Movies We've Seen Recently

[ikaribattousai]

I see so many movies, but....

The Wind (2018) is a decently spooky supernatural western thriller about a settler woman going mad. It stumbles a bit in places as you might expect from a first time director, but I liked it quite a bit.

Pet Semetary (2019) I liked it up until the last five minutes, which I thought were dumb and undid the whole rest of the film. I haven't seen the old movie or read the book so I don't know how it compares.

Shazam! (2019) This was a lot of fun and is a good superhero movie to take kids to, especially. There were some weird structural issues and some scenes I felt were put in places that didn't fit the pacing, but it was fun overall and I'm glad to see that DC is continuing to move away from Snyder's grimdark "vision."

Starfish (2018) A horror/sci-fi film that is actually a metaphor for the process of grief after loss of a good friend. I liked it quite a bit, but it's sort of artsy. This was also at a screening with the director present, so it was cool to have a Q&A with him about things after the movie.

Dragged Across Concrete (2018) I have mixed feelings on this one. I like that it ends up being pretty unpredictable, but it is very graphically violent. Two cops suspended from the force after using excessive force on a suspect (and cell phone footage of the incident being made public) try to rob some criminals to make ends meet. Things go wrong. There are some views the characters express re: police violence and race relations that I'm not sure are acting as a mouthpiece for the director or are just the views of unsavory characters, but they rubbed me the wrong way in places.

Avengement (2019) This is a British action movie about a convict who escapes prison to go on a revenge mission against the people who got him arrested. A lot of fun and very brutal fight scenes, and a good sense of humor. The audience was really eating this one up.

Apollo 11 (2019) A documentary about the first moon landing made completely from file footage. I was really impressed by the image quality on a lot of the stuff from the period, or at least the lengths they were able to go through to clean it up.

Gloria Bell (2018) A slice of life movie about a middle aged divorcee dealing with her grown children, dating, work and everything else. Julianne Moore does a great job in the lead. Might not be for everyone, but it will definitely resonate with its target audience.

Captive State (2019) explores a near future Chicago after the world has been taken over by an alien race. This one was pretty middling. There are some interesting concepts to play with, but they should have spend a lot more time developing characters and giving them more humanity instead of following an overly complex plot. I didn't hate it, but I've mostly already forgotten it.

Climax (2018) A Gaspar Noe film about a group of dancers at a retreat to party and practice routines. Someone spikes the sangria with LSD and things start to go bad from there. I liked this one a lot, especially the first two acts. It was mostly unscripted using dancers rather than professional actors, and the dancing in the movie and the way it's shot is great. When things start getting paranoid it tends to lose its own way, but since the movie barely breaks 90 minutes it's not unbearable, even at its lowest points.

[sambair]

New theory that should be on those bullshit movie sites for idiots: Willem Defoe plays the same character in Streets of Fire and Wild at Heart. Which are more or less the two best movies ever made.

[Dr. Buttplug]

Finally saw Blue Ruin since it was added to netflix and it wasn't as depressing as i had hoped but definitely showed revenge in a more bleak and unrewarding light. So thats cool.

Edit: so I'm dog sitting for a friend and decided to catch up on Netflix. I decided to follow up Blue Ruin with Pan's Labyrinth  because it seemed like a lighter fantasy thing. Nope still a depressing thing. Then i watched Train to Busan thinking it would be a popcorny zombie movie. Definitely not a popcorn flick, not as sad as the other two but yeah. Im batting a thousand mood wise.

Edit edit: Watching Her right now and its bumming me out more than the last 3. Like fuck this guy. He cant connect with a woman unless she is completely subservient to him and lacking her own autonomous interests?

*Chris Pratt almost saves this though

[sambair]

Just saw Avengers Endgame. If you liked Infinity War there's no reason to not see the conclusion. It's very big and loud.

[Carbon]

Watched the original 1977 Suspiria because I wanted to see it before watching the remake, can recommend. I could talk about the cinematography or the soundtrack, but instead I'm going to say you should watch it because it has a scene with a 33 year old Udo Kier.

Why ever pass up an opportunity to talk about Goblin, one of the best Italian prog rock outfits?
Everyone go listen to some fucking Goblin.

[Cleretic]

Just saw Avengers Endgame. If you liked Infinity War there's no reason to not see the conclusion. It's very big and loud.

So, what if I didn't like Infinity War, and thought it was overstuffed and underutilized some really strong characters while overusing some really weak ones?

It's really hard to get a bead on what's actually good about Endgame, partly because everyone's super insistent that it not be spoiled but also because a lot of assessment seems to be based on Infinity War being good, when I personally feel like it might be the worst MCU movie from a sheer structural and filmmaking standpoint, largely because of how much it tries to do all in the one movie. Although if I'm honest, in terms of pure enjoyment I'd probably rate Infinity War above the first Thor and Age of Ultron, just because it at least has some fun singular scenes and performances holding it up, while Thor 1 and Ultron were basically just bland all throughout.

[ClaraTinSoldier]

So, what if I didn't like Infinity War, and thought it was overstuffed and underutilized some really strong characters while overusing some really weak ones?

It's really hard to get a bead on what's actually good about Endgame, partly because everyone's super insistent that it not be spoiled but also because a lot of assessment seems to be based on Infinity War being good, when I personally feel like it might be the worst MCU movie from a sheer structural and filmmaking standpoint, largely because of how much it tries to do all in the one movie. Although if I'm honest, in terms of pure enjoyment I'd probably rate Infinity War above the first Thor and Age of Ultron, just because it at least has some fun singular scenes and performances holding it up, while Thor 1 and Ultron were basically just bland all throughout.

Oh, I hated "Infinity War," but thought "Endgame" was ok. That was one of my primary complaints as well, and (as much as possible with a dozen + actors having a contractually mandated minimum amount of screentime) Endgame avoids this by splitting its narrative stream into 4 chunks instead of like a hundred.  Infinity war is bar none the worst marvel movie structurally. I also thought I was alone in having any negative feelings on it at all.

[moooo566 (taylor's version)]

So, what if I didn't like Infinity War, and thought it was overstuffed and underutilized some really strong characters while overusing some really weak ones?

It's really hard to get a bead on what's actually good about Endgame, partly because everyone's super insistent that it not be spoiled but also because a lot of assessment seems to be based on Infinity War being good, when I personally feel like it might be the worst MCU movie from a sheer structural and filmmaking standpoint, largely because of how much it tries to do all in the one movie. Although if I'm honest, in terms of pure enjoyment I'd probably rate Infinity War above the first Thor and Age of Ultron, just because it at least has some fun singular scenes and performances holding it up, while Thor 1 and Ultron were basically just bland all throughout.

As someone who didn't like Infinity War for exactly the reasons you've stated, I liked Endgame a whole lot better.

In terms of structure, they've cut down on the number of threads going on at any one time, and where it does split off they handle the splitting far better, chop between them far less and then integrate them smoothly when the time comes. Infinity War was messy and difficult to follow but I honestly didn't get that from Endgame at all, I was actually pleasantly surprised by how coherent it was considering how much was going on. I didn't feel lost or confused at all.

As for the characters used, I think this is the best they've been in a while. I maintain (I am in a small minority) that they sucked Iron Man dry several films ago and Captain America was never interesting in the first place, but they get developed pretty well and I actually ended up kind of liking them. Same with everyone else, even if I liked them a bit more. They all got their chance to shine and do what they do best - the silly characters get their silly moments and the serious characters get their serious moments, and both types land very well. They took them less interesting ones and made them better and didn't particularly shaft any of the more interesting ones even if they did get less screen time than I'd like. They give the characters who are leaving an appropriate send off and line up a lot of my favourites of the newer/less prominent characters to get their chance moving forward.

It does everything else you'd expect from the focal point for the MCU so far, really. The effects and action are fantastic, it looks and sounds great, and they totally nail the spectacle. They've successfully tied everything together in a compelling way with a satisfying ending, and then set up some more characters for whatever next. I'm honestly looking forward to the next set of films.

I still prefer the more focused, streamlined films in the franchise (my personal picks would probably be Thor: Ragnarok and Captain Marvel) but it's about the best I could have hoped for given the set-up and scale of what they were doing. For a film with that many characters and stories feeding into it I think they handled it very well.

[Wrought]

I watched Fargo today. Holy fuck, it's awesome. I watched the first episode of the show on netflix and I thought the original would be like some thriller but it's a really good black comedy. Every character death is awesome in its own special way.

[Mique]

Well I saw Endgame after work just so I wouldn't have to worry about hearing any spoilers.
It was good, whatever, I'm just glad we're finally done with comic book movies, and Hollywood can move on to something else.

I can't wait for Sonic the Hedgehog to set off the video game movie boom.

[chai tea latte]

I'm just glad we're finally done with comic book movies,

I have some bad news, dude.
https://twitter.com/ERCboxoffice/status/969331202346766337

[Mique]

I'm just glad we're finally done with comic book movies,

I have some bad news, dude.
https://twitter.com/ERCboxoffice/status/969331202346766337

Considering that they played trailers for comic movies from other companies before Endgame, and that the next Spider-man is coming this summer, I had kinda hoped that what I said would be understood as sarcasm even through text.

[Cleretic]

I can't wait for Sonic the Hedgehog to set off the video game movie boom.

I don't think we have a trailers thread, but I want to keep talking about this, so:

I'm surprised at how not bad it is. It's not groundbreaking, but all the disparate pieces we saw put together somehow comes together into a reasonably good-looking movie. The presence of Jim Carrey definitely gives it a '90s kids movie' vibe, too, which is what Sonic needs to have.

Alternative joke: This trailer promises us a tech genius, a speedster and Neal Macdonough, so I'm definitely watching this episode of Legends of Tomorrow.

[Dr. Buttplug]

Just saw Avengers Endgame. If you liked Infinity War there's no reason to not see the conclusion. It's very big and loud.

So, what if I didn't like Infinity War, and thought it was overstuffed and underutilized some really strong characters while overusing some really weak ones?

It's really hard to get a bead on what's actually good about Endgame, partly because everyone's super insistent that it not be spoiled but also because a lot of assessment seems to be based on Infinity War being good, when I personally feel like it might be the worst MCU movie from a sheer structural and filmmaking standpoint, largely because of how much it tries to do all in the one movie. Although if I'm honest, in terms of pure enjoyment I'd probably rate Infinity War above the first Thor and Age of Ultron, just because it at least has some fun singular scenes and performances holding it up, while Thor 1 and Ultron were basically just bland all throughout.

If you want to know specifics in a non spoilery way. Hawkeye, Black Widow, The Hulk and Ant-Man get more time on screen and the movie is the movie is great for it. In fact Hawkeye is kind of the heart of Endgame in a lot of ways. I loved it because I like Jeremy Renner and the Hawkeye character generally.

[Cleretic]

If you want to know specifics in a non spoilery way. Hawkeye, Black Widow, The Hulk and Ant-Man get more time on screen and the movie is the movie is great for it. In fact Hawkeye is kind of the heart of Endgame in a lot of ways. I loved it because I like Jeremy Renner and the Hawkeye character generally.

See, I'm the one person whose favorite was Doctor Strange, and of the lineup you just described the only character I was all that interested in seeing more of was Black Widow.

Watching Arrow did reveal to me how generally underserved Hawkeye was  action-wise in previous Avengers movies, though. There's a lot of really dynamic, cool stuff you can do with a character like that, but they don't really go for it in the MCU.