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

Incidentally, I had to watch the first hour of Valerian twice to understand what was happening as well lol. I think you mentioned that happened to you too.

Anyhow, I really liked it in the end. I agree with some of your points, especially the middle episodic sections point.
It is really creative though and is definitely a movie I would rewatch, maybe even buy the blu ray if it was on sale. It's extremely creative and refreshing in light of a lot of formulaic stuff we keep getting in this genre.
Cara Delevingne does a great job, imo. She has a unique, edgy approach to acting. Liked her in Suicide Squad too.
Lastly, Valerian reminded me of the PT several times, which I loved.

 

Blade Runner 2049. An enjoyable and worthy sequel. A stunningly beautiful movie, well acted throughout and I loved the OST. Considering its running time, I was enthralled all the way through it

 

A Cure for Wellness .

This is one of those movies where the main character goes somewhere and the people there are weird and he can't seem to leave and he has some childhood trauma he's forgot etc. . Shutter Island definitely springs to mind . I'm really not sure what was going on , what was dreams and what wasn't , plus it was awfully long .
It looks like they spent quite a bit on it and there's an amazing car accident scene . I mean I wanted to like it more than I did , I think Gore Verbinski is a terrific director .

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Ferris Bueller's Day Off

I watched it with my soon-to-be 14-year-old who had never seen it...and it's totally weird because I was 14 when I saw it for the first time. It was great. I got a huge kick out of my son saying things like "Oh, so THAT's where Family Guy got that from" and things like that. Anyway, great movie as I'm sure most of you know.

 

Agreed. Brilliantly funny movie.

 

Ferris Bueller's Day Off is one of those movies that's slowly degraded over time w/me. Where I loved the character when I was a kid, I find him insufferable as an adult. I love John Hughes, and the bulk of his work still holds up for me, but not FBDO.

Highlander (1986) - Plot; Through the ages a group of men known as Immortals have battled for the mysterious Prize. Now only a few remain, and they have gathered in New York for their final confrontation.

Highlander has a strong basic hook that doesn't hold up under much scrutiny, so it's best to leave your brain at the door and just enjoy the ride. And what a ride it is. With an over the top soundtrack by Queen, it's as much a rock opera as it is an action-fantasy film. Stylishly directed and featuring wonderfully grandiose performances--particularly Clancy Brown's menacing villain The Kurgan--Highlander wins The Prize. But skip the sequels. There can be only one. - 7/10

 

There can be only one good Highlander movie.

 

I don't remember the rest of the soundtrack, but "Who Wants to Live Forever" makes me cringe hard. It actively ruins the sequence.

 

My Friend Dahmer (2017) – Marc Meyer

My Friend Dahmer is based on a graphic novel written and drawn by John Backderf, a man who went to high school with infamous serial killer/cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer. This movie is interesting, but it’s not the next big indie breakout or anything. The cast is basically good, particularly Alex Wolff as the young Backderf. Ross Lynch is good as Dahmer, but not arresting. The film has a slow start and spends a lot of time on not much incident, which is kind of necessary given the setting, I suppose. There are few scenes that tip off what the movie might have been. There’s an astonishingly creepy scene of Dahmer visiting a doctor that he’s fixated on, for instance. The film doesn’t answer the question we want it to answer of course, which is what was it that made Dahmer what he was. Those questions will, I think, never be answered about any of the violent murderers we ask them about. This movie does a fine job of raising them and the quality is above what one might expect if seeing this same subject covered in a 90s TV movie. The performances are better, there’s more atmosphere and Meyer has some visual style. The film does lose points for absolutely nailing the perfect ending, even more the perfect ending SHOT . . . and then continuing for another five minutes. Honestly, I think that they had the perfect ending, but then they felt that they had to, in some way or other, heavily foreshadow what was to come and that led them to misfire there at the ending by tacking on a scene, the only one in the film, that feels kind of cheesy. My Friend Dahmer isn’t superlative, but it’s interesting; it’s a bit too slow, but it has a couple of moments that’ll send the chills down your spine; it doesn’t have many answers, but the questions remain compelling. 3 stars.

tl;dr – Jeffrey Dahmer’s high-school years aren’t fascinating, but good performances & some creepy atmosphere help; has no answers, but poses questions that are still interesting. 3 stars.

 

Jamangi: Welcome to the Jungle: Worth watching but not very funny.

 

Wow, I feel just the opposite; though I absolutely sympathize w/you re: times when music destroyed moments in a film for one reason or another.

I called Highlander a rock opera, and it's no surprise that director Russell Mulcahy came from the then burgeoning world of music videos. The members of Queen were approached to write the main theme, but insisted on seeing a rough cut of the film first before committing. After watching it they were so enthusiastic that they went all-in and wrote several songs specifically for the film. In fact Brian May was inspired to write "Who wants to live forever" after watching the love scenes between the Connor and Heather characters.

I think it's a heartbreakingly beautiful song that perfectly captures the anguishing downside to immortality as embodied by the loss of Connor's true love. Out of context I can see it feeling cheesy, but I think it fits the rock opera style of the film.

The use of pop music in films was a staple in the kinds of movies I grew up with where a montage was only a scene away. In most cases the songs were very on the nose to the moment or circumstance the character was facing. Music is definitely manipulative and films are often criticized for using it to push and nudge emotion, but I feel that because film lacks the time to craft and build those dramatic connections the way novels do that music is an essential part of cinematic storytelling.

Sorry, went off on a bit of a tangent there . Anyway, here's the song for those who've never heard it.

 

I actually enjoy the sequel, or at least the Directors Cut version which is the one I have seen

 

Terminator Genisys
Terminator Genisys serves as a final reminder as to why the Terminator franchise either needs to end or to be totally rebooted. Alan Taylor's contribution to the series is an utter mess when it comes to story, tone, look and overall execution. The CGI, at best, is pedestrian by video game standards just like the dour and lifeless performances. Meanwhile, the convoluted plot which is timeline manipulation heavy effectively ignores continuity and even the principles of the universe in which it is set. For example: two key characters, Sarah and Kyle, travel from 1984 to 2017, only for a character from the first three films to recognise Sarah when it was established that she had removed herself from the timeline.

While there is expository dialogue offering an explanation as to how one character MAY (in the most tenuous of theories) have experienced the multiple timelines that this film covers, the film falls apart by misconstruing plot hole train wrecks with complex story telling. The action, meanwhile, is the most uninspired and derivative which the series has to offer.

Terminator Genisys manages to even be utterly devoid of one of its greatest strengths: spectacle. Even the meagre Terminator 3 had its moments of excitement that helped to keep that particular film watchable even its most over the top moments. While flawed in its execution, Terminator 3 can at least be forgiven for attempting to create its own moments. Terminator Genisys, meanwhile, awkwardly shoehorns iconic dialogue from the first two films in a way that is unintentionally comical because there is little sense as to why the line is being said by the character. It is fitting that Terminator Genisys mostly does away with the idea of Judgment Day being inevitable when the franchise itself is dangerously close to ending its own history. Terminator Genisys isn't just a sequel: it's an instalment which damages its predecessors beyond repair.

I always enjoyed Terminator Salvation but this film makes me appreciate it all the more because Salvation at least was doing something different and expanding on its own universe. Terminator Genisys is a train wreck of a fan film at best.

0 out of 5

I HATE THIS FILM.

 

I liked the battle between the "original" Arnold Terminator and the Guardian.

 

I've seen both the theatrical (@ the theater in fact) and the so-called Renegade editions, but never in close enough proximity to compare and contrast. I know the latter ret-cons the ret-cons of the former and adds some other tweaks and f/x changes. I see that my IMDb rating for it is a 2, which seems more than a tad harsh, though I can definitively say I don't care for the movie.

It's got a decent tie-in song by Lou Gramm, but it's no patch on Queen.



I've only ever seen Highlander III once, and never any of the subsequent films (including the anime?!?!?!) or TV series (including the cartoon?!?!?!). It's amazing how much life (no pun intended) the series has had. It's ripe for one of those sort of retrospective binges I used to do.

 

The Highlander TV series wasn't bad at all, assuming as always that you don't try to make sense of the continuity.

 

I really liked the cartoon

 

Rules Don't Apply .

another movie about Howard Hughes , written by and starring Warren Beatty . Also Lily Collins and Alden Enrenrenreheinrenreich play a young couple kinda caught in Hughes' orbit .
The tone of this veers wildly all over the place , (kinda like Howard , so maybe deliberate ) , it feels like a Woody Allen film at times , especially when old geezer Beatty starts smooching Lily (50 years his younger ) Collins .

still - it's not bad , get the feeling it's also a swan song for Beatty .

.

 

Especially once Methos comes along.

And I do love Highlander II.

 

Mr. 3000


In a phrase: Not bad

This was the first time I watched Mr. 3000 as I was never interested in the movie when it first came out. However, it was on HBO over the weekend and I just planned the first few minutes before I went about the rest of my day but then I got sucked into the plot of the film where Bernie Mac's character has to come out of retirement to reach 3000 hits as 3 of his hits were incorrectly added to his total. Mac's character (at the time of the movie's initial release) reminded me alot of Barry Bonds and his battles with the press and teammates. And thus, this was a character driven film and I wanted to see the growth/arc.

The film is not much of a baseball film, per se, (i.e. Major League or Sandlot) but there was enough to satisfy fans of the game.

 

Avengers Age of Ultron (2015) - How do you make some great super heroes tank? How not to add new characters or attempts at growth? Just add Joss Whedon. Again. Non threatening villain...check, potential doomsday comet boring, just add...so grateful Whedon is gone.

And glad I did not spend money on this one. Makes me really appreciate the Russos and other directors & writers who actually do something with the Marvel characters and villains.

 

This sound like a review of Justice League.

 

1990 Bronx Warriors

This The Warriors & Escape from New York rip off is rather entertainng as long as you have no problem with wooden acting, stylish fights and filming locations that the filmmakers did very little to look used by gangs as theri home base

 

I'll let Sergio Martino handle my Escape from New York rip offs thank you very much. As far as Enzo, I'll watch his 70s crime films instead.

@Sith_Sensei__Prime - ouch.

 

I saw Bright a few weeks ago on Netflix, no idea why it got such a critical drubbing. It's weird as hell but nicely violent and lots of profanity which when do you ever see big budget profanity laden bloody cop dramas that also has magic? It was unique, I dug it. Although it does kind of go off the rails at the end with some chosen one nonsense. But I just kinda love the setting and jarring grittiness of it which clashed with the fantasy setup at times. but it is weird as hell, true, and despite them being orcs and elves it is a little standard gritty cop drama. But I enjoyed the mash up.