Last movie you saw.

[Bear 1817]

They Shall Not Grow Old - They Shall Not Grow Old is Peter Jackson stepping into the world of documentary filmmaking where he takes a familiar subject which has been "done to death" (well, that a bit of a lie. You can never get too many documentaries about wars) and breathes a lot of fresh air into it. This is a WWI documentary like you've never seen it before. This isn't so much about the war itself, and if you show this to someone unfamiliar with WWI they won't come out knowing a lot more. They Shall Not Grow Old show old recording from WWI modernized with modern technology. They went through hundred hours or so of old, shabby 13fps footage are upgraded to 24fps with beautiful colourized, went through 600 hours or so of interviews with soldiers to get the views and experiences of  being a soldier during the war, hired  lip readers to read the lips of the soldiers and got professional voice actors from different parts of Great Britain to read. This is, on a technical level, one of the best and most impressive movies I've seen. It's so well put together and restored. But the way it plays out is also incredible. Dark, grim as hell, bleak and just a real downer of a documentary. But it really gives you an insight of how it must have been to experience this, and it also shows a lot of humanity in how they treated eachother and so on. Easily a MUST SEE for anyone above the age of 16. This is one of those movies which should be a part of school classes when the kids are old enough. Masterpiece!

 

Operation Odessa - Documentary about a Russian mobster, a playboy and Cuban guy who teamed up during the 90's. Really cool and entertaining documentary that tells the story about how they met and how they got dragged into that type of things. If you liked Cocaine Cowboys you'll surely like this.

 

 

Tickled and The Tickle King - After David Farrier (Dark Tourist) comes over a random video of competitive endurance tickling  online he decideds he has to make a documentary about it and gets joined by his friend Dylan Reeve. And as they set out to make a movie about it, something that seemed to innocent and silly, it doesn't take long until shit hits the fan. It goes from fun, silly and innocent to dark, twisted and weird as hell pretty darn fast. The Tickle King is a short documentary that shows what happened after the release of this, and it just made things even weirder. Superb stuff!

 

Bad Boys for Life - Gone is the two first installments director Michael Bay, and in comes to younger men called Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, and that's exactly what the series needed. This was a very old school buddy cop action comedy. Offers nothing new, but it was really fun and way better than the second movie. Almost as good as the first one IMO. Looks like there'll be a fourth entry as this has done fairly well, and I can't wait.

 

This also changed my views on the upcoming Beverly Hills Cop movie. Was negative, but with these two directing and Eddie Murphy proving with Dolemite Is My Name that he's as good as he was back in the days, this can't come fast enough.

 

The Gentlemen - Guy Ritchie's new film is Guy Ritchie back to his best. The tone is quite similar to Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, albeit a bit more polished. But it's crude, fun and will surely trigger a lot of people. Which is great of course. Cast performs great with Hugh Grant(!!!) and Colin Farrell stealing the show. Hilarious movie.

 

Riddick - Hadn't rated this, but noticed quite fast that I had seen it before. The start is a bit slow and Vin Diesel isn't given enough time, but it doesn't take too long before it hits the right notes and when it does it's really fun. Not as good as Pitch Black, but better than The Chronicles of Riddick.

 

Death by Metal - Documentary about legendary death metal band Death. Good interviews with family members and ex-members provides loads and loads of info and fun. And I liked how it didn't try to sugarcoat anything just because the man himself is dead. People had loads of positive things to say about Chuck Schuldiner, but they weren't afraid to paint him bad either. And truth be told, judging from this documentary, he seemed like quite the cunt. Like... he seemed like a massive fucking cunt. Great documentary about a fantastic and super important band.

[Bear 1817]

Coffee & Kareem - Silly, over the top and crude buddy cop action comedy that's doomed to annoy some, offend others and please the likes of me. Mindless fun. Loved it.

 

Ninjak vs the Valiant Universe  - This was meant as an introduction to the Valiant universe before the release of Bloodshot with Vin Diesel. It's an OK web-series, tho I watched the movie version of it. Actors are for most part less good, the CGI and special effects are cheap as hell, but the overall presentation and story is fine. It's alright, but that's about it.

 

Bloodshot - Vin Diesel is Bloodshot, a pretty fucking badass superhero that isn't done justice here. The movie is fun, it's very entertaining and cool, but it could and should have been better. It should've been slightly darker, a lot more violent and bloody, and the CGI should've been toned down. For most part the CGI is fine, but when it's bad it's really bad. But I liked this quite a lot.

 

Not for Resale - Documentary about video game stores and physical formats vs digital. It's pretty standard and been done many times already, but it's fun and cool and all.

 

Black and Blue - Very cool and intense action-thriller about a cop who witnesses some dirty cops. Thought it was pretty good, with Frank Grillo and Mike Colter stealing the show. Both giving phenomenal performances.

 

Contagion - Almost 10 years after its release Contagion is experiencing some success due to the covid-19 virus. This movie was heavily inspired by other pandemics such as the swine flu and sars, and is said by scientists, doctors etc to be ultra-realistic. And it really feels ultra-realistic. It's really good, well-made and all, but to be quite honest it didn't quite catch me, although I was impressed by it and found it interesting. It just wasn't fun enough IMO. But worth checking out for sure.

[patientZERO 1066]

1 hour ago, Bear said:

Ninjak vs the Valiant Universe  - This was meant as an introduction to the Valiant universe before the release of Bloodshot with Vin Diesel. It's an OK web-series, tho I watched the movie version of it. Actors are for most part less good, the CGI and special effects are cheap as hell, but the overall presentation and story is fine. It's alright, but that's about it.

 

Bloodshot - Vin Diesel is Bloodshot, a pretty fucking badass superhero that isn't done justice here. The movie is fun, it's very entertaining and cool, but it could and should have been better. It should've been slightly darker, a lot more violent and bloody, and the CGI should've been toned down. For most part the CGI is fine, but when it's bad it's really bad. But I liked this quite a lot.

Wait wait ... how did I not know about this Ninjak show?! Also, boy was Bloodshot bad. There was so much unnecessary CGI, like they were cutting corners to avoid having to shoot vehicles? Also that whole scene in the tunnel was cool, but flour is extremely flammable. That whole place would have gone up in an inferno the second they dropped the flares.

[Bear 1817]

War - Me and my good friend (who just happens to be half Indian, and an hater of Bollywood movies) came over the trailer to this Bollywood movie and it looked like an Indian Fast and the Furious. Super over the top action movie with good action and shit. And it is over the top and it has got surprisingly well-made action scenes, but that's about it. The story feels cheap and messy, and the movie is close to an hour too long which is impossible to forgive.  But I did like how cheesy and over the top the characters were. But even if they were cheesy and over the top, they never reached the greatness of movies like Dabangg, Singham, Endhiran. But they too are also too long, but because they're so over the fucking top they don't feel an hour too long, even though they're as long as War. I did however love the couple of songs and dances in it tho.

[Bear 1817]

The Heat - I've never understood Paul Feig's fascination with Melissa McCarthy, as she's usually not fun or good at all. But there's always exceptions to the rule, such as Spy where she did well, although Jason Statham stole the show in a role that was very different from the ones he usually play. The Heat was also, to my big surprise, an exception of that rule. She does well, although Sandra Bullock steals the show as this sassy, over-confident FBI agent. The story is familiar and all, but it was a surprisingly fun and well put together buddy cop. Crude, dirty and fun. Liked it.

 

Above the Law - Decided to re-watch some of the oldest Steven Seagal movies and started with his first, the 1988 harder-than-motherfucking-steel-action movie Above the Law. Steven Seagal is as hard as they get, assisted by the always so amazing Pam Grier, the legendary Henry Silva etc. This movie is incredible and holds up really good to this day. Hard as steel!

 

A Bluebird in My Heart - Slow-burning, intimate crime-noir about a guy just out of prison. This is the type of movie that require ones attention, and it requires that one enjoys slow-burning movies that's 90% about the atmosphere and visual style. Roland Møller puts in one hell of a performance. He carries this film without any problems at all.

[Bear 1817]

Godzilla: King of the Monsters - I don't get it. Michael fucking Dougherty is making a Godzilla movie with Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan and motherfucking King Ghidorah, and it's fucking boring? How the fuck is that possible? One could say it's because they spend the entire movie focusing on the humans and their actions, but that kinda isn't it because Godzilla movies has done that since forever. However, they use something like 110 out of 130 minutes focusing on humans, which can be fine, but the human characters are so poorly written, the story around them is so fucking uninteresting, and the villain is like a poorly written, over the top character that's spoofing the worst James Bond villains out there. And top that with tons and tons and tons of boring, soulless CGI. Oh yeah, and don't forget poor monster designs. Final thought: I didn't enjoy a single thing in this movie. While there's technically worse Godzilla movies out there, they at least have something to laugh at. This was just incredibly boring and soulless.

 

BTW. Why is it that most of the monster fights are cut to death? What's the fucking point? Not only are they poorly constructed to begin with, but they're cut to death as well. Sums up this film. A piece of embarrassingly bad kaiju cinema.

 

Hard to Kill - Classic Steven Seagal action that's really stood the test of time. Not his best, but it's cool as hell. A bit over the top, a bit silly, and really damn cool.

 

Marked for Death - Another classic Steven Seagal movie. Hard as balls, and I really love the over the top Jamaican bad guys. They're really nice. The movie is awesome.

 

Out for Justice - Another Steven Seagal classic, and his third best movie following Above the Law and Under Siege. Really nice and violent, really cool and in its own way stylish. Damn awesome film! William Forsythe does a proper good performance as our main villain 

Richie Madano. Top performance!

Edited April 9, 2020 by Bear

[Bear 1817]

Slave to the Grind - Been wanting to see this for quite some time and when it just popped up on youtube I could not resist. The timing was good as well, as I've been listening to a shitload of grindcore lately. This goes through the history of grindcore and jumps from country to country, while also talking a bit about goregrind and stuff. It's pretty damn good, but an hour and a half long documentaries about genres of music, movies or whatever will always feel a bit short as you can only squeeze so much into 90 minutes. But it's good, loads of good anecdotes and shit. Fun stuff. I thought they maybe spent a bit too much time on grindcore's own version of G.G. Allin, Seth Putnam of Anal Cunt. But it's fun hearing the different views on him. From people having him and the band stay with their family while on tour, and only having good things to say about him, to people who celebrated his death, which such a low and disgusting thing to do no matter what you feel about him. Anyway, highly recommended.

 

Midnight Family - Documentary about a family that runs a private ambulance, and their struggle to cope with things as they're not the only thing. So they have to race other private ambulances to get to pasients, to earn a bit of money. And then there's the cops as well. It's a pretty dark docu, but it's super interesting and intense. Liked it a lot.

 

Afro Samurai: Resurrection - I loved the series when it came, but never got around to watch this shit. But I finally did it and it did not disappoint. It's basically one long action scene, but that is something I really don't mind. It's dark, kinda twisted and fun. Top notch soundtrack by the one and only RZA with friends as well.

 

Code 8 - A different type of superhero movie. Really cool concept and it's well-made and all, but it felt just a bit short. Could probably have been 30 minutes longer. But it was cool, looked great, felt great etc. Good stuff.

 

Flying Guillotine 2 - The first of two sequels to 1975's The Flying Guillotine. It's very much a rehash of the first one, but with a few updated elements. Not quite as good, but still damn fucking awesome. Some proper good fights throughout like, and some incredibly likable characters and traits. Super!

[Bear 1817]

Unknown Soldier - 3 hour long finnish war-drama. It's based on a book about WWII, and has already been filmatized two times. Not sure I've seen either of those, but I might have. Anyway, Unknown Soldier is a movie that is uneven. At it's best it's intense, brutal, dramatic and awesome, but despite its three hour long playtime it doesn't flesh out its characters nearly enough, and when the movie ends the only character you only feel like you know is Rokka, who feels a bit too much like a comic book character. But this is the type of movie a country like Norway would not even dream of producing in the 2000's, and if they did it wouldn't be 1/10th as good. So well done to Finland, yet again.

[Bear 1817]

Taken 3 - Taken is a modern classic and the second is alright, albeit really weak compared to the first one. Taken 3 is one big, fat mess, with some of the worst direction I've ever seen. Every action scene, be it hand to hand combat, "gunplay", chase scenes at foot or in a car. It's all cut to a billion small pieces where it's absolutely impossible to see what happens. It's absolutely awful. The story itself isn't worse than your run of the mill action-thriller, and both Liam Neeson and Forest Whitaker delivers. But the movie is cut to death. Jesus christ.

[Bear 1817]

Drive - Steve Wang directed movie starring Mark Dacascos, Kadeem Hardison, John Pyper-Ferguson and Brittany Murphy. First off, despite only Mark Dacascos having a semi-big name, the cast here is phenomenal, mostly due to the all-around chemistry between the lot of them and the fact that the characters are likable and fun. Mark Dacascos is Mark Dacascos, and he's always awesome. Kadeem Hardison adds som fun to the buddies. John Pyper-Ferguson is the corny-as-hell villain, who also adds some fun comedy. And Brittany Murphy is just hilarious. Shame her role isn't much bigger.

 

The fight scenes are surprisingly well done, and the overall tone is nice. It's a buddy cop movie, without a cop. Basically Rush Hour before Rush Hour was a thing IMO. Steve Wang, the director, is the same who directed Guyver and Guyver: Dark Hero.

 

Anyway, this film was just awesome!

[Bear 1817]

Extraction - Extraction is the new, big Netflix movie starring none other than Thor himself - Chris Hemsworth, as well as Randeep Hooda, Golshifteh Farahani and David Harbour among others. The movie is 95% action and 5% plot and character development. So you gotta love action to be able to enjoy this. Chris Hemsworth plays a troubled mercenary, and to my big, big surprise he actually nails that role. Probably best I've seen him tbh. Just a really fine performance by him, and Randeep Hooda is also excellent.

 

Loads of great action where actors are allowed to perform, which is always a plus. Also, that "long take" is gorgeous. Yes, I know it has several, several cuts, but it's really well made and pierced together.

 

So far this movie has divided people quite a lot, with even huge action fans both praising and slaughtering the movie. I'm among those who ended up praising it. The 2 hours went incredibly fast. Superb!

[Jigsaw9 6783]

Watched some documentaries, hell yeahh~

 

Fix: The Ministry Movie - Chronicles mostly the '96 tour of Ministry with some major drug abuse going on. I always thought of Al as kind of a funny lunatic (especially after reading his book) but here he was mostly obnoxious, pitiful and irritating. The doc itself was mostly okay but I had to struggle to get through some parts so all in all it didn't win me over completely.

 

Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution - A really interesting look into the so-called "queercore" punk movement that was basically just a handful of people in the beginning who managed to will the scene into existence by pretending it was a nation(or even world)wide phenomenon. Absolutely cool stuff, very nice talking-head segments (such as Bruce LaBruce, John Waters, Genesis P-Orridge, Kathleen Hanna etc.) and live footage both from queer and feminist punk bands.

 

Trixie Mattel: Moving Parts - Nice introspective look into a short period of drag queen Trixie's life on the road as a country/pop musician. His whole demeanor and attitude is just so funny and down-to-earth it's very easy to relate to him, even if obviously his way of life is totally different from mine, lol. Out of these three docs I watched this one flew by the quickest, it was very entertaining and cozy to watch (but I really like him and his drag persona to begin with so maybe that's why).

[Keiyuh 53]

Half this thread I swear BEAR wrote all of them lmao

Chronicles of Narnia 1 and 2 are pretty good

[Bear 1817]

4 hours ago, Keiyuh said:

Half this thread I swear BEAR wrote all of them lmao

 

Only half of them? Would expect it to be way more. Anyway, realised I was killing the thread so stopped posting some while ago. lol Good to see someone wanting to revive it.

[Jigsaw9 6783]

The Vast of Night - It's truly amazing how much you can achieve with only a good script and a (I assume) limited budget. This is a recent sci-fi movie set in 1950s USA, with the most exciting and tense moments happening while people are just talking over the phone, the radio or just to each other. No over-the-top flashy effects or mindless grand-scale action scenes (those have their place too, of course, just in a different type of movie). Even though the setup might sound boring to some at first glance, it was a truly entertaining and thrilling experience. The main characters were really neat too. I recommend it if you're looking for contemporary sci-fi that's not 'sci-fi action' (like most of today's usual hyped-up 'science fiction' flicks).

Edited June 9, 2020 by Jigsaw9

[Jigsaw9 6783]

3rd time re-watching 薔薇の葬列 (Funeral Parade of Roses) and still goddamn amazed how crazy and different this movie is for its time (1969).

[Bear 1817]

Popping in just to recommend the new action movie Becky. Very violent and very over the top with hilariously (gross) moments throughout. Kevin James, best known for playing good guys, gets his first role as something else than a funny man, and he's really good and cool as the role of a mean, motherfucking neo-nazi. I've seen this compared to Green Room, but it's nothing like Green Room. The overall tone and stuff is completely different. Green Room is a dark, gritty and mean movie, while this is more a mean, fun and over the top movie.

 

8/10

[Bear 1817]

I am also popping out to recommend the new Andy Samberg movie Palm Springs. Romantic comedy that is actually absolutely hilarious, fun, sweet and cute. It's a full length debut by Max Barbakow, starring Andy Samberg, Cristin Milioti and J. K. Simmons, which all are really good.  Probably one of the best comedies of recent time, and with no doubt one of the best romantic comedies ever created. Highly recommended.

[Bear 1817]

On 6/9/2020 at 8:46 PM, Jigsaw9 said:

The Vast of Night - It's truly amazing how much you can achieve with only a good script and a (I assume) limited budget. This is a recent sci-fi movie set in 1950s USA, with the most exciting and tense moments happening while people are just talking over the phone, the radio or just to each other. No over-the-top flashy effects or mindless grand-scale action scenes (those have their place too, of course, just in a different type of movie). Even though the setup might sound boring to some at first glance, it was a truly entertaining and thrilling experience. The main characters were really neat too. I recommend it if you're looking for contemporary sci-fi that's not 'sci-fi action' (like most of today's usual hyped-up 'science fiction' flicks).

 

It's all about talent, baby. And writer-director Andrew Patterson is obviously one talented man. This movie was great indeed. Suspenseful and atmospheric, but without being big and flashy. It really captured an old school feeling, especially that of 50's sci-fi, so it's fitting that it's set to the 1950's. Really good film!

 

 

Speaking of good films, talents and nothing big and flashy:

 

Gundala! Gundala is the first movie in the Bumilangit Cinematic Universe, Indonesia's answer to Marvel Cinematic Universe and DC Extended Universe. So yeah, it's a superhero movie, but unlike the big budget CGI fest from MCU and DCEU, BCU delivers a very down to earth origin story about one of the biggest superheroes from Indonesia. It's directed by Joko Anwar on a budget of $2m (compare that to the $140m of Iron Man or $225m of Man of Steel), so it's not filled with big, flashy CGI or anything like that. I like loads of MCU and even DCEU have impressed me with their two latest movies, but this is something very different. It's darker, it's grittier, and way, way, way more down to earth with way more fleshed out characters. The plot is over the top and silly as fuck, as expected from a superhero movie like this, but it's also a lot of fun. I'd absolutely recommend this to any fan of superhero movies. This was fantastic, and while not quite as good as Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Thor: Ragnarok or Birds of Prey, I'd absolutely say it's as good as Captain Marvel, Dr. Strange and Captain America: Civil War.

 

There's planned eight movies in phase one to begin with, and I really can't wait for more. It's really refreshing to both see and hear a different type of superhero movie about a superhero I really don't know much about. Never read, never seen him in any cartoon or anything. The one I am looking the most forward to are easily Si Buta Dari Gua Hantu, which will be written and directed by none other than Timo Tjahjanto, who just doesn't know how to fail and topped off everything with the absolutely brilliant and stunning masterpiece The Night Comes For Us.

 

Bring on Bumilangit Cinematic Universe!

[Keiyuh 53]

On 6/9/2020 at 8:50 PM, Bear said:

 

Only half of them? Would expect it to be way more. Anyway, realised I was killing the thread so stopped posting some while ago. lol Good to see someone wanting to revive it.

Mate I spread like herpes to every thread then wanted to cause sum ruckus just my every day cycle

[Bear 1817]

Mortal Engines - Man, what a fucking waste of opportunity. I haven't read the books and won't compare them, but this could and should have been so much more. The concept is awesome and the world they've made is even better, and fuck it even the visual effects are good and impressive. But that's about it. The first major mistake is that it starts off like it is a sequel, and you feel like you've missed the first 40 minutes of the film. The second problem is that every single character is a shell without anything on the inside. Empty shells without anything to give. The characters are simply awfully written and lack proper personalities, motives and so on. Nah, this was a poor mess saved by a really cool concept and world bulding. 5/10, and that is me being quite generous.

[Desqui 48]

Guns Akimbo

 

It was entertaining but a bit predictable.

I like watching the odd things Daniel Radcliffe stars in. 

[Bear 1817]

14 hours ago, Desqui said:

Guns Akimbo

 

It was entertaining but a bit predictable.

I like watching the odd things Daniel Radcliffe stars in. 

 

Isn't everything Radcliffe plays in incredibly predictable? Haven't seen anything he's done where you don't know the entire story and plot within the first 30 minutes tbh. I do like him tho, and I think Guns Akimbo was incredible. Over the top, super silly video game violence for 90 minutes. Just my cup of tea. On par with his best Harry Potter movies and The Woman in Black IMO. 

[Desqui 48]

I don't remember liking The Woman in Black. I'll have to rewatch it.

 

Maybe the predictability is what makes it likable though? Akin to knowing the plot of a play but still watching the performance. There's just the right amount of dread to keep you seated. But I can't recall the endings of what I've watched with him so this is just one excuse I can think of lol. 

 

In Guns Akimbo though, that bit when they rewinded, I didn't like that--however, I don't know any other way to have done it either. 

[Kabukichoatmidnight 269]

"It Knows" on amazon prime and it was wank, now you all know too. haha. I legitimately feel like the idea of the film is actually pretty interesting but just had such terrible execution, give it to Takashi Miike, Shinya Tsukamoto or Sion Sono and it would probably be amazing.