Isle of Dogs = superb.
So much detail put into the amazing sets and characters. Can't wait to see again with ability to pause and rewind.
Highly, highly, highly recommend it.
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Isle of Dogs = superb.
So much detail put into the amazing sets and characters. Can't wait to see again with ability to pause and rewind.
Highly, highly, highly recommend it.
On my way to see it this afternoon. Nice to get a glowing recco.Quote:
Originally Posted by PNWbrit
Anyone see A Quiet Place?
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TOMB RAIDER
2.5 / 5
Decent enough action film that more or less just sits there on the screen, not being terribly bad, but not being overlly great, either.
Quick pacing and a great score by Junkie XL aid matters, but overall this is a pretty paint-by-numbers "origin" film.
While there are some solid action sequences, sadly, most of them were shown in the trailers.
The story is pretty ho-hum and the character of Lara Croft isn't terribly fleshed out (she's shown as kind of a slacker in the beginning, but one with tenacity, however her turn from semi-meek (but, again, tenacious) into a badass just doesn't ring all that true.
Alicia Vikander is okay in the role (she seems a bit demure and sveldt for Lara Croft, imho, at least based on the videogame character), but her acting is solid.
The real problem here is the story: it's just pretty routine.
I know the film has more or less made its money back, thanks to foreign box office, so it will be interesting to see if they franchise it out with a second film and, if they do, will they write a better story?
Interesting article(s) listing films that may have influenced the new TR:
https://filmschoolrejects.com/movies...h-tomb-raider/
Saw it on Tuesday morning...Quote:
Originally Posted by stompinlines
A QUIET PLACE
giving it a "soft" 3 out of 5
This film is basically an audibly impared Pitch Black taking place in Upstate New York.
While there are some genuine moments of intensity and terror, overall it just blindly follows basic horror film tropes.
What really ruined it for me, though, were two glaringly incongruous plot devices--one involving a nail; the other a broken water pipe--that just seemed to pop up for the sake of popping up (they make no sense intellectually other than to blatantly move the action along and hope that nobody notices how out-of-synch/ridiculous they are).
Additionally, there's a trite "martyr" moment towards the end, but, the ultimate ending is pretty cool, albeit a bit tongue-in-cheek, which plays drastically against the vibe of the rest of the film (which is descernably serious).
I think the use of sign language and the consistent "quietness" of the film feels like kind of a gimmick, too.
There's also a ton of ambiguity in regards to the story, which worked well in the similarly nuanced film It Comes At Night, but here it feels like they just did it as an easy way out of explaining anything.
Owes a heavy debt to Alien, Pitch Black, It Comes At Night, and Signs.
Overall, not bad, but not great, either.
A Quiet Place - 2.5 out 5. It could have easily been 4 out of 5 but there were wayyyyy too many plot holes and unexplained situations; especially for how short and simple the movie was. The fact that the wife was pregnant blew the whole thing for me. How in the world could they ever survive with an infant? And for some reason the creatures kept showing up even when everyone was quiet. The movie annoyed me as much as it scared me.
Isle of Dogs. Outstanding.
Yes. May deserve it's own thread. A very unique movie experience. Brilliant.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bobby Stainless
I agree.Quote:
Originally Posted by Benny Profane
I'm not gonna start the thread, but agreeing with BF might go in the Week In Review thread.
I mean, seriously, what kind of idiot drives a nail into a stairtread facing up? Boooo.
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...... or puts a wad of chewing gum on the airplane treadmill belt?!?!?!?! The horror!
wait .....
What?
Rampage: mildly pleasant afternoon's entertainment
Sooper Fuckin Troopers, brah!
Hilarious!
Infinity War, see it soon and don't left anyone around you talk about it before you see it
YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE
3.5/5
Interesting film in that the story (based on a short novel by Jonathan Ames of Bored To Death fame) is pretty cliche: down-on-his-luck/sad sack/mentally debateable hit man hired for a job only to have said job go sideways forcing him to get hellbet for revenge (for some reason it reminded me a lot of several of Burt Reynolds’ late ‘80s flix).
A lot of critics have been tossing around comparisons to Taxi Driver, which I don't really get other than for the slow pacing and somewhat delirious/hallucinatory/frenetic nature of the film, but other than that I think the critics who keep comparing the two are off-the-mark.
I have to admit that I was alternately frustrated and enthralled by the film; the cliched story was annoying, but then something cool would happen out of the blue or something visually stunning would grace the screen and make you forget that it is more or less an artsy B-movie. Also, it never really struck the right balance between seriousness and satire; it kind of drifted along with this detached sense of deadpan sarcasm buried underneath a sense of overwhelming pretense (to this end, I read a great review that characterizes the film as “artsploitation” and I would agree).
I will say that Joaquin Phoenix is a powerhouse and the violence is artfully filmed. Some great cinematography, lots of uncomfortable close-ups, and some interesting sound-design (lots of background talking, whispers, etc). Great score from Jonny Greenwood (Radiohead), too.
I really dug the ending, though. It was both absurd and poignant
Again, I was kind of on the fence as the film unraveled, but then I ruminated on it for the entire 1.5 hour drive home from the theater, so it definitely resonates post-viewing.
I would say that it owes more to Leon: The Professional and Drive than anything else, honestly. And of course a spate of low-budget ‘80s flicks. Also reminded me a lot of the French neo-noir films of Melville.
In many ways it might be worth a second viewing, too.
I was puttering around YouTube just now and this popped up as an ad attached to the video I had been searching.
WHOA.
Hotel Artemis
REVENGE
3.75 / 5
A typically cliched rape-and-revenge film is taken to over-the-top “high brow” heights culminating in what could be the most gonzo artsploitation flick of the year. Glossy, chromatically enhanced neon cinematography, religious visual motifs, and a wickedly subdued sense of humor help elevate this from your typical “I’ve seen this before” fare. The fact that about 70% of the film is in French (with English subtitles) further lends the affair an “exotic” feel, but the addition of solid acting is what really helps it rise above the standard exploitation parameters. The pulsing electro score adds immensely in terms of creating tension and, often, an unnerving sense of anticipation; the slick pacing, which often emmulates the kinetic music, doesn’t hurt either. But ultimately it’s the little things that resonate: there’s a wonderful scene where one of the antagonists is stuffing his mouth with chewy, gooey Euro candy; it’s pure gluttony. There’s a peyote infused cauterizing beercan segment that culminates with some incredibly wry satire. There’s a super cheesy motorcycle action sequence that brings low-budget to artistic levels. And, finally, there’s the cat & mouse ending that is as brilliant and claustrophobically intense as it is absurd. So, yeah, you probably have seen the skeletal remains of this story numerous times before in films like I Spit On Your Grave or Last House on the Left (and countless other exploitive nasties), but if you push those remembrances aside and embrace Revenge’s sly humor (I mean, c’mon, the title of the film alone says it all) and mesmerizing visual slickness and, most importantly of all, wink along with writer/director Coralie Fargea as she lovingly blurs the lines between art and exploitation, then this is a wickedly fun romp with resonating philosophical and sociologial undertones.
RIYL
The Guest; You're Next; Irreversible; Switchblade Romance (aka Haute Tension)
black panther, rented. stoked to watch it later
HOLY F.
This looks like a GWAR concert sodomizing The Muppet Show...
I just hope they didn't blow their wad (literally) in the trailer.
Really, really not a fan of Melissa McCarthy. *shudder
But the rest of that looks funny as fuck.
Deadpool 2 was every bit as good as the first.
That looks fucking hilarious....Quote:
Originally Posted by dookey67
SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY
3.5 / 5
Takeaways:
1. Chewbacca makes the movie
2.Thandie Newton's afro kicks ass
3. I would pay to see a Lando flick with Donald Glover
Watched this, what a fucking train wreck. Shit movie with shit acting and shit story line. How people like it is beyond me.Quote:
Originally Posted by willywhit
OMFG! Can’t wait to watch this. Laughed my ass off!Quote:
Originally Posted by dookey67
Really? I don’t get that. I thought it was great. Though I saw it without knowing much about it and before the hype train really started rolling.Quote:
Originally Posted by 2FUNKY
https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/enterta...-arts-44263925Quote:
Originally Posted by dookey67
Sesame Street sues over violent, puppet-based Happytime Murders film
Jesus.
Tom Cruise in Jack Reacharound 2: Never Go Back just hit Netflix.
Who keeps making these turds.
Tom may be clear, but he sure looks old and puffy, and he still hasn't learned how to act.
UPGRADE
3.5 . / 5
Imagine a William Gibson cyber-thriller jacked up on crystal meth.
Or, if you prefer, Ex Machina dumbed down and augmented with brutal bone-crushing action.
Whatever your take, Upgrade is a surprisingly good, fuel-injected spin on ‘80s action films touched with a slight, malevolently humorous nod to Kubrick/Clarke's 2001 for good measure.
Brought to you by Leigh Whannell, who is best known for writing Saw, Saw II, Saw III, and the Insidious franchise (he directed Chapter 3, fwiw), this flick is sufficiently stuffed with adreneline-soaked pacing and a plethora of red herrings to keep your mind just enough off-kilter for the twist ending.
The story, while following a pretty basic revenge motif, is coated in enough glossy sheen as to feel almost new. And there are a few welcome surprises, too. At one point when it seems as if a serious plothole has been exposed, BOOM!, it’s immediately dealt with in a creative and logical way (something that cannot be said of the numerous plotholes in the over-hyped A Quiet Place). As I mentioned, the numerous red herrings and whip-quick pacing help the film immensely, so much so that the ending was a minor surprise, just enough to be gratifying and not leave the viewer feeling cheated. Hell, I’m usually pretty good at figuring out these kind of films and I have to admit that I found myself misdirected on a few occasions. Again, I chock this up to the pacing and insanely kinetic action sequences..
If the film has any shortcomings they arise in the form of pretty typical, one-dimensional characters: the luddite living in the modern world; the obligatory ex-military baddies; the clueless police detective who can’t solve her case, but stumbles blindly into another, more deadly one; the anti-social computer genius... Additionally, some of the dialogue is stilted and, well, cheesy. And then there’s our leading man, Logan Marshall-Green, who, unfortuneately by no fault of his own, is a dead-ringer for Tom Hardy, if he were anorexic (fwiw, the awkward computer genius Ehron, portrayed by Harrison Gilbertson, comes off like a poor-man’s Jared Leto). I honestly found it off-putting how much Morgan-Green resembles Hardy and have to think that it might not be the greatest thing for his career (remember what happend to Johnny Depp “look-alike” Skeet Ulrich? Yeah, me neither).
Bad dialogue and dopplegangers aside, Upgrade is a solid B-movie with bristling action sequences and cool production design swathed in a slick blitz of industrial cyber-glaze.
RIYL:
Johnny Mnemonic; The Guest; Terminator; John Wick
'I'm a fucking ninja'Quote:
Originally Posted by dookey67
Class
Saw both Hotel Artemis and Upgrade in the last 5 days: mildly disappointed in HA, but was pleasantly surprised by Upgrade. If you have to choose between the two, definitely go Upgrade.
Spot on.Quote:
Originally Posted by dookey67
Still getting my head around it.
Completely concur!Quote:
Originally Posted by PB
HOTEL ARTEMIS
2.5 / 5
The trailers for this film made it look like it would be a slick underworld romp, teeming with an interesting cast--Jodie Foster, Jeff Goldblum, Dave Bautista, Sofia Boutella--it also seemed like it could be an entertaining riff on The Continental Hotel, that slick underworld refuge from the John Wick films. Sadly, the trailer is perhaps more exciting than the whole of the film itself.
The thing that hurts Hotel Artemis the most is that it never really catches fire; it’s like a long, slow fuse that instead of sizzling toward an eventual explosion, merely fizzles along, stitched together from bits and pieces of cliches from other (better) films: there’s the guilty mom, the over-zealous (and pathetic) son of the local kingpin, the foreign femme fatale, and the older brother constantly picking up the slack of his fuck-up younger sibling. Yeah, we’ve seen these characters before.
It doesn’t help that the opening bank heist is rather bland and the eventual action in the hotel itself is nothing special. Even the climactic battle seems cobbled together from fights we seen recently in Daredevil and Brawl In Cell Block 99.
Whoever decided that Jodie Foster should channel Sophia Petrillo, shuffling around the hotel like a disoriented retiree while uttering her dialogue with a subdued Massachusetts-by-way-of-WC Fields & Edward G. Robinson-accent, made the wrong call, that’s for sure. Foster’s clunky performance is perhaps the most distracting element of all.
Charlie Day, however, gives Ms Foster a run for her money, revealing himself to be a single gimmick equine, his one trick being mastery of annoyance. It’s as if somebody in casting told him “We’re looking for your dumb, likeable self from Always Sunny, but be an overbearing cocksure dick instead”; it’s pretty much the same character he played in Pacific Rim: Uprising, sans the scientific mumbo-jumbo. He also seems to be under the impression that gnawing at the scenery, failing to swallow the chunks he tears off, qualifies as camp (hint: it doesn’t).
Dave Bautista is wonderfully deadpan in his role, but ultimately it feels an awful lot like Drax, albeit minus the red skin.
Sadly, for all their collective resumes, the rest of the cast never seems to click with one another or really find a groove, either. The possible exception being Boutella, who makes an impressive (and badass) hit-woman.
The pacing, while consistent, just doesn’t add any Umph! to the proceedings and the sheer lack of chemistry between what would be an otherwise stellar cast doesn’t help either.
There’s a slight element of cyber-punk in the story, but it’s really a pointless addition as it doesn’t bring anything new or exciting in terms of the tension or action; it felt like it was just randomly tossed in for the hell of it.
Honestly, the stand-outs of the film are the cinematography and the score. The former is a burnt-out neon glow, courtesy of Chung Chung-hoon (Oldboy, Lady Vengeance) that adds a flair of doom and gloom to the mix. As for the latter, Cliff Martinez layers the images on screen with sounds that come off like a glitched and stygian Massive Attack. To this is added some Neil Young as sung by Buffy Sainte-Marie, Father John Misty, and The Mamas and the Papas, perhaps to create a sense of how misplaced the old, tired character Foster is playing is in contrast to the chaotic modern world that riots outside the hotel. Who knows.
In the end, Hotel Artemis is a visually captivating film that suffers from lackluster action, rote characters, and an overall absense of chemistry.
I’d call it a “Red Eye Rental” at best, that perhaps might be elevated from mediocre to okay if one were severely blazed. But even that’s no guarantee. Basically, I wouldn’t bother with seeing it on the BIG screen.
So, yeah, go see UPGRADE.
:)
Follow-up question: when was the last time you thought Jodie Foster significantly contributed to the quality of a film?? I'd have to go all the way back to Inside Man; she was the primary factor in my dislike of Elysium. Seems way past the point of retirement.
Interesting question.Quote:
Originally Posted by PB
I honestly can't recall the last picture I saw her in (though I did see both of the ones you listed and was kind of non-plussed by each).
Contact, perhaps?
I think she was miscast in Hotel Artemis. Definitely her interpretation of the character was all wrong, imho (would be interested to see how the character was described in the original script). I kept thinking that Judi Dench or Helen Mirren might have been better choices...
The silence of the LambsQuote:
Originally Posted by dookey67
Contact
Nell
Little man tate
The Brave one.
Mountain. I may be the only one here to go see this in a theater, when I went the only other people were a couple that snuck in half way through after their other movie in the 'plex. Anyway, beautiful photography, right? Fabulous aerial and drone shots of mountains all over the world. Some very good action stuff - skiing, climbing mtbing, etc. Alex Honnold stuff always gets me going. The music score was occasionally overbearing - string/orchestral stuff - and the narrative was just okay, occasionally banal, though Willem Dafoe has a really great voice.
Get a little high and go check it out on a rainy or down day. RIYL the Banff Mountain Film Fest, this movie is shorter and cheaper but there probably won't be a lot bros and sistahs hooting' and hollering'. 3.5/5
May as well be the little she's done in the past decadeQuote:
Originally Posted by PB
So, for some reason they decided to have a 9 am screening of Hereditary today in Reno. I went figuring that 1. who-the-f@#k is gonna be at the movies that early and 2. Those that are will be seeing The Incredibles 2.
I was right on both counts as I had an entire 200 seat theater all to my lonesome.
While I usually complain about people at the movies and hate having somebody sit behind me, I will say that while it was cool to have a theater to myself, there was also something missing in that seeing a horror movie with an audience can be a great experience, what with people screaming, jumping out of their seats, etc. I missed that. But to be fair, given the nature of the sound design of the film, I found myself looking over my shoulder a few times to make sure that something wasn't sneaking up on me...
HEREDITARY
3.5 / 5
In a recent article NYT critic AO Scott said “Mr. Aster didn’t invent the techniques he deploys to create his unsettling effects, but he also swerves away from the cliches of the genre.“ I’m not sure what film he watched, but the one I saw was teeming with genre cliches. In fact, it’s one of the reasons the film is equally frustrating and mesmerizing.
Writer/Director Ari Aster seems to have taken just about every major cliche from various supernatural and occult horror films and tossed them together into a delirious hodge-podge that teeters between feeling fresh and edgy and being just plain plagueristic, albeit in an ADHD kind of way.
The tropes that slip in and out of Hereditary not only serve to create an atmosphere of familiarity, but also succeed in keeping viewers seriously off balance. Bucketfuls of blood-red herrings are tossed about with casual brutality, buffered by a steady trail of breadcrumbs that show us the way back from the ultimately predictable ending; but it’s not the climax of the film that’s worthy of mention, it’s the circuitious journey. The film wavers from themes about supernatural occurences, then it flits with being a ghost story, takes a detour towards a descent into grief-stricken madness, then plays with witches, possession, and satanic cults. It’s all of this and none of it simultaneously.
Where the film succeeds is in its fevered nightmare delivery, never letting us know if what we are seeing is real or merely some somnambulistic afterthought of the protagonists. This unreality is set forth in the first few frames and carries on until the final fade-to-black. There are even times when the whole proceeding feels like what a Wes Anderson horror film might look like, if you can wrap your head around that concept.
The vibe of the film is greatly aided by the creepy turn from young Milly Shapiro, who spends her onscreen time manifesting the character of Charlie by stuffing her face with chocolate, building weird toy dolls, and playing with dead things.
Oh, and the pacing. The film spends long, deceptively tedious moments on nothing, only to have those moments interrupted by scream-out-loud WTF bursts of violent intensity. Ditto for the score: it’s loud when it shouldn’t be, quiet when it shouldn’t be, and completely absent when it needs to be. The whole of the film seems to be focused on bait-and-switch and misdirection, which in less able hands would have come off as a trite gimmick or even a cop-out, but Aster manipulates us like a veteran. So, despite solid acting, a dizzying surrealness, and some genuine horror, the real success of this film is that the viewer never really knows where it is going, at least not until the final moments of the 3rd act.
Like a number of other recent “artsploitation” efforts (You Were Never Really Here, Revenge, Killing of a Sacred Deer), Hereditary takes Old School genre elements and gussies them up in slick cinematography, populates them with accomplished name actors (here Toni Collette and Gabriel Bryne), and employs a hip indie rock musician to compose an immersive and chilling score (Colin Stetson, who has been a member/collaborator of Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, and others).
Granted, the last 30 minutes of the film slip into somewhat generic Blumhouse-styled territory, with the ending being rather trite and of the “seen-it-before” nature, but it’s artfully delivered and ends with a visual link that brings us full circle back to the opening frames of the film that unfolded some 2 hours earlier. In the end this is a slow-burn thriller that confounds, perterbs, but also freaks you out and should linger long after the credits have ceased to roll. So, yes, this film will probably frustrate genre junkies, but at the same time it’s easily worth a second viewing and most likely to create lively post-screening conversation.
RIYL
Rosemary’s Baby, Killing of a Sacred Deer, Lords of Salem, Oculus, Mother!
Incredibles 2 was a good time. The baby is funneh.
I had that thought more than once in the theater. Everything from the dual Volvos to the family Blundstones was total mountain town chic.Quote:
Originally Posted by dookey67
I left frustrated with the ending but have realized that the movie warrants a second viewing.
It's also worth noting that by my count there are only 3 on screen deaths and my date and I laughed at every single one. The soundtrack and surround sound were some of the most important elements of the film for me and make it worth seeing in the theater.