Amph What was the last movie you saw? (Ver. 2)

The last movie i saw was the greatest showman which we saw on Jan 13.

 

Death Race 2000 (1975)
After the "World Crash of '79", massive civil unrest and economic ruin occurs. The United States government restructured into a totalitarian regime under martial law. To pacify the population, the government has organized the Transcontinental Road Race, where a group of drivers is driving across the country in their high-powered cars, infamous for violence, gore, and innocent pedestrians being struck for bonus points.

In the year 2000, the five drivers in the 20th annual race, who all adhere to professional wrestling-style personas and drive appropriately themed cars, include Frankenstein, (our main character) the mysterious black-garbed champion and national hero; Machine Gun Joe, a Chicago tough-guy gangster; Calamity Jane, a cowgirl; Matilda The Hun, a neo-Nazi; and Nero The Hero, a Roman gladiator. Each drives with a navigator of the opposite sex, who also implicitly functions as a love interest. The race is covered on national TV by a news team headed by the boisterous and comical Junior Bruce, seductive matron Grace Pander, and laconic commentator Harold. The game has sadistic rules, where killing babies and physically challenged people will give the player extra points.

There is also a plot about rebels planing to try to overthrow the President...


If you like your 70's B scence-fiction movies with dark-humor and volience I recommend this movie.

 

@Gamiel, so basically this movie is what would happen if someone staged a podrace during the Hunger Games?

 

ftfy

 

All right, here's a long one again. You knew it was coming.



Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) – Rian Johnson

Oh boy. Well, here we go. Let’s just get it out of the way. This is a really good movie. The people who loathe it are baffling to me. It’s far from a perfect movie and in fact, going by sheer number, the flaws may outweigh the strengths, but the strengths it lands are so perfectly done that they end up outweighing the flaws. First, let’s get to the flaws. The movie is a solid forty-five minutes too long and it’s unfortunate that this forty-five minutes sits within the first half of the movie so that when the movie ends up being very good it coincides with the movie starting to feel long, thus giving kind of a disservice to the good parts of the film. The movie sets up a really horrible plot thread whereby we spend a tremendous amount of screen time watching the slowest chase scene in history as a batch of ships poke along at what seems like a snail’s pace. One could excuse this if it was being drawn out because there was so much going on for the characters, but the movie doesn’t even know what to do with the characters during this time. Oscar Isaac has the misfortune of seeing his character wasted in a plot that seems to consist entirely of him either pacing in a room or yelling at Laura Dern’s character; Laura Dern’s character is its own kettle of fish, but who has the time? The same goes for John Boyega who ends up getting shunted off on a really pointless exercise that is the film’s most annoying sequence. The film has a great new character in Kelly Tran’s Rose, but she ends up playing tagalong with Boyega and has next to nothing to do. There are missteps so astonishing as to be baffling. I have no idea how a scene of Leia more or less recreating the Can You Read My Mind scene from Superman got past even the first line failsafes; it doesn’t even pass the smell test. And the film can’t be bothered to set up a real way for Kylo Ren and Rey to learn about each other and instead falls back on a series of very strange vision sequences that are, aside from the other flaws, a real eyeline cluster****. It’s almost amusing that the dastardly Porgs ended up being the least of the film’s many problems.

But when the film works, it really, really works. In the same way that The Force Awakens was Harrison Ford’s film, The Last Jedi really belongs to Mark Hamill. He digs deep into his character and gives a really brilliant performance. He has the gravitas he needs, but he finds a deep sadness that underlies his exterior of crankiness and then leavens that with a quiet wit that’s almost sarcastic. It might just be Hamill’s best performance and, while I might quibble with a couple of plot points regarding the character, it’s impossible to get too worked up; the pleasure of watching a true master actor at work is too great. Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver both get more to do and, aside from a few vision scenes that even they can’t save, I found their performances to be better than in the first film. Driver in particular gets a more complicated character arc this time around and he really nails it. The film’s action sequences, toward the end especially, are really stellar. Once everyone gets to the salt planet, things really take off and the visuals during that sequence of the film are breathtaking, both in a large scale battle and in the one-on-one duel that follows. Likewise, an action set piece in a room drenched in crimson is phenomenally well done. A moment that takes place in absolute silence is jaw-droppingly effective and the whole theater I was in was so hushed you could have heard a pin drop at that moment.

At the end of the day, I found the film to achieve greatness at its best. At its worst, it is very bad indeed. The problems aren’t entirely structural. It would be easy to say what scenes should be cut or what elements should be tightened, but it isn’t that simple. Whole plotlines need, not just to be tightened, but to be tossed out entirely. There’s no fixing the Poe subplot, for instance; the problem there is existential and the only way to get that character a compelling plot thread is to start all over at square one. But the film, for all that, is pretty entertaining and I did find some of the subversive elements to be interesting; the scene with Snoke & Rey is exactly what you expect, for instance, until suddenly it isn’t and there’s a fantastic moment where the camera does a tight zoom in on a character’s face as a plan absolutely disintegrates and he’s absolutely baffled as he says, “They didn’t make it.” These moments work really well. The Last Jedi is a deeply flawed movie and it’s far less consistent than The Force Awakens. But The Force Awakens kept a pretty consistent tone of pretty good, this one whipsaws wildly from very bad to brilliantly great and I’ve just discovered that I’ll take a movie with the kinds of highs The Last Jedi has over a movie that plays it safe and right down the middle like The Force Awakens, even if the highs are balanced by a lot of lows. The Force Awakens was an entertaining film that gave me a lot of things I really, really wanted; it was a solid line drive, aimed right at its target audience, aiming for a solid double. The Last Jedi at least swings for the fences; it hits the ground instead of clearing the fences, but when the dust clears at third base, it’s a safe. Not a home run, but, you know, if I can mix these sports metaphors (and God only knows where they’re coming from), sometimes a play falls apart, but it’s so gutsy, you’re glad they tried it. 3 ½ stars,

tl;dr – flawed plot and an overcooked running time, but The Last Jedi is ambitious and daring enough that a lot can be forgiven; not a masterpiece, but thrillingly perfect in places. 3 ½ stars.

 

Honestly? This is what you praise? The sequence was:

1. Highly generic Hoth facsimile with a fig leaf explanation
2. A "plan" consisting of two groups of ships flying straight towards one another
3. Everyone deciding the plan doesn't work and wasn't needed in the first place, even though no one said anything of the sort in the long prepatory sequence in the run-up nor was there any new information given.
3b. Somehow, the product of their senior tacticians managed to become Finn's unique idiocy. Even though he's supposed to be an eli--erm. A janitor. A goofy minority janitor. Such a progressive film.

That was literally the whole battle sequence. How was it exciting?

 

Phantom Thread

If you ever wonder what might happen if "Remains Of the Day" were hijacked by the Coen Brothers, this might very well be exactly what the result looked like. I mean this as the highest possible praise: Phantom Thread is a deeply ****ed up movie. It's better than There Will Be Blood, with interior spaces as beautifully shot as you could ever imagine, a superb score, phenomenal costume and production design and at the core of the movie three deeply twisted characters in a menage a trois of codependent splendor that nearly brought tears of gratitude to an old and jaded moviegoer who sometimes despairs of ever seeing "good" and "original" paired again in the same movie. Along with Shape of Water and Get Out, Phantom Thread is at the top of my wishlist for best original screenplay Oscar nominations.

 

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2

It's better than the first one. The action is more fantastic, the galactic sights are more wondrous, and the humor feels more natural. Bradley Cooper actually gave Rocket an original voice instead of just Bradley Cooper laughing at his own jokes. The character I liked most from the first one was Nebula, so it's good to have a whole lot of her, as she brings much needed intensity to such a laid back cast. It was a good decision to keep Groot as a baby, undoing that so soon would have been a lesser choice. Kurt Russell and his god beard were on point.

It's just a better, funnier film that feels much more natural, much more assured and confident, than the first one, imo. They've settled in to their thing, they've accepted that people are going to like this stuff, so they just do their bits without worry, instead of going LOOK IT'S A TALKING RACCOON AND A TALKING TREE THAT CAN ONLY SAY THREE WORDS THIS IS SO FUNNY AND THIS STAR-LORD GUY IS SO LAID BACK AND COOL LOOK HE'S DANCING THAT'S HOW FLIPPANT HE IS and pointing everything out as blatantly as possible and explaining all the (terribly thin) jokes. It's living off the success of the first one, so it doesn't have to try as hard, which is a good thing. The first one was that kid who desperately wants to be funny and unique and cool, he tries way too hard to sell it and he's so eager that he forgot to develop his jokes.

 

^ This...so much this. For me, Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 worked best when the older characters had the floor, thus forcing the GoTG themselves to actually grow (or not.)

 

And that's why RotJ is my favorite SW movie. I can overlook the low points and be mesmerized by the highs, which are amazing.

 

I'm seeing this one today! Will I consider it an arsefest or 5 stars? Both?

 

I'm still trying to get thru Valerian , I've watched the first hour twice now in an attempt to figure out what's going on . Still haven't a clue .

 

Legionnaire. Jean Claude Van Damme plays a boxer who joins the Foreign Legion in order to escape from the mafia. More of a war drama than an action film, it's an enjoyable Sunday afternoon watch with some very well directed battle scenes and one of Van Damme's better acting performances.

 

I found the visuals to be really beautiful. I thought the color scheme, the red & white, was cool in the way it was used. I didn't say anything about the "plan." Of course, the whole thing is a riff on Hoth. That doesn't mean it wasn't beautifully shot.

 

Yeah, the whole movie is clearly riffing on Ep. V in various ways. To that end, they could have livened up the First Order chasing down the Resistance cruiser by doing the Hoth asteroid belt backwards.

 

Arrival (2016) That was moderately interesting. Very slow-paced.

 

I enjoyed Arrival. It was like a mash-up of Close Encounters and Contact with a linguist.

 

I liked Arrival as well. Would definitely rewatch it.

 

ok finished Valerian .

er... I .... pffftt . I dunno . I mean I wanna admire it 'cos it is full of imagination and sincere affection for the material , but ... so often it was just 2 human faces amidst a sea of CGI which always gets a bit tiresome .
plus - I just didn't understand this technique they had for 'phasing' between 2 worlds at once . And the whole middle section just goes off into episodic adventures .
Also the 2 leads just couldn't carry it and the story was often incoherent .

 

Short Night of Glass Dolls (1971) - wow. I remembered this being a very unique and creepy giallo; it's even better with subsequent revisits. Makes me definitely want to tweak my ideas for the genre by setting them in Soviet block territories. The political and status quo analogues are fantastic. I will have much more to say, when the blu ray arrives.

White Water Strand (episode three from the Trilogy of Swordsmanship anthology.) Shaw Brothers are slowing making their way back into my rotation and this delightful little romp of rebels against the evil emperor (wait, what? Yes, of course...that happens all the time in Chinese genre films.) Featuring David Chiang being crafty and agile, Ti Lung being absolutely freaking gorgeous and wielding spears, another cangue and a chain like only he can, with Li Ching providing the right bit of feminine strength, resolve and beauty. The trio meet as Chiang's undercover rebel frees another rebel (Ti) from the Court guards. Chiang pretends to side with the government to get close to them, only fall into their trap. Ti, Li and friends stage their new friends rescue and because this is a Chang Cheh movie, people will go kaput.

This was among the last wuxia Chang Cheh made that focused on potential romance, innocence and fighting for your country in a quaint style that anyone (especially young girls) could enjoy. It's nowhere near as bloody as other films featuring Ti and Chiang were and it is great fun to watch as a companion to the similar full length film, The Deadly Duo. Watching this makes me just love Ti and Chiang more than already do. I hope this gets a digital release somewhere along the way, as the entire anthology is very good (I love this and the first story. The second was intriguing but went on too long.) And Ti Lung is just so ridiculously beautiful my inner teeny bopper demands this footage in HD.

 

Sicario .

this was excellent for the most part , the tension they created was palpable and Benicio del Toro was great , some real shock moments too . It kinda fell apart at the end tho , Emily Blunt's character just kinda drifts off . (plus - who the hell would have a cigarette after just being strangled ??)

 

“Monsignor Cupid” from 1965’s La Bambole (“The Dolls”)

Jean Sorel is Vincenzo, the nephew of a monsignor (Akim Tamiroff) who is tasked with handling secretarial duties for the cleric while the two are in Rome. At the hotel, the owner’s beautiful wife (Gina Lollabrigida) easily manipulates the monsignor into pushing Vincenzo her way.

There’s some ridiculously sexy key hole antics (who knew hotel wives had dresses that rival the Milan runways and jet setters?) Gina plays her wanton seducer in a pouty, fun way, while Sorel convinced me he was that young and inexperienced (the man was utterly gorgeous, so pulling that off was no easy feat.) It’s a fun little Italian sex comedy that shows off not only the beauty of the these two people, but just how stunning filming in black and white can be.

I never really paid attention to black and white movies until about 10 years ago, when some of Mario Bava's early works made me take notice of just how vibrant and powerful black and white can be. The Italians inserted their tweaks on chiaroscuro, so the more I watch black and white movies, the more I enjoy them and the vast amount of details that emerge without color. Kind of bummed that Sorel and Raquel Welch's mini movie from 1966's The Queens isn't fully online, as the few minutes of that was even more saucy (predictable, yes, but in a great way.)

 

I, Tonya (2017)

Believe the hype. Margot Robbie is great, and Alison Janey is career best. It's hysterically funny, brutally infuriating, and ultimately tragic with a slight glimmer of hope.

Insidious: The Last Key (2018)

I've always enjoyed this series, and this is another strong, if somewhat unoriginal, entry.

 

Phantom Thread - Exquisite

 

How to Train Your Dragon (2010) Fun and funny, and occasionally moving. Is anybody surprised that my favorite scenes are the ones where they're flying?