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What Is The Last Film You Watched? (2021 films)


Jay

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In the Heights review: Broadway musicals make the best blockbusters -  Polygon

 

In The Heights

 

Basically a lesser Hamilton.  Instead of an epic, decade-spanning tale of some of America's founding fathers struggling to shape our country, it's about some 20somethings in NYC and their 20something struggles, over the course of like 3 days.  The stakes are lower, but that also means it's more upbeat and fun the entire time instead of the utterly depressing second half Hamilton has...

 

The music is maybe 60% Hamilton-style fair (hip hop / broadway blend) and 40% Latin music.  The actors are good (I really enjoyed seeing Rosa from Brooklyn 99 and Daya from Orange is the New Black playing characters completely opposite to their most notable ones). The best character was the young cousin, he was hilarious

 

Overall though, I wasn't that entertained, and I doubt I would be compelled to ever watch it again

 

It's free on HBO Max

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Hamilton and In the Heights are both boring. Hamilton is truly abysmal. I need West Side Story to wash the taste out.

 

AC1, Alex, they are making a Tomorrow War 2.

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No Sudden Move' Review: Don Cheadle and Benicio Del Toro Have a Blast |  IndieWire

 

No Sudden Move

 

Steven Soderbergh's sixth movie since "retiring" is another good one!  Ostensibly, it contains s a fairly straightforward plot about corruption in the Detroit auto industry of the 1950s and the lengths various parties went to cover it all up.  However, this plot is told from the perspectives of outsiders (a bunch of gangsters hired for various roles not knowing the big picture) which makes it more interesting, albeit very hard to follow along the way.  This is probably one of those movies that has a more rewarding second watch than usual because of this.

 

The cast is utterly packed with heavy hitters - Don Cheadle, Benicio del Toro, David Harbour, Jon Hamm, Ray Liotta, Kieran Culkin, Brendan Fraser, Bill Duke, Matt Damon, the list goes on and on.

 

It's a pretty slow paced film, without that much comedy, and with lots of plot details explained much later in the film than most films would do so, but if you stick with it all, it has a pretty rewarding ending.

 

It's free on HBO Max.

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13 minutes ago, AC1 said:

 

Nooooooooooooooooo! Why?! 

To torment us no doubt.

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Bought tickets yesterday to see Black Widow today.  Going to leaving the house shortly to go see it with a good friend of mine.  First cinema venture since Rise of Skywalker in 2019!

 

It's practically a monsoon happening here, so hopefully the theater doesn't lose power!

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12 hours ago, Jay said:

No Sudden Move

 

Steven Soderbergh's sixth movie since "retiring" is another good one!  Ostensibly, it contains s a fairly straightforward plot about corruption in the Detroit auto industry of the 1950s and the lengths various parties went to cover it all up. 

 

Soderbergh has another film out already?? Damn he works fast.

12 hours ago, AC1 said:

 

Nooooooooooooooooo! Why?! 

 

Watched this last night. Boy does it get dumber with each passing second. And the spectacle is not fun enough to make up for it.

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Heading to see Black Widow but first we are eating at my favorite Mexican restaurant in Little Rock. Steak Fajita nachos...

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Black Widow - an origin movie for an MCU character who we know is now dead was always going to be a fairly low-stakes affair. So it proves, but this is still fairly enjoyable regardless.

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It's not a great movie but it was still quite good.

It's a bit like the Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard actually: the first one is great surprise and its sequel is less interresting but it doesn't make of it a bad thing at least IMO.

I would more give it a 6.5/10

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I dunno, I actually didn't like one thing about it. 

 

Then there's the illogical things, stuff that I find hard to believe. First one had that too.

 

 

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Yeah, it had all the problems of a bad sequel. Lightweight backstory, "small universe" syndrome, poor watered-down characterizations and conveniently speeding through genre clichés (pretty much knocking off every trope in Walking Dead and The Last of Us).

 

I did like its look though. Perks of shooting of film.

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8 hours ago, AC1 said:

I dunno, I actually didn't like one thing about it. 

 

Then there's the illogical things, stuff that I find hard to believe. First one had that too.

 

 

Explain. Naturally I totally disagree.  91 % at RT.  The opening is incredibly intense.  Once again the acting is top notch. 

 

I actually was here to post how impressed I was with Fear Street 1666, Fear Street 1994 pt. 2. It was fun, campy, scary, shocking, and touching. Best of the solid trilogy.

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On 7/9/2021 at 8:45 AM, Jay said:

In the Heights review: Broadway musicals make the best blockbusters -  Polygon

 

In The Heights

 

Basically a lesser Hamilton.  Instead of an epic, decade-spanning tale of some of America's founding fathers struggling to shape our country, it's about some 20somethings in NYC and their 20something struggles, over the course of like 3 days.  The stakes are lower, but that also means it's more upbeat and fun the entire time instead of the utterly depressing second half Hamilton has...

 

The music is maybe 60% Hamilton-style fair (hip hop / broadway blend) and 40% Latin music.  The actors are good (I really enjoyed seeing Rosa from Brooklyn 99 and Daya from Orange is the New Black playing characters completely opposite to their most notable ones). The best character was the young cousin, he was hilarious

 

I thought Benny was the best one

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12 hours ago, KK said:

Yeah, it had all the problems of a bad sequel. Lightweight backstory, "small universe" syndrome, poor watered-down characterizations and conveniently speeding through genre clichés (pretty much knocking off every trope in Walking Dead and The Last of Us).

 

I just felt it had nothing more to say, nothing more to show, and what it showed was done in such a conventional way. But worst of all, I never felt the characters were in real danger. I'm truly surprised most critics like it (I guess they felt the need to support theaters in these difficult times).

 

 

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I watched the two back to back. The first one was on offer at HMV and once I finished watching it there was a showing of the second one at my local cinema an hour later. I liked both but neither of them is really scary. The funny thing is how drastically the kids aged between the two movies. Overall, I had a good time but forgot about both almost instantly. So here goes... 

 

Karol

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Black Widow

 

My expectations were so low that, by the end of the movie, I was surprised to find out that I actually liked it. It's not a masterpiece, not even one of the top 10 MCU films, but it's watchable and entertaining. I really liked Natasha's relationship with her surrogate family.  Lorne Balfe's score was surprisingly effective on the most calmer/dramatic scenes, specially during the prologue.

 

However, the action scenes were the worst part, which is really bad for what aims to be a spy movie. The fight choreographies weren't great and, worst of all, they were staged and cut like those post-Bourne spy films with a lot of quick cuts. Also, there was some rather poor CGI sometimes.

 

3/5

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9 hours ago, Not Mr. Big said:

I thought Benny was the best one

 

I had to look up who that was.  The guy from Straight Outta Compton?  What made him so great?

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I figure all parents would feel the intensity of the bear trap scene . 

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Anyone watch Gunpowder Milkshake.

 

It wants to be John Wick/Hotel Artimis/Bad Times at the El Royale. But Karen Gillan is always fun to watch.

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Will see Old Saturday maybe see Escape Room tomorrow

 

 

I love 4 day work weeks

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Black Widow' Proves Theaters And Streamers Can Coexist

 

Black Widow

 

Jeesh, I saw this opening day in the theater and forgot to write about it until now

 

It was... meh.  The biggest crimes are that it's not very exciting or interesting.  The few interesting characters that show up aren't used to their full potential (Pugh, Harbour) or only really do anything towards the end of the film (Weisz).  The action scenes are forgettable.  Like I can remember why each one was happening, but nothing specific that happened during each one is retained, as they weren't very interesting at all.


The other crimes is that there's just now way around the fact that it came out at the wrong time.  It's a film that tells a simple story of one adventure Natasha had in between Civil War and Infinity War.... and that's when this film should have been released - any time in that window.  Because watching it now, from start to end the stakes seem laughably low.  Once Thanos has shown up in your 24 film series and kicked off Universe-wide stakes that all the heroes, including Natasha, pushed themselves to their limits to stop, watching some plot about some Russian guy who might be able to mind control some people for political gain instills a strong feeling of "why do I care? We already know half the planet will be snapped in a few years"

 

The other MCU content post-Endgame actually makes sense for a post-Thanos world, with the stakes involving a potential multiverse (Far From Home), an actual multiverse (Loki), or in the case of WandaVision, going deeply into the main character's psyche rather than telling a bigger story (though at the same time, it does introduce a larger role of magic and witchcraft, so kinda counts in that way too).  Here they don't have big stakes or dive deep into Natasha, really.  I guess it tries to kind of tell somewhat of an origin story, but since she's already been in a half-dozen films, they've already kind of doled out where she cames from and what makes her tick in dribs and drabs across various content, which is another thing that makes this film not work.  I certainly don't remember all the little details this movie references and I doubt many other viewers did either, so it sort of functions neither as a good standalone film nor as a good important chapter in the overall MCU story.  It's just... here.

 

It was nice to be back in the cinemas, for sure, I loved seeing a fun action film with an audience again, but this film left no memborable impression apart from Florence Pugh, really , who was pretty good.  I enjoyed her banter with Johannson about her poses and even the bit about the vest worked even though they did force it too hard.

 

Definitely nothing anyone needs to rush out to see.

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Yeah, the low stakes really don't help. It's definitely 'lower-tier' MCU, along with the likes of The Dark World and Civil War (that one felt like a Avengers flick where they forgot to tell half of them to show up).  

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Fear Street Trilogy (2021)

 

Fear Street: Part One - 1994

Fear Street: Part Two - 1978

Fear Street: Part Three - 1666

 

So apparently there’s a series of books called “Fear Street” about a street with the same name where a bunch of weird shit keeps happening, murders and such.

 

I didn’t pick up other mention of any “Fear Street” in any of the three movie which seemed curious to me, but whatever. I’m not a fan so I didn’t take offense. I guess it was a creative decision to tell a better story.

 

But was it though? I guess the fact that they pulled it off is the “great” thing here - telling a story in a three part movie structure that spans different “eras” that is.

 

Because story - it’s not.

Because acting - it’s not.

Because scares - it’s not.

 

So I guess it doesn’t work as a “Fear Street” adaptation nor a standalone movie series.

 

Shame, it had potential.

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10 hours ago, rough cut said:

Fear Street Trilogy (2021)

 

Fear Street: Part One - 1994

Fear Street: Part Two - 1978

Fear Street: Part Three - 1666

 

So apparently there’s a series of books called “Fear Street” about a street with the same name where a bunch of weird shit keeps happening, murders and such.

 

I didn’t pick up other mention of any “Fear Street” in any of the three movie which seemed curious to me, but whatever. I’m not a fan so I didn’t take offense. I guess it was a creative decision to tell a better story.

 

But was it though? I guess the fact that they pulled it off is the “great” thing here - telling a story in a three part movie structure that spans different “eras” that is.

 

Because story - it’s not.

Because acting - it’s not.

Because scares - it’s not.

 

So I guess it doesn’t work as a “Fear Street” adaptation nor a standalone movie series.

 

Shame, it had potential.

Wtf are you going on about. It was quite good. And it ended quite well.

 

Old. 

Not MNS best or worst but it was a blast. We had a good time. Again good ending.

 

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Horribly bad movies but I’ll go as far as saying mildly entertaining.

 

I kinda snoozed through the second one tbh, I found that plot uninteresting since they told us in the first one how it would play out. And then in the third one the outcome of the 1666 segment was extremely obvious, so I thought that that whole part was just a big snooze fest.


In the end, I didn’t find much redeeming about any part of the trilogy, not even as a teen slasher. They didn’t do it for me. But they were mildly entertaining, I’ll admit to that.

 

But if you liked them to any more degree - if you had a blast - good for you.

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Chernobyl: Abyss (aka Chernobyl 1986 on Netflix). Shockingly bad. Some are some minor details in the HBO series that bother me but nothing comes close to this level of cliché. So dull. 

 

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Karol

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Jungle Cruise

 

It was a lot of fun. Great mix between Indiana Jones and the African Queen, but with it's own identity and story. Nothing is derivative of another movie.

Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt are both amazing. Their chemistry is top-notch and they're both very funny. Supporting cast is also very good: Jack Whitehall, Edgar Ramirez and Jesse Plemmons are all terrific.

 

The production deisgn, costumes and cinematography are superb. Some of the VFX was a bit less, but the important VFX was always believable. Ramirez' character + his henchman are very well realised and very cool.

 

And last the score. As my name up top implies big James Newton Howard fan. I thought his score was amazing. When he writes big orchestral, thematic scores, that's when I love him the most. There are quite a few themes in the score and great action and emotional material. I can't wait to listen to it on album. But from hearing it in the movie it will be one of my favorites of the year.

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I read a Jungle Cruise review that said the movie commits the same error as Indy 4: too much CGI, too many digital locations and not enough pratical sets and beautiful exotic locations. 

 

Even the 99 Mummy and the 2017 Jumanji had real sets (the latter was filmed in Hawaii if I'm not mistaken).

 

I'm still considering whether to watch this in theaters or if I just wait for it to become "for free" on D+. But I can't wait to hear JNH's score!

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Riders Of Justice - take some revenge drama, a lot of tarmac-black comedy and a touch of action, mix and you've got this very good Danish movie. Mads Mikkelsen heads the cast, who are all excellent.   

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Suicide Squad. It's better than the other one but that doesn't say much. It tries way too hard and mostly misses the mark. 

 

Karol

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On 7/29/2021 at 12:40 AM, JNHFan2000 said:

Jungle Cruise

 

It was a lot of fun. Great mix between Indiana Jones and the African Queen, but with it's own identity and story. Nothing is derivative of another movie.

Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt are both amazing. Their chemistry is top-notch and they're both very funny. Supporting cast is also very good: Jack Whitehall, Edgar Ramirez and Jesse Plemmons are all terrific.

 

The production deisgn, costumes and cinematography are superb. Some of the VFX was a bit less, but the important VFX was always believable. Ramirez' character + his henchman are very well realised and very cool.

 

And last the score. As my name up top implies big James Newton Howard fan. I thought his score was amazing. When he writes big orchestral, thematic scores, that's when I love him the most. There are quite a few themes in the score and great action and emotional material. I can't wait to listen to it on album. But from hearing it in the movie it will be one of my favorites of the year.

What was the deal with the operatic rock scoring for Johnson’s flashback??

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The Suicide Squad

 

It's absolutely bonkers and I loved the hell out of it. It might not be for everybody, but I did love this film. Amazing!!

Gunn makes all these weird characters work. And not only that, you really care about a lot of them. The cast is great. As is the production design, cinematography, VFX & stunt work (a lot has been done practical).

 

I didn't know what to expect of the score. But it fit the film like a glove. Great work by John Murphy.

 

Like I said, not everybody will like it, but I loved it very very much.

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7 hours ago, JNHFan2000 said:

The Suicide Squad

 

It's absolutely bonkers and I loved the hell out of it. It might not be for everybody, but I did love this film. Amazing!!

Gunn makes all these weird characters work. And not only that, you really care about a lot of them. The cast is great. As is the production design, cinematography, VFX & stunt work (a lot has been done practical).

 

I didn't know what to expect of the score. But it fit the film like a glove. Great work by John Murphy.

 

Like I said, not everybody will like it, but I loved it very very much.

 

Somebody said it's the best superhero movie since TDK.  :o

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1 hour ago, AC1 said:

 

Somebody said it's the best superhero movie since TDK.  :o

I wouldn't go as far as that personally. There are quite a few comic book films I like more. But it's very good. And stands apart from everything you've seen of a comic book film before

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