Last movie you saw.

[Bear 1817]

Wonder Woman is sadly mediocre.

[Bear 1817]

Hacksaw Ridge - One can say a lot of stuff about Mel Gibson, but a bad director one simply cannot ever call him. And Hacksaw Ridge is another great example of this. Hacksaw Ridge tells the story of Desmond T. Doss, a deeply religious man who refused to even touch a gun during his military training or in combat. The first 40 minutes of the film just tells the story of his youth, and they are necessary to be able to build some meat on the main character. There's a few good points and such in the story, most importantly to believe in yourself and what you think is right. Stand for it and be proud. But as the underlying themes of religion is so strong I do have a few problems with it. 

 

But after those 40 minutes is over and they are going into combat everything is forgotten. As hell breaks loose, things gets really interesting and Mel Gibson gets to show off his skills. The war scenes are among the most intense, dark, brutal, gritty and chaotic I've ever seen in a war film, and it really makes for a lovely watch. And from there on and out, the film is excellent.

 

Andrew Garfield and Vince Vaughn are really great. Those early scenes with Vince Vaughn are exceptional because of his skills.

 

Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes - One of many classic Werner Herzog films, and one of his very best. It marks his first collaboration with Klaus Kinski, and is about a group of conquistadors traveling down the Amazon in search for El Dorado. It's slow, is sparse on the dialogue and focus on atmosphere to bring forth a certain madness and surrealistic feeling to it all. It has no proper sets and was made on a small budget, but it is visually stunning because of Werner Herzog's eye for details and cinematographer Thomas Mauch's skills with the camera. Popol Vuh stood for the soundtrack, and as with Nosferatu it's exceptional and a huge part of why the film is as good as it is.

 

The first 4-5 minutes are among the very best scenes ever filmed. The photo combined with the beautiful music is just too damn good. It's just magnificent in its simplicity.

 

 

[Bear 1817]

Game Over, Man! - This film has been panned by the critics and I can understand why, but I liked this quite a lot. It's childish, grotesque, violent, and offensive, but I don't mind any of those things. Didn't laugh at everything, but when it did make me laugh I could not stop laughing. I can see this becoming a proper cult film in the future.

 

30 Minutes or Less - Another action-comedy. I liked it as much as Game Over, Man! but it's not offensive enough. I wish it was further out there as the film has a lot of good qualities. But it kept me very, very entertained and both Aziz Ansari, Danny McBride and Nick Swardson and very funny throughout the film.

 

Kill the Irishman - Cool crime film about Danny Greene, an Irish-american thug from the 70's who more or less spent his life making fun of the mafia and how weak they had become. It was slightly disappointing, but it was good nonetheless and Vincent D'Onofrio is superb in his supporting role.

 

13 Hours - A Michael Bay film that doesn't feel like a Michael Bay film, is a Michael Bay film that I can properly enjoy. 13 Hours is pretty much the opposite of what you'd imagine a Michael Bay movie would be like, a bit like Pain & Gain (albeit not nearly as good as Pain & Gain). It's a pretty mature film, and unlike shit like Transformers this isn't aimed towards a young audience, but a mature one. It has a lot more than huge robots, big explosion and a good looking cast. That doesn't mean it's perfect though. For some reason there's not a main character here. No-one stands out. When the film is finished, you'd remember the one with the most screen time as much as the one who had 50 minutes less screen time.

 

The build up of the movie isn't too interesting and the first big fight isn't either, but around half way into the film it turns into a military version of Assault on Precinct 13 and that's when shot turns good. The battle sequences are really good, and I like the start-stop-start-stop formula. I also like how gritty and brutal it is. There's nothing glamorous about war, and it gets that right.

 

Not a big fan of the patriotism thou, and american patriotism is the worst by a long shot. I'm also not sure why these "heroes" are so glorified in the film. But it doesn't matter. Entertaining film.

[Ponceau 0]

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri - 9/10
Frances McDormand plays a mother who rents three billboards to call attention to her daughter's unsolved murder. Haven't seen a good movie in ages, but is one of the best I've seen in a long time. 

___________________

http://subscene.tv/

Edited May 29, 2018 by Ponceau

[violetchain 912]

Happy Death Day (2017) - Kind of cliche at times, but it was a fun watch.

 

Also watched Cell 213 (2011), which was one of the worst things I've seen in a while. Cute lead actor though. Was kind of amused to see Michael Rooker in it. 

Edited March 28, 2018 by violetchain

[Bear 1817]

Logan Lucky - In many ways this is just Steven Soderbergh repeating himself, as Logan Lucky is just Ocean's Eleven with a different setting, mood and type of characters. The plot, the stylish execution and the nice visual style is the same. But I love Ocean's Eleven so I won't complain. Logan Lucky is a smart, stylish and fun heist film with an ensemble cast lead on by  Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Riley Keough and Daniel Craig, and all gets lots of room to play around and do their own thing.

 

Channing Tatum proves that he is a lot more than a pretty face and a good body, and Daniel Craig is super cool and good as the IN-CAR-CER-ATED Joe Bang. While his accent might not be perfect, especially when he has to deliver a lot of lines, he does real good with it. I was really surprised by it.

 

Overall a real nice and good film. Really enjoyed myself throughout its two hour running time.

 

Now You See Me 2 - I wasn't too impressed by the first one, but since I watched it I just had to see this too. And while not a very good film, it's a lot better than the first. It looks and sounds very good, it's well-acted throughout and the chemestry between the "four horsemen", included the hidden fifth, is very good and more or less what drives the film. The thing that really lets me down is the "magic tricks" and how they reveal everything at the end. Like a magic trick it would've been so much better if they had left us wondering about how they did all this and all that. Because the last trick is so far-fetched when you know how they did it, but if they had not told us anything it would've seemed plausible at least. So that's a huge problem.

 

But I'll watch the third one whenever it gets here.

[GreatNorthernVK 183]

Just watched Get Out (2017) with the husband. Would definitely recommend. Creepy without gross-out horror, with a different narrative than what you normally see in most suspense movies. Some great artistic shots in this one.

[deedlitmurata 86]

The last movie I watched in the cinema was the new Pacific Rim, partially because Mackenyu was there, and I loved the first one. I enjoyed it a lot. After that I've been watching Dorama, not movies.

[Bear 1817]

Free Fire - I don't exactly try to hide my love for Ben Wheatley and his two masterpieces Kill List and A Field in England, as well as Down Terrace, and with Free Fire his back at making top, top, top class films. Free Fire is a Quentin Tarantino-esque gangster comedy and a chamber play with great characters, cool, witty dialogue, a fantastic 70's setting and an awesome visual style. In no way, shape or form does Ben Wheatley try to hide his influences, but nor does he copy them. He turns and twist everything he does into his own with his own character added to the films, and Free Fire is no different. It wears its influences proudly on its sleeve, but does more than enough to add his own twist, turns and character to the film.

 

It's basically one long acting scene, but it works so fucking good. I will have to re-watch it before I call it a masterpiece, but after seeing it one time I gave it a 9/10. Ben Wheatley proves why again why I rank him as one of the most interesting directors of the last 18 years. Daring, bold and original.

 

 

Will watch High-Rise after I get home from work today. It's another recent Ben Wheatley flick that seem to have been well received by the same type of people who enjoy Kill List, A Field in England Free Fire, Down Terrace and Sightseers. He's one of those that does his own thing, and the majority of his films won't please a big audience. But it'll please a small core of people into the types of films he makes.

[Bear 1817]

High-Rise - High-Rise is  Ben Wheatley's dystopian drama adaption of a novel by the same name from the mid 70's. The film is about a luxury apartment building and its breakdown. The entire film is about class warfare, and the separation of the classes. So it's a very political film. But it's much more. It's also damn good entertainment with a cast consisting of the likes of Tom Hiddleston, Sienna Miller, Luke Evans and Jeremy Irons leading the way through this ice cold, insane dystopian drama. It's a slow-burner and it'll divide the audience, but I liked it very much.

 

It does not reach up to Kill List, A Field in England, Free Fire or Down Terrace, but Ben Wheatley hit the nail on its head once again.

[Tokage 5930]

All About Lily Chou-Chou: In a sense, it can be called a 'coming of age' story. At the same time, the movie is far more pessimistic than most ordinary 'coming of age' stories I've seen/read  (though I have to be honest here - I haven't had a lot of experience with that particular genre). Somehow the entire film has this very nostalgic, almost melancholic feel to it, partially helped by the film's brilliant soundtrack. Everything somehow feels very natural, very real, even the 'darker' turns taken within the story. I was left very impressed after watching it, though I feel like the film would've had an even stronger impact on me had I seen it at a younger age. Anyway, I feel like everyone who's ever used music as a means of escapism or coping with the problems in their life will in some form connect to this in some sense.

 

Lesson Faust: Czech director Jan Svankmajer's take on the well-known story of Dr. Faustus. Cobbles together aspects from different incarnations of the story and gives it a unique twist of its own. Svankmajer's  version of Faust (the character) appears to be an average middle-aged guy who one day decides to follow the instructions written on a map and ends up in a bizarre puppet theater. What follows is... insanity, really. Tables spraying fountains of wine, giant wooden devil heads rolling through a forest, a homeless man carrying a severed human leg... It has a lot of common 'Svankmajer-isms' sprinkled throughout, including copious amounts of bizarre stopmotion sequences, a general atmosphere of uncomfortable surrealism and rundown/decaying locales. Svankmajer is high up there among my all-time favorite directors, and this movie only proves once again how utterly unique his works are. Highly recommended to anyone who's into weird stuff.

[Bear 1817]

Maze Runner: The Death Cure - A step up from The Scorch Trials, but another very disappointing sequel to a surprisingly good and entertaining first film. It offers nothing at all, and like The Scorch Trials it doesn't feel like it has anything to do with the first at all. The first had a good concept and all, this has nothing. Boring as fuck. And way, way, way too long.

 

Land of the Lost - Watched this late last night, drunk out of my mind with a friend. Damn, it was so bad. I expected it to be bad, but it was godawful. It had me laughing a few times, but I would not have laughed at it had I been alone. So yeah, poor stuff.

 

CHIPS - A good cast can't save this abysmal crapfest of a film. It's based off an older TV-series, but it captures nothing of that series at all. Crap!

[Flame-X 441]

Rampage

Saw this movie last night and it's pretty much a straight up popcorn flick. I had no idea this was an adaptation of a retro video game but I found it more entertaining than Tomb Raider.

[Bear 1817]

The Bourne Legacy - Jeremy Renner and Rachel Weisz acts their heart out throughout the entire film, but even their great efforts isn't enough to make this more than decent. The characters are paper thin and shallow as fuck and the plot is twisting and turning way too much for its own good. It never gets the time to do anything before it jumps to the next. Gets real tiring after a while. I do appreciate the dialogue though. It's concise.

 

I don't get the title of the film either. Yes, it is set in the same universe as the Bourne movies, and yes the actions of Jason Bourne is why everything happens in this film. But still, it got nothing to do with Jason Burne. Wish they'd think up a proper title for the film.

[Bear 1817]

Heavy Metal in Baghdad - Filmmakers Eddy Moretti and Suroosh Alvi travels to Iraq to find and meet Acrassicauda, the first and only metal band in Iraq at this time. It's an interesting documentary both when it takes a look at the band and their troubles, as well as when it looks at the situation in general during these times. Recommended.

 

Syrian Metal Is War - Unlike Heavy Metal in Baghdad this doesn't focus on one single band, but the entire Syrian metal scene in a war-torn Syria. Director Monzer Darwish isn't a very talented man and he more often than not struggles to get his camera in focus, but there's a sense of passion here that I feel is missing in Heavy Metal in Baghdad. A Stronger DIY-feeling that I really like.

 

Very interesting both when it looks at the scene itself, but also when it looks as Syria as a country and fucked up it has become. Good stuff this.

 

Heavy Metal Parking Lot - It only clocks in at 17 minutes, but Heavy Metal Parking Lot may be the greatest rock/metal documentary ever made. A very straight-forward documentary as some guys walk around a parking lot before a Judas Priest and Dokken concenrt in the mid 80's and talk to fans who are attending the concert later. The atmosphere is fantastic, the people are fantastic and there's no bullshit. 

 

One of those films you have to watch. A must-see for everyone in the entire fucking world.

[suji 8317]

Signed up for a free trial of HBO just to watch the Andre the Giant documentary. Heard a lot of praise from some wrestling podcasts I regularly listen to, even though I'm not quite familiar with classic wrasslin', but I was quite fascinated with people like Andre. It's short and sweet, and sums up Andre's story pretty well, including his origins, the troubles he's had since being "the biggest celebrity in the world", the myths surrounding him, the circumstances surrounding his match with Hulk Hogan, and eventually his final years as he truly began to deteriorate. Although I don't find everything about Andre credible (especially the stories about his drinking), I learned a lot of new stuff about him such as him actually having a daughter, how he strived for normalcy despite his unique appearance, and most importantly how he was the first true attraction in wrestling.

[KoreanGringo 11]

 Psychokinesis / Yeom-lyeok (2018)

Another illogical "masterpiece" from the director of "Train to Busan", which is even more stupid and ridiculous, but, unlike its predecessor, is not spectacular and completely devoid of drama. The attempt to allegorically tie supernormal abilities to certain events in the family of the main characters is meaningless and does not manifest itself in any scene after the introduction. And then followed a parade of dullness, wretched special effects, terrible grimaces, a lurid plot and incredibly stupid characters. A typical Korean "circus tent". To the dump.

[Bear 1817]

Batman Ninja - I've been really looking forward to this, and daaaayum, this did not disappoint at all. Like Batman: Gotham by Gaslight, which up until this point is the best Batman film ever, this is set in an alternative universe so to speak. Batman goes anime, and Batman and friends (Alfred, Catwoman, The Joker, Gorilla Grodd, Bane, Harley Quinn, Nightwing, Robin, Red Robin, Red Hood, Deathstroke, Poison Ivy, Two-Face and Penguin) are all sent back in time to Japan during its Edo period.  Now unlike Gotham by Gaslight, this isn't driven by a deep, complex plot and characters with an immense depth or anything, it's driven by fun characters and over the top happenings. This is Batman, but it's so over the top, weird, crazy and super Japanese that it's hard not to be entertained.

 

It's anime alright, and it's got a classic anime feeling to it. It's got a lot of over the top and crazy moments, with clear kaiju influences and hell, dare I even say moments of Power Rangers tribute? I don't know, but there was a moment when I thought about Godzilla and similar films, in the next I was thinking about Power Rangers for quite an obvious reason. Another thing that I really liked was the character designs both for our classic heroes and villains, but also for the ninja and samurai that appears. Original, unique and interesting. 

 

 

[Jigsaw9 6783]

^ I agree, I just watched this yesterday myself, great fun. Really dumb but really spectacular and entertaining nonetheless.  

[violetchain 912]

Finally got around to watching Black Panther yesterday. Lived up to the hype.

[Bear 1817]

Rapid Fire - Great early 90's action cheese with Brandon Lee. The story isn't original or very good, but it's alright for what it is and the film is really fucking cool. It's exactly what you'd expect from an American martial arts actioner from the early 90's. Always appreciate seeing Al Leong too. Cult hero! One of the coolest actors ever, despite never having anything but smaller supporting roles.

 

The Perfect Weapon - Very cool early 90's martial arts actioner. Nothing original here either, but it's very entertaining. Jeff Speakman is really cool, and so is James Hong. Good film!

[Bear 1817]

Skyline - I didn't have high hopes for it, and I kinda just watched it because I know Iko Uwais is in the sequel, Beyond Skyline. There's good ideas here, the plot isn't bad, and despite a bugdet of "only 10m, the special effects are no worse than what you see in the 70m Battle Los Angeles or 190-230m Transformers films. The special effects are very impressive, and the designs are for the most part very cool. But the dialogue, the characters and the acting are really fucking bad. The Brothers Strause have worked on quite an amount of films with special effects, but the two times they have directed they've failed miserably.

 

Rumble in the Bronx - An absolute classic, and while flawed this is one of my favourite Chackie Chan films. It's both fun and hilarious throughout. Love it! Probably seen it 50+ times by now.

[Bear 1817]

Jailbreak - Cambodian martial arts film in the vein as other Southeast-Asian martial arts films like The Rain, The Protector and more. It's not very original, but great choreography and sweet cinematography and camera movement makes it a pleasure to watch. Totally badass!

 

No Retreat, No Surrender - Alright mid-80's action film with Kurt McKinney and Jean-Claude Van Damme, but Jean-Claude Van Damme doesn't have nearly enough screen time as one of the main villains, Ivan Kraschinsky the Russian. Which is sad, because he's cool as fuck in this film. Good film, but for a Corey Yuen film it's a very disappointing one.

 

No Retreat, No Surrender 2: Raging Thunder - The second film of the franchise is once more directed by Corey Yuen, but is a sequel in name only. It continues nothing from the first film, and while entertaining it never gets above decent. OK entertainment, but that's about it.

 

No Retreat, No Surrender 3: Blood Brothers - Lucas Lowe takes over after Corey Yuen and does a fairly decent job as the director, and Loren Avedon returns for another film, but playing a different character. Again this is a sequel in name only, but it's a lot better than the second. More or less on the same level as the first film. It's fun, but far from a masterpiece.

 

The King of the Kickboxers - Both director Lucas Lowe and star Loren Avedon returns to the fourth film in the franchise, and again it's a stand-alone sequel with different characters and stuff. But this is by far the best of them all. This one is actually really damn good. Really cool and entertaining film, and Billy Blanks is top notch. Not because he can act, but because he's so damn badass. Two thumbs up!

 

American Shaolin - Lucas Lowe returns for the last film in the franchise and again it's a fun film. Not very good, but it's good entertainment. The whole film feels like one big, fat tribute/homage to The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, but I don't mind that. It did however have a few really awkward scenes which made me really uncomfortable. Out of place and really bad scenes. But aside from that it was a fun film.

[Bear 1817]

Beyond Skyline - Skyline was a pretty shitty film, and while this film continue where the first one let off, the entire cast is changed for the sequel, as well is director.  The Brothers Strause is out and Liam O'Donnell, writer of the first film, is in. The film stars Frank Grillo, Bojana Novakovic, Iko Uwais, Yayan Ruhian and Antonio Fargas and they all do fairly well, especially Frank Grillo, Iko Uwais and Antonio Fargas, and of course Yayan Ruhian in the smal role he's got. The film is goofy, the dialogue is cringe-worthy at times but as soon as things really start rolling it picks up and thing gets good. The story is here, the characters are as well, and the action more than anything surely is. Like in most American productions who decides to include martial artists like Iko Uwais, Yayan Ruhian, Tony Jaa and so on they fail to utilize his full potential. But they're both still cool as fuck.

 

Good film!

[Bear 1817]

Ghostbusters - The remake/reboot one. I will keep this fairly brief. Aside from a couple of cameos, the original Ghostbusters theme and a few other tracks, and the look of Kristen Wiig and Kate McKinnon, there's not really anything positive to say. It misses everything that makes the original to a masterpiece, and the new version of the teme song has to be among the worst shit I've ever heard. Absolute worthless pice of shit, and people who enjoy this kind of crap should take a bullet to the temple asap.