Mar 12, 2023 14:34:07 GMT Lony said:

Mar 12, 2023 14:26:33 GMT @ness said:

Still need to see Scream 5 first. Relying a lot of my viewing on what pops up in the big streaming platforms prevents me from seeing a lot of recent stuff since I don't go to the theatres anymore.

Without going into spoilers, you'll def want to see Scream 5, before watching Scream VI. Hell, maybe even give Scre4m a re-watch as well, although not really necessarily like Scream 5 is.

Might do a complete rewatch. I watched the old movies not long ago (like a year or so) and felt like they all still held up pretty well, the og is still a classic.

Very likely Scream 5 starts a trilogy. I hope if they do Scream 7 it is the girls hunting the Scream killers outright this time.

I'd be down for more Scream movies, as it's my favourite horror/slasher series. Having said that, they should totally have Sam...

SPOILER: Click to show

embrace her family heritage, and go full Ghostface mode.

I mean it's about time a final girl finally loses it and goes on a killing spree. Plus from the looks of it, Sam looks like she enjoys the killings of the Ghostfaces.

OK, maybe not.

(just putting that in spoiler tags, so as to not ruin it for @ness)

SPOILER: Click to show

What I want to see like a group hurt one of their friends, and them to hunt them down as the Ghostface killer.
Be one of the few ways they have to completely flip the script. Just go all Your Next.

Be hella controversial, but they seeded everything they would need. Would need one killer screenwriter though to pull it off.

Do not see Radio Silence doing a third film, unless it is utterly off the walls.

Saw Scream yesterday. It was fun, but definitely in the bottom half of Scream movies. The “I’m something different” ploys from the previews really was false advertising, this one completely played it safe with all the standard formula.

Also too many false finishes. But the intro was really good.

It worked a city slasher. But was still a slasher. And frankly, to do something truly different, they have to like turn away from what Scream fans want.  Def agree about the false finishes and teasing other killers.  Was not needed.  

Kind of want a movie that is like the start of the film and people putting on the Scream outfits just to kill others in a city and talk about it.  That would have been the twist would have brought something truly different to the genre.  No grand plans, just people wanting to kills others and a host of them.

But for the 6th film in a horror franchise it was way above average. Children of the Corn...

The Luther movie was a bit disappointing. It was watchable because Idris alone is enough, but I think if you hadn't watched the show you'd be wondering what was going on. The plot was straight out of a bad episode of SVU.

Everything Everywhere All at Once (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, 2022)

The best way for me to review this film is to summarise my thoughts at various points.

00:00:00 - 00:10:00

The family life that's being presented is so chaotic and overwhelming that it's making me anxious. And it's supposed to make me feel anxious. I now understand why the film is named what it is.

00:10:00 - 00:50:00

They're ripping off The Matrix and not even making any effort to hide it. Not necessarily a bad thing. It's compelling. It's different enough from The Matrix - just about. It's a multiverse but they're explaining it well and it makes sense. Fun action and dialogue. Some genuinely funny one liners.

00:50:00 - 01:00:00

The introduction of antagonist Jobu Tupaki and some of the sillier running gags including the "hot dog finger" universe. The movie is starting to lose me, and it's losing me very quickly indeed. One shark has been jumped, there's more to come.

01:00:00 - 01:50:00

I'm mentally checked out. I'm only half-watching. Full immersion has long gone. I'm checking my phone, and formulating this review in my head. I even washed the dishes without bothering to pause. The stuff I saw was getting more and more ludicrous. It had stopped being funny a long time ago. It's being dumb and excessive for the sake of being dumb and excessive. I snickered a couple of times, and the scene with the rocks having a conversation is one of the few wacky ideas that actually lands. But mostly they're throwing an awful lot of shit at the wall. Not much of it is sticking, and a huge amount of sharks are being jumped. I don't even know if I'm using the "jumping the shark" phrase right any more but it makes more sense than this story. By the way, still ripping off The Matrix, just trying to hide it by going way OTT.

A narrative failure, but extremely good technically. It's shot really well, some great set pieces, fantastic cinematography and choreography. The acting is convincing, or at least as convincing as acting can be in such a bonkers story.

01:50:00 - 02:10:00

We've passed the peak of the craziness, now it's simmering down to more emotional conclusion. A nice little bit with the hero Evelyn subduing her foes through kidness and love. I understand what they're going for but it really fails to land because...well, read on.

Inside Everything Everywhere All at Once there's a wholesome, heartfelt message of optimism, one about never losing all hope when it seems all hope is lost, one about how there's something to love in everyone, and one about how to fundamentally be a good person. The trouble is that message is buried almost to suffocation in the quicksand of superficial, semi-entertaining but rarely-amusing smoke and mirrors that engulfs it for the film's duration. The emotional climax of the film, including a heart-to-heart between Evelyn and Joy, should have had me in tears. It would have with a better build, the foundation was there, but I was so mentally exhausted by all the nonsense that it had little effect. A fitting title, but for the wrong reasons.

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--------------------

Editing in a one line review I saw online that made me laugh more than anything in the film.

"I probably love this film in another universe."

Emperor I’m glad someone else didn’t love it

Whenever sandylea and I voice our opinions on it (we both hated it) people are perplexed.

I was sceptical of EEAAO after it was described to me as a mundane situation that gets blown up to be a multi-verse epic with crude humour. However when I finally gave it a chance it really resonated with me.

The movie was about fear and how we're so afraid to embrace the beauty of life out of fear of rejection. Evelyn is being weighed down by the sheer weight of her FOMO. She's gone her entire life and at the end of the day she runs a laundromat with her family. She's at her wits end and can no longer see that beauty until we see this manifestation of her dealing with this crisis.

'Would things be better if Waymond was more assertive'

'Would things be better if I practiced Kung Fu'

She goes completely off the grid and since she's so repressed sexually she has to imagine this universe with elongated fingers to imagine what would life be like if she was gay.

All in an attempt to deal with this world that feels like it's crumbling around her.

At first she just thinks it's the taxes or her marriage but it's how she projects onto her daughter. She doesn't see the beauty in her because she's so close minded and of all the things she's imprinted on her daughter it's that misery.

EEAAO could have easily been a weightless movie about nothing that's all dumb fun and silly references, but it's about overcoming those fears and coming to terms with yourself and the many versions of yourself you can be.

It's so easy to put everyone in a box. Big nose, lesbian, fat, old etc. but the truth is everyone is capable of more and can escape that box as long as they keep an open mind.

As they say, be curious not judgemental.

Through the sheer chaos of Evelyn's mind she's able to come to terms with her life. She no longer lives with that fear or judgement she grows acceptance and is able to break through this barrier she imparted on her family.

She also helps save Racacoonie at the end.

Which really felt appropos because watching the movie gave me the exact sensation as the critique in Ratatoouie. I came in judgemental but by the end walked away inspired. It's crazy to think the people who directed Swiss Army Man won an Oscar for Best Picture with Shortround from Indiana Jones. However Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert, Ke Huy Quen along with the rest laid it all on the line and enough people connected with it. That along with all the other aspects I touched on is what really connected with me.

Plane: I thought this was a decent enough action thriller, although to be perfectly honest, Gerard Butler has far better action movies worth watching (aka the Has Fallen series). Still, though, I’d maybe recommend this once it’s on a streaming service and you’ve got nothing better to do for two hours.

2023 Films Seen

SPOILER: Click to show

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
Cocaine Bear
Knock at the Cabin
M3GAN
Missing
Plane
Scream VI
Shotgun Wedding

Big Pete

Fascinating perspective, looks like you were able to see past all the smoke and mirrors and understand the movie's core message more than I did. Doesn't change my opinion much, sure the message is strong but the way it was conveyed was simply far too confusing and obfuscated in the smoke and mirrors.

It felt like the writers came up with a bunch of absurd gimmicks and wrapped a multiverse story around it to give justification to shove all these gimmicks on screen. From your feedback they put more thought into it than I previously suspected, in particular the purpose of the hot dog finger universe, but it's not a movie I particularly enjoyed.

Shazam: Fury of the Gods

It was trash

Mar 16, 2023 14:42:57 GMT System said:

Shazam: Fury of the Gods

It was trash

Is it more of the same as the first one? Or completely different?

Mar 16, 2023 14:42:57 GMT System said:

Shazam: Fury of the Gods

It was trash

This makes me a sad panda.

Movie never had a chance. Very little press, Black Adam/Rock refusing to collab with it and it's at the tail end of a reboot so it screams filler.

Mar 16, 2023 14:42:57 GMT System said:

Shazam: Fury of the Gods

It was trash

I liked it, not as much as the first one but it was still fun.
Freddy is the best character though

Mar 16, 2023 19:58:55 GMT @ness said:

Movie never had a chance. Very little press, Black Adam/Rock refusing to collab with it and it's at the tail end of a reboot so it screams filler.

I love that they left the after credits scenes in to hype you for future movies that are never coming out :lol:

John Wick Chapter 4:

Holy fuck, what a masterpiece. Who goes this hard in a 4th instalment on a film? Normally that’s the time you can rest on your laurels and phone it in not just casually drop not only the best film in the series but one of the best action films ever.

I tapped out on John Wick part way through Chapter 2. Just got too silly for my liking, but I get there's an audience for that type of film.

More in the horror thread, but watched The Outwaters, a found footage horror film that came out last month, and it was fucking amazing. Robbie Banfitch's debut film that is just a wild ride about people camping in the Mojave desert when things go off the rails completely. Got a ton of fest hype and lives up to it. Starts as a creepy slow burn then gets just crazy. One of the best horror films I seen in a while and is really creepy.

The Magician’s Elephant: My family gave this a watch via Netflix, as our weekend family movie night. Anyways, I thought it was a decent enough animated film, the kids loved watching it as well, so that’s always a plus.

2023 Films Seen

SPOILER: Click to show

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
Cocaine Bear
Knock at the Cabin
M3GAN
Missing
Plane
Scream VI
Shotgun Wedding
The Magician’s Elephant

Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves

For an IP that lends itself to as much imagination as possible they somehow made this the most derivative piece of garbage that feels like the whole thought process was “what do the kids like these days?”

The Marvel format of jokes every 3 minutes has really worn out it’s welcome and yet so many films want to copy it now. This film even blatantly steals the 360 shot from The Avengers.

This could have been an epic like Lord of the Rings but everything is rushed and the world building is awful. Also when magic does and doesn’t work is all over the place and joking about it doesn’t excuse it.

Mar 22, 2023 17:29:31 GMT Emperor said:

I tapped out on John Wick part way through Chapter 2. Just got too silly for my liking, but I get there's an audience for that type of film.

Too silly!?! What

I can’t remember the last movie I posted about on here - so apologises if I repeat any.

Scream VI - Really enjoyed this, it is extremely repetitive to all the other Screams but I honestly didn’t see the ‘killer twist’ coming and I loved it. Much gorier and more violent compared to the previous instalments.

65 - Everyone has been shitting on this, but I truly enjoyed it.
Simple premise, but the chemistry between the actors really made the movie more memorable. Short and direct duration that didn’t need to over explain anything.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods - it was OK. I really liked Freddy’s character and his counterpart. I definitely lost interest in Billy/Shazam. It makes zero sense that Billy is so serious and yet Shazam is a man child.
It does have a lot of funny parts, but it honestly did get tiresome.

John Wick Chapter 4 - I absolutely adore the John Wick franchise, and this was truly incredible. The action sequences were amazing, the cinematography was gorgeous - I can’t wait to see how the director is going to deliver on Ghost of Tsushima movie. The addition of the Tracker character was fantastic, Keanu was amazing as always and Bill Skarsgard was incredible.

Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves - I honestly kept my expectations low for this, I liked the trailer but I knew trying to do a movie based on a roleplay tabletop game was going to be a challenge but they did such an incredible job! It was honesty brilliant. The storytelling, the conversations were realistic to playing D&D, the jokes were so good (though this is also how I play D&D so I am likely biased). Brilliant job showing who each persons class was without spelling it out to you. Great balance of fighting and spell mechanics. It was incredibly funny. The performances by the cast was great, and I really hope they are able to make a sequel.
Now I need to plan another D&D sesh soon, I miss playing it!

The Super Mario Bros. Movie:

Some cool Easter eggs with the visual gags and soundtrack but the story is just as bare bones as the games and most of the voice actors put zero effort in sans Jack Black and Anya Taylor-Joy.

Air:

This almost came across like the 25 years of The Rock Survivor Series that said person never appeared at but they went in the right direction to still make this an enjoyable biopic that we all know the result of.

It’s no big short but the set designs were really good and performances are solid. Not a basketball fan at all but used to be a huge sneakerhead so half the appeal was there.

Ben Affleck getting the Tarantino treatment wasn’t something I ever needed to see even if true to Phil Knight’s persona.

Extraction - Had that Gaffigan moment where sometimes it's hard to pay attention when the actor is so good looking. Like this dude... maybe it was highlighted by [racism] but man Hemsworth is not even a man, he's art like Beckham or Grillo. Been on my list for a while so I'm spending April plowing through some movies. I wanna at least do 10, maybe 15. Reviews were weird as they called it white savior and a wannabe Man on Fire. Speaking of...

#2: Man on Fire! Much like Hostel I actually was forgetting what movie this was supposed to be. I was having fun just living vicariously through him being this surrogate father figure for the girl. She was great and that toothy smile she does... how could he not? Apparently there's gonna be an Equalizer 3. Okay sure let's go.

The Pope’s Exorcist:

Russel Crowe was great (and actually put effort into an Italian accent 😒) but he was by far the best part of this film, horror stuff was ironi ally the weak point. A film about his character, his backstory and the internal conflict with him and the other priests at the Vatican as a drama would be much interesting than this was as a horror film.

Still I’m really glad Crowe put the effort in for this role to elevate the film as the only name actor involved he could have just phoned it in.

John Wick: Chapter 4: Unsurprisingly this was awesome AF, I love the John Wick franchise though, so that shouldn’t be a surprise. Maybe it’s because I have only just seen it, but in my opinion, this is definitely the best John Wick film yet, as well as my current film of the year.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie: The movie was a blast to watch and I enjoyed all the little easter eggs throughout. As far as the voice acting goes, System said it best, the highlights were Jack Black and Anya Taylor-Joy.

SPOILER: Click to show

I totally want a Donkey Kong film, with Diddy and Dixie getting a chance to shine, the cameos aren't going to be enough for me, I definitely need more of the Kong family.

2023 Films Seen

SPOILER: Click to show

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
Cocaine Bear
John Wick: Chapter 4
Knock at the Cabin
M3GAN
Missing
Plane
Scream VI
Shotgun Wedding
The Magician’s Elephant
The Super Mario Bros. Movie

Smile
The marketing and teasers for this movie gave me high hopes and we finally sat down and watched it last night. It delivered in almost every way. Very much my brand of horror movie.

My only complaints were Sosie Bacon. She’s a shit actress. She took me right out of some key scenes, most notably the birthday party. And the movie follows the old horror trope of “everyone is stupid and makes the wrong decision all the time,” but it isn’t as noticeable as other movies I’ve seen. To be fair though there isn’t much decision making in this movie. The characters are kind of at the mercy of the monster. Also the ending they went with was kinda stupid but probably done so they could make a sequel. My wife came up with a way better ending that we both thought was coming but it didn’t happen.

Other than that, very much worth the watch. It’s excellent. Doesn’t rely heavily on jump scares but does them right when they happen. Really spooky too.