What MOVIE(s) have you been....seeing? watching?

I was about to jump in to defend the 4.5 star rating on Night of the Comet but stopped myself when I realized it was not Night of the Creeps, as I originally thought. So yeah, 4.5 is questionable.

I did enjoy Godzilla: King of the Monsters. I think the 2014 movie had a few more "moments" that I liked, but the acting here, though not good, is light-years better than in the 2014 movie.

I'm guessing you think the 20-ish score for Dark Phoenix ought to be enough warning, but let me add to that that its worst sin is simply being dull as dishwater, which I, frankly, prefer the sensory and cognitive assault of X-Men: Apocalypse, my contemporary benchmark for "bad film," period. There's really no redeeming value to it. Even The Last Stand, ironically or no cowritten by the (first-time-ever, natch) director of Dark Phoenix, had at least some moments to liven things up and add a bit of heft.

Oh, but Booksmart was very good, in my estimation. It's been called, pretty much every time, the "female Superbad," but while both movies are good, I think people should see it without that filter. It's somewhat raunchy and not surprisingly a little too pat, but it was mostly deft and funny and occasionally touching.

CBGB was a fun mess. The movie starts out with a disclaimer to the effect that this movie is mostly true, but that might be an exaggeration. I dunno, I was still in grade school when the CBGB scene got started, but I grew up hearing of it as a legendary music venue operating in NYC. I'm not going to try to analyze the accuracy of the movie, and instead just talk about it as a viewer.

The focal point of the movie is Hilly Kristal, a bankrupt and divorced middle-aged guy in New York who can't resist trying to start up another bar after his first two failed. He is played by Alan Rickman, who disappears into this role impressively, and I almost immediately stopped thinking about Die Hard and Harry Potter... until Rupert Grint shows up in the third reel as a punk rocker. Hilly reminds me of a former boss of mine: bad at handling money or responsibility in general, but amazingly generous and helpful to both friends and strangers. His conversational style ranges from bluff to blunt, and his shaggy dog craps everywhere. His CBGB features a seedy clientale, a dubious kitchen, and a vile bathroom.

To address the amazing scope of the music that debuted or got big at CBGB is a herculean task, so the whole movie amounts to brief but illustrative conversations punctuated and interrupted by lots of great music and some bad music. Movies don't always get live music right, but CBGB definitely does: it should sound alive and immediate and just somehow better than most studio performances. It's impressive that the live-sounding music works so well, given that the bands are portrayed by young actors instead of the actual old people who were young back then.

Anyway, CBGB functions like a big sample of quality music from a very specific time and place: NYC in the '70s. Everything seems dirty and dangerous and lively, though the actual pace of the movie feels somewhat casual. I definitely recommend this movie to any punk or new wave fan, but it might not work for someone with different tastes.

I watched Rocket Man today. I love Elton John so I had high hopes... but I found this movie to be very average. Visually, it's great, and the songs are of course great. But I found myself kind of bored for a lot of it. The part where his career really starts taking off is pretty great.

It's worth watching, but I can't say it's worth a trip to the theater.

I saw John Wick 3. It was dumb and silly. I liked it a lot. The knife fight was great.

I think the thing about the John Wick series is that when it is working, every fight, even against relative mook assassins, feels like it could hurt John Wick. Like, not that he'd die, he's obviously the hero, but he might get stabbed, shot, etc. This movie made me feel less danger for John which kind of reduced my buy-in a little bit, though it still had some great, tense action scenes.

To his credit, I really do think Keanu does a great job with the choreography and stunts. A great example with this is in his two scenes with other famous actors where they're fighting together. He is so much more natural, fluid and impactful in all the action scenes than his costars.

hotseatgames wrote: Last night I watched the 2018 Halloween, which seems to act like the only other movie that existed in the franchise is the original. I guess that's one way to get a coherent narrative; just forget a slew of films.

I would say the film is better than I expected it to be. However, it is pretty formulaic, and if you are familiar with how this stuff goes, little will surprise you. There are a couple of interesting twists, and a subtle nod to the original that I appreciated.

Also, if you somehow have not seen the original, don't watch this one before you do. It really expects you to know what's up.

Just watched this myself. I agree with your review. It is an interesting and violent film, but not really scary or twisty. I found the teenage subplots to be overly distracting and pointless, as well as poorly acted, at least poorly scripted. The adult drama was much better and should have been the focus. Though are we supposed to believe that Laurie Stroud

Courtesy of Amazon Prime, I watched The Unnameable. Yes, the movie references the same Unnameable from Arkham Horror (based on Lovecraft's short story The Unnameable), and I couldn't resist giving it a try because I had literally just been reading through the Miskatonic University supplement for Call of Cthulhu. The movie is indeed set in Arkham, Massachusetts, and all the main characters are undergrads at Miskatonic University.

In most respects, The Unnameable was the most relentlessly generic horror movie that I have ever seen. Daring college students spend the night in a haunted house, where a monster attempts to kill them all. The movie struggles to establish the time. The short story was written and published in the '20s, but the characters have wardrobe and hairstyles that look more like the '50s. The theme song would have fit in perfectly with a bad movie from the early '80s. The monster is somewhat original in appearance, but the big breasts distract from the horror. One of the main characters acts exactly like an experienced Call of Cthulhu investigator. Otherwise, the movie is entirely forgettable and seems like it was the effort of ambitious Call of Cthulhu players.

Despite Lovecraft's powerful imagination, it seems like nobody is able to directly translate his writing into a good movie. Many have tried, but the best efforts are only lightly inspired by Lovecraft. It seems plausible that some written works just might not translate well into another medium. For example, most movies based on Stephen King stories haven't been good. Then again, The Shining, Stand by Me, and The Shawshank Redemption are all considered great movies. Maybe there have been some good Lovecraft movies and I just haven't seen them yet.

I saw the Deadwood movie. To be clear, I liked it.

But it was 100% an anime fanservice movie after a critically acclaimed series. It really threw me off guard. Every character coming back, with their own little flashback and happy-ish ending was just completely unexpected to me.

Just got back from The Dead Don't Die, Jim Jarmusch's take on the Zombie genre, and I like it... quite a bit. The film is relentlessly charming, but it never finds true greatness.

The cast is fantastic, charming and huge and brings a very dry and deadpan script to life. It's extremely spare and requires the actors dwell in silence. The Dead Don't Die is one of Jarmush's more slapstick efforts, its comedy broad, but the quiet, low affect nature of the film keep the jokes from getting away from them.

The Dead Don't Die is a fairly delightful, winning as hell film that delivers laughs on the regular.

Super solid.


P.S . Oddly there were a lot of kids at the screening. It could easily be an almost family film, and is especially tame when juxtaposed with the hyperviolent, grimdark Walking Dead, with only a few "motherfuckers" (courtesy of the RZA) and random cussing giving it an R.

Gary Sax wrote: I saw the Deadwood movie. To be clear, I liked it.

But it was 100% an anime fanservice movie after a critically acclaimed series. It really threw me off guard. Every character coming back, with their own little flashback and happy-ish ending was just completely unexpected to me.

Agreed. Enjoyable watch but felt a bit hollow.

I watched Us last night. Quite unnerving.

Shellhead wrote: Maybe there have been some good Lovecraft movies and I just haven't seen them yet.

There aren't many, but Re-Animator and From Beyond are both top notch.

I can't remember if I weighed in on Rocketman. I think I might be a little more positive on it because it did have the willingness to avoid some of the worst biopic tropes and to leave its main character with some rough edges. Taron Edgerton gave a strong performance, and I expect this is the kind of pic and/or role we'll see get some awards nods--if it didn't come out too early in the year for people to remember it by that point.

Late Night is probably a "B" movie. "B-" seems uncharitable for a film that works more often than it doesn't, but it was a close call for me. I laughed more than a few times, which is why I'm going with the higher grade.

Ah_Pook wrote:

Shellhead wrote: Maybe there have been some good Lovecraft movies and I just haven't seen them yet.

There aren't many, but Re-Animator and From Beyond are both top notch.

The 2010 German film "Die Farbe," based on "The Colour out of Space," was at least worth watching. There's also the silent 2005 "The Call of Cthulhu."

Annihilation is also a great Lovecraft-ish film.

Or if you want a different take on Lovecraft: Cast a Deadly Spell .

Note: Poster assumes no responsibility for quality of this motion picture.