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

Don’t be, its my fav Prequel.

 

I'm sorry then that you have some kind of brain tumor that gives you bad movie judgement

I love the other prequels, but AotC is bad filmmaking and I can't get over it. Sorry.

 

I think ROTS is actually worse, way too many lightsaber fights. I love the wonder of AOTC, and the elements if introduced to the franchise.

I just finished What About Bob? Starring Bill Murray, and Richard Dreyfus. It is hilarious.

 

Good things about AotC:
- the score (per usual)
- Jango Fett is rather cool
- the clones are cool
- CHRISTOPHER LEE!!! (note my bias)
- Palpatine is the one consistently great part of the prequels aside from the score, and that continues here
- um, I dunno, I guess the monsters are kinda neat? Acklay is scary.

Bad things about AotC:
- everything else. The leads. The plot. The beats. The editing. Of course the dialogue. The chase scene is rather pointless and goes on entirely too long. Everything on Naboo is cringe-worthy. The Kamino plot is horribly contrived and yet glossed over by the end. Jar Jar helps doom the galaxy through idiocy (and plot convenience). Ewan still feels a bit awkward in the role. Padme' is written in a way that makes her come off as a colossal idiot. Trash. Trash. Trash. As least Episode I has Liam Neeson.

I'll still watch it. It's not the worst movie ever made. It's certainly not irredeemable. But it's a solid 4/10. The worst Star Wars movie to date (haven't seen Solo yet, though, or the Ewok ones I guess if you count those?).

Writing this did remind me of the Republic Commando game which this spawned, though, and that's pretty great, so it was worth it I suppose.

 

Bumblebee

It is surprising how good this movie is. Easily the best Transformers movie ever made not counting the animated version.

The G1 Transformers battling on Cybertron was rendered beautifully and is exactly what Transformers fans were hoping for when we heard Michael Bay was making a movie all those years ago.

Hailee Steinfeld gives a subtle and compelling performance and the entire cast is likeable; in contrast to the MB debacles.

And for once, the CG battles between the bots actually make sense and have logical choreography and tasteful cinematography. It's amazing how much better Bumblebee is than whatever the hell MB was trying to do in his awful films, excluding the first one.

The plot of Bumblebee is straight from the pages of E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, but it works well here and the similarities were actually enjoyable. This movie is surprisingly poignant at times, as well as having the right balance of humor and suspense.

Aside from the first one he made, I will never watch another Michael Bay Transformer movie again now that Bumblebee exists. Hopefully there will be a sequel with the same cast.

 

Regarding the comparison with E.T.: Bumblebee also takes place in the 80's.

 

I agree with everything up to Christopher Lee.

Politely disagree: Not a Palpy fan, but I get it. Love Ewan as Obi-Wan.

Agree on Natalie and Hayden’s lack of chemistry and clunky storyline. Edits are a bit off. Too much politics, but I get it.

Yoda and Dooku.

I keep saying it, for me the prequels would have been better if Christopher Lee was the Palpatine-like character, while Ian betrays and usurps Dooku in classic Sith style. Palp would still cajole Anakin to kill Dooku, but what do I know?

​

Shaolin Abbot (1979) I am not a fan of Shaolin monk movies save for a few exceptions. This film is one of those exceptions. David Chiang is the eventual title character: a young monk who must secure weapons plans, training, and ultimately, funds to rebuild Shaolin after the emperor destroys their temple and most of the order.

Yes, Lo Lieh returns as infamous -and only true- Pai Mei and he’s awesome. But this is all about David Chiang who is amazing and quite believable as this young monk. David’s acting and martial prowess were at almost at his peak at this point and it’s a delight to see both here.

Director Ho Meng Hua handles drama and action equally well. His varied output for Shaw Brothers has quickly earned my respect, as he’s one of my fave SB directors now.

Plus, this is a lot of fun in spots. The early training sequences are crazy good and build upon some 36 chambers stuff. That all comes down to Chiang coming across so believable.

 

AOTC can be enjoyable if you turn your brain off and just look for cool set pieces. But that's about it. As ZAP pointed out, the plot is completely confusing and badly executed. Like in retrospect as an adult watching it (I was 14 when it came out) I can tell how bad the story is. George Lucas is just not a mystery writer at all.

Don't get me wrong, I don't skip it when I watch the PT. I still watch it. I will watch anything for some more Obi-Wan. But meh.

 

Isn't this exactly what you were complaining about with Jay?

RE: AOTC, there barely is a plot– when it's good, it's because of the mood, the ambience, and the palette. The mystery is terrible, but there's certainly a lot to be enjoy when your brain is on. When it's off, you are likely to be bored because there are actually very few set pieces in the film.

AOTC is also my least favorite SW film, save for maybe ROTJ.

 

Except the means I'm actually joking. He wasn't. I said I actually still watch and enjoy AOTC, I just think it's kinda dumb.

 

Touché

 

I'll give you one thing, this is like a beautiful operatic classic made today.

 

Yep. AOTC has my favorite ending montage of the eight films. TFA is the only one that comes close to matching it.

 

AOTC is terrible, and if you say positive things about it at least three times in any thread, a certain JCCer will come back and wreak havoc ala Beetlejuice.

 

Hayden Christensen is so dreamy in Attack of the Clones it's my favorite Star Wars film

 

Obi-Wan's mullet is to die for.

 

Attack of the Clones is an amazing film. It's so creative and introduces many excellent characters. Count Dooku, Zam Wessel, Lama Su, Tan We, Jango Fett, and Dex among others. The score is brilliant. And all of Anakin's scenes on Tatooine are tragic and heart wrenching.
Aside from Rogue One, AOTC is a much better film than anything from the Disney era so far.

Return To Oz

Very interesting sequel to The Wizard of Oz. Hadn't seen this in many years and it was quite enjoyable to rewatch. Major props for creativity and making it much darker than the original.

The score had some nice moments and Fairuza Balk did well playing Dorothy. Nice cast overall.

The wheelers are creepy and the evil witches's corridor with all the heads is quite a disturbing concept.

Well done, creative movie that can stand alongside other films from that period like Labyrinth and The Neverending Story. Return To Oz is definitely underrated.

 

I loved the irony how Balk made her acting debut as Dorothy; and as she grew up she'd be routinely typecast as the goth/witch girl that nobody trusts.

 

Counterpoint: he looks better in RotS because even with that scar at least he doesn't have a ****ing rat tail.

 

I pretend it’s not there in my head

 

Ant-Man & the Wasp (2018) – Peyton Reed

Wow, Dr. Pym, like, who would have thought that, once again, in your hour of need, that you would turn to us? You know?

Not me.

A lot of people thought 2015’s Ant-Man was a pretty insubstantial entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I personally happened to like it quite a lot, but here’s a warning: if you thought Ant-Man was light, you’re going to be amazed when Ant-Man & the Wasp just floats right off the screen and evaporates into a fine mist right in front of you. Ant-Man & the Wasp is as wispy a piece of cinema as I’ve seen in recent memory. Maybe that seemed like the only way to go after the jam-packed Infinity War, but anyway, it doesn’t work. I somewhat facetiously said that this movie tried to solve the MCU’s perceived “villain problem” by just not having a villain at all; I was being facetious, but only a little, I think. The original Ant-Man was a romp certainly, but this movie might as well be a farce, only it doesn’t really have the energy for that. This isn’t to say the movie is bad exactly. The movie is decent & good natured and Rudd & Douglas are both still appealing and charismatic in a way that gets chuckles out of even some pretty bad jokes. Michael Pena is still a lot of fun and David Dastmalchian gets some laughs out of his fears that he’s being hunted by Baba Yaga, the Russian boogeyman. Of the other characters, most everyone is wasted. When a movie can waste Laurence Fishburne, Walton Goggins, Randall Park and Michelle Pfeiffer, it just kind of seems to not be trying. Only Hannah John-Kamen really feels like an actual character and gives an actual performance. She brings a sense of real suffering to Ghost and it’s the one emotion, other than glib humor, that feels at all genuine; she’s a great grounding force, bringing some actual heft to the proceedings whenever she’s on screen. Anyway, it’s the first MCU movie I’ve not recommended in . . . years now. There’s just enough fun to keep it from getting a full on recommendation against, but it doesn’t even get a conditional recommendation. What charms it has, thanks to some clever humor, dissolves like cotton candy well before the credits arrive. 2 ½ stars.

tl;dr – good-natured movie has some charm, but it’s as insubstantial and unsatisfying as cotton candy; lacks the charm and rough & tumble energy that elevated the original, but mostly harmless. 2 ½ stars.

 

Perhaps Return To Oz was a traumatic experience for her.

 

Night School


In an emoji:

If you like the trailer of Night School, then you will probably like the film. I did.

The film does not take itself serious at all and has fun with its over the top moments and ridiculousness. Night School premise is built on Kevin Hart's character having to pass the GED examine and takes a night school course to pass the examine. Of course, Hart's journey is accompanied by a motley crew of "losers" but together they become winners.

Not much depth to the story or characters, just mindless humor that provides the occasional chuckle. But that's not a negative aspect of the film, as to go into depth with any of these characters would be a buzz kill. I thought there was wonderful chemistry among all the actors; especially Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish.

Night School is a harmless comedy that will mostly be considered a guilty pleasure. Thus my emoji of:

 

Actually I take that back, after thinking about it for a while. I believe her film debut was in The Worst Witch with Tim Curry; so the role as Dorothy was the fluke in her early career.

 

John Williams. Everything. Better.

Also, a bad Star Wars movie is still a Star Wars movie.