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PHANTOM THREAD
I have more or less enjoyed everything I have seen by PTA, with the exception of Punch Drunk Love.
Not sure why it took me so long to see this 2017 release, but I am glad I finally got around to it.
It's a well-paced quasi psychological drama about an eccentric dressmaker and the woman who falls in love with him.
Night of the Mini Dead was the best one and it was only like six minutes long.
7 minutes, actually.Quote:
Originally Posted by buttahflake
But who's counting?
:cool::D
And folks keep saying that the zombie genre is dead...this was easily the best zombie film I've seen in years!
There's the Zombie genre, and then there's the Zombie Satire genre - big difference. And don't EVER try to mix the two e.g. Army of the Dead.
Is evil dead a zombie movie?
OUTLAWS
This is a pretty solid riff on the classic "coming of age" story.
But it also provides some sly commentary on privilege and social status.
The "twist" in the final minutes feels a little rushed, even though I didn't see it coming. Yet it also had quite a few exciting "WTF!?" moments, plus solid pacing.
I am probably giving this film a little but of extra slack due to what I call "exotic bias" (foreign film in a foreign language featuring actors who are unfamiliar to me), but I enjoyed it. The characters, while cliche, were also likeable and engaging. The lead actress reminded me of a young Rachel Ward a la The Thornbirds.
RIYL
My Bodyguard
***watch it in Spanish with English subtitles. The dubbing is atrocious.
Hmmmm.
Trailer makes this look like John Wick banging Jason Bourne...it also looks like all the other recent big budget, A-list starring generic action pix NF keeps producing and hoping to franchise (6 Underground, The Old Guard, Extraction, Power, Red Notice, Army of the Dead, etc.).
In theaters July 15, then on NF a week later.
THE BOMBARDMENT
This Danish film centers around "Operation Carthage," whereupon the British Allied Forces air raided Copenhagen to destroy a Gestapo HQ in the spring of 1945.
The story unfolds in an almost fairy tale manner, bringing a slightly whimsical slant to life during wartime. But this is a Grimm fairy tale, at best.
Writer/director Ole Bornedal composes some great shots--a street chase filmed from the hips down and via reflections in store windows, for example--plus has some genuinely warm moments with the child actors turning the act of getting to school without incident into a game. He also has interesting sub-stories about faith.
However, the film takes a sharp turn in the third act, jarring us out of the wry comedic beats becoming instead harrowing and exposing the horror of collateral damage and botched military intelligence/communication.
RIYL
JoJo Rabbit; Come and See
PIERCING
This is a strange, perverted, yet beguiling little psychological thriller about a married man with twisted desires and a woman who just may be his match made in hell.
Swathed in rich colors and a set design which seems to borrow, albeit in a very off-kilter way, heavily from Wes Anderson (and a wee bit of Dario Argento, too), the film unfolds in a manner skewed just enough to question what is reality and what is dream/nightmare.
The heavy use of familiar Italian score elements from the likes of Goblin lend the film a quasi Giallo vibe, as well.
RIYL
American Psycho
Just watched Love on the Spectrum (U.S. version). Something I definitely wouldn't have picked on my own, but my wife saw a couple episodes and said we should watch it. The basic premise is people on the autism spectrum looking for love. It's very sweet and endearing. You can't help but root for the them.
Hustle.
Feel good movie of the year for Netflix.
Great watchQuote:
Originally Posted by Buzzworthy
To me, Season 6 of Peaky Blinders was the best of all. When I saw that after a let down during the 6 episodes of season 5 that season 6 had only 6 episodes, I was bummed. However, I thought that all 6 episodes of season 6 were outstanding.
THE RUTHLESS
This is a slick and solid Mafioso movie from the Motherland (Italy).
While it contains a number of familiar gangster tropes, it's well-paced, has a sly sense of humor, nice callbacks, and some genuinely cool cinematography.
RIYL
Scarface; Goodfellas
I usually try to only post up films that I have enjoyed here.
But lately I have been getting hella skunked by NF.
Beginning to believe that the reason they are losing money and subscribers isn’t due to shared accounts, but rather to them spending $$$ on making mediocre-to-shitty films.
Case(s) in point (or Certified Meh or Don’t Waste Your Time or 2 Stars and Less):
Calibre
Turned it off at the 21-minute mark as nothing had happened and it looked like it was basically ripping off Deliverance, but in Scotland.
See You Yesterday
Barely made it to the 14-minute mark.
The whole thing was dripping with an overwhelming sense of earnestness and the acting felt forced, not to mention all of the nods to classic time travel films were too in-your-face, lacking the subtlety and nuance that actually makes nerdy references cool.
Hypnotic
Slogged through 19-minutes before shutting it off.
The synopsis sounded cool, but nothing had happened by this point and the whole affair looks and feels like a Lifetime-meets-Hallmark movie.
AV: The Hunt
This Turkish thriller starts out pretty good, but then devolves into a generic flee and be hunted survival story.
I think a smidge of exotic bias is what caused me to make 37-minutes before bailing…
Of course YMMV, but I would give a hard pass to all of the above.
Hold The Dark
I had high hopes for this film given that it is directed by Jeremy Saulnier (The Green Room), but damn is this a convoluted mess of mediocrity.
It’s teeming with so much vague symbolism and incoherent meaning that it’s a wonder that it got greenlit in the first place.
I kept hoping that it would get better, but it just kept getting worse.
I slapped myself a few times afterwards as penance for actually watching it all the way through.
Super Meh at best.
I am at a loss for more descriptive words, but this review of the source material pretty much sums up the movie:
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-r...hold-the-dark/
Ouch, Dookey! Some scathing reviews there. And these reviews coming from someone who liked Titane! I shall heed your warnings. Haha
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I enjoyed CalibreQuote:
Originally Posted by dookeyXXX
3.5 out of 5
There's a pretty good 4-part mini-docuseries based on Michael Pollan's How to Change Your Mind.
Enjoyed Hustle more than I thought.
Real surprise was CHIPS, it was horrible, but also pretty funny. Maybe caught my wife and I in the right mood for it, but it exceeded my very low expectations.
THE GRAY MAN
NF continues their barrage of big budget generic and empty action extravaganzas with what should have been called THE MEH MAN.
In short, The Russo Bros. have delivered a bland and bloated international thriller, which lacks any real thrills.
I am not sure what they spent the $200M budget on, but it definitely wasn’t the script, FX, or action choreography, cuz they all kinda sucked.
Rather than studying the seminal works of directors like James Cameron, John McTiernan, John Woo, Richard Donner, Wilson Yip, Jackie Chan, and even New Jacks like David Leitch, they seem to have just watched the films of Michael Bay and left it at that (this film is marginally better than 6 Underground…barely).
The fight scenes are uninspiring and cropped too close, the car chases are glitchy, as if they shot them at half speed and then sped them up, and the Final Boss battle is beyond anticlimactic. I won’t even mention the horrible de-aging effects used on Billy Bob Thornton or the really shoddy airplame sequence that looked cheaper than a SyFy original.
Ryan Gosling proves that he has charisma galore, but even his shine can’t save this half-baked hit man-with-a-heart-of-gold rehash. As for the rest of the cast, there is little chemistry and hardly any pizzazz happening.
Perhaps the only good thing to come out of this film is the appearance of Indian superstar Dhanush, whose brief turn as a badass hit man literally steals the show.
If you really wish to see Ryan Gosling in a good action film check out/re-watch both DRIVE and THE NICE GUYS.
As for THE GRAY MAN? Your 2 hours will be better spent doing household chores or getting your car washed.
This is what they spent it on...Quote:
Originally Posted by dookeyXXX
I'm sure a huge chunk of that budget was blown on casting, directing, and LOTS of "padding" ie massively inflated expenses to hook up crony buddies in the studio biz.Quote:
Originally Posted by dookeyXXX
And Netflix CEO is all [Surprised Pikachu Face] as he is trying to figure out why the company is not profiting as much this quarter. They're losing subscribers and are tossing around the idea of making up for that with ads and new fees. Sure, NF. That'll work. /S
https://arstechnica.com/information-...y-to-recovery/
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I'm sold! Loaded in my queue for watching tonight!
I found it funny that CHIPS has the two prominent actors from Idiocracy. I enjoyed it.Quote:
Originally Posted by VTskibum