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


Jay

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The Wich films are exposition on the go. Explanation for events will be given but not necessarily soon. I look forward to #4.

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10 minutes ago, Jay said:

I saw the first John Wick and didn't like it at all, so never bothered with the sequels.  I'm kinda curious if I was just in the wrong state of mind or something and might give it another chance one day.  I tend to like the over the top violent gun action movies like Shoot 'Em Up, Everly, American Ultra, etc, but that one didn't do it for me for whatever reason

 

Interesting. Wick (to me) was a perfect balance of over the top (but not gross) violence and action, a hyper competent protagonist, and this weird dash of world building that the sequel doubles down on in the best way. I need to revisit 3. I was a little underwhelmed when I saw it in the theater.

 

Maybe the fact that I don't usually like "action for action's sake" kind of films to begin with is why I find Wick to be unique and different.

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I think John Wick has some lots of great actions sequence, nice photography but I was never much a fan of the two first movies.

The third must be seen if you like Vivaldi's Four Season though, such a great use

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As far as Reeves' franchises go, Bill AndTed and John Wick are both a helluva lot more fun than The Matrix (excluding the first movie, and I guess we'll see what the upcoming fourth flick will bring).   

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John Wick movies are fun! 

 

@Jay the first film is fairly grounded so it might not seem like much but the sequels get bigger and more tongue-in-cheek. It is essentially a completely nonsensical deadpan pulp and should be experienced as such. I would definitely give it another go. 

 

Karol

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Disney's blockbusting Cruella prequel is reportedly getting a sequel  following big screen success | Ents & Arts News | Sky News

 

Cruella

 

This is now free on Disney+ as of Friday night, and that was when we watched it.  I liked it a lot!  The trailers really made it look bizarre and unpleasant, but in actuality it's quite interesting and fun right from the get-go.  The pacing and world-building is fantastic for most of the movie.  Once the big fire happens everything after is a little more clunky and a little less compelling, but overall this was a fun flick we both really enjoyed.

 

The acting was the best part, both Emma Stone and especially Emma Thompson were really good.  Thompson brought some Streep in Devil Wears Prada vibes and Stone pulled off the English accent very well.  Paul Walter Houser is one of the best comedic actors working right now and he nailed it again here (at one point I said he could play a young Smee in a Hook reboot!).  Kirby Howell-Baptiste  and Kayvan Novak were underutilized but I'm sure they'll have a bigger role in the sequel.

 

Another great aspect of the movie is the sound - it was was absolutely stellar, full of great classic rock from The Rolling Stones, The Zombies, The Animals, The Doors, Supertramp, Queen, Deep Purple, ELO, Blondie, The Clash, just one banger after another, it was great.  And Nicholas Britell's original score weaved in and out of these and added an equal level of enjoyment to many scenes.

 

Would watch again and plan to check out the score album later

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Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

 

Well I wasn't expecting anything of this movie so what a surprise when I watched it. It has a really nice flow with some of the best hand-to-hand action sequence I've ever seen. Cretton make a superb work especially since he's not someone who usually do those kind of movies.

 

The actors are really good special mention to Tony Leung who makes a great Mandarin.

 

I loved the universe that they build here, really in the vibe of Iron Fist comic books so that was great to see this especially after the awful Iron Fist's Netflix show.

 

The visual effects and design are amazing giving more life to the mythology of the characters and making the cinema experience so worthwhile. This movie needs the big screen (for those who can of course)

 

Finally a word on Joel P. West score. I simply really like it, really different from what the composer usually offer to fit the best the universe of the character.

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I'm not very familiar with her, I've only saw her in Jumanji 3 so I will said she was a bit better here, still really fun and energetic so a great plus to the cast.

In general I'll say the cast was great, I've just notice a bit more Tony Leung because I'm a big fan of the Mandarin twist of Iron Man 3 so I was a bit afraid that his his come back more in the style of the comics will disappoint me which he did not!!

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4 hours ago, Jay said:

The acting was the best part, both Emma Stone and especially Emma Thompson were really good.  Thompson brought some Streep in Devil Wears Prada vibes and Thompson pulled off the English accent very well.

 

That second part confused me, Thompson being English and all, but I guess you meant to type Stone.

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Candyman - the 'social justice urban myth' horror franchise becomes the latest to have its newest instalment pick up where the first movie left off, ignoring previous sequels ... and for the most part succeeds.

Shang-Chi : The Legend Of The Ten Rings - Marvel does martial arts. Quite fun, and the aforementioned martial arts do at least help to set it apart a little from the other Marvel stuff.

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8 hours ago, Sweeping Strings said:

Shang-Chi : The Legend Of The Ten Rings - Marvel does martial arts. Quite fun, and the aforementioned martial arts do at least help to set it apart a little from the other Marvel stuff.

 

I was amazed at how much I loved this film. Looking forward to seeing it again.

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Cruella

 

Geez, this movie is so much better than it had any right to be. It's no masterpiece, but it's still a fun movie. It reminded me a bit of Scorsese's crime epics, specially with the constant classic rock songs playing. The biggest problem is that it's too long: almost 140 minutes for a 101 Dalmatians prequel is just too much.

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Malignant was entertaining as hell. Of course its way over the top ending was a joy for me. Harks back to Stephen King's The Dark Side. I can't decide should I tell my best friend and co-worker to watch this. She shares a commonality with the protagonist.

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ffbf483939c5043db8bda0956df31fce156d0373

 

Dune

 

Sprawling, gargantaun and pretty much everything I expected it to be. And yet...it feels kind of empty...hollow, even. I enjoyed it, but I'm not sure I loved it. At the very least, it definitely has a third act problem.

 

Also, this film deserved a better composer. God, with all the soaring visuals, the score is really such an unimaginative turd.

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Copshop - pulpy, faintly Tarantino-esque action-thriller in which Frank Grillo's conman deliberately gets himself locked up in order to escape the hitman on his tail (Gerard Butler). Butler gets himself incarcerated in the same jail in order to complete his mission, and the fecal matter proceeds to strike the cool air distribution device. Nothing hugely new, but fun nonetheless.

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The only reason I will watch dune is because its on Hbomax and to see how magnificently awful it will be. 

Epic sy fy crap.

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22 hours ago, KK said:

Also, this film deserved a better composer.

 

By sheer coincidence, I just watched some footage from the film (the "royal house featurette") with the Trauermusik from Gotterdamerung playing in the background. Worked brilliantly.

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2 hours ago, Chen G. said:

 

By sheer coincidence, I just watched some footage from the film (the "royal house featurette") with the Trauermusik from Gotterdamerung playing in the background. Worked brilliantly.

 

That sounds transcendant. There was some Ligeti-esque choral stuff in the opening prologue, but it was mostly insubstantial.

 

The whisper/shriek vocal stuff for the Bene Gesserit is actually a cool idea in Zimmer's score, albeit a brief one. That and some neat synth stuff here and there. But most of it is just so bland for the scope of this world. And I don't understand why Zimmer needs to blast EVERY moment with his massive drums or a drone...lighter touches could definitely have given greater shape in the film's more evocative moments.

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48 minutes ago, KK said:

Zimmer needs to blast EVERY moment with his massive drums or a drone...lighter touches could definitely have given greater shape in the film's more evocative moments.

Maybe it's a Junkie XL influence? He also likes to score everything with loud drums.

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Loud drums became a Hollywood standard back when Zimmer first rose to power. If anything, it's a Zimmer influence. I actually wonder if modern "classically un-trained" composers simply never learnt how to structure rhythms without loudly pounding them out with drums.

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Some use it to good effect (e.g. Bear McCreary on BSG, much of which is of course scored mainly for percussion). But so much of modern day Hollywood film music seems to just blindly follow the pattern of pounding out each and every rhythm with extra heavy drums. Perhaps it goes back to how Harald Kloser once explained that in a modern blockbuster action film, the only way a composer can make the audience even hear the music beneath all the SFX is to make an abrupt rhythm change.

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Malignant - there are some nice directorial flourishes from James Wan (and a gruesomely inventive twist) in this horror flick, but ultimately there's far more splatter than actual scares.

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Vacation Friends' Sequel in the Works for 20th Century Studios, Hulu -  Variety

 

Vacation Friends

 

Pretty funny comedy flick with Lil Rey Howery and Yvonne Orji as the "normal" couple who meet a super crazy, drinking, drug-taking, always-partying couple - John Cena and Meredith Hagner - on a Mexican resort vacation, then expect to never see them again until they crash their wedding 7 months later and more comedy ensues.

 

Cena and Hagner were both excellent. I already knew how funny Hagner was from Search Party and Dummy, but Cena is proving to be quite adept at comedy himself after this, Blockers, and that Amy Schumer movie.

 

A nice breezy Friday night watch with lots of laughs and a decent, if completely implausible, story.  It's free on Hulu and a sequel's already been greenlit

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Finally got around to seeing Free Guy. It was a lot of fun. Very well cast. Taika waititi is hilarious as a tech bro caricature. Toward the end, there’s a delicious cameo of JW’s music. I won’t say what score it’s from, but I will say it got a big cheer in the theater. I couldn’t tell if it was a needle drop or recorded fresh for the film (I’m never any good at telling things like that.)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Oasis : Knebworth 1996 - a terrific snapshot of a landmark event in UK pop-culture, no doubt. But I must admit that overall I'd probably rather have caught this on TV, as my fellow patrons were easily one of the most disruptive audiences I've ever had the misfortune to share a cinema with. Bunch of continually chatting, phone fiddling, constantly toilet visiting CUNTS.

Then when the post-screening taxi I phone-booked still hadn't shown up after 45 minutes (ahh, the joys of pandemic-related driver shortages) I gave up and walked home (which took another 45 minutes). Ah well, at least the pre-cinema restaurant dinner I had was nice.    

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Reminiscence

 

Not a great movie, but way better than I thought. It has great visual effects depicting a post-climate change world, nice cinematography, anyway, it's pretty good to look at. Unfortunate, the script (which tries to be a sci-fi version of Chinatown) isn't as great, and Djawadi's score is very generic.

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Till Death (2021)

 

Till-death-poster-film.jpg

 

Putting illogical stuff and Megan Fox's acting (only a problem in the beginning of the movie, after that she doesn't have much dialogue) aside, I wasn't bored with this one. Scenes have the necessary amount of tension. The movie is like Home Alone but more horrific. 6/10

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10 hours ago, AC1 said:

Megan Fox's acting (only a problem in the beginning of the movie, after that she doesn't have much dialogue) aside

How dare you? She's a great actress with the right director

Spoiler

Transformers (1/10) Movie CLIP - Eyes On Mikaela (2007) HD GIF | Gfycat

 

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Just back from Dune, my first time back to a "proper" cinema since the beginning of the pandemic. I'd seen Kieslowski's Three Colours trilogy at a local open air cinema (and the first half of Saturday Night Fever, before it started to rain) over the summer, and a local documentary at a small art house cinema with some 10 people in the audience, but this was my first Hollywood-style in-door viewing (at the IMAX) since TROS, 21 months ago.

 

I liked it a lot. Which is a bit surprising because I re-read the book earlier this year and keep remembering huge chunks of the story and character interactions (virtually all my favourite things from the book) that are completely missing from the film. But it still works well, and is a very agreeable presentation of the rough story - and apparently one that works well for people unfamiliar with the book, which certainly isn't easy with this particular story. The box scene was spot on, and the cast mostly very good, Rebecca Ferguson being the standout for me. It looks good - not particularly aesthetically pleasing (in contrast to Villeneuve's Deakins-shot films), but that seems to be an artistic choice. The score works well enough - mainly as sound design, with a couple of involving cues. I did wonder why it has to be just so loud (and not much else) during some of the "big" moments (especially when much of the film is really loud already anyway). It wouldn't be a Villeneuve film with a more melodic score, and that's fine, but I couldn't help but wonder what musical possibilities of the non-binary sunset scene might hold.

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Venom: Let There Be Carnage

 

One of the worst movies of the year... but it knows it is and revels in it. So those who enjoyed the first one will LOVE it. Woody Harrelson isn't threatening at all (his new wig is still ridiculous), Naomie Harris's Shriek is basically a Marvel version of Tia Dahma and the big climax in the church gave me a headache. Andy Serkis gives it a nice directorial sheen and the VFX still looks pretty seamless -- even if the Carnage stuff is more ridiculous.

 

But God bless him, Tom Hardy is watchable and sells some of the most ridiculous shit on screen just on sheer will alone. And some of the comedic bits are actually hilarious -- the banter between Eddie and Venom is classic buddy-cop stuff. And there's one scene where Michelle Williams and Tom Hardy have great comedic timing.

 

Kinda wish Tom Hardy and writer Kelly Marcel had pushed to make Venom a gonzo buddy cop type movie instead of a antihero superhero film.

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No Time To Die - liked the movie, liked all things Bond-related and didn´t care about Blofeld or Remi Malek.

My Craig ranking goes: Casino Royale > Skyfall > No Time To Die >>>> Spectre >>>>>>> Quantum of Solace

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The first Venom is a big budget version of one of those "so bad it's good" trash movies. The direction and script are terrible, but the movie is very funny to watch due to Tom Hardy's gonzo performance.

 

I think the screenwriters and director were trying to do a movie that is "dark, gritty and complex" about the character, but Hardy recognized just how ridiculous the script is and made the movie all the more entertaining to watch.

 

The video below is a great review of the movie and explains this better than I do:

 

 

Apparently the second movie is also as "terribly funny" as the first, so I'm looking forward to it, although I don't think I'm gonna watch in theaters (need to save money for Dune in IMAX).

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Cruella.

 

Ok, to all the people (a few of them here) who told me to watch this: Bless you!

 

This movie is nuts! This is a Disney movie where the heroine makes her Big Move into the plot... Because she is shit faced drunk!

 

Warning: If you need this to neatly tie in to 101 Dalmatians? Go elsewhere. Cruella and Jasper's relationship alone should put you off of that.

 

But HOOOOOOO was that SO much FUN!

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4 hours ago, Matt C said:

Venom: Let There Be Carnage

 

One of the worst movies of the year...

 

Hard to believe it's worse than the first one which made The Incredible Hulk (2008) seem like a good movie. 

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Actually I've been thinking about this a bit recently. I've noticed that there seems to be a much higher probability of a new movie I think is bad or average to be rated quite highly at RT. 

 

Maybe it's a recency bias, but I believe that movies were held to a much higher (or stricter) standard 10-20 years ago. 

 

Take for an example Pirates of the Carribbean: Dead Man's Chest. Critically panned at the time for being overlong and overblown, both of which apply to Cruella and countless other blockbuster movies these days. But that movie had a sense of scale and staggeringly mounted set pieces. 

 

Most new movies cannot even scale that, and yet regularly achieve 80-90%+ RT scores. What's changed in the movie critic scene?

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4 hours ago, Hurmm said:

What's changed in the movie critic scene?

 

Its not so much critics that changes: its movies.

 

Yes, movies now are just as ridiculous as ever. But they're intentionally ridiculous, and so that "makes it okay."

 

You'll note I used air-quotes around it, because I don't think that just because a choice is intentional means that it works. I've had it up to here with films ridiculing themselves.

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