[subego]

They were jammies… they had Yodas and shit on ‘em!

[subego]

Not unless you think round is funny.

[subego]

Bridesmaids

Okay. Waaaay too long. Maya Rudolph wasn’t given enough opportunities to be funny. Melissa McCarthy kills.

[andi*pandi]

agreed. really funny in parts, but too much cringe.

[subego]

Speaking of Melissa…

Identity Thief

Bateman & McCarthy = Burns & Allen.

[Laminar]

The Death of Dick Long

Like a redneck Fargo. Gets weird in the middle, gets a bit long in the end.



Shoot 'em Up

Clive Owen stars in an over-the-top gun-fu movie that's ridiculous but fun. It's a little Naked Gun and a little Bollywood.

 

In a rough part of town, a carrot-eating drifter and military veteran named Smith sees a heavily-pregnant woman fleeing a hitman. Smith kills the hitman by stabbing him in the head with a carrot and retrieves the woman's pistol.
...
When Smith and Donna have sex in a motel room, a squad of gunmen attack; Smith shoots all of them without stopping intercourse.

[subego]

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

Good, wholesome fun. A half-hour too long, but that’s to be expected.

This was recommended for possible viewing with my dad earlier in the thread. It seemed like a hard sell, but I’ve been wondering ever since whether he should give it a chance.

The answer is no, but not for the reason(s) I predicted. He just doesn’t have the baseline familiarity with video games the movie expects. I mean, I don’t think he’d hate it, but a lot would be lost on him.

[Laminar]

So he's not a big Ready Player One fan?

[reader50]

I hope you're planning to watch the next one - Jumanji The Next Level (2019). It might even appeal more to your dad for plot reasons. Though he'd pretty much have to watch the current one first.

There is another Jumanji film in development.

[andi*pandi]

as a fan of the original jumanji (and cartoon) I didn't want to like the reboot, but they are lots of fun.

[subego]

Guardians of the Galaxy 3

Okay? Christ, it’s long.

Edit: Cosmo is the best part of the movie.

[subego]

Originally Posted by Doc HM 

Asteroid City

Excellent, even when it’s not making sense.

[subego]

Mafia Mamma

Silly, amusing parody. Better than the trailer would lead you to believe.

Toni Collette is awesome.

[Laminar]

Spaceballs

Timeless. Infinitely quotable. Holds up even with frequent rewatches.

[andi*pandi]

apparently the barbie movie was so awesome my kid wants to see it a 3rd time. The second time her friends did the Boppenheimer double feature.

[reader50]

Prey.



A proper Predator movie. I was entertained throughout. Overall - Excellent. Only 4 stars because the genre is near the edge of my interests.

Only nitpick: what happened to Predators preferring super-hot climate? The jungles of Central America (or urban L.A.) during extra-hot summers is a far cry from the Dakotas with occasional snow flakes. Maybe the Predators were more adaptable in the past.

[ShortcutToMoncton]

Yeah, I thought it was really good too.

[subego]

The Horse’s Mouth

Brilliant. One of Alec Guinness’ best works, if not his best. Fantastic Prokofiev inspired score. Unreservedly recommended.

[subego]

Kind Hearts and Coronets

More Alec Guinness. He plays 9 roles, but is ironically underutilized. Surprisingly dark for a movie from 1949. The lead is a sociopath.

Ignore the ending.

[subego]

The Bridge on the River Kwai

Sensing a theme? Another contender for best Alec Guinness of all time. Brilliant and gorgeous. Three hours long and does not drag for a single second. They used to know how to pace a movie.

[Thorzdad]

Originally Posted by subego 

They used to know how to pace a movie.

Movies used to tell involved stories, instead of just blowing shit up, shooting shit up, and punching shit out.

[subego]

Of course, Kwai has those too.

[ShortcutToMoncton]

Why in my day

[Waragainstsleep]

Originally Posted by reader50 

Only nitpick: what happened to Predators preferring super-hot climate? The jungles of Central America (or urban L.A.) during extra-hot summers is a far cry from the Dakotas with occasional snow flakes. Maybe the Predators were more adaptable in the past.

One of the AVP movies is set near one of the poles and the predators had supposedly created an Alien farm/reserve to hunt.

[subego]

Barbie

It was… okay. Didn’t need to be two hours. I’m not the first to observe Gosling is too old to play Ken, but I couldn’t tell you who they should have cast.

No culture war complaints from me, but I admit I didn’t think about it too hard. A friend of mine wants to see it, so I’ll probably see it again in a few days. Maybe I’ll be more critical.

Kate McKinnon steals every scene she’s in.

[Laminar]

Originally Posted by subego 

Barbie

It was… okay. Didn’t need to be two hours. I’m not the first to observe Gosling is too old to play Ken, but I couldn’t tell you who they should have cast.

Zac Efron?

Wife and I watched it in the theater...first time I've been to a theater in years. I thoroughly enjoyed the Barbie Corvette jacked up in the yard front yard, it hit very close to home.

[subego]

He’d be a good choice, though still a little old. Just saw Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates and Zac was good in it. Ultimately a not as crap movie. Really vulgar though, and the ending is uninspired.

[subego]

All Quiet on the Western Front

Excellent, but of course it’s extremely dark and depressing. The only possible criticism I have is there were tiny bits of the score I thought were heavy handed.

[Thorzdad]

The new version on Netflix? Definitely excellent. Some of the battlefield scenes were frightening as hell.

[subego]

Yes! Truly horrifying.

[ShortcutToMoncton]

I’ve been eyeing that one. Kind of felt like we didn’t need another World War movie but I probably shouldn’t hold that against it

[Thorzdad]

It’s not a “war movie” like, say, 1917 was, though. You should definitely sit down and watch it.

[subego]

In contrast, we’ve been piling on the World War I. Just finished Lawrence of Arabia, and I have ANZACS sitting on a thumb drive. 1917 is in the queue.

[subego]

Originally Posted by Thorzdad 

It’s not a “war movie” like, say, 1917 was, though. You should definitely sit down and watch it.

I haven’t seen 1917 yet, but I’m curious what you mean. I saw it as firmly a “war movie”.

[Thorzdad]

I guess my differentiation is along the lines of 1917 being about a heroic event/mission within the war, while AQotWF being about the men caught up in the prosecution of war, and is very much an anti-war film.

[subego]

Ah! I got you.

Agreed. It’s incredibly bleak.

[ShortcutToMoncton]

Yeah that’s not sellin it any, boys

[subego]

Well, it’s a World War I movie. You can expect mustard gas, being skewered by bayonets, charging directly at machine guns, exploding artillery shells, the edge of a shovel to the neck, and mud… soooo much mud.

[Thorzdad]

AQotWF is “bleak” in that there is no hollywood-ish heroism built into the story. Nothing is prettied-up or softened. It’s just reality. That said, the movie is focused on a particular “every man” character, and the film itself is not end-to-end battle scenes. Far from it. It’s a very human story.

[subego]

I found the lack of heroics to be less bleak than all the meaningless death.

[ShortcutToMoncton]

I get it. There’s certainly a never forget element to this.

Maybe between Dunkirk, 1917, Hacksaw Ridge, and They Shall Not Grow Old, I just kind of feel not in the mood for another gruelling tale of war with an even more grim approach. But I’ll definitely keep it in my list.

[ShortcutToMoncton]

Also—not sure if anyone’s caught Reptile on Netflix? Look, I think we can probably all agree that Netflix now mostly seems intent on churning out shit movies with a lowest-common-denominator approach to attract the widest possible viewing audience. And to be clear Reptile is sort of that. But despite the paint by numbers plot I thought it was actually pretty entertaining and atmospherically scary in spots. I started it with the wife fully expecting to end up turning it off, and easily made it to the end with a few super enjoyable moments along the way. Come for a super-tired-looking Benicio Del Toro and vivacious Alicia Silverstone; stay for Justin Timberlake’s smarmy half-cucked rich guy routine, Michael Pitt’s creepy lips, and Herc from the Wire.

Reptile: Not Quite Crap

[Thorzdad]

We stumbled across Reptile a couple of nights ago, and mostly liked it. Still mulling-over the ending, especially the little end scene.

[subego]

Nobody

Not bad, but it never settled on a tone. Some good chopsocky.

[Laminar]

I liked it. I was going to say it was like John Wick with an old guy, but Bob Odenkirk is only a year older than Keanu. It kept the gritty semi-realism of John Wick 1 and combined it with Home Alone. I'd watch it again.

[subego]

I’ve never seen any of the John Wick movies. I have a feeling I’d enjoy them, but my dad’s seen them already and isn’t too interested in revisiting.

[Laminar]

#1 was great, kind of a reset of the overdone Fast and Furious/Marvel action movies. Good chopsocky as you say, interesting world building. Two was a little over the top, but had to happen due to the success of #1. Three was ludicrous and right back to the Fast and Furious/Marvel problem of everyone being either an actual or a de facto superhero and the movies suffer from a constant need for the stakes to be higher than the last movie. I think in F&F 8 the villain wanted a combination of worldwide thremonuclear warfare and also to murder a baby by shooting it in the head. Where do your stakes go after that?

No plans to bother with JW4.

[subego]

F&F is another I’ve completely missed.

I guess one of my issues with Nobody is I felt like it drifted out of plausibility about halfway through. Like, say, the anti-personnel mine gambit. That’s clever, but it stopped being a threat once he left the club. Why didn’t they shoot him?

I did like it finally getting used though.

[ShortcutToMoncton]

I was really looking forward to Nobody but unfortunately, did not take to it. Like a more schlocky John Wick.

[Waragainstsleep]

Against expectations, I enjoyed F&F5. The chase scene with the bank vault was particularly original and fun.