Rate the Last Film You Watched
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jake scully
Kiznaiver
Nic Roegs Bad Timing - an excellent psychological sexual drama about obsession. This and Don’t Look Now are the only films I like from Roe
i saw Takashi Miikes Dead Or Alive the other night made in 98/99 and I was surprised two scenes were passed uncut - overall the film had its moments especially the crazy ending which isn’t surprising from Miike but not one of his best films
Escape From New York (1981)
Having not seen the film since I was a kid, it was good to revisit John Carpenter's iconic sci-fi thriller, that sees Kurt Russell's laconic outlaw spared a life sentence, if he can rescue the president from the lawless prison island of Manhattan. The action scenes feel a little underwhelming now, but its grimey, burnt-out aesthetic is still incredibly evocative and theme tune is my favourite of all Carpenter's musical scores.
Big Magnum Kuroiwa-Sensei (1985)
A deeply odd, fairly obscure Japanese comedy that sees a pair of teachers, one meek and unassuming (Yasushi Yokoyama), the other brash and armed to the teeth (Norio Nishikawa), dispatched to tame a school full of uncontrollable delinquents. It starts promisingly enough, looking like it'll follow the tried and true route of having the meek teacher slowly gain the students' respect by taking time to understand them, but if that was ever on the cards, the film soon loses interest and ends up feeling more like a power fantasy for people who believe delinquents are the cause of all society's woes. Perhaps if the gags had landed for me, I might have been more willing to forgive it, but after the focus shifts mainly to the miscast, uncharismatic Yokoyama, I just lost my patience with it.
My guess is that the film is was possibly intended as a parody of the pinky violence exploitation films from the early 70s which often featured delinquent gangs, and may hold some amusement for anyone interested in that era, but otherwise I'd struggle to recommend it.
New Third Gangster Parts 2&3 (1996)
More early Takashi Miike, this time part of a long running series (12 films!) following an honourable gang boss dragged back into the Yakuza life after trying to go straight. There's little we haven't seen before, but it's well acted, with Kiyoshi Nakajo suitably stoic in the lead, and some amusing colour from Miike's typically eccentric cast of side characters, most notably an ass-kicking drag-artist and a surrogate father/daughter combo who, let's be clear for legal reasons, are definitely not Leon and Mathilde from The Professional.
The Batman (2022)
My initial reaction to the very existence of this film was 'really, again?', but I was slowly persuaded by the trailers that actually made it look quite solid. I think 'solid' is the word for it - there are a few nice ideas going on, particularly fashioning The Riddler into a Zodiac figure, but most are a bit lost in a slightly pedestrian script that underserves an absolutely perfect cast. The performances do genuinely elevate it though - everyone is on point here, it's remarkable how well all the actors seem to fit their roles. Perhaps most surprising is Robert Battinson. He'll be 'The Twilight guy' til he dies, but he's a fine Batman (more creeping bogeyman than hero), and a really great Bruce Wayne, his numb and distant exterior hiding a cauldron of formless rage within.
Having not seen the film since I was a kid, it was good to revisit John Carpenter's iconic sci-fi thriller, that sees Kurt Russell's laconic outlaw spared a life sentence, if he can rescue the president from the lawless prison island of Manhattan. The action scenes feel a little underwhelming now, but its grimey, burnt-out aesthetic is still incredibly evocative and theme tune is my favourite of all Carpenter's musical scores.
Big Magnum Kuroiwa-Sensei (1985)
A deeply odd, fairly obscure Japanese comedy that sees a pair of teachers, one meek and unassuming (Yasushi Yokoyama), the other brash and armed to the teeth (Norio Nishikawa), dispatched to tame a school full of uncontrollable delinquents. It starts promisingly enough, looking like it'll follow the tried and true route of having the meek teacher slowly gain the students' respect by taking time to understand them, but if that was ever on the cards, the film soon loses interest and ends up feeling more like a power fantasy for people who believe delinquents are the cause of all society's woes. Perhaps if the gags had landed for me, I might have been more willing to forgive it, but after the focus shifts mainly to the miscast, uncharismatic Yokoyama, I just lost my patience with it.
My guess is that the film is was possibly intended as a parody of the pinky violence exploitation films from the early 70s which often featured delinquent gangs, and may hold some amusement for anyone interested in that era, but otherwise I'd struggle to recommend it.
New Third Gangster Parts 2&3 (1996)
More early Takashi Miike, this time part of a long running series (12 films!) following an honourable gang boss dragged back into the Yakuza life after trying to go straight. There's little we haven't seen before, but it's well acted, with Kiyoshi Nakajo suitably stoic in the lead, and some amusing colour from Miike's typically eccentric cast of side characters, most notably an ass-kicking drag-artist and a surrogate father/daughter combo who, let's be clear for legal reasons, are definitely not Leon and Mathilde from The Professional.
The Batman (2022)
My initial reaction to the very existence of this film was 'really, again?', but I was slowly persuaded by the trailers that actually made it look quite solid. I think 'solid' is the word for it - there are a few nice ideas going on, particularly fashioning The Riddler into a Zodiac figure, but most are a bit lost in a slightly pedestrian script that underserves an absolutely perfect cast. The performances do genuinely elevate it though - everyone is on point here, it's remarkable how well all the actors seem to fit their roles. Perhaps most surprising is Robert Battinson. He'll be 'The Twilight guy' til he dies, but he's a fine Batman (more creeping bogeyman than hero), and a really great Bruce Wayne, his numb and distant exterior hiding a cauldron of formless rage within.
RadFemHedonist
Cardcaptor
RadFemHedonist
Cardcaptor
Eternal chibi
Student Council President
He is very likeable and meme worthy, and I love him for this. He will always be the Twilight guy. What's hilarious is how much he slates Twilight and hates it. He'll never shake it off just because of how pervasive Twilight was back when it came out.
Dai
Pokémon Master
The Matrix Resurrections
There are two types of resurrections that we often see in stories. There's the type where people come back bolder and better than before, infused with purpose, and only tinged with the sorrow of knowing that narrative balance demands they can only return until their mission is complete. That's the Gandalf type of resurrection, which we also saw with Neo in the first Matrix.
Then there's the George Romero type of resurrection where people come back as a shambling, decomposing mockery of their former selves. Sadly this describes both Neo's arc in Matrix 4 and the movie as a whole. I've never seen a movie that is so blunt in conveying that the director didn't want to make it. Its bloated 150-minute runtime could have easily been trimmed by half an hour if Lana Wachowski hadn't indulged in so much painfully meta complaining about Warner Bros, who are literally called out by name for wanting another Matrix sequel (which exists as a series of games in-universe). Unfortunately this bitterness is baked into the whole plot, which goes through the motions of rehashing iconic moments from the earlier movies (complete with pointless, disjointed clips from the original trilogy) without adding much of any worth to the canon.
All the theories I had about how this movie might play with the concept of identity came to nothing, because there's nothing approaching a sense of imagination at work here. It tries to do something interesting with Trinity to elevate her above the roles of love interest and damsel that she was saddled with in the first couple of movies, but the character carries too much baggage from those movies. The result comes across as patronising and outdated in a movie landscape that is already moving past what it attempts.
It can't even get the aesthetics or action right. The moody lighting that worked so well on 35mm ends up looking like a cheap Youtube recreation here. The crystal clear fight choreography and camerawork of the original is gone, replaced by messy brawls and the most distracting use of shaky-cam I've seen since Tetsuo 3.
The only nice thing I can say about Matrix 4 is that it isn't the worst Wachowski movie, but that's only by virtue of the monumentally low bar set by Jupiter Ascending. The Matrix was revolutionary in 1999 and remains a classic, but looking at the Wachowskis' career in the decades since it's hard not to think that revolutionaries come with an expiry date.
There are two types of resurrections that we often see in stories. There's the type where people come back bolder and better than before, infused with purpose, and only tinged with the sorrow of knowing that narrative balance demands they can only return until their mission is complete. That's the Gandalf type of resurrection, which we also saw with Neo in the first Matrix.
Then there's the George Romero type of resurrection where people come back as a shambling, decomposing mockery of their former selves. Sadly this describes both Neo's arc in Matrix 4 and the movie as a whole. I've never seen a movie that is so blunt in conveying that the director didn't want to make it. Its bloated 150-minute runtime could have easily been trimmed by half an hour if Lana Wachowski hadn't indulged in so much painfully meta complaining about Warner Bros, who are literally called out by name for wanting another Matrix sequel (which exists as a series of games in-universe). Unfortunately this bitterness is baked into the whole plot, which goes through the motions of rehashing iconic moments from the earlier movies (complete with pointless, disjointed clips from the original trilogy) without adding much of any worth to the canon.
All the theories I had about how this movie might play with the concept of identity came to nothing, because there's nothing approaching a sense of imagination at work here. It tries to do something interesting with Trinity to elevate her above the roles of love interest and damsel that she was saddled with in the first couple of movies, but the character carries too much baggage from those movies. The result comes across as patronising and outdated in a movie landscape that is already moving past what it attempts.
It can't even get the aesthetics or action right. The moody lighting that worked so well on 35mm ends up looking like a cheap Youtube recreation here. The crystal clear fight choreography and camerawork of the original is gone, replaced by messy brawls and the most distracting use of shaky-cam I've seen since Tetsuo 3.
The only nice thing I can say about Matrix 4 is that it isn't the worst Wachowski movie, but that's only by virtue of the monumentally low bar set by Jupiter Ascending. The Matrix was revolutionary in 1999 and remains a classic, but looking at the Wachowskis' career in the decades since it's hard not to think that revolutionaries come with an expiry date.
RadFemHedonist
Cardcaptor
I went to see that today too! I thought it was pretty solid and enjoyed watching Eddie Redmayne
gyrate in a tunnel
RadFemHedonist
Cardcaptor
The Bad Guys - Excellent except I wish films (particularly ones for kids) would stop holding up Mother Theresa as a prime example of human goodness - she was a religious fanatic who was opposed to divorce even for people being violently abused by their spouses, believed contraception and abortion were the world's two greatest evils and she believed poverty and suffering brought you closer to god so she wasn't actually really trying to do anything to prevent those things as such. It made me reflect on how the greatest human goodness often goes unthanked and largely unnoticed in that there are no doubt a large number of "dowdy" feminists and local community organisers around the world (both here and globally) who we've mostly never heard of who do a lot more good to protect people's rights than Mother Theresa ever did (and I'd include some lesser-known Catholic nuns in that, for the record, as I really don't think all of them are misogynists like Mother Theresa). Just goes to show you what undeserved good PR can do.
OK so the film: It was super super fun and clever and I have a sort of wholesome asexual crush on that wolf dude lol he was super charming and cute, some of the way they animated him made me think of Lupin the Third in The Castle of Cagliostro. I also dug the shark dressing in drag that was like, yes it was played for laughs but not meanspirited ones and I think they were kinda trying to send a message of accepting society's outcasts in general with that? TBH I haven't seen masses of crime caper films, this has been described as Tarantino for kids and I've never seen any of his films just cuz I couldn't handle the violence, so I don't really know how it compares to the classics, but I would recommend it (it also did very well on Rotten Tomatoes, 94% Fresh IIRC)
OK so the film: It was super super fun and clever and I have a sort of wholesome asexual crush on that wolf dude lol he was super charming and cute, some of the way they animated him made me think of Lupin the Third in The Castle of Cagliostro. I also dug the shark dressing in drag that was like, yes it was played for laughs but not meanspirited ones and I think they were kinda trying to send a message of accepting society's outcasts in general with that? TBH I haven't seen masses of crime caper films, this has been described as Tarantino for kids and I've never seen any of his films just cuz I couldn't handle the violence, so I don't really know how it compares to the classics, but I would recommend it (it also did very well on Rotten Tomatoes, 94% Fresh IIRC)
jake scully
Kiznaiver
I agree with you about Mother Theresa
She was no saint or whatever the Catholic Church want to call her
She was an evil old woman who let people in pain who needed medicine die but when she was ill she had the medicine….religious hypocrisy
She was no saint or whatever the Catholic Church want to call her
She was an evil old woman who let people in pain who needed medicine die but when she was ill she had the medicine….religious hypocrisy
jake scully
Kiznaiver
It’s typical of some actors whose film/s make them very rich and famous but then are critical of what they starred in
jake scully
Kiznaiver
Cannibal Apocalypse- bought the R1 dvd years ago and can’t remember when I last saw it - anyway saw it last night band although good not as good as Holocaust or Ferox
Vincentdante
Time-Traveller
The Lighthouse
I want to watch more arthouse style movies and experience stuff that isn't Hollywood controlled mass market appealers to see what I am missing. I heard good things about this, and it was a trip. I give it a Hark/10
I want to watch more arthouse style movies and experience stuff that isn't Hollywood controlled mass market appealers to see what I am missing. I heard good things about this, and it was a trip. I give it a Hark/10
Dai
Pokémon Master
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
It's been almost a decade since Sam Raimi was last in the director's chair for a full-length movie. I'm happy to report that he's lost none of his quirkiness. The Marvel movie formula is such a monolithic thing at this point that it can often feel awkwardly stapled onto a director's style, but this movie effortlessly manages to blend the Marvel house style with what is unmistakably a Sam Raimi movie. The result is packed with Raimi's trademark sugar-rush camerawork, it's the closest Marvel has ever felt to being a horror movie, and the quirkiness of the humour flows from Benedict Cumberbatch as if he's chanelling Bruce Campbell.
I only really have two issues with this movie. First, like Spider-Man: No Way Home, it leans heavily into weaponised cameos that stick out as blatant fan service. I can't complain about that too much since they were a lot of fun to see, but it's a card that Disney has played so frequently and in such a heavy-handed fashion over the last decade that it can risk derailing the plot of some movies (especially in Star Wars).
The other issue is that Disney have now crossed the line into making a Disney+ subscription mandatory if you want to continue watching Marvel movies. It doesn't matter if you've seen the entire Infinity Saga, major plot points in Doctor Strange 2 will make no sense unless you've seen the Wandavision TV series too. This was inevitable, of course, but it still feels like the calculated business move it is.
That aside, this was a highly enjoyable action-horror movie and further proof that the Marvel train hasn't run out of steam just yet.
It's been almost a decade since Sam Raimi was last in the director's chair for a full-length movie. I'm happy to report that he's lost none of his quirkiness. The Marvel movie formula is such a monolithic thing at this point that it can often feel awkwardly stapled onto a director's style, but this movie effortlessly manages to blend the Marvel house style with what is unmistakably a Sam Raimi movie. The result is packed with Raimi's trademark sugar-rush camerawork, it's the closest Marvel has ever felt to being a horror movie, and the quirkiness of the humour flows from Benedict Cumberbatch as if he's chanelling Bruce Campbell.
I only really have two issues with this movie. First, like Spider-Man: No Way Home, it leans heavily into weaponised cameos that stick out as blatant fan service. I can't complain about that too much since they were a lot of fun to see, but it's a card that Disney has played so frequently and in such a heavy-handed fashion over the last decade that it can risk derailing the plot of some movies (especially in Star Wars).
The other issue is that Disney have now crossed the line into making a Disney+ subscription mandatory if you want to continue watching Marvel movies. It doesn't matter if you've seen the entire Infinity Saga, major plot points in Doctor Strange 2 will make no sense unless you've seen the Wandavision TV series too. This was inevitable, of course, but it still feels like the calculated business move it is.
That aside, this was a highly enjoyable action-horror movie and further proof that the Marvel train hasn't run out of steam just yet.
Yami
Thousand Master
It has been not a bad week or so...
Everything Everywhere All At Once - On one hand, this is fresh, inventive, freewheeling filmmaking of a type that's rare to see in a multiplex, grounded by some impressive central performances. On the other, it's a film deeply in love with itself - a clever film that somehow thinks its cleverer still - and you get the sense that 'kill your darlings' is a foreign concept to the Daniels' multiverse. B
Benediction - Terence Davies is quite possibly the best British filmmaker of the past 4 decades and his latest, a biopic of Siegfried Sassoon, is predictably exquisite work. It does not stick to the usual narrative beats of a biopic but rather gives us snatches of Siegfried Sassoon's life to launch an inquiry into the poet's soul. Just magnificent. Jack Lowden and Peter Capaldi should be in the conversation for BAFTAs when they come around. They almost certainly won't be. But they should be. Just impeccable, moving, fine-tuned performances as young and old Sassoon. A-
RRR - Wow. A relentlessly exhilarating, inventive parade of cinematic pleasures. National myth as action epic. One of the best films of recent years and I'm saddened that I never got to see it on the big screen. A
Top Gun: Maverick - A John Ford-style elegy to an undefined idea of America that feels like its in the rear view mirror. Also just a straight-up exhilarating action movie. Tom Cruise has rarely been better. One of the best films to come out of an American studio this century. A-
Everything Everywhere All At Once - On one hand, this is fresh, inventive, freewheeling filmmaking of a type that's rare to see in a multiplex, grounded by some impressive central performances. On the other, it's a film deeply in love with itself - a clever film that somehow thinks its cleverer still - and you get the sense that 'kill your darlings' is a foreign concept to the Daniels' multiverse. B
Benediction - Terence Davies is quite possibly the best British filmmaker of the past 4 decades and his latest, a biopic of Siegfried Sassoon, is predictably exquisite work. It does not stick to the usual narrative beats of a biopic but rather gives us snatches of Siegfried Sassoon's life to launch an inquiry into the poet's soul. Just magnificent. Jack Lowden and Peter Capaldi should be in the conversation for BAFTAs when they come around. They almost certainly won't be. But they should be. Just impeccable, moving, fine-tuned performances as young and old Sassoon. A-
RRR - Wow. A relentlessly exhilarating, inventive parade of cinematic pleasures. National myth as action epic. One of the best films of recent years and I'm saddened that I never got to see it on the big screen. A
Top Gun: Maverick - A John Ford-style elegy to an undefined idea of America that feels like its in the rear view mirror. Also just a straight-up exhilarating action movie. Tom Cruise has rarely been better. One of the best films to come out of an American studio this century. A-
Eternal chibi
Student Council President
I watched the new Twilight... uh... Batman film...
It was a really cool style, and they did take their own spin on it. Totally emo batman, I do like to see it. They went for more of the detective batman because you can't really take on Nolan's action orientated batman, it's too good.
The runtime was a bit too long and I had to split it into two sittings, which I think I've only done once or twice before ever.
One thing I appreciated is they did stylize Gotham a bit with the buildings. It added to that slight fantasy vibe that has been dropped in the previous decade in favour of a more realistic approach. I am looking forward to seeing the sequel because there is a a good foundation and if they can do dark knight mk2 it will be special.
It was a really cool style, and they did take their own spin on it. Totally emo batman, I do like to see it. They went for more of the detective batman because you can't really take on Nolan's action orientated batman, it's too good.
The runtime was a bit too long and I had to split it into two sittings, which I think I've only done once or twice before ever.
One thing I appreciated is they did stylize Gotham a bit with the buildings. It added to that slight fantasy vibe that has been dropped in the previous decade in favour of a more realistic approach. I am looking forward to seeing the sequel because there is a a good foundation and if they can do dark knight mk2 it will be special.
Vincentdante
Time-Traveller
Watched Hereditary last night.
I love a good horror film and have seen many now, that was easily the most terrifying one I have seen in a long time. Jesus Christ.
I love a good horror film and have seen many now, that was easily the most terrifying one I have seen in a long time. Jesus Christ.
Eternal chibi
Student Council President
If you enjoyed Hereditary you should check out the spriticual successor Midsommar.
My friend wanted to rewatch them both back to back recently and that was a lot even for me.