They were funny and lively, and I felt like they did a pretty good job at making the turtles' personalities different than each other. It wasn't the character study the 1990 TMNT movie was (although that closely followed the original comics), but it took the recent MCU Spider-Man/Into the Spider-verse: "we know you know the backstory ad nauseam, so we're just going to touch on it briefly and keep moving". It's a good choice at this point. It was a lite story, very kid-friendly, and lots of potential for follow-ups. I think I read it's getting a series? Maybe streaming? Something like that.
I also like that, much like the Spider-verse, they're taking risks animation-wise. To me, the visuals felt like a mix between the sketchy pen style of Eastman & Laird, but over-all it looked like moving graffiti, which fits the 80's NYC atmosphere when the comic was created. It creates a grittiness without being quite as dark as some versions of the 'Turtles. Also, I found this interesting, and maybe it's a coincedence, but when you see the 'Turtles walk, the way their leg joints bend and meet with their torsos, it looks almost identical to the Henson puppet-suits from the first movie. It's such a distinctive way of moving that I'd bet money the animators used it for reference.
 
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Piotyr

Piotyr

TMNT Mutant Mayhem
I enjoyed it, my 5yo adored it (he's seen a bunch of the 2012 show). My issues with it were mostly in wasted characters or changed origin that rubbed me the wrong way.

Good:
- Finally, a turtles movie that had a baddy other than Shredder
- Focusing on the mutant vs human aspect was a good message that even my 5yo got.
- Turtles felt like teenagers more than almost any other iteration

Criticisms:
- Going into it, I thought Giancarlo Esposito and Jackie Chan were perfect castings, but then were mostly wasted in the movie.
- They completely abandoned the Splinter origin, so not only was there no Shredder, there is no reason for there to be a Shredder. Also it means they l earned ninjutsu through watching videos instead of actual training. Perfect Seth Rogen writing shortcut.
 
bhamv3

bhamv3

The Meg 2: The Trench

It's not totally horrible I guess. Aside from the scientific ludicrousness, the bad writing, the forgettable storyline, the poor pacing, the disappointing visuals, the wooden acting, the flat humor, the dumb characters, and the ham fisted environmental message, it was all right.
 
Yoshimickster

Yoshimickster

The Barbie Movie

Basically a live action Lego movie with some existentialism and feminism on top and I LOVE IT! Also, both the Lego movie, AND Barbie movie have CEO Will Ferrells, SO SAYETH THE LAW OF TOY MOVIES!
 
Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse

I was nervous going into this one. Even having heard people say it was good, the first movie was so good and so important to me that I wondered how they would be able to do a followup. It's the sort of magic that feels like maybe it can't be captured again, and I was afraid they'd try too hard and ruin it.

They sure tried hard alright, and holy shit this is a beautiful film.

This movie makes every other animated movie look like absolute trash. You guys are in animation, you can have things look however you want, and you choose to be boring? Across The Spider-Verse may have ruined all other animation styles for me.

So yeah... it's pretty good.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
I liked it better than the first one, but I hope the next one comes out soon. I hear the writers’ strike is fucking up that and season 5 of Stranger Things.
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

Dave said:
I liked it better than the first one, but I hope the next one comes out soon. I hear the writers’ strike is fucking up that and season 5 of Stranger Things.
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I'm fine with delays if the creators involved are treated better than they were during the making of this one.

www.vulture.com

‘Death by a Thousand Paper Cuts’

Four animators say unsustainable working conditions are behind the success of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
www.vulture.com www.vulture.com
 
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drawn_inward

drawn_inward

Ravenpoe said:
Yeah, I'm fine waiting as long as it takes.
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As long as it actually comes out. Who knows what could shake out of these strikes.

I am pro- strike, but would be really bummed if the trilogy doesn't get finished properly.

I agree about your sentiment for the film. The two of them are better than all animated films that I have seen and are my favorite super hero films, animated or not.
 
figmentPez

figmentPez

Staff member
Knock at the Cabin

This was contrived crap. If you've seen the trailer for this, you've seen everything interesting this movie has to offer. The film goes absolutely nowhere with the premise. Not just nowhere interesting, nowhere. This is an hour and and half of "You have to believe me" , "No, you're crazy" followed by 10 minutes of wrap-up.

This is the movie equivalent of those "One of these has to go!" social media posts. Are you going to get rid of pizza, burgers, or tacos!? It's trying really hard to sell the idea that a choice has to be made, and that there will be consequences, but the choice only exists because of the movie. It never feels any more grounded. It's horrible, and arbitrary, but feels like it has zero weight. Why does this bizarre choice exist outside of any other context? Because the movie says it does.

I'm not spoiling anything. This is all set up in the trailer. The movie just goes nowhere with it. There's backstory. Characters talk about themselves, and their lives, and how they got into this situation, but if there's any solid world-building, I completely missed it. This is not Cabin in the Woods, with a genre-savvy deconstruction of how horror movies come to be. Nah, this is traumatized people whispering "God works in mysterious ways" and then explaining to you why they were right to be mad at their ex for saying something mean to them in a dream.

"Humanity is being judged for their sins." BY WHOM? Is it an entity? General karma? Aliens? A god? A pantheon of gods? Angels? Demons? Newtonian Physics? A panel of celebrity judges? The movie makes absolutely no attempt to flesh this out. Several people are given horrible visions of an apocalypse, and this somehow shows them that they have to get together and tell a family to sacrifice one of the family, willingly, to save the world. There's no explanation of why seven people are the only ones who get to know about this. No explanation of why it's so cryptic, why the ones making the sacrifice don't get any visions, or anything. There's no explanation of why humanity as a whole knows nothing about this. Just: Here, prevent the destruction of everything because you've been put in a horror movie that doesn't want to explain itself. A choice that could end all of humanity, and there's not a single institution that knows anything about it.

The world outside of the cabin exists in the same way that poorly written wives and girlfriends do in comic books. The world of Knock at the Cabin exists to be held hostage. M. Night Shyamalan has threatened to fridge the entire world, and that world is as developed as Kyle Rayner's girlfriend was before she got chopped up and stuffed in a fridge. The world is going to be destroyed. You know, the one that really exists. We're talking about it, while giving no explanation of how this world could possibly result in this situation. Just trust us that it makes sense. These characters are super motivated to save this very real world, because it's a world, and worlds are important to save. It could be the viewers' world! Would you sacrifice tacos to save pizza?

What a fucking waste of a movie.
 
Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

figmentPez said:
Knock at the Cabin

This was contrived crap. If you've seen the trailer for this, you've seen everything interesting this movie has to offer. The film goes absolutely nowhere with the premise. Not just nowhere interesting, nowhere. This is an hour and and half of "You have to believe me" , "No, you're crazy" followed by 10 minutes of wrap-up.

This is the movie equivalent of those "One of these has to go!" social media posts. Are you going to get rid of pizza, burgers, or tacos!? It's trying really hard to sell the idea that a choice has to be made, and that there will be consequences, but the choice only exists because of the movie. It never feels any more grounded. It's horrible, and arbitrary, but feels like it has zero weight. Why does this bizarre choice exist outside of any other context? Because the movie says it does.

I'm not spoiling anything. This is all set up in the trailer. The movie just goes nowhere with it. There's backstory. Characters talk about themselves, and their lives, and how they got into this situation, but if there's any solid world-building, I completely missed it. This is not Cabin in the Woods, with a genre-savvy deconstruction of how horror movies come to be. Nah, this is traumatized people whispering "God works in mysterious ways" and then explaining to you why they were right to be mad at their ex for saying something mean to them in a dream.

"Humanity is being judged for their sins." BY WHOM? Is it an entity? General karma? Aliens? A god? A pantheon of gods? Angels? Demons? Newtonian Physics? A panel of celebrity judges? The movie makes absolutely no attempt to flesh this out. Several people are given horrible visions of an apocalypse, and this somehow shows them that they have to get together and tell a family to sacrifice one of the family, willingly, to save the world. There's no explanation of why seven people are the only ones who get to know about this. No explanation of why it's so cryptic, why the ones making the sacrifice don't get any visions, or anything. There's no explanation of why humanity as a whole knows nothing about this. Just: Here, prevent the destruction of everything because you've been put in a horror movie that doesn't want to explain itself. A choice that could end all of humanity, and there's not a single institution that knows anything about it.

The world outside of the cabin exists in the same way that poorly written wives and girlfriends do in comic books. The world of Knock at the Cabin exists to be held hostage. M. Night Shyamalan has threatened to fridge the entire world, and that world is as developed as Kyle Rayner's girlfriend was before she got chopped up and stuffed in a fridge. The world is going to be destroyed. You know, the one that really exists. We're talking about it, while giving no explanation of how this world could possibly result in this situation. Just trust us that it makes sense. These characters are super motivated to save this very real world, because it's a world, and worlds are important to save. It could be the viewers' world! Would you sacrifice tacos to save pizza?

What a fucking waste of a movie.
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So I didn't find this movie as bad as you did, but I did find it bad, mostly because I've read the book this is based on and Shyamalan completely changes the ending.

In the book, the daughter dies. She's accidently shot, and naturally the movie isn't brave enough to do this. The book is also much more specific that this is implied to be the christian god.

In the end, faced with the cruelty of the decision they are being given, the couple decide the only way to win is to not play this twisted game. They refuse, letting Leonard kill himself, and then wandering into the apocalypse together to face whatever may come.
 
mikerc

mikerc

Babylon 5: The Road Home.

It's fine. Definitely one for established fans of the show - there's no attempt to explain who any of these characters are or why you should care about them. It's assumed you already know.

This is both its biggest strength & it's biggest weakness. Seeing these characters again & where possible hearing the original voices is fantastically nostalgic. OTOH there are some definitely disappointing absences - a few scenes where I expected to see Kosh & 1 where I was sure Morden was going to show up, by they just weren't there.

If you're a B5 fan & this is on a streaming service you're already subscribed to them this is definitely worth a watch. If you need to pay though, probably not actually worth it.
 
figmentPez

figmentPez

Staff member
Avatar: The Way of Water

Holy crap this was a loooong movie. I was not impressed. There are some good parts to it, but overall this movie is less than the sum of it's parts.

The visuals are great, but the writing is mediocre to terrible. I especially question the way the Na'vi are written. We've got a species that are supposedly very connected to nature, and can basically plug into a planet-wide internet for sharing memories and emotions of all life, yet somehow they're racist assholes to each other? Fucking lazy writing to just have the teenage boys be bog-standard, will-kill-outsiders-because-it's-funny, macho posturing, dickwads. It just seems wildly inconsistent to me that the race that regularly communes with the pacifist whales through hair-telepathy still has teenage boys who are willing to haze the outsider by feeding him to a giant ocean predator.

I was really getting bored by the time this was over. The climactic action scenes were pretty impressive, but I had basically stopped caring at that point about what happened. There was just too much plot-induced stupidity, mustache-twirling villainy, feral hissing, and padded fight sequences.

I'm tired just thinking about how long everything dragged on.
 
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