Last Good Movie You Saw

[deanb]

Yesterday

 

So a part of the big slew of musical themed films coming out of late, but in this case (if you've not seen the trailer) instead of being about The Beatles it's about their songs alongside a sort of soppyish Richard Curtis storyline (Love Actually, Notting Hill etc). And it works really well. Beatles songs are hits anyway, but it's got the nice "feel good" stuff on the top, funny, occasionally dramatic. And what's weird is it's a film where really need to put a lot in spoilers because it's not entirely what is on the surface (or at least in the trailers).

 

Also Ed Sheeran is kinda good at poking fun at himself. I kinda liked the simple joy of the dad trying to get into various cupboard and drawers in the kitchen and Ed Sheeran pretty much standing in front of the wrong one each time. The love story element is a little bit...awkward (especially towards the end...).

Spoiler

Like dicking over Gavin. He took it like a champ though, and obviously film makers realised it'd read like a dick move to Gavin cos within two frames they'd motioned that he'd hook up fine with this other lass.

 

Also the casting being "Hmm..need Indian parents...what about the Kumars?".

 

But yeah, if wanting a "feel good film" give it a shot. Only issue being it's wedged right in-between Disney Pixars Toy Story 4 and Disney & Sony Pictures Spider-Man. So Beatles may be bigger than jesus, but Disney is even bigger still. I was 1/7th of the audience tonight.

[CorgiShinobi]

Spider-Man: Far From Home

 

Pretty good all around. You can't talk about it too much since half the film follows a specific spoiler. I found MJ to be a better character in this film, but then again she was never really a focus in Homecoming. There's so much great humor in this film. Eventually we get some great Spidey action, but for most of the film we don't really get a lot of Spider-Man specific action. It's all on the group effort of Mysterio and Nick Fury's ragtag team along with Spider-Man. There's a good reason for it as Peter is going through the internal conflict of being both a high school kid and possibly becoming the next Tony Stark.

 

There is a massive thorn in the movie's plot. Massive spoiler:

When Quentin Beck (Mysterio) and Peter formally meet, Beck says he's a hero from Universe-833 and that the film's universe is 616. Maybe whoever wrote this bit thought it was a nice easter egg, but it immediately confirms that Beck and this Mysterio are full-on bogus. Essentially, this isn't going to be the introduction of a multiverse thread for other films to follow or for the X-Men and Fantastic Four to hop on over. Maybe later, but not here. If you don't follow, Universe-616 is the Marvel mainline comic universe. The MCU does not follow this and in fact has its own universe number: 199,999. It has never been expressly stated, so for the more casual viewer they're not going to really care. Otherwise, you'll see through him and will be waiting for the moment Beck either slips or the film itself shows us his turn nature. That I won't spoil because it's a great scene.

 

But yeah, stay for the mid-credit and post-credit scenes. Really great stuff, mostly from the mid-credit scene. If you've seen Captain Marvel, you'll get the post-credit scene.

[deanb]

Spider-Man: Far From Home

 

Ultimately the best spoiler for this is of course

Spoiler

 

It hit the tone it needed to hit in having an "Avengers level threat" so you're not going from world-ending threats to neighbourhood stuff, while having a much needed goofier tone to not be too rough after the end of Endgame. Such as the "peter tingle" and "blip". Which the 5 year gap is covered and some of its repercussions (including for example age ID not quite being correct. "he's not actually 21"). Which actually the thread of characters not being old enough to drink crops up a few times, I wonder if something to do with Tom Holland being British and therefore technically able to drink but not while shooting in US (though he's now 23). 

 

RE your spoiler

Spoiler

Figured Beck would be the 'true' Mysterio anyway (in it all being illusions), but I had twigged on Earth 616 being the wrong designation. I'm not sure 19999 is the 'official' voice of god designation though, just what's used on the wikia page for ease of keeping the films organised separate from the comics. Kinda thankful it's bollocks mind, cos yes it would have been annoying if it was canon it was earth-616. 

 

btw saying the end credits ties in with Captain Marvel is sort of a spoiler btw. But with regards to that it is kind of hinted throughout. Fury gets curt with Parker when he says about Captain Marvel ('dont speak her name' or similar) and "Fury" and "Maria" at one point mention Kree sleeper cells. 

 

Interesting to see where it goes. Not sure how many months this is after Endgame but does set up a few "things need sorting out post-Endgame" plot points. Chunk of the Avengers are dead/old/off world, there's half a globe of displaced people. And also

Spoiler

Peter can't barter his marriage to MJ with the devil to make everyone forget he's Spider-Man.

 

Incidentally Vulture knows and kept secret, and kinda means now he doesn't have to keep it much of a secret. Really hope we get Keaton back, he's fab. Kind of a shame we've lost Jake Gyllenhaal, he's a fab actor. Seems from BTS stuff he got on well with Tom Holland too.

 

Next phase is waiting to see the films that're due soon to all be named n dated cos speculationville is left a bit hanging at the moment.

 

[CorgiShinobi]

It is a far more appropriate film to have post-Endgame than how Ant-Man and the Wasp was post-Infinity War. It touches upon the impact and does serve as a nice cleanup of Phase 3.

 

RE: RE: Spoiler

Well if you allude to it being a spoiler, it'll make it worse.

 More than enough folks in the theater were asking a big "Who?" when we saw Talos and his wife. And I wouldn't necessarily talk about the "Peter-Tingle," though honestly I feel the movie dropped the ball on explaining Peter was having issues with it. It worked fine in Infinity War, so for most of the movie I just thought it was a joke and not an actual plot point. It helps explain why Peter/Spider-Man didn't sense something amiss, but it could have been better explained he was going through a, well, Spider-Man 2 moment.

[deanb]

Spoiler

Hence me alluding to it being a spoiler within the spoiler tag 

Also I hadn't caught it, I guess cos it was a (tweaked) scene from the trailer so I'd partly zoned out, but Fury does say "your planet" rather than "our planet" too. Also thinking on it, explains Fury being a bit of a dick. That's what Talos thinks Fury is like 

 

Yeah the spider sense not working I didn't quite get, though tbh in the comics Mysterio has usually been able to trick it (though more in triggering it than hiding from it). I'd figured with the banana it was kind of a "non-threat" thing, what with being a banana thrown by his aunt rather than like a grenade by a baddie or what not. Infinity War had shown it going off, but only the once and even Homecoming never quite dwelled on it as one of his powers. So I'd guess it's sort of a thing he has to actively hone to get more than the "heebeejeebies" from it.

 

In fact the various bits with Mysterio proper going all illusioney were superb. From the totally whacked out bit in the Berlin building with zombie Iron Man, to like him fighting Mysterio and pulling down an IRL crane on himself (then into the train), to the bit with him using his "peter tingle" to get past the drones on the bridge was pretty neat in sorta showing the two effects (illusions and his spidey sense) composited on each other.

 

I've a friend having a bit of a bad time atm so couldn't come, but when he's better I'd be totally down for a second excursion to this. It doesn't quite have the "vulture is my dates dad" moment and the car journey thing, but it's otherwise a pretty fine film.

[MetalCaveman]

Spoiler

So... If you popped back in where you left off, what happens to those who were on boats/planes/trains/any other moving object?

 

Also, I wonder if Mysterio is dead dead, like, for realsies dead. Could be a dub thing, but Peter merely confirms that it isn't an illusion, not that he's proper toast.  

 

That bit with Fury at the end was cool.  

 

[CorgiShinobi]

Now that you mention it; either the quickest or longest death. 

[deanb]

It was raised with the release of Endgame

Spoiler

It's suggested that the gauntlet does have some form of "wisdom", and will sort of interpret your wishes to not be monkey paw things. So anyone in planes would appear like in the terminal or on a different plane or similar rather than let Hulk bring folks back and half a bunch of them just die straight away. (officially if they came back exactly where they were 5 years ago they'd be millions of miles out so we already know there's some "intelligence" not taking wishes too literally).

 

[deanb]

Batman: Gotham by Gaslight

 

Another I've not read the comic of, but otherwise quite clueless about apart from being recommended by a friend (and I generally like the animated DC outings). Was pretty good, and kept you guessing. tbh having just watched Hush previous I'd figured it almost might be a retelling of sorts of that, especially with the real jack the ripper having a surgical flair. I was also aware it didn't explicitly cover what happened to Bruces parents and I was well aware his dad was a surgeon too.

[danielpholt]

Lego Batman

 

I rewatched this yesterday (in a failed attempt to get Mila to you know, chill) and it's not nearly as mediocre as I remember upon leaving the cinema. Is it the Lego Movie? No, but if you're a fan of Batman it''s actually kinda good fun.

[toxicitizen]

Do we have any RedLetterMedia fans here? Because if not then I guess no one will get this but I was lucky enough to go to a very special screening last night. One of the smaller theaters in town managed to arranged a screening for Neil Breen's latest film Twisted Pair! It actually came out last year, so I'm not exactly sure how it came to be but I'm just glad I not only finally got to see it, I saw a fucking Neil Breen movie in an actual movie theater! And it was everything I wanted it to be and more. I'm not sure what happened but it was his most coherent film so far. The fact that very little actually happens in it probably has something to do with it.

 

Anyway, if you have no idea what I'm talking about here's a trailer that will no doubt leave you with many questions.

 

 

Oh and shout out to the fucking moron that sat in the row right in front of us. Everyone in the audience was laughing and cracking jokes during the movie but you were the only one that was painfully unfunny and annoying as shit. The first time you screamed "ZA WARUDO!!1!" wasn't funny but when you said it for the tenth fucking time it took all my goddamn restraint not to kick you in the back of the head!

Edited August 25, 2019 by FLD

[danielpholt]

Avengers: Endgame

 

Second time through. It's still good. Not as immediately watchable as Infinity War (given the level of crossover between our favourite characters I think that IW is always going to be the more 'enjoyable' movie), but its still a deeply satisfying film for those that have been with these guys for a while.

[Mister Jack]

It Chapter 2

 

So this one veers a little closer to just being okay than it does to being great, but I still think it manages to edge its way into this thread. The child actors came back for some new flashback scenes and they were just as good as they were in the first one. The new actors for the adult versions do an admirable job as well, and Bill Skarsgaard turns in another impressive performance. The acting is the strongest part of this movie. The writing is a bit uneven, though. There's a character who adds pretty much nothing to the story, but he's in there because he was in the book. Sometimes there is comic relief during parts that are supposed to be scary and some of the CG is less than impressive. It also feels just a little bit too long. They probably could have shaved off maybe 15 or 20 minutes and still been okay. Make no mistake, there are some rough edges with this film, but I still had a good time and I'm glad I saw it. I think people who liked the last one will like this one too if they keep their expectations in check.

Edited September 10, 2019 by Mister Jack

[CorgiShinobi]

Zombieland: Double Tap

 

I was concerned about how a sequel to a film a full decade ago would fair. Turns out, pretty dang well! Part of my doubt was that overall I feel zombies are in a lull period now in pop culture. We've got so much zombie media that there's not a big draw to it. Personally, The Last of Us Part II is the only "zombie" type media I'm looking forward to.

 

Funnily enough, the film begins with Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) saying that of all the zombie media choices out there, he's glad you chose to watch the film. It's a solid comedy throughout the whole thing. I don't even want to put any spoiler tags because the moment-to-moment hilarity and suspense is what makes this film. Not to mention that Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson are top-notch as their characters. Emma Stone was a little rough at first, but as the movie goes on her performance gets back on track. The new characters add to the movie and make it a little refreshing.

 

If you're a fan of the original, this is a worthy sequel of your time and money.

[TCP]

Now that I live in a city that isn't a stupid ass hick city in the middle of nowhere, I can see dope ass movies.

 

The Lighthouse

-At first it was kind of like a Decemberists song made into a movie. But then it moved into something ....else. It was incredible. Go see it in a theatre, if you can.

 

Jojo Rabbit 

-Similar heart to Hunt For The Wilderpeople but a different type of movie. The kid who played Jojo was great. Scarlet was great. Everyone was pretty great. 

[deanb]

Knives Out

 

Watched this a few weeks ago with my mum. Being taking advantage of us both working mon-fri 9-5-ish jobs. Really enjoyed it, at first my mum wasn't wanting to go but watched a newer trailer and quickly changed her mind. Both found it quite fun. Last whoddunit we watched was Murder on the Orient Express and that was wank. This had character and flavour; some quite fun characters. Can't really say much without then going into spoiler territory. Oh and some quite current affairs stuff with the two grandkids barbing each other with jabs of "SJW" and "right wing troll" (it's kinda clear that one of the kid is going against the family grain).

 

Frozen II

 

This time also with my younger sisters. I'd imagine certainly fab for young kids, much the same way the first Frozen was. Some stronger character bits, a few more songs (I kinda liked the 80s power ballad dad rock thing). And the bigger laugh from me and my mum being the "I prefer you in leather" near the end.

 

Jojo Rabbit isn't out until start of January in the UK. But really looking forward to it.

[TCP]

The Rise of Skywalker

Loved it!

 

Knives Out

Loved it! Rian Johnson is one of the all time greats.

[Mr. GOH!]

The Irishman:

 

I didn't love it, but it is a good movie though it is very long. Might be Scorcese's bleakest movie.

 

The Two Popes:

I didn't expect to like it, but it's a great, focused movie about imagined dialogues between the current pope and the previous pope.

 

Parasite:

 

Best movie of this year. A must-see.

 

The Lighthouse:

 

One of my favorite movies of 2019 because there is very little that is funnier than Willem Defoe believably channeling the Sea Captain Simpsons character for two hours. Simply amazing.

 

[TCP]

Lighthouse was a great film. GREAT FILM. Recently an American friend asked me what to do when he visits Nova Scotia next year (a place I've never been). All I could think of was "visit the lighthouse from The Lighthouse".

[Mister Jack]

So I'm in a weird place emotionally while writing this review since I saw this movie on the same day I had a personal tragedy so please bear with me if this post is all over the place. I just figure it'll help me get my mind off of things by focusing on something else for a bit.

 

Sonic the Hedgehog

 

No, really. I'm surprised too. I went to see this expecting a total trainwreck I could laugh at and make fun of and was surprised to find myself actually enjoying it. To clarify, this is on the softer side of good. If I tried to be "objective" and rank this movie based on the movie making skills and creativity on display here it would be firmly in the OK movies thread. The plot is very familiar and it's pretty corny and silly at times. It's hardly elevating video game movies the way Marvel elevated comic book movies beyond what they were in the early 2000s, but it still must be said that this is not typical licensed garbage that they shat out to make a quick buck on. Regardless of how you feel about the movie, you can plainly see that they were at the very least trying to make a good film that would make fans and kids happy. That was probably already evident based on the year long delay to redesign Sonic himself. Whether or not they succeeded in their goal is up to personal taste, but I appreciate that they even cared to consider what would make Sonic lovers happy.

 

Full disclosure, I have nostalgia for Sonic. I'm not so blinded by it that I'm going to claim his more recent games are good, but I have many a fond memory of playing the original Genesis games as a kid. I am this movie's target audience, along with young children, and I think they did good. Not all the jokes land, but I still found myself genuinely laughing more than I expected to. Movie Sonic is funny and likable and he might even be sympathetic if you're a softy like me since a big part of his character arc is his loneliness due to never having any friends thanks to living his whole life in hiding. This part of his character demonstrates why the redesign was absolutely crucial. If you want me to feel sympathy for Sonic he has to look cute and approachable. There's just no way around it.

 

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I even liked the human characters. Not just Robotnik, who I'll get to in a bit, but the main human cop character, Tom, who helps Sonic out on his quest. I completely expected him and his wife to be forgettable, throwaway characters with no personality who did nothing but take time away from Sonic, but they were actually much better written than I thought they'd be. Tom isn't just some put upon everyman who mugs for the camera when Sonic does something wacky like what you'd expect from the Smurfs movie or something like that. He's a small town cop who wants to move to San Fran where he can actually save lives and make a difference, and he's just about to get that opportunity when Sonic drops in his lap and disrupts everything. This isn't the most original premise, I know, but Tom's relationship with Sonic can actually be kind of sweet sometimes. Sonic is clearly a burden on him and making his life much more difficult just by being around, but Tom also understands that Sonic is a lonely creature with nowhere to go who has never had a real friend in his life so he isn't just spending the entire movie yelling at Sonic when he acts up. This isn't Alvin and the Chipmunks. He tries to be kind to Sonic and give him a little of that friendship he's always craved, so I actually enjoyed watching the two of them interact. It's a cliche, I know, but it feels genuine here. They also have some decent banter, which doesn't hurt.

 

I expected to hate Jim Carrey as Robotnik but son of a bitch, he won me over. If you like Jim Carrey's comedic performances then you should like him here just fine because...well, Jim Carrey plays Jim Carrey. Robotnik looks different in this movie, but it didn't bother me as much as I expected it to. Carrey's Robotnik is an enormous, power hungry dickhead who is constantly bemoaning how he's the only smart man in the room and getting violently frustrated with all the supposed idiots who surround him, which is honestly perfect for that character.

 

I've been fellating this movie for a while now so I need to throw in some criticism to seem less biased. Like I said before, not all the jokes land. It's maybe around 50-50. Maybe 60-40 if I'm being generous. It won't have you in stitches, but I bet you'll still get at least a few laughs out of it. There are some legitimately funny jokes in there. Of course, there was also a fart joke I could have done without and a couple of product placement jokes that made me roll my eyes, but they go by fast and can be quickly forgotten so I'm not going to make a huge deal about it. The plot is cliche, but cliches can still be entertaining if they're presented well. You might know exactly what to expect from a story like this, but I don't really mind as long as I can enjoy the ride. This goes without saying, but if you don't already like Sonic you might as well not bother. This movie isn't going to make you into a new fan. Sonic's backstory before he came to Earth is also glossed over in about two minutes so it feels kind of underdeveloped, but I suppose it's functional. They do start off with one of those "I bet you're wondering how I got here" moments, which I loathe. Sonic himself is mostly a lovable character who doesn't have a cringe inducing level of totally radical attitude but he does floss a couple of times. That's when I have to close my eyes and remind myself that the movie is also targeted at young kids. If they wanna see Sonic floss then fine, I guess it's their movie too. I'll live with it. He still feels pretty faithful so I can deal. Lastly, I have issues with the moral Tom learns in this movie. In fact, I might go as far as to say I think it's wrong, but I dunno. It's ultimately a small part of the story so whatever.

 

If you like Sonic and you go into this with reasonable expectations I think you can have a pretty good time with this movie. It's not trying to be anything more than silly family entertainment and I think that's okay. It's okay to do a silly family comedy with a talking hedgehog as long as you respect your audience and make an effort to give your viewers more than the bare minimum, and I think they did that here. I'd put it more or less on the level of Detective Pikachu, maybe slightly beneath it, but if you've seen Detective Pikachu then just keep your thinking around that level and you should have a good idea of what you're getting into here.

Edited February 15, 2020 by Mister Jack

[CorgiShinobi]

Sonic the Hedgehog

 

Not sure what else I can add that Mister Jack hasn't said. I guess the one thing that bugs me is that Sonic is like The Flash fast or goes into the Quicksilver superspeed space where everything is nearly motionless. It's already such massive power, it's hard to believe he would need someone's help to find San Fran and get there. Follow the coast and you would be there.

 

Though the movie makes a point of the tower's ceiling being locked and that's somehow an obstacle to Sonic too.

[Mister Jack]

3 hours ago, CorgiShinobi said:

I guess the one thing that bugs me is that Sonic is like The Flash fast or goes into the Quicksilver superspeed space where everything is nearly motionless. It's already such massive power, it's hard to believe he would need someone's help to find San Fran and get there.

I'm actually willing to excuse this for two reasons.

Spoiler

1) Sonic only goes into Quicksilver mode during moments of mortal peril in this movie. He can't fully control it. Even if he could, there's no indication that he could do it indefinitely.

2) Sonic is very, very lonely. Even if he could run to San Fran by himself, a fun road trip with Tom is probably something that he's always wanted. He's like a little kid who wants to try everything he was never able to do so I can believe he'd intentionally do things the slow way if it meant he could finally just hang out with someone he likes.

 

[CorgiShinobi]

I hadn't considered he was being intentionally obtuse. Kinda like a kid proving they can't do something by attempting said thing.

[Mister Jack]

Jojo Rabbit

 

I enjoyed this movie, although I guess I can see why it got a mixed critical reception. Nazis are a touchy subject and not everyone is going to appreciate this movie's more lighthearted and satirical tone. I don't really think it's fair to say that you can't make a movie like this, though. At the end of the day the story is seen through the eyes of a naive ten year old boy and the greater ramifications of World War II and the Third Reich are obviously going to be out of his depth until it comes right to his doorstep. I also appreciate that the Jewish girl, Elsa, didn't really spend a whole lot of time actively trying to get Jojo to change his thinking. It's kind of a cliche and it's more interesting to just have her fuck with his misconceptions about Jews for her own amusement while the story lets him come to his own conclusions about her and the Jewish people through his experiences. While there are some serious and dramatic moments, they never go full Schindler's List with it and it's still very much a black comedy at the end of the day. There's even a joke in there about Nazi clones. It's very much a character driven movie. If I have to criticize something, I guess I'd say I wish we learned more about Elsa, the Jewish girl, than we ultimately did. We get plenty of time watching Jojo's development---as we should since he is the protagonist---but it would have been nice to get a few more scenes focusing on Elsa. I'd still recommend it just for Taika Waititi as Hitler, though. He's a total buffoon and it's pretty fun to watch.

[deanb]

"Fuck off Hitler"