Don't listen to rt guys. America doesn't have Mounties so his high regard for justice and law is biased. It's wild west for us.

Nov 4, 2021 2:14:58 GMT RT said:

Mrs RT and I were going to watch Halloween Kills on Sunday night but then we learned that it's a sequel to the 2018 Halloween reboot/sequel/whatever the fuck so we watched that instead.

It sucked. I don't know how or why they keep making these movies. I don't get the appeal at all. I understand why "serial killer goes berserk" was scary as fuck in the 70s and 80s but it just does nothing for me now. And I don't really have to explain why every old horror movie trope is stupid and overdone and has been for decades. I wish a director would come along and make a believable slasher film, one that doesn't have the world's dumbest people being easy victims and using no common sense whatsoever.

Small town America is not the same as it was 30-40 years ago but this movie treated it like it was. If Michael Myers escaped and murdered 4 people at a gas station, that town would have been locked down so fucking fast. There would have been cops on every corner with riot gear and machine guns, and Myers would have been dead before it even got dark out.

You’re wrong.

And if you go into horror movie and especially slashers with trying to apply that kind of logic then why even bother?

Minus the stupid shrinks who piece , I actually loved what they did with that movie.

I don’t go into horror movies with that mentality. In fact I try and shut my brain off because I know I’m about to be treated like an idiot for two hours.

But when you try and suspend disbelief and they keep slapping you in the face with more and more unbelievable things, it gets hard to enjoy the movie.

We’re to believe Laurie was so prepared, training in the woods for 40 years, building a fortress and what not, only to make an unbelievable series of mistakes that led Michael to her and still almost killed her entire family?

Her best plan was to allow Michael to come to her, shut off all the power, sneak around her house in the dark with one gun, turn on lights outside the house once Michael was already inside, try to take him on by herself, immediately get overpowered, trick him into entering the panic room, shoot him once, realize he’s still alive, not shoot him again, trap him, stare at him instead of continuing to shoot him, then burn the house down and drive away hoping for the best.

Not to mention the sheriff that’s known Laurie for 40 years and experienced the first crime doesn’t do anything to alert the town, then doesn’t go to Laurie when he knows that she’s the target and Michael will come to her.

4 decades of planning for this and that’s the best they could do. Like I said, world’s dumbest victims. The only people that made sense were the random killings when Michael was walking around town. And all that made me feel was happy that the dumbass sheriff died because those are all on him.

These are the Halloween movies. Michael is literally defeated by people who can simply jog.

The vibe I get was this was basically a small backwoods rural area. It would be very accurate for say the rural US South.


Read a REALLY good idea from the people who are rebooting Hellraiser had for rebooting this series that was rejected. They wanted to drop all of the lore about Michael and do a story about an urban legend that once a year, on Halloween Night, a massacre occurred in a small town. Film would show a normal guy going into town on Halloween day preparing himself. Then as night falls he starts to murder everyone he with the ruthless efficiency of the killer in No Country For Old Men. Nothing they do to him seems to slow him down at all. Then first sign of daybreak he just stops and walks away. They planned out a trilogy with the first movie having a treatment. The trilogy would focus on the Shape legend of Halloween instead of the Myers one and start a new self-contained mythos that would wrap itself up in the final film to make it a side trilogy that could still stand with Michaels just being one of the Shapes and deal with what the Shape is and how it has always been here in the US causing unrest and do the Salem Witch stuff.

Nov 5, 2021 18:56:08 GMT c said:

These are the Halloween movies. Michael is literally defeated by people who can simply jog.

The vibe I get was this was basically a small backwoods rural area. It would be very accurate for say the rural US South.


Read a REALLY good idea from the people who are rebooting Hellraiser had for rebooting this series that was rejected. They wanted to drop all of the lore about Michael and do a story about an urban legend that once a year, on Halloween Night, a massacre occurred in a small town. Film would show a normal guy going into town on Halloween day preparing himself. Then as night falls he starts to murder everyone he with the ruthless efficiency of the killer in No Country For Old Men. Nothing they do to him seems to slow him down at all. Then first sign of daybreak he just stops and walks away. They planned out a trilogy with the first movie having a treatment. The trilogy would focus on the Shape legend of Halloween instead of the Myers one and start a new self-contained mythos that would wrap itself up in the final film to make it a side trilogy that could still stand with Michaels just being one of the Shapes and deal with what the Shape is and how it has always been here in the US causing unrest and do the Salem Witch stuff.

Damn, I only read three fourths of this post

But that was enough

To have me hooked!

I just saw the Eternals and I am completely lost as to how this movie got released.
It's not pervasively annoying, but the story is underwhelming and there is no tension built for most of the film and when it eventually builds, the pay off isn't there.
It's like someone took a Nat geo documentary, crammed it full of diverse characters and coupled it with a plot you would find in a made for Netflix movie.
One of the worst Marvel film I've seen, not because I hated it, I didn't... Because I didn't care enough to have an opinion.
Somewhere a bit worse than age of Ultron.
You could have cut 40 minuted from this movie with zero impact to the story or the care factor.
So much worse that Shang-Chi, which I really enjoyed.
It's like the Rise of the Skywalker of Marvel movies

Mid credit scene... Don't care
After credit scene was intriguing.

Only think I really liked was the Pink Floyd track opening the movie.

Moonrise Kingdom: Charming like all Wes Anderson films, can't say I'd return to it, but no real complaints.

The Harder They Fall: Doesn't reinvent the wheel or anything, but a solid modern western, great cast and cast of characters, well placed action, just an all around decent watch. I'd put it below the top level stuff like Django, but good midlevel film, like the Magnificent Seven remake.

Nov 5, 2021 15:13:27 GMT RT said:

I don’t go into horror movies with that mentality. In fact I try and shut my brain off because I know I’m about to be treated like an idiot for two hours.

But when you try and suspend disbelief and they keep slapping you in the face with more and more unbelievable things, it gets hard to enjoy the movie.

We’re to believe Laurie was so prepared, training in the woods for 40 years, building a fortress and what not, only to make an unbelievable series of mistakes that led Michael to her and still almost killed her entire family?

Her best plan was to allow Michael to come to her, shut off all the power, sneak around her house in the dark with one gun, turn on lights outside the house once Michael was already inside, try to take him on by herself, immediately get overpowered, trick him into entering the panic room, shoot him once, realize he’s still alive, not shoot him again, trap him, stare at him instead of continuing to shoot him, then burn the house down and drive away hoping for the best.

Not to mention the sheriff that’s known Laurie for 40 years and experienced the first crime doesn’t do anything to alert the town, then doesn’t go to Laurie when he knows that she’s the target and Michael will come to her.

4 decades of planning for this and that’s the best they could do. Like I said, world’s dumbest victims. The only people that made sense were the random killings when Michael was walking around town. And all that made me feel was happy that the dumbass sheriff died because those are all on him.

I haven’t watched it since the year of release but I remember characters actually being smart in the film You’re Next.

Halloween is the Call of Duty of films, it’s pretty much the same shit every time (sans Season of the Witch).
You either enjoy or or you don’t IMO.

Yeah You're Next was great for a smart character. Ditto for Nancy in the OG Nightmare on Elm Street.

Nov 6, 2021 4:22:55 GMT iNCY said:

I just saw the Eternals and I am completely lost as to how this movie got released.
It's not pervasively annoying, but the story is underwhelming and there is no tension built for most of the film and when it eventually builds, the pay off isn't there.
It's like someone took a Nat geo documentary, crammed it full of diverse characters and coupled it with a plot you would find in a made for Netflix movie.
One of the worst Marvel film I've seen, not because I hated it, I didn't... Because I didn't care enough to have an opinion.
Somewhere a bit worse than age of Ultron.
You could have cut 40 minuted from this movie with zero impact to the story or the care factor.
So much worse that Shang-Chi, which I really enjoyed.
It's like the Rise of the Skywalker of Marvel movies

Mid credit scene... Don't care
After credit scene was intriguing.

Only think I really liked was the Pink Floyd track opening the movie.

I think the MCU has reached 'The Simpsons Season 9' territory. It's over. But they'll keep making movies for another 20 years anyway.

Nov 7, 2021 0:44:52 GMT nath45.47 said:

Nov 6, 2021 4:22:55 GMT iNCY said:

I just saw the Eternals and I am completely lost as to how this movie got released.
It's not pervasively annoying, but the story is underwhelming and there is no tension built for most of the film and when it eventually builds, the pay off isn't there.
It's like someone took a Nat geo documentary, crammed it full of diverse characters and coupled it with a plot you would find in a made for Netflix movie.
One of the worst Marvel film I've seen, not because I hated it, I didn't... Because I didn't care enough to have an opinion.
Somewhere a bit worse than age of Ultron.
You could have cut 40 minuted from this movie with zero impact to the story or the care factor.
So much worse that Shang-Chi, which I really enjoyed.
It's like the Rise of the Skywalker of Marvel movies

Mid credit scene... Don't care
After credit scene was intriguing.

Only think I really liked was the Pink Floyd track opening the movie.

I think the MCU has reached 'The Simpsons Season 9' territory. It's over. But they'll keep making movies for another 20 years anyway.

I am not quite that cynical, Shang Chi was brilliant, but there have been some alarming signs in Marvel latetly.
The very forced let's go women scene in Endgame, the reboot of Star Wars, which was basically a "girls kick ass while things blow up" franchise.

Seriously, in the Eternals I think the pitch went something like: Racially diverse, inclusive, Angelina Jollie and Selma Hayek and someone interrupted and said "Go, green light"
I am all for diverse casts, but here we had a way too large a cast of diverse characters, all dealt with so briefly that there was no reason to care about any of them.
I see that there are a lot of 4-Star reviews, perhaps this is a super-hero movie for people who hate what Marvel normally serves up.
To me this movie was pompous and self important without any reason to be.

If I compare it to Dune, which I think is the natural comparison than Shang-Chi.
Dune beats it in every single way, the pacing the layers of character, the action...
Someone online described Eternals as going to see the Avengers without seeing any of the previous movies.
I would agree, if the Avengers were all assholes and acted woodenly.

Birds of Prey (the Harley movie) - Liked it well enough as a straight Harley movie. Other than Cassandra I didn't think the other characters were "nothing like their counterparts" as reported, especially given none of which are given much screen time. It's a one and done type of viewing, but that kinda describes 99.5% of flicks so...

I watched a couple of new movies over the past two weeks...


Free Guy: I rather liked this movie a lot, well at least when it was within the game (Free City), outside of that not so much. Ryan Reynolds was of course great as Guy, I liked the "boss battle" against him and The Dude as well (especially Cap's shield and a lightsaber being used).

Dune: Eh this was disappointing, the trailers had me hyped for this, but the film was pretty boring. Maybe that’s not fair, as this is supposed to be part one of a trilogy or some shit, so it’s not the full story, however, this didn’t make me want to watch any future Dune movies.

Eternals I went into this with low expectations, simply because I’m not as familiar with the Eternals, as I am with other Marvel characters. Having said that, this was another good outing from Marvel, it didn’t disappoint even if it isn’t anywhere near Shang-Chi (Marvel’s best film of 2021), or quite up there with Black Widow.

2021 Movie Rankings

SPOILER: Click to show

28. Locked Down
27. The Marksman
26. Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway
25. Sweet Girl
24. Dune
23. Cruella
22. Thunder Force
21. Luca
20. Wrath of Man
19. Jolt
18. The Tomorrow War
17. Tom and Jerry
16. Godzilla vs. Kong
15. Space Jam: A New Legacy
14. Vacation Friends
13. Jungle Cruise
12. The Protege
11. Halloween Kills
10. Eternals
9. F9: The Fast Saga
8. Snake Eyes
7. Free Guy
6. Black Widow
5. Venom: Let There Be Carnage
4. The Suicide Squad
3. Raya and the Last Dragon
2. Mortal Kombat
1. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Dune was split into two films. Second half is def the better half IMO. I loved it, but they made some weird minor story changes I really did not feel like not using the original litany against fear.

Red Notice:
Just a simple action comedy that knows what it is, really enjoyable if you want to just switch your mind off.

No Time to Die:
I’m going to start asking for those close caption things because so many parts of this film I had only a slight idea of what certain characters were saying especially Rami Malek. Good not great, not interested if the future films are going in the direction this implies though.
Cinematography was fantastic, also had such amazing scenery throughout.

SPOILER: Click to show

Not surprised they finally killed Craig’s Bond off, considering how much enthusiasm he had for doing another film :lol:

High Fidelity (Stephen Frears, 2000)

When I watch a film based a book after reading the source material, my typical reaction is that the film is not detailed enough, it's a shallow interpretation. And that's inevitable to an extent. Along comes High Fidelity. It's based on a book. I have not read the book. The film spends too long scene-setting, to the point where it's detrimental. Because of that I feel it's a rare film that would benefit a lot if I had read the book beforehand.

It's an unconventional rom-com story, told from the point of the view of the male lead Rob, played by John Cusack. He's essentially trying to find himself, sort out his life, by reflecting on past decisions involving a large amount of ex-girlfriends. Rob also owns a record store. In between his largely depressing narrative monologues are scenes in that same record store. These scenes are very entertaining and the highlight of the movie. Jack Black's character in particular, the kind of unbearable music snob we've all known at some point, is wonderfully portrayed, and I can relate to Rob's desire to punch him in the face. However Black is able to make this character funny as well as infuriating. He also has a wonderful moment all his own at the climax of the movie, the one scene in the entire movie where Rob isn't the focus.

It takes at least 30 minutes for the main plot to kick in, namely Rob seeking out his ex-girlfriends to find some kind of closure. This is where it gets interesting, we see Rob's mindset become clearer, maturer and generally more positive. It all ends up well for him.

While it's a brave and original script, I found it slightly disappointing. Takes too long to get going, the constant jumping between the past, Rob talking to multiple females, and random record store scenes is a bit jarring and made it hard for me to really latch on to the film's deeper content. I've not read the book, but I imagine this is a more faithful adaptation than your average translation from literature, which is perhaps why I feel the film fell a bit flat. Yet I don't feel intrigued enough to read the book.

Yeah, felt like this movie had a lot going for it, but somehow just did not make it click. Something was missing for sure.

High Fidelity is a cautionary tale about a man who lacks any and all self-awareness and instead of looking in the mirror at the internal he has to play detective and seek answers through past relationships.

I watched this coming off a Scrubs binge (the two work well together with the same narration-led story-telling) and was horrified by how much I was like John Cusack - or at least related to him and would loved to have owned my own record store (if it was even feasible which it certainly wasn't the 10 or so years after watching it).

My only issue with the movie is that there is no sense of pay-off. Cusack gets the girl, does some minimal self improvement and Jack Black gets to sing.

In fairness this was the break-out movie for Jack Black so his shtick wasn't as played out. I feel like Black is a really divisive star but I've always liked him and I have time for movies like Shallow Hal, School of Rock and uhh...Orange County?

I'm pretty sure you reviewed An Education not that long ago, Emp? That's another Hornsby adaptation. His other films include About A Boy, Fever Pitch (there's a UK and US version), Brooklyn, Wild and Juliet, Naked. About A Boy, Fever Pitch and Juliet, Naked are very similar to High Fidelity and they're all about stunted men. Brooklyn and Wild are different albeit I've only seen Wild which is a pretty good introspective 'road' movie starring PW's sweetheart Reese Witherspoon.

Still, there's aspects of the movie I liked. It's always nice to have the Boss as a spiritual advisor and I really enjoyed hanging out in his store and with his record collection. The hang out elements elevated the movie for me and it's one of those 'sum of it's parts are greater than the whole' for me.

High Fidelity HAS TO blow

as much as I remember it blowing,

even regardless of fucking John Cusask.

I've mentioned An Education on here, would have been a long time ago and not sure if I did a full review. Had no idea that was Nick Hornby. That's a film that is due a rewatch because I remember liking it a lot.

Been on a bit of a binge lately.

FreeGuy: my mom really wanted to see this and while we found it fun I felt some of it was a bit lost on me not being a gamer in any capacity and my mom was really lost. :lol:

Red Notice: Of course I watched this as soon as it was out here. Gotta support my future ex-husbands career. I enjoyed it much more than Free Guy. Lots of fun and had a couple fun twists and an Indiana Jones feeling at the end.

Shang-Chi: this was just a beautifully done movie IMO. I am not a Martial Art movie enthusiast, but some of the fight scenes in this are some of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. The artistry of it was poetic. Really drew me in. I enjoyed all the actors in this so much and actually enjoyed the changes they made to Shang-Chi and Fu Manchu/Wenwu’s backstory. Simu Liu was great. I knew he would be as soon as I heard he scored the part, but I am glad I was right. Highly enjoyed Meng’er Zhang as Xialing and I always love Michelle Yeoh. I was not familiar with Tony Leung as an actor previous to this, but blow me down he’s fantastic.

I love that they fixed The Mandarin issue from IM3 and I feel like this might have set up for some K’un Lun action maybe in the form of Immortal Ironfist or maybe the Immortal Weapons. I swear that was Fat Cobra and maybe Bride of Nine Spiders in the Macau arena.

Honestly, I think it might be one of my Favourite films in the past few years as well as Top 5 Marvel for me.

Am I the only one that didn't rate Shang-Chi highly?

I saw it last night on Disney+ and while it has some cool moments and is beautifully shot and put together, it isn't bad by any means, and yes, probably even good but it felt like another 'hero's journey' trope.

I also don't know how that old Jewish man who found himself inside a Korean girl keeps getting work either.

Marvel could make any type of movie in any genre at this point, if they wanted a film-noir detective movie or war drama or political thriller.. they could. I'd kill for something a little out of the box at this point in the MCU lifespan.

Nov 13, 2021 21:56:56 GMT nath45.47 said:

Am I the only one that didn't rate Shang-Chi highly?

I saw it last night on Disney+ and while it has some cool moments and is beautifully shot and put together, it isn't bad by any means, and yes, probably even good but it felt like another 'hero's journey' trope.

I also don't know how that old Jewish man who found himself inside a Korean girl keeps getting work either.

Marvel could make any type of movie in any genre at this point, if they wanted a film-noir detective movie or war drama or political thriller.. they could. I'd kill for something a little out of the box at this point in the MCU lifespan.

It's just you 🙃

Marvel has succeeded because it's movies are so different.
Shang Chi - Kung Fu
Ant Man - Heist
Captain America - War
GotG - Space Opera

They have branched our quite successfully. The films I most enjoy are the ones that have a reason for existing. If Shang Chi hadn't been made, the Eternals and Blacj Widow would have made me nervous for Marvels future.

Nov 13, 2021 21:56:56 GMT nath45.47 said:

I also don't know how that old Jewish man who found himself inside a Korean girl keeps getting work either.

I'm not sure what this means.

I loved it.  I thought they got to the action quickly, there was little down time and as I said the action scenes are beautifully executed.   Even the CGI was pretty damn spectacular.  I didn't actually care for Shang-Chi in the comics, I care way more about him as a Marvel character now.  They've really fleshed out some of the things that didn't work for me in the comics and I'm looking forward to seeing where they take it from here.  As I said, maybe we'll see an IronFist reboot or maybe The Immortal Weapons of K'un Lun.  

I did not care for Black Widow overly, which upsets me, but that's the studios fault for not believing in a female led movie that should have been done years prior.

I haven't seen Eternals yet.  I WANT to like it, but I never cared for The Eternals in the comics so I am hesitant.  I know both Ms. Marvel, Shang-Chi and Eternals are setting up for Doctor Strange 2 and GotG 3 which is setting up a bigger cosmic storyline so I'm going to wait and see how things flesh out.  

I don't think it was awful by any means, it was good. Maybe for me, phase 4 is lacking that momentum that the first 10-12 years had on its side. That and with the conclusion of The Infinity Saga, I'm expecting game changers at every outing.

I guess the danger with any bubble is, it will burst eventually. We've seen so much in terms of superhero movies from both the MCU and DC that oversaturation is a possibility, so at this point I'm almost looking for something different. It's maybe why I rate Winter Soldier so highly, as it's been described as a " 70s paranoid political thriller through the lens of a superhero film "

You can call them war movies, heist movies, space operas.. they all follow the same basic premise. What is seemingly an ordinary person or under achiever is thrust into an extraordinary situation and prevails after the arrival of a Big-Bad due to his big heart or a redemption arch in the case of Tony Stark. The hero's journey sees a variety of sidekicks attach themselves along the way and after reaching breaking point, they find the strength to overcome the odds.

This same premise is being repeated with every new movie. And realistically they probably don't need to repeat the same origin story or hero's journey over and over any more. Unless you're reinventing the character, say in the case of Batman Begins. However the sequel was a crime story, and the third a war film.

Say with the new Blade movie, do we really need a origin story? Which is likely the path the MCU will take to introduce the character.

Despite this, I love most of them.

Red Notice: This was mostly fun, and has a late act development I though was great...and then it promptly nosedives into a weightless sequel bait ending. Missed it by THAT much.

Night Teeth: Another one that's fun enough, but nothing really to write home about, I'd watch a sequel, but don't know if I'd revisit it. I wouldn't oppose if someone else chose to watch it in my company, at least.

Shang Chi-Delivered surprisingly well, not quite top tier, but just under. Some great action, further deepening of the mythos of the MCU (another mythology inserted as actually existing). Characters all did well. It wasn't one I instantly wanted to rewatch, but I'll definitely rewatch it many times over the course of my life...if life permits.

Nov 13, 2021 22:28:26 GMT iron maiden said:

Nov 13, 2021 21:56:56 GMT nath45.47 said:

I also don't know how that old Jewish man who found himself inside a Korean girl keeps getting work either.

I'm not sure what this means.

My best guess is he was taking a shot at Awkwafina?

Nov 14, 2021 15:27:16 GMT 🤯 said:

Nov 13, 2021 22:28:26 GMT iron maiden said:

I'm not sure what this means.

My best guess is he was taking a shot at Awkwafina?

Yes I was.

And Ronny Chieng turned up playing Ronny Chieng. The range this man has is incredible.

Just finished Shang-Chi. Wife was less enamored than me, but I thought it was great. Definitely upper tier MCU. I'd have it way ahead of Black Panther and Black Widow, but Wife wouldn't.

A.I. One of those movies I've always heard about, not necessarily all good things, but never actually watched. I mean...it wasn't terrible. But it wasn't particularly good either. Overlong, self indulgent, doesn't really go anywhere, but strong performances and some great imagery. Also becomes kind of hard to keep sympathizing with David when he meets another David and promptly murders him in the face (literally) just because he's no longer special. Pretty disappointing for Spielberg. Mark another on the "never rewatch" list.