Movies you've seen recently

[Dylan Thomas]

Went to see the new Dungeons and Dragons movie, which I'd heard from multiple people was a good flick, surprisingly.

Yeah, I enjoyed it and thought it was quite fun.  It's not going to win any awards nor blow any minds with its depth of storytelling or characterization, and I liked it a lot better than most of the crap that's in the theaters nowadays. 

[Muffin Man]

The Angriest Man in Brooklyn
Dark humour gold w/ busting-out lollers. Heavy acting (too real?) between Robin Williams and Mila Kunis. 6.5/10? Nah 7.5 looking at 8.5. Added to the re-watch list immediately. Cine, script, casting. ba-boom. Those two were actually Oscar level with some little-itty bit of overacting. Odd-Couple thing happening but  no repeat, too bad, one and done. I found the artistry of the entire production remarkable....

 Big buckets of buttered popcorn even if some kernels were not popped (obvious)

[Muffin Man]

Drowning Mona
Yep. Detective twister cartooney romp. Not sure I caught the ending but that part did't seem to matter, Goofy done well. Well done goofyness. MIght even be good for the dvd collection. Korny Saturday afternoon TV one-off. 1-2 thumbs up.

[sleestak]

Big buckets of buttered popcorn even if some kernels were not popped (obvious)

Defective. Send them back.

[RAGER]

Reality. Very clunky. I guess it's a movie. They tried too hard to get the actual dialogue perfect. Meh.

[renfield]

spooky season report!

UNFRIENDED - a movie that takes place entirely on a computer screen, with people skyping each other and stuff. It doesn't really make a lot of sense (no consistently-defined rules for how this movie's little world works) but basically the ghost of a girl who these high school brats bullied into committing suicide is ruining their reputation by posting things to their social media, and then possessing them and making them kill themselves as well. A huge pain in my ass.

UNFRIENDED 2 - DARK WEB - aside from taking place also entirely on a computer screen, it's a completely different plot. A guy finds a bunch of snuff films or something on a second-hand laptop and him and his friends get drawn into a murder cult's sadistic plot. Some attempt is made to keep things actually grounded and realistic (it's not actually realistic), with the villains using their godlike hacking skills to do control technology and bring our heroes down. Like for example they SWAT one of the protagonists. Much nastier and more cruel than the first one, and much better.

JENNIFER'S BODY - Finally caught up with this one. Diablo Cody-penned shlock about Megan Fox being a demongirl. There's a lot of stuff that doesn't work in it, but even that stuff still lent it an individuality and character that I feel is super lacking from a lot of the movies I see these days. Really enjoyed this one, it reminded me a lot of GINGER SNAPS.

THE BABYSITTER and BABYSITTER 2: KILLER QUEEN - Goofy spookablasts with gory kills and great performances from Samara Weaving and our newest scream queen Jennifer Ortega. I've already kinda forgotten them though.

DEVIL'S ISLAND - very well-made but kind of slight and over as soon as it starts picking up steam. The main character is a total smokeshow and I might have annoyed my wife a bit by how much I commented on that throughout the film. It's about a girl who inherits a house on a tiny island in a lake community and there's a deathcult that starts harassing her. It seems like maybe they ran out of money halfway through the production here.

DOCTOR SLEEP - Well fuck me sideways did you know that they let the bozo who makes horror shows for Netflix do a sequel to THE SHINING?? I fucking loved this film actually and thought it told a really compelling story with memorable and terrifying characters. My one critique is that (spoilers) when they eventually do wind up back at the Overlook and trot out all our favorite ghosts, it compares  so poorly to the Kubrick film that it really kinda fucks the whole thing up. But the first 3/4 of the movie when it's doing it's own thing are amazing.  Rose the Hat is one of the most formidable villains I've seen in some time, and the image of her flying across the world to find you where you sleep would have fucked me right up as a child.

SPUTNIK - Russian film about an alien parasite (or symbiote  ) that arrives on earth in the body of a cosmonaut. A doctor who is so damn ethical that her career is being questioned because she dared to save a child's life while disregarding The Rules is recruited to try and separate the alien from the cosmonaut so that USSR's hero can be paraded out in front of everybody and also so USSR can weaponize the alien itself. This was a fucking great movie where the doctor and the evil military guy who is making her do this stuff are engaged in this game of chess with each other as they both navigate the overlap and discrepancy in their goals. Cool alien effects, too.

[RAGER]

The whole of Devils Island looks to be on YouTube.

Kinda Billie Eyelash lookin.

[Pissy]

I could type a book about my thoughts on the Shining/Dr Sleep book/movie universe, but I'll keep it short.  I liked Dr Sleep the movie quite a lot.  Watched it last week actually.  I want to leave the room when they pick up the baseball kid.  The Shining movie is also great, but I understand King's beef with it, altered theme and whatnot.  

[renfield]

I haven't read the books but I'm familiar with the changes Kubrick made. Seems like Doctor Sleep (the movie) did a few clever things to reconcile those differences and also bring in some of the King material that Kubrick changed (like burning down the Overlook).

The scene with the baseball kid is so rough. He asks "are you going to hurt me?" and Rose responds "   Yeahhhhhh....  " TERRIFYING.

[Pissy]

Right, they did tie in the Overlook's demise nicely.  

It's not enough that King needs to have kids die brutally in his stories, he also needs to make them suffer.  He needs to make sure there's reasons for the suffering. 

I would have him write his stories no other way.  

[mortlock]

I can get behind anyone who is into making kids suffer.

[whoshotthefrog]

[dnice]

American Fiction. I'm a fan of the lead character...Jeffrey Wright, and this movie has garnered a lot of praise from critics/fans. Wife and I watched it yesterday. Very well written with some original themes/twists. Ending was a bit corny, but worth a watch for something somewhat refreshing. Most of it took place in and around Boston, and including some nice shots/scenes from the Mass. south shore towns Scituate & Cohasset.

[dnice]

this I want I see NEXT

[renfield]

FURIOSA

in my opinion, the definitive Mad Max film. don't sleep

[mortlock]

Alien Romulus. I saw it yesterday. STOP READING HERE IF YOU DONT WANT SPOILERS.

I loved it. Full discloser, i am an alien super fan so to speak, so the movie could be a total pos (like some people are saying) and i would still love it. Most of the things i see people hate are the very things i loved the most.
I loved how the movie opened with them recovering big chap and you see pieces of the nostromo floating in space, tying it directly to alien '79 right out of the gate. i wish they added the 15 minutes needed to show big chap coming back to life and creating havoc on romulus. but thats a small nit pick. and you pretty much get what happened without it. i loved the care they put into recreating the aesthetics of the original films. its a great blend of the horror of alien and the 80s action movie vibe of aliens while also retaining its own personality. Its a really fun stand alone movie but it really shines if youre familiar with the franchise and you catch all the easter eggs. I also loved how they tied in the black goo and engineers and mutations of covenant and prometheus. this is a big deal in the end chapter when that fucking mutated human/alien/engineer hybrid comes in. total horror show. alot of people hated this but i loved how its ties in the prequal movies. it looked alot like a skin walker and i thought that was cool. the characters and development were cool and the movie was fast paced once they got to the romulus station. I also really liked how the whole 2 hour movie was pretty much like what amounted to about less than an hour of time in the characters timeline during the movie. of course the scenes visually were beautiful. over all im giving it a 8.2 out of 10. 

[Pissy]

FURIOSA

in my opinion, the definitive Mad Max film. don't sleep

Last weekend the wife and I ran the Mad Max gauntlet.  Starting with the original, and ending with Furiosa.  I don't think I's seen either Mad Max or The Road Warrior or Thunderdome for that matter since I was a kid.  

Some key takeaways from the total series:

I never really knew that Mad Max in 1979 wasn't post apocalyptic.  I remembered the end when he gave the guy the hacksaw and told him he could cut his foot off to save himself, but not much else.  Was this the first instance of the hero leaving an explosion without looking back at the fire plume?

Holy shit, the homeroticism in The Road Warrior is blatant.  Didn't remember that.  I mean I recall the look, but that lead henchman dude's costume was over top and that they made him such a badass and gay was pretty bold for 1982. I guess I always thought of it as more Rob Halford on stage, than Rob Halford in a sex dungeon. 

Thunderdome was the only PG-13 movie in the series.  I didn't remember that "The Thunderdome" wasn't featured in the movie but for the one scene, and that it wasn't really a central factor in the story.  More of a plot device that moved the story along.  

Fury Road was great.  So much action and so much that they did with the train robbery concept for nearly 2 hrs.  

Furiosa was great as well.  Again with the action, but more of a story to go along with it.  

I found it interesting that beginning with Road Warrior, there was always a basic commodity that people in power either had or wanted.  RW-Fuel, Thunderdome-Electricity, Fury Road- water (though the presence of the other barons goods was central) then for Furiosa the relationship among those three "cities" with bullets, fuel and water.  That's been pretty great.  

We enjoyed these 5 movies a lot.  

[dnice]

I did something similar Pissy. My wife who doesn't usually like this stuff, watched Furiosa last like friday. Couldn't stop watching it, then we watched Fury Road. I actually liked Furiosa more, even though Theron is a hot bad ass. I actually thought Hemsworth was solid. Dude ripped his own nipples off on purpose. wtf

[Muffin Man]

Binged RoboCop 1,2,3. Had seen only snippets of it before, flipping channels of late night re-runs. Figured I was due to sit through it. Sufficiently cheesy! so that was nice. Spotted what I thought were hints of Troma, cool. I wasn't watching that close, kinda wandered in and out from watching and having it on backround. No dvd extras! that was a miss. Good enough for a bag of popcorn. I'd likely go see the original in the theater on the big screen. Next up Total Recall.

[RAGER]

I watched The Hateful Eight last night. Been a long time since I've seen a Tarantino film.

I love Kurt Russel's surly character. Might see if I can find Death Proof.

[Muffin Man]

The Menu (2022). hmm, not sure, but not fully developed. But a good random pickup from the library. Probably will watch again. Quirky low/to no pulse-rate thriller with deteriorating plot. Kinda clever though. Kinda like a stage play, or, could be a stage play if they fix it.