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

[A24 4,331]

13 hours ago, Jay said:

 I really liked The Gentleman, and hoped that Guy Ritchie was back baby, but nope. 

 

Guy Ritchie was never here to begin with.

[Jay 37,336]

What!? Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch are classics!

[Koray Savas 2,251]

I’m also quite fond of The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

[Jay 37,336]

 

No Time To Die

 

We finally caught up with this when it showed up on Amazon Prime a couple months back now.  We had re-watched all 4 of the previous Craig films in the months leading up to this watch, which was fun to revisit even though it cemented my opinion that only Casino Royale is great, and all three followups disappointed in different ways.

 

I ended up actually liking this one though, much to my surprise!  The story is still not a story I want to see in Bond films, the tight connection woven through all 5 of his films didn't pay off in a meaningful way, and this is probably longer than it needs to be by a considerable margin.  And yet, I was engaged the whole time here, and really enjoyed all the action scenes!

 

Cary Fukunaga does a great job and the cinematography by Linus Sandgren pops as well.  Rami Malek was a pretty decent villain and the various set pieces are all fun.

By far the best of the film however was the extended cameo by Ana De Armas!  The movie was largely just getting by before she shows up, and then when she does, she really elevates the movie a lot!  The whole section of the film with her was great and she was great in it!  I wanted more!

 

Overall I don't look back on the Craig era too fondly, but that's only because of the scripts and scores after Casino Royale; The actors, cinematography, and directing (well, except for Quantum) were all good, I just couldn't get into these personal-issues stories.

Here's hoping for something really fresh and different with the next guy!

[Jay 37,336]

 

House of Gucci

 

Hehe, we watched this when it turned up on HBO Max a few months back.  It's actually a lot of fun watching Adam Driver, Lady Gaga, Al Pacino, and especally Jared Leto play these actual people in an exaggerated way with wildly different accents, and then Jeremy Irons who is supposed to be just as Italian speaks like Jeremy Irons always speaks.

 

The whole movie is easy to watch, fun, and funny, but man... for a movie that's supposed to be about Patrizia having Maurizio murdered, that's only here as practically an afterthought in the final 30 minutes or so.  That would have been far more interesting than all the stuff Scott spends 2 hours focusing on ahead of that.

 

Overall, a completely forgettable movie that I already don't remember anything specific aside from the exaggerated performances

[Edmilson 7,426]

1 hour ago, Jay said:

 

No Time To Die

 

We finally caught up with this when it showed up on Amazon Prime a couple months back now.  We had re-watched all 4 of the previous Craig films in the months leading up to this watch, which was fun to revisit even though it cemented my opinion that only Casino Royale is great, and all three followups disappointed in different ways.

 

I ended up actually liking this one though, much to my surprise!  The story is still not a story I want to see in Bond films, the tight connection woven through all 5 of his films didn't pay off in a meaningful way, and this is probably longer than it needs to be by a considerable margin.  And yet, I was engaged the whole time here, and really enjoyed all the action scenes!

 

Cary Fukunaga does a great job and the cinematography by Linus Sandgren pops as well.  Rami Malek was a pretty decent villain and the various set pieces are all fun.

By far the best of the film however was the extended cameo by Ana De Armas!  The movie was largely just getting by before she shows up, and then when she does, she really elevates the movie a lot!  The whole section of the film with her was great and she was great in it!  I wanted more!

 

Overall I don't look back on the Craig era too fondly, but that's only because of the scripts and scores after Casino Royale; The actors, cinematography, and directing (well, except for Quantum) were all good, I just couldn't get into these personal-issues stories.

Here's hoping for something really fresh and different with the next guy!

The movie is okay, but the score was really disappointing. One of Zimmer's most uninteresting scores, unlike WW84 or even Dune.

[Jay 37,336]

I didn't even notice it for the most part; much like the previous two films, I'm sure the score does what it needs to in the film, but my antennae never picks up anything I want to listen to outside of it

[Faleel 5,345]

Disagree. Nice riffs. Groove. Cool integration of brass as sound element in Cuba Chase

[HunterTech 989]

17 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

The movie is okay, but the score was really disappointing. One of Zimmer's most uninteresting scores, unlike WW84 or even Dune.

 

So is the only reason I'm impressed by a piece like this is because I haven't heard enough scores?

 

 

Though in all seriousness: given the insanely last minute nature, I imagine people would be frustrated by effectively both the Bond sound and HZ's usual tricks only being half done. I can enjoy it as someone who's heard enough of Zimmer's post mid-2000s work to pick up on every recycled piece that made it here (it's like Pirates 1 with the whole 'greatest hits' feeling it has), but it's very disjointed.

[Jay 37,336]

Anyone else like the cinematography, action, and chase scenes in the movie? 

[JNHFan2000 2,957]

I grew up with Craig as Bond and I love Casino Royale, Skyfall & No Time To Die.

 

The cinematography in NTTD was excellent. I feel Fukunaga really did a tremendous job directing it

[Koray Savas 2,251]

It especially stands out in the woodland chase.

[LSH 968]

It's been said many times before... but I'll say it again.

 

It needed more Ana de Armas. 

[Jay 37,336]

Her scenes were the best part of the film! 

[A24 4,331]

10 hours ago, Jay said:

 

House of Gucci

 

Hehe, we watched this when it turned up on HBO Max a few months back.  It's actually a lot of fun watching Adam Driver, Lady Gaga, Al Pacino, and especally Jared Leto play these actual people in an exaggerated way with wildly different accents, and then Jeremy Irons who is supposed to be just as Italian speaks like Jeremy Irons always speaks.

 

The whole movie is easy to watch, fun, and funny, but man... for a movie that's supposed to be about Patrizia having Maurizio murdered, that's only here as practically an afterthought in the final 30 minutes or so.  That would have been far more interesting than all the stuff Scott spends 2 hours focusing on ahead of that.

 

Overall, a completely forgettable movie that I already don't remember anything specific aside from the exaggerated performances

 

Yes, very uneven. Everyone gave their own personal interpretation of an Italian. Adam Driver was just Adam Driver with a funny accent. I guess Lady Gaga was the most convincing of them all, while Leto was the most caricatural. I agree, film isn't exactly good, but easy to watch, and yes, very forgettable. The Last Duel is better.

[Jay 37,336]

Yea, Lady Gaga was actually pretty good.  It's like she actually tried, while many others just winged it

 

Oh yea, The Last Duel was great, I liked it a lot!

[Brundlefly 2,385]

14 hours ago, Jay said:

Overall, a completely forgettable movie that I already don't remember anything specific aside from the exaggerated performances

I don't think it is forgettable or irrelevant at all. Among all the family praising Disney films this is a very irritating film that concisely deconstructs the conservative family ideology of tradition and legacy, ultimately drawing the progressive conclusion that the biological family per se doesn't mean shit. A German film critic put it very well: He said that this film creates a solid argument against heritage. In its core and regarding its social commentary this might be the most interesting film by Ridley Scott since Thelma & Louise.

[publicist 4,643]

32 minutes ago, Brundlefly said:

In its core and regarding its social commentary this might be the most interesting film by Ridley Scott since Thelma & Louise.

 

It's just an overlong elaborate 'Dynasty' joke - and it's not especially clear that the director was in on the the joke all the time (nobody could accuse Ridley Scott of being an especially humorous director). There was really nothing more to it then a lot of expansive settings and the eyebrow-raising buffonish operetta accents of the actors (wildly fluctuating in the english version). Jeremy Irons seemed to be in another, deeper movie, but he was gone soon enough.

 

You could call it 'interesting', for where else would you find a big mainstream movie with Jared Leto made up like Peter Boyle, saying the immortal words 'You should smell my crotch' into a public payphone.

[Sweeping Strings 2,352]

17 hours ago, Jay said:

 

No Time To Die

 

We finally caught up with this when it showed up on Amazon Prime a couple months back now.  We had re-watched all 4 of the previous Craig films in the months leading up to this watch, which was fun to revisit even though it cemented my opinion that only Casino Royale is great, and all three followups disappointed in different ways.

 

I ended up actually liking this one though, much to my surprise!  The story is still not a story I want to see in Bond films, the tight connection woven through all 5 of his films didn't pay off in a meaningful way, and this is probably longer than it needs to be by a considerable margin.  And yet, I was engaged the whole time here, and really enjoyed all the action scenes!

 

Cary Fukunaga does a great job and the cinematography by Linus Sandgren pops as well.  Rami Malek was a pretty decent villain and the various set pieces are all fun.

By far the best of the film however was the extended cameo by Ana De Armas!  The movie was largely just getting by before she shows up, and then when she does, she really elevates the movie a lot!  The whole section of the film with her was great and she was great in it!  I wanted more!

 

Overall I don't look back on the Craig era too fondly, but that's only because of the scripts and scores after Casino Royale; The actors, cinematography, and directing (well, except for Quantum) were all good, I just couldn't get into these personal-issues stories.

Here's hoping for something really fresh and different with the next guy!

The Cuba stuff is easily the most enjoyable bit of NTTD, mainly because it's the bit that most resembles Bond films of old. In what we're obliged to call less enlightened times than these Ana's character and Bond would've got it on, but apparently this is unacceptable in 2021.  

[Jay 37,336]

It's amazing how much more life that sequence had than what surrounds it! More stuff like this in the next film, please! 

[Koray Savas 2,251]

14 hours ago, Jay said:

Her scenes were the best part of the film! 

Yeah she should have been the Bond girl. The music cue for that scene is actually quite good but it’s completely buried in the mix. 

[Jay 37,336]

 

West Side Story

 

We watched this when it hit HBO Max this summer.  Boy, it's a long movie! We started watching it on a Saturday night, and after the big Tonight Quintet number and the screen fades to black for a moment, we paused it.  At this point I was thinking all that was gonna be left was the rumble and some wrap-up.  I was SHOCKED to see there was still OVER AN HOUR LEFT!  We gave up for the night, and had to finish it up on the next day.  Yikes!

 

Overall, I didn't like it at all.  I was turned off almost right away, and it never managed to grab me at any point, really.

 

I thought the two leads were dull; Anita, Bernardo, and Riff were all significantly more compelling and interesting!  Anita especially gave the film a lot of the joy and fun that is largely absent from most of the film.  The cinematography was nice to look at, the giant sets were impressive, but the story is paper-thin, and the musical numbers just aren't my cup of tea.  What's funny about those is it seemed like the bulk of the cast set a base-line of how the music would be sung, but then Ansel was below that line and Zegler was above it (she seemed to be over-the-top / near-operatic at almost every chance she could) that their songs all felt odd while the others felt normal.

 

Definitely one of the least entertained I've ever been by a Spielberg movie, and the one I'd least be interested in watching again any time soon.

 

Oh well.

[Jay 37,336]

 

The Card Counter

 

A movie with an interesting premise that goes nowhere.  Oscar Isaac is William Tell, an Iraq War veteran who served time in military prison after taking the fall for prisoner abuse/torture in Abu Ghraib.  Now out of jail, he travels from casino to casino playing poker and doing other gambling, following a philosophy of betting small, winning modestly, and trying not to draw attention to himself.  Tell takes a young gambler (Tye Sheridan) under his wing, but the two have more in common than it first revealed, all tying back to Abu Ghraib and both men having a reason to want revenge against Tell's former superior, Willem Dafoe.

 

Sadly the place the story builds to for the third act is largely unsatisfying, even if it was a bit unpredictable.  The whole film just had this mellow vibe that never jumps to to enough excitement to have a suitable payoff.  It just kind goes and then ends.  Oh well.

 

It's on HBO Max

 

[Jay 37,336]

 

 

The Beta Test

 

This is a very funny and quirky movie by Jim Cummings (Thunder Road, Wolf of Snow Hollow).

 

Cummings stars as a douchey agent in LA who receives an invitation to a no-strings-attached sexual encounter in a hotel room, and despite being engaged, he goes.  From there things spiral out and a variety of murders start piling up that are probably related.  But largely its a dark comedy full of quirks and outburts as Cummings unravels.

 

I haven't seen Thunder Road yet, but between this and Wolf of Snow Hollow, I'm a Cummings fan!

 

It's on Hulu

[Jay 37,336]

 

Ghostbusters: Afterlife

 

I caught this on the plane to LA the other month.  I thought it was largely pretty meh, but had one really good, cracking scene - the chase through town once they get the car up and running.  That scene was worth the maybe hour's worth of buildup to that point, it was very exciting and well-staged.  I loved the remote control ghost trap, and the side-car pop out for the gunner.  This was all great!

 

But sadly, the movie didn't then go into a fun third act, it went into a rather dull one.  A big problem with this movie is that it just completely re-uses the first film's villain all over again with no changes.  How boring and unimaginative!  Say what you want about Ghostbusters II and the 2016 movie, at least they had new villains!  Sheesh.

 

The cast was good, the cameos were nice enough, but the movie overall was pretty meh.

 

Oh well.

[Jay 37,336]

 

Boiling Point

 

Oh man, this is an intense, small-stakes thriller that is entirely one long take.  And not made to look like one take through clever fakery, it actually is one continuous unbroken take.  It takes place during dinner rush at a fancy restaurant in London, where various problems most staff members have all boil to the surface around the same time.  Navigating his way through all the stories is Stephen Graham (Boardwalk Empire) as the head chef and co-owner, who perhaps has the most demons of all.

 

I am guessing there is some overlap here with the TV series "The Bear", though I have not seen that yet (and this film was out before it).  It's pretty good, but not super remarkable.  Interesting ending, too.

 

It's on Hoopla

[A24 4,331]

I like the actor in the middle!

[Jay 37,336]

That's Stephen Graham, who played Al Capone on Boardwalk Empire

[rough cut 1,714]

I just watched Snake Eyes (2021). It was hard to watch.

[Jay 37,336]

 

Shiva Baby

 

An interesting, low budget independent, slice of life / character unraveling movie.

 

Danielle is a aimless college senior who has no idea what she wants to do with her life (and might not even be really attending class any more, it isn't clear), who earns money by having a sugar daddy.  The movie follows the events of one particular afternoon, where she attends a shiva with her parents for a relative she doesn't seem to have even really known.  It turns out her ex-girlfriend from high school is attending, as is her sugar daddy... and his wife and newborn baby.  Things quickly unravel from there

 

At a brisk 78 minutes (less before the credits start rolling), the film does not outstay its welcome, and provides an interesting insight into topics such as figuring out your career, parents thinking your bisexuality is just a phase, finding your independence and self-worth, dealing with a cheating partner, and more.  

 

The movie is very anxiety-filled, so should be avoided if you don't like watching people going through awkward situations and having to deal with it.  But if you don't mind that, it's an intersting little movie, that makes me curious what the writer/director (Emma Seligman) will do next

 

It's on HBO Max as well as Kanopy

[Jay 37,336]

 

The Tomorrow War

 

I avoided this movie when it came out, it just didn't seem like it'd be worthwhile.  But now that I finally checked it out, it's.... perfectly fine?

 

It's basically 4 big action set pieces strung together with a sci-fi plot that more or less combines Starship Troopers with Edge of Tomorrow and some family drama.  So the plot is nothing original, and the action set pieces are not mind blowing or revolutionary, but they aren't bad either.  The acting is decent too; Chris Pratt seems miscast as he isn't doing any comedy here, but Sam Richardson is a really good comic relief character (so much better than how TJ Miller was used in Underwater!)  The great Betty Gilpin is egregiously underused, but Yvonne Strahovski was actually pretty good, and so was JK Simmons

 

There's nothing remarkable about this movie, but you could do worse if you're in the mood for a sci-fi action flick you haven't seen yet.

It's on Amazon Prime

[Jay 37,336]

 

Lady of the Manor

 

Woof, Justin Long should stick to acting, because this film was really poorly directed.  The cast did their best with the material (the premise and script are good enough that an experience and inspired director could have elevated it to a pretty good film with this same cast), but were constantly undermined by the direction.  Awkward blocking, shots held too long before cutting, just no sense of rhythm at all made the whole thing stilted and often boring to watch.

 

Melanie Lynsky and Judy Greer are great in pretty much everything they do (and did perfectly fine here regardless of the other issues), Ryan Phillipe played a real asshole real well, and seeing Patrick Duffy on screen again was amusing, but there's not enough here to recommend anyone to watch.  Yikes

 

It's on Amazon Prime

[Koray Savas 2,251]

On 19/1/2023 at 3:12 PM, Jay said:

 

The Tomorrow War

 

I avoided this movie when it came out, it just didn't seem like it'd be worthwhile.  But now that I finally checked it out, it's.... perfectly fine?

 

It's basically 4 big action set pieces strung together with a sci-fi plot that more or less combines Starship Troopers with Edge of Tomorrow and some family drama.  So the plot is nothing original, and the action set pieces are not mind blowing or revolutionary, but they aren't bad either.  The acting is decent too; Chris Pratt seems miscast as he isn't doing any comedy here, but Sam Richardson is a really good comic relief character (so much better than how TJ Miller was used in Underwater!)  The great Betty Gilpin is egregiously underused, but Yvonne Strahovski was actually pretty good, and so was JK Simmons

 

There's nothing remarkable about this movie, but you could do worse if you're in the mood for a sci-fi action flick you haven't seen yet.

It's on Amazon Prime

I thought this was genuinely terrible. One of the worst movies I’ve seen in years. 

[Jay 37,336]

Oh man there's many more terrible movies out there than that

[Jay 37,336]

 

The Courier

 

I enjoyed this slow-burn spy thriller set during the cold war. 

 

Benedict Cumberbatch is an English salesman who gets recruited by American CIA agent Rachel Brosnahan and British MI6 agent Angus Wright to begin doing business in Moscow in order to collect documents from a USSR official who wants to defect due to his growing concern over nuclear destruction being instigated by Khrushchev.

 

The first 2 acts of this film are really good.  On top of setting up all the spy stuff, Cumberbatch has to keep it all from his wife (the great Jessie Buckley), who begins to think he is having an affair.    The growing tensions between the major powers are also explored as we head towards the Cuban Missile Crisis.  But when elevates this film is the third act, when things go in a different, dark direction than the first 2 acts would lead you to believe, which ends up being pretty effective and has some pretty damn use of either make-up, CGI or both to pull off some stuff.

 

Nifty little film. It's on Amazon Prime

[Romão 2,274]

On 22/11/2022 at 2:40 PM, Jay said:

 

Boiling Point

 

Oh man, this is an intense, small-stakes thriller that is entirely one long take.  And not made to look like one take through clever fakery, it actually is one continuous unbroken take.  It takes place during dinner rush at a fancy restaurant in London, where various problems most staff members have all boil to the surface around the same time.  Navigating his way through all the stories is Stephen Graham (Boardwalk Empire) as the head chef and co-owner, who perhaps has the most demons of all.

 

I am guessing there is some overlap here with the TV series "The Bear", though I have not seen that yet (and this film was out before it).  It's pretty good, but not super remarkable.  Interesting ending, too.

 

It's on Hoopla

 

Just caught this pretty much by accident. This was fantastic. Incredible work by the actores, specially by Graham and Vinette Robinson

[Jay 37,336]

That name isn't familiar to me, who did she play? 

 

I remember liking one of the ladies in charge in the kitchen 

[bollemanneke 3,342]

Spider-Man: NWH.

 

That was pretty great, as expected. I only wish they had also brought back Stone and Dunst, but then again I guess one can’t have everything. Great cast, especially Zendaya, but Batalon was kind of annoying. Dafoe even moved me during his human moments and not when he was doing the manic laughing thing again. Cumberbatch is awesome and Maguire sounds old. I also don’t really understand why Strange insists that everybody forget Spider-Man at the end. Wouldn’t it be best to keep MJ and Ned and Happy in-the-know for future instalments, or are they really done making these movies now? Oh well, I guess the bittersweet ending kind of vindicated that. Oh God, no, Elizabeth Olsen…

 

And Giacchino wrote some emotional music that actually moved me. Who’d have thunk it? Not that it was all great, but boy, did I love the fact that they brought back the old themes. Can they now insert old themes in the older movies too, or is that something for another universe?

 

[Faleel 5,345]

24 minutes ago, bollemanneke said:

Spider-Man: NOW.

 

Oh God, no, Elizabeth Olsen…

 

 

What does she have to do with anything?

[bollemanneke 3,342]

Just now, A Farewell to Kings said:

What does she have to do with anything?

Post-credits.

[Faleel 5,345]

Ah, yes, the Multiverse of Mehness trailer.

[bollemanneke 3,342]

Boss level. A lot of fun, surprisingly. I thought it was going to be boring or unwatchable as it was just a Groundhog Day/Edge of Tomorrow rethread, but honestly had a great time. Great cast and music, only Naomi Watts is terrible. Open ending was even more surprising.

 

[Jay 37,336]

Oh man, I loved that movie!  I'd watch it again.  It was so great to see a properly violent r-rated action flick again, and the Groundhog Day premise transferred to an action flick pretty deftly.  Here's my original post on it.

[Edmilson 7,426]

A Quiet Place - Part II

 

The fact that the characters must be as quiet as possible makes this movie and its predecessor some interesting variations on the post-apocalyptic drama subgenre. The plot of this Part 2 is nothing new and, in fact, is very much a riff on The Last of Us (part of the movie even feature an "old violent survivor who lost important people during the Armageddon but now must protect a special girl who may be humanity's last hope"). 

 

But it is very well directed and edited, plus a great sound design that makes it technically impressive. I even liked Marco Beltrami's score, who is thankfully more than just "screeching strings and noise".

[Jay 37,336]

I liked it too; I liked both movies a lot.  The first was so self-contained, I'd say any follow-ups weren't even necessary.  And even though I did like the second one, I don't know if my opinion on that changed at all. But I did enjoy it for what it was.  One thing I like about both movies is that they are short, and lean.  Both end so abruptly, but it works!

 

Hmm, looking back on my post when I posted about it, it seems the second movie show the creatures way more than the first movie does.  If forgot about that!  They were better when they were a little more mysterious I think.

[Marian Schedenig 8,191]

I've only seen the first one. I'd missed it when everybody else was excited about it and then became interested when Cillian Murphy talked about the sequel in an interview. I found the first one disappointing though - it isn't as strong as the premise makes it sound, and as far as I recall has a couple of rather dumb bits near the end. I never bothered with the second one.

 

In my view, Don't Breathe is a much more successful realisation of a similar concept.

[A24 4,331]

7 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said:

In my view, Don't Breathe is a much more successful realisation of a similar concept.

 

Bird Box for me. 

 

[Marian Schedenig 8,191]

I guess I should watch that someday.

[Jay 37,336]

Alex will be happy to learn they just announced a spinoff, and it drops in 2 months

 

 

[bollemanneke 3,342]

No time to die.

 

But, but, but… Oh God, oh God. NO no no no no… God… How Will they ever make another entry now? I mean, that’s not the point, it’s just… Okay, phew.

Okay, okay. It’s better than spectre, luckily. Much better. Great cast. Craig is terrific and ever since I saw Seydoux in Zoe, I’ve really come to like her. Nomi is… fine? Yeah, fine, but don’t need more of her. Fiennes is great too. Moneypenny is underused. I don’t want this!

The score is way better than Newman’s efforts and of course way better than Filmtracks claims it is too. Maybe some more high trumpets in the action scenes would have been nice, but the romantic cues and especially the final ones are fantastic. And that Batman-style final action set piece didn’t disappoint either.