Rate the last film you watched out of 5

[ucci]

Banshees of Insherin is David Harrow's Forgotten in Film form...

 

 

[Capwn]

I do wonder if people who enjoyed banshees and didn't see The Lobster are missing out, it has that same tone but at an increased volume.

 

 

[Mikes]

Pulse (2001)

 

Excellent, just what I love. A film that's filled with suspense and a creeping, uneasy feeling rather than jump scares.  So good. And the soundtrack...

 

5 dual up tones out of 5

 

 

[schmojo]

White  Noise

 

Somehow, I've managed to never see a Noah Baumbach film, to my knowledge. I was aware that they had a reputation for being in love with themselves, but that didn't really put me off. It's not like I haven't watched plenty of indulgent directors and enjoyed them.

 

I can even enjoy a very artificial tone, which I felt this film has, but this didn't click with me. Every time they added a new layer, I hadn't started to care about the previous one yet.

 

I know it's an adaptation, so I'll try a couple of Baumbach's others to see if he's just not for me, but this felt like a waste of cast and production design. I expect others to feel massively differently though, it'll be divisive. At times it felt like A Serious Man meets National Lampoon's Vacation, but not in a way I liked.

 

2/5

[Boothjan]

Seen a few films since the turn of the year:

 

1. The Reader 

 

Superb performance by Kate Winslet in a story about a young man who falls in love with an older woman in post war Germany

 

4/5

 

2. Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore

 

How do you make Harry Potter quite this dull?  Really wanted to like these films but they're all a bit shit TBH,

 

2/5

 

3. The Reef: Stalked

 

Horrendous cheap shark movie I saw on NOW during a 7 day trial.  I'm a sucker for these films but I really shouldn't be because they're all appalling!

 

1/5

 

4. Ghostbusters: Afterlife

 

Thought this was good, but took a while to get going.  By the end, it's lovely fan service in a fun family movie and thankfully a big improvement over the mess that was the 2016 reboot.

 

3.5/5

 

5. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

 

Can't work out why this is getting so much criticism on the thread because it's inoffensive fun, really enjoyable and Daniel Craig is clearly having the time of his life.  Really hope they do some more Benoit Blanc movies as I think they're great

 

4/5

[Clipper]

Live DIe Repeat - Edge of Tomorrow

 

I seem to recall this was just called of Edge of Tomorrow on release so I assume they changed the title to give the audience more hint of what it was about or for rights reasons. Anyway the central conceit (now in the title) is an interesting one albeit played out a few times in  scifi and comedy. The opening and first act are actually pretty good with Cruise almost playing against type and doing it rather well. The future war stuff looks great and reminds me heavily of Starship Troopers, the landing point being the beaches of northern France are a little bit on the nose but I'll forgive it.

 

Sadly the opening act is the best part of the film and then it turns into a more generic scifi action thiller and loses points as a result. The second act is a little stodgy and by the numbers with flashes of nice touches here and there. It is entertaining enough but the ending is a bit shit.

 

3/5

 

and because it wasn't late enough and I had heard bad things about it

 

Moonfall

 

WTF?

 

I had heard that this was an Emmerich production like ID4/Day after tomorrow but worse/bonkers. However it is bizarrely much worse than that. The plot is utter hatstand with a right turn so sharp around the third act that I am not sure i was still watching the same film. It did slightly remind me of Stargate in terms of how leftfield the overarching concept was but turned up to eleven and left there.

 

Now we are used to Emmerich disaster porn and this time the plot is just stupider so that's ok right? Nope.

 

The 2nd issue is the production and acting. The film production values switch from hugely expensive CG to cheap looking soap opera level sets with alarming regularity. We get a lush CG effect seamlessly merged with live action one minute and the next minute one of our heroes is riding a motorcycle out of his garage and the whole thing looks like it was made of cardboard in a morning.

 

The acting is hilariously awful. A few days ago I was watching the Futurama episode with Harold Zoid - where they are making a terrible hollywood blockbuster with acting to match and when I watched this I thought it was a homage to that episode. From scene to scene I am not sure the actors know any of the context of where there characters are in the script. I literally laughed out loud at some of the sub-soap opera acting and that isn't hyperbole I was laughing. Ever single plot strand is terribly acted there isn't a good performance in the film, Halle Berry seems to have different motivations from scene to scene and I wouldn't be surprised if I found out that some of her scenes came from off cuts from another film!

 

This is the most baffling sack of crap I have watched in a while. I am guessing there must be a story behind how this went so utterly off the rails - a budgetary change halfway through so they had to finish 50% of the film with $100 or something?

 

1/5

 

[tejinashi]

Everything Everywhere All at Once, Prime, 3 stars.

 

I didn't connect with this as powerfully as others did, but I still thought it was a good romp. The legendary Michelle Yeoh is the main reason to watch, with a masterful central performance. I liked the fight scenes too, but where it lost me a bit was all the 'wackiness'. Some of the universes were just too daft, and I thought they could have been cleverer with the handling of the multiverse in general. But perhaps that was a necessary sacrifice for sake of accessibility.

 

It has made me want to check out more Yeoh films though. I bet there are some crackers in her filmography.

[Mogster]

1 hour ago, Boothjan said:

Really hope they do some more Benoit Blanc movies as I think they're great

The Netflix deal was for two sequels to Knives Out, so presumably there will be at least one more.

[The Tall Man]

Similar to @Jamie John I’m in for listing the movies I watch this year. It’ll be new and old favourites alike as I rewatch plenty. Maybe too many…

 

To start with is last nights watch:

 

Hellbender (Shudder)

 

A low budget folk horror made by the primary actors. Witchcraft reveals itself to the homeschooled Izzy after befriending fellow teens against her mothers wishes. It didn’t go as expected, which is good (pun intended), but also wasn’t the sum of its parts.

 

3/5

[Stig]

6 hours ago, Mogster said:

The Netflix deal was for two sequels to Knives Out, so presumably there will be at least one more.

 

After they've got that out the way, we need one with the Muppets and Benoit.

[Camel]

10 hours ago, Mikes said:

Pulse (2001)

 

Excellent, just what I love. A film that's filled with suspense and a creeping, uneasy feeling rather than jump scares.  So good. And the soundtrack...

 

5 dual up tones out of 5

 

 

I really wanted to like this but found it didn’t really make sense. Cure, however - an earlier film by the same director - absolutely hit the spot. 

[Clipper]

Not sure where else to post this but I have a number of physical discs and a number are , embarrassingly, still sealed. I plan to unseal and watch them all as a priority (in terms of film watching) this year (including extras as that is one of the reasons I got them on physical media!). Lots are just rewatches or me rebuying stuff on newer formats but it is so wasteful not to enjoy these films.

 

I was going to start a new thread but I didn't imagine many would have physical media let alone bunches of sealed discs

 

(um I have 26 either unwatched or sealed yikes)

[Camel]

I’ve got loads of sealed films that I haven’t got round to watching yet. Way more than 26.

[Nick R]

48 minutes ago, Clipper said:

(um I have 26 either unwatched or sealed yikes)

 

I keep a Letterboxd list of all the unwatched DVDs/BRs in my collection. I own 17 films that I've never seen before, and about 115 that I've seen before, but haven't watched my own copies.

 

And that's just feature films... then you can add on the stand-up shows and TV series...

 

Look, a few years ago there was a branch of That's Entertainment open near me, as well as a charity shop that did 5 DVDs for £1, all right?

[Clipper]

Oh god if I have to include charity shop buys* that will cover my year

 

* found recently they still do decent cds for 50p to £1, Blu-ray £1 ish and dvd 3 or 5 for a quid! Every time I walk past one it cost me money as “it’s only loose change” 

[Ry]

Marcel The Shell with Red Shoes on -4/5

 

Just a lovely film. Really beautifully shot with the most adorable character I have ever seen in film. 

 

White Noise - ?/5

 

I rarely turn a film off but I had to with this. It was just up its own arse and I was too tired to give it my attention. Oh and my other half couldn't be bothered either. And to think, this film had a budget of over $200 million!

 

 

[Fierce Poodle]

29 minutes ago, Ry said:

White Noise - ?/5

 

I rarely turn a film off but I had to with this. It was just up its own arse and I was too tired to give it my attention. Oh and my other half couldn't be bothered either. And to think, this film had a budget of over $200 million!

 

 

You did the right thing. I’m nearly at the end and it just gets more and more annoying as it goes on.

[Festoon]

1 hour ago, Fierce Poodle said:

You did the right thing. I’m nearly at the end and it just gets more and more annoying as it goes on.

 

And it cost 200 million.

[Fierce Poodle]

10 minutes ago, Festoon said:

 

And it cost 200 million.

In defence of the director Noel Baumbach, he did also make the excellent Marriage Story. 

[Festoon]

22 minutes ago, Fierce Poodle said:

In defence of the director Noel Baumbach, he did also make the excellent Marriage Story. 

 

I didn't like that either. I haven't liked any of his films, for some reason.

[Monkeyboy]

Last Embrace (1979)

 

At times baffling, Hitchcockian thriller from Jonathan Demme, starring Roy Scheider. Well, I found it baffling. At least in the first half where it doesn't exactly spoon feed you as to what's going on. Has a cameo from Christopher Walken being Christopher Walken lighting up the screen without even trying.

 

3 out of 5

[John0]

Came here to see if anyone felt the same way about White Noise . My partner and I both wanted to stop after half an hour but I am stubborn about seeing things through sometimes and I made us watch the whole thing. I think maybe if you had read the book it probably makes more sense? It was supposed to be about the emptiness of consumerism but that didn't come across very strongly to me. The absurdity of the dialogue and characters only really made me detach from the story and care very, very little about anything that happened at all. And it seemed to revel in almost providing an interesting bit (the toxic cloud) before deliberately cutting it short. It was genuinely funny in places and the performances were impressive and faithful to the aesthetic, but I've no real patience for this type of arty, eccentric film these days.

 

I'll have to re-watch Marriage Story at some point because although it seemed well produced and acted and so forth, I remember getting this weird feeling that it was some sort of elaborate revenge project with regard to Baumbach's divorce, but maybe I got the wrong end of the stick.

[ucci]

15 hours ago, Festoon said:

 

I didn't like that either. I haven't liked any of his films, for some reason.

Baumbach has gone for the intellectual American family drama types of film like Linklater but with humour. His films are funny as f$$k to me. White Noise, the book, was one I wanted to love but De Lillo's writing just couldn't bring to life his ideas. The film is gonna have to improve that. 

[Fierce Poodle]

I thought Marriage Story was fantastic. The two leads, particularly Adam Driver, were incredible.

[ImmaculateClump]

The Menu - **

[Monkeyboy]

Oasis of the Zombies (1982)

 

A 1980s “video nasty” that’s actually quite tame. I don’t think I’ve seen too many zombie films set in the desert, so it gets some points for that. Has some quality (meaning bad and hilarious) dubbing.

 

2 out of 5

[Boothjan]

Spoiler

2023's 200 Film Challenge:

 

1. The Reader 4/5

2. Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore 2/5

3. The Reef: Stalked 1/5

4. Ghostbusters: Afterlife 3.5/5

5. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery 4/5

 

6. Black Widow

 

Just the most averagely average film I can remember seeing for a long time.  Bloody love Scarlett Johansson and Florence Pugh, but really didn't think this held my attention well at all, despite looking pretty good in places.  A very <partridge_shrug.gif> of a film

 

2.5/5

 

7.  Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar's Revenge

 

Quite enjoyed this, thinking it would be a shocker but I thought it was better than most of the previous instalments.  Some superb CGI in places, and loved some of the references that went into the PotC Sea of Thieves tie in!  Though it's hard to deny that the franchise feels a bit tired now. 

 

3/5

 

8. My Left Foot

 

One of those 'how have I never seen this?' films - absolutely incredible performance by Daniel Day-Lewis and Brenda Flicker telling the story of artist Christy Brown, who was born with cerebral palsy.  Gripping and whimsical when it would have been easy to have made it maudlin, this is a masterpiece.

 

5/5

[Floyd]

The Hatchlings 

 

4/5 Worth watching, though, showing it's age

 

 

[Bluejam]

Smile

 

hmmm, a high 3.5. Seems to lose it at the end but it gave the other half a few jumps. Soundtrack is weird

[glb]

M3gan - 3/5 (work screener)

 

Your mileage with this will absolutely vary depending on your tolerance for silliness. IMDb really should add comedy to its genre because it's tongue-in-cheek throughout, but give me a horror that sets out its stall and has fun with its plot any day of the week. Very daft, very OTT and, much like Malignant last year, I enjoyed every second.

 

(#1... oh wait, I'm not doing that this year)