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What Is The Last Film You Watched? (Older Films)


Mr. Breathmask

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2 hours ago, JoeinAR said:

This makes zero sense. 

 

The Rotten Tomato score is simply an aggregation of all the reviews providing a percentage of positve reviews and negative reviews. Your beef should be with the individual film critics.


I know it is. But a significant amount of critics gave it negative ("rotten") reviews. I feel that it should have gotten way more positive reviews, and thus its RT score would have been higher...

 

I wasn't blaming RT itself. Me saying I think the film's critics score is too low = me saying I think more critics should have enjoyed it.

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3 minutes ago, JoeinAR said:

A better answer is I saw those two first and was somewhat desensitized. Another way to look at it is Jaws and the Exorcist are superior films.

Horses for courses. IMO, all three are fine examples of their craft.

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I agree all great films. But onlh Jaws has a transcendent score  because of JW.

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Personally, I don't hold The Exorcist in such a high regard. To me, it's one of those movies that only works very well the first time you watch it. OTOH, I can watch and keep on rewatching Alien as if it's a piece of art, not unlike 2001: ASO.

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Just now, Alexcremers said:

Personally, I don't hold The Exorcist in such a high regard. To me, it's one of those movies that works very well the first time you watch it. OTOH, I can watch and keep on rewatching Alien as if it's a piece of art, not unlike 2001: ASO.

You do hold both in high regard.  

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Image result for the report

The Report

Solid.  Driver is quite good.  Benning is Feinstein.  An intriguing look behind the pompous curtains.  But I couldn't shake the feeling that the cast was going to turn towards the camera towards the end and look the viewer in the eye while delivering some solemn statement about CIA overreach and the importance of Democracy. 

3/4

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2 hours ago, JoeinAR said:

Another way to look at it is Jaws and the Exorcist are superior films.

 

2 hours ago, Alexcremers said:

Personally, I don't hold The Exorcist in such a high regard. To me, it's one of those movies that only works very well the first time you watch it. 

 

Very different films, I would say. Yes, technically all three are horror movies, but The Exorcist has a much stronger dramatic component to it than the other two (to me it suceeds more as a drama than as a horror movie), and over half of Alien is a sci-fi space exploration movie rather than anything overtly scary.

 

 

 

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I thrill for the chase in Jaws, I empathize with Regan's mom in the Exorcist, and I cringe at the hopelessness  of the crews survival in Aliens. 

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1 hour ago, Chen G. said:

Very different films, I would say.

 

Yes, I know, but it was Joe who said The Exorcist and Jaws are not only more overwhelming experiences but they also better movies than Alien. So it wasn't really me who started this competition between them. 

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Yeah sure. The point of your post that I was replying to was with regards to The Exorcist.

 

I don't think about it too highly as a horror movie: I think about it very highly as a drama about a man with a crisis of faith.

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Just now, Chen G. said:

I think about it very highly as a drama about a man with a crisis of faith.

 

Which is difficult for me to relate to but fortunately there's also drama to be found in the simple fact that Regan is still the daughter of a mother. It's not just some monster that needs to be killed. The film never forgets the human element. 

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You dont have to be relgious to understand a crisis in faith. 

I get Father Karras crisis quite well and I find it compelling but I completely agree with you about Regan's mom. Her story if the heart of them film. But the ending is so horrific.  At the moment ot Karras' redemption from his crisis of faith he meets his end.

Or does he.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While the Heretic was awful The Exorcist 3 is good and in one moment down right terrifying.

 

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Despicable me 2.

 

Huh, I’d forgotten the Minions were originally part of the Despicable Me universe, didn't like their spin-off at all. Kristen Wiig was annoying at first, but Steve Carell and the girls were great. The villain is a bit stupid while Steve Coogan was a nice surprise. Perfect pacing and good jokes as well.

The score contains some really nice passages, especially in the second half, but is otherwise forgettable.

 

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You know when people ask if there are any movies you actually hate? On my case, the answer would be the Minions/Despicable Me movies. Gosh, how I fucking hate these movies, there aren't anything on then that is a single redeeming feature.

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You said yourself what the problem is:

 

9 hours ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

a film "for kids" doesn't necessarily equal a lack of quality,

 

They're like the Adam Sandler comedies in which they pander to the lowest possible common denominator in hopes of getting some bucks from unsuspected parents. Illumination's movies aren't done aiming for quality storytelling and animation, they're like big marketing campaigns that encompass toys, backpacks, notebooks, anyway, every single possible product for kids... as well as movies.

 

And I know Disney's and Pixar's movies are marketing machines as well, but come on, they at least try to make their movies with some quality on the writing, animation, storytelling, etc. And that's not even counting for really bold stuff like Spider-Verse or Studio Ghibli's films, which yeah, are for kids, but they're in a level of quality that Illumination never strived for.

 

Also, the minions are fucking annoying, and the human characters aren't that much better.

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18 hours ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

In my experience, a film "for kids" doesn't necessarily equal a lack of quality

 

I think that was true back in the day. These days, for kids is more or less some embarrassing shitty computerized cartoon movie with b-list celebrities like Everyone Loves Raymond giving terrible voice performances. 

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Don't generalize things. Sure, we have Illumination's horrible movies, and stuff like Alvin and the Chimpmunks, the live action remakes, shameless cash grabs, but we have also great kids movies being produced inside and outside Hollywood.

 

Oh yeah, I forgot, here to watch animated movies is seen like something only gay people do. So yeah, everything is fucking terrible, all hail Star Trek, the most testosterone fueled show ever created!

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6 hours ago, Gruesome Son of a Bitch said:

Cartoons are for babies.

 

The Japanese make them for grownups but I don't like those either (to put it mildly).

 

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Finally watched Tolkien, after missing it in the theatre because it only seems to have had a short run with just afternoon showings in one small cinema here. It's not a great film, but it's not the kind of film that has to be. I though it was pretty good, and pretty accurate from what I can tell (from forewords and annotations etc., I haven't yet read Tolkien's biography, and his Letters are still on the book stack beside bed) - if possibly not always in fact, then at least in spirit.

 

Two nitpickily inaccurate bits though: 1) The Rheingold prelude starts about 3 minutes into the piece instead of at the beginning, and 2) the final scene is totally wrong (Tolkien famously scribbled the first line of The Hobbit in the corner of an unused piece of paper while grading exams, and he generally wrote his stuff in pencil and then wrote over it multiple times while refining it, so he certainly didn't write it in calligraphy on a blank sheet of paper).

 

Always nice to see Colm Meaney and Derek Jacobi.

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Yeah, my passing knowledge of Tolkien's biography didn't suggest that it would make for very compelling piece of cinema, but the movie works well enough. Its very handsomely photographed, actually.

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BATMAN BEGINS. Against all better judgment, I rather like this film. It has suspense, humour, charm, and good performances.

Zimmer has said that two notes, played on the horns could be expressive. I'm sure they are, but it will take a much more talented composer than him, to make them sound anything other than two notes. Thankfully, most of the score was drowned out by sound effects (couldn't hear much JNH, in the score, so it's just as well).

Next up: THE DARK KNIGHT RISES.

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16 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

BATMAN BEGINS. Against all better judgment, I rather like this film. It has suspense, humour, charm, and good performances.

 

Yep, it's pretty good ... and rewatchable.

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Thor.

 

It was interesting to re-watch this one now that I know the MCU and now that I actually recognise the actors. They’re all great. Well, except Idris Elba, who’s just fine. I also seem to remember Natalie Portman being better, but oh well. Not much else to say, really. It’s a very good movie.

On to the score. It’s depressing to hear a composer like Patrick Doyle having to imitate the derivative style of Hans Zimmer’s clan who insist that literally everything should be scored in D minor. Luckily, Doyle’s intelligence is on display as well and things get much more interesting after the first Asgard sequence. And I obviously love the heroic and romantic cues.

 

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5 hours ago, Alexcremers said:

Maybe Richard wants to skip that one?

 

5 hours ago, Edmilson said:

But why? It's universally considered the best of the trilogy (particularly, I prefer Begins, but I have to watch these movies again), and is also crucial to understand the plot of TDKR.

 

5 hours ago, Alexcremers said:

Perhaps he finds the second one too smug for its own good. Richard can be like that.

The answer is simple: I don't have access to TDK, otherwise I would watch it. Personally, I find it the least engaging of the trilogy, but I know that I'm in a very small minority.

Also...The Joker vs Anne Hathaway, in skin-tight leather? No contest :)

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Fools Rush In

 

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I've always liked this one. Now that I'm pushing 40 and desire Hispanic women and babies, I like it even more. It's a seemingly unlikely pairing, but the cast has loads of chemistry. It just sort of works. Over the course of the two hours, I get into it. It has all the trademarks of a romantic comedy (the hookup and honeymoon phase, the argument and breakup, the reunion) so don't expect anything out of the ordinary. Still, like the best of these types of movies, it should leave you satisfied and thinking "That was cute" once the leads finally settle their differences and live happily ever after.

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