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MikeyC
Official Greeter of Broken Hills

Joined: Wed Jun 14, 2006 5:16 am
Posts: 14212
Location: Australia
PostPosted: Wed Dec 29, 2021 6:00 pm 
 

Don't Look Up. Really enjoyed this one - much more than I anticipated. The social commentary is delivered with a heavy hand, especially towards the end, but that didn't stop me from being totally invested in it. With it being interspersed with humour, I felt really engaged with this. One of the better Netflix movies out there and I'd highly recommend it.
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TheEtreum
Metal newbie

Joined: Tue Sep 07, 2021 10:41 am
Posts: 136
Location: Hell on Earth
PostPosted: Fri Dec 31, 2021 12:32 pm 
 

Matrix 4 and Dune were awful. But well, find a good movie those days is hard.
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oldmetalhead
Metalhead

Joined: Tue Apr 13, 2021 1:30 am
Posts: 839
Location: Helltown, United States
PostPosted: Sat Jan 01, 2022 11:15 pm 
 

MikeyC wrote:
Don't Look Up. Really enjoyed this one - much more than I anticipated. The social commentary is delivered with a heavy hand, especially towards the end, but that didn't stop me from being totally invested in it. With it being interspersed with humour, I felt really engaged with this. One of the better Netflix movies out there and I'd highly recommend it.

Yes, it's pretentious but you realize it's the truth, on some end. Good movie.

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darkeningday
xXdArKenIngDayXx

Joined: Mon Aug 23, 2004 1:20 pm
Posts: 6032
Location: United States
PostPosted: Sat Jan 01, 2022 11:36 pm 
 

I just finished The Last Duel, and for all of my faith in Hollywood costume dramas I lost in the abominable Green Knight, it was fully restored in this one. Ditto for Ridley Scott. It didn't need to be 2.5 hours or cost $100 million but it absolutely validated its existence, which is far more than I can say for Alien: Covenant and Green Knight. 8.5/10, would watch again.
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REQUIEM
Metal newbie

Joined: Mon Sep 22, 2003 3:58 pm
Posts: 231
Location: Croatia
PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2022 12:53 am 
 

too bad "the last duel" was more repetitive than black metal riffs. could have been a great movie.

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darkeningday
xXdArKenIngDayXx

Joined: Mon Aug 23, 2004 1:20 pm
Posts: 6032
Location: United States
PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2022 1:40 am 
 

Think Rashômon was also super repetitive?

It didn't need to be so long, but I thought it was very good. Maybe even great.
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Judas Maiden
Metalhead

Joined: Wed Dec 22, 2021 3:56 pm
Posts: 861
Location: Philippines
PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2022 7:45 am 
 

I watched Spiderman: No Way Home and it's great as expected. The actual screening in our country is this Saturday but I watched it ahead of time 'coz I'm hesitant to go to movie theaters now that covid cases are rising again. And I was already spoiled by sponsored posts in Facebook which showed specific details about the movie that people were speculating about. The ending is kinda sad though.

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ChineseDownhill
Metalhead

Joined: Tue Apr 30, 2013 11:19 am
Posts: 1113
Location: United States
PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2022 12:24 am 
 

Rewatched more childhood classics that still hold up.

Tommy Boy - Chris Farley and David Spade were such a good duo. 7 / 10

Batman - These days I consider The Dark Knight the definitive Batman movie, but Tim Burton's approach works too. Or at least it worked once, because as a kid I didn't like Batman Returns at all. 8 / 10 for Batman '89, might give the sequel another chance soon.
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Smalley
Metalhead

Joined: Thu Jan 22, 2009 9:06 am
Posts: 1327
PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2022 4:20 am 
 

ChineseDownhill wrote:
Batman - These days I consider The Dark Knight the definitive Batman movie, but Tim Burton's approach works too. Or at least it worked once, because as a kid I didn't like Batman Returns at all. 8 / 10 for Batman '89, might give the sequel another chance soon.
I hope you do give Batman Returns another chance soon, because I actually feel it's the best Batman movie out of the original Warner Brothers series, and a significant improvement over '89, which suffered from a lack of any compelling story or well-developed characters, as well as from a ton of studio interference (whether it be the Nike product placement, the Prince soundtrack, or the Phantom Of The Opera-inspired climax one of the producers randomly insisted upon). Returns, on the other hand, had a great character arc with Catwoman, and had more of that Gothic, Tim Burton-y style, since it's where he really got to let his "freak flag fly" (as Jimi Hendrix once said) with the series.
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acid_bukkake
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Joined: Fri Jan 16, 2015 10:45 am
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Location: United States
PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2022 8:27 am 
 

After Ghostbusters: Afterlife, I think we can all agree that we can put the lid on 80s nostalgia for a while. Very, very good movie, with a great cast and a tight script, but if the property is going to continue on then it needs to take the ball and run without looking back.

8/10. Now inject some more fresh ideas, because the new ones used were awesome.
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ChineseDownhill
Metalhead

Joined: Tue Apr 30, 2013 11:19 am
Posts: 1113
Location: United States
PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2022 9:37 am 
 

Quote:
I hope you do give Batman Returns another chance soon

To go into slightly more detail I first saw Batman Returns when I was young enough, and inexperienced enough as a movie watcher, that I didn't realize Max Shreck was played by a well known actor. I have seen BR at least once since then and it did improve. The main problem could be that putting the Penguin and Catwoman in the sequel seemed like admitting no single villain could compare to the Joker.

It gets points for the nose gushing blood scene anyway.
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CoconutBackwards
Bullet Centrist

Joined: Thu Dec 01, 2016 2:02 pm
Posts: 1787
PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2022 9:42 am 
 

acid_bukkake wrote:
After Ghostbusters: Afterlife, I think we can all agree that we can put the lid on 80s nostalgia for a while. Very, very good movie, with a great cast and a tight script, but if the property is going to continue on then it needs to take the ball and run without looking back.

8/10. Now inject some more fresh ideas, because the new ones used were awesome.


I'm happy to see you liked this movie, also.

There's a shit ton of hate going around for this movie and for the life of me I cannot understand it.

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I got to see the Ghostbusters again in a Ghostbusters movie. That is all I could've ever possibly wanted and I got it.


P.S. I don't know if I'll ever agree on putting the lid on 80s nostalgia considering that is pretty much my entire existence.
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Hexenmacht46290
Has a GED in Gamercide

Joined: Sun Jul 05, 2020 8:30 pm
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Location: United States
PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2022 3:14 pm 
 

CoconutBackwards wrote:
P.S. I don't know if I'll ever agree on putting the lid on 80s nostalgia considering that is pretty much my entire existence.

But it shouldn’t be Hollywood’s entire existence. That’s what makes me not want to watch new movies.
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acid_bukkake
SAD!

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PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2022 9:18 pm 
 

I'm fine with them lidding it if Afterlife is the end. Taking influence from that era is good, because it might be the most enjoyable decade of American cinema (personal claim, based on how much "comfort food" was put out), but just going "80s property slightly revamped for an audience 35 years older" is done.
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Smalley
Metalhead

Joined: Thu Jan 22, 2009 9:06 am
Posts: 1327
PostPosted: Sun Jan 09, 2022 7:08 pm 
 

ChineseDownhill wrote:
To go into slightly more detail I first saw Batman Returns when I was young enough, and inexperienced enough as a movie watcher, that I didn't realize Max Shreck was played by a well known actor. I have seen BR at least once since then and it did improve. The main problem could be that putting the Penguin and Catwoman in the sequel seemed like admitting no single villain could compare to the Joker.
I don't think so; for me, it feels like they included the Penguin in Returns because Catwoman was more of an anti-hero than a true, straight-up villain, so they added him so they could have a true, recognizable "bad guy" from the comics in the movie to make up for that. Besides, Catwoman was such a good character in Returns that she could've conceivably carried the entire movie without any other baddie, certainly moreso than Nicholson's Joker, who felt like he only had so much screentime because of how big a star Jack was, rather than actually needing it.
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REQUIEM
Metal newbie

Joined: Mon Sep 22, 2003 3:58 pm
Posts: 231
Location: Croatia
PostPosted: Mon Jan 10, 2022 7:01 am 
 

darkeningday wrote:
Think Rashômon was also super repetitive?

It didn't need to be so long, but I thought it was very good. Maybe even great.
no, since the differences in rashomon stories were substantial. in scott's film, however, they were miniscule.

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PETERG
Metal newbie

Joined: Sat Jun 20, 2015 1:48 pm
Posts: 398
Location: Greece
PostPosted: Mon Jan 10, 2022 5:54 pm 
 

In the Loop.

As a non native English speaker I challenged myself to watch it without subtitles. Crazy satire and comedy, incredible scripting and dialogues full of excessive idioms and creative insults. Peter Capaldi steals the show.

9/10
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~Guest 280883
Metalhead

Joined: Sat Dec 10, 2011 1:34 pm
Posts: 556
PostPosted: Fri Jan 14, 2022 3:45 am 
 

PETERG wrote:
In the Loop.

As a non native English speaker I challenged myself to watch it without subtitles. Crazy satire and comedy, incredible scripting and dialogues full of excessive idioms and creative insults. Peter Capaldi steals the show.

9/10


Have you ever watched the original TV show (The Thick of It)? I mean, both are awesome, but the show is on another level of hilarity (and brutality).

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DanielG06
Metalhead

Joined: Thu Aug 27, 2020 8:11 pm
Posts: 535
Location: United Kingdom
PostPosted: Fri Jan 14, 2022 12:35 pm 
 

I watched a film from the 50's called Them! that was amazing, considering when it was released.
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WorldEater1126
Mallcore Kid

Joined: Wed Nov 16, 2011 3:11 am
Posts: 10
PostPosted: Fri Jan 14, 2022 4:11 pm 
 

Hey mods, please feel free to delete this if you think the self-promotion is inappropriate, but a movie I recently did a little work on just got released, and we're all really proud of the work we did on it.
It's called Blood Panther: The Way of the Cannibal, and it's about as brutal as it sounds.
You can see it in two places.

Troma recently put it up on their streaming service. I think you can get a free trial there:
https://watch.troma.com/videos/blood-panther

Or, if you're a cheapskate like me, you can check it out at the free link:
https://vimeo.com/523530958

Again, like I said, mods can feel free to delete this if they think it's too spammy. Otherwise, if you do check it out, I hope you enjoy it!

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acid_bukkake
SAD!

Joined: Fri Jan 16, 2015 10:45 am
Posts: 2232
Location: United States
PostPosted: Fri Jan 14, 2022 7:43 pm 
 

DanielG06 wrote:
I watched a film from the 50's called Them! that was amazing, considering when it was released.

The giant ant flick? Hell yeah!
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Zelkiiro
Pounding the world with a fish of steel

Joined: Sat Apr 18, 2009 5:30 pm
Posts: 7729
Location: Pennsylvania
PostPosted: Fri Jan 14, 2022 8:42 pm 
 

So, Encanto is basically a perfect family movie, and my only real criticism is that I wish it were way, way longer, just so the characters (especially the side characters) could get more time to shine.

Already watched it twice, and I'm itchin' for a third before too terribly long.
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Curious_dead
Metalhead

Joined: Wed Sep 20, 2006 12:13 pm
Posts: 1476
PostPosted: Fri Jan 14, 2022 8:50 pm 
 

Zelkiiro wrote:
So, Encanto is basically a perfect family movie, and my only real criticism is that I wish it were way, way longer, just so the characters (especially the side characters) could get more time to shine.

Already watched it twice, and I'm itchin' for a third before too terribly long.


Shitty life pro tip: have a kid, then you'll watch Encanto so often your ears will bleed.

(Truly though I tried watching it with my kid, but there is no separating him from Luca.)

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darkeningday
xXdArKenIngDayXx

Joined: Mon Aug 23, 2004 1:20 pm
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Location: United States
PostPosted: Sat Jan 15, 2022 6:10 am 
 

Edge of Darkness - Considering the pedigree, directed by the guy who made GoldenEye, the writer of The Departed, Mel Gibson, Danny Huston, Ray Winstone and Frank Grillo starring and based on an apparently legendary BBC miniseries from the 1980's, it wasn't the masterpiece it was probably supposed to be. But I loved it all the same. It had all the ingredients I want from political thrillers, and that it was at least done competently is all I need to give it a big recommend.

Now I've gotta check out the TV show, because I'm betting it's even better.
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ChineseDownhill
Metalhead

Joined: Tue Apr 30, 2013 11:19 am
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Location: United States
PostPosted: Sat Jan 15, 2022 7:27 pm 
 

The New Mutants - Ended up agreeing with many of the criticisms I heard from movie Youtubers: this seemed more like a TV pilot than a theatrical release, it was small scale in terms of locations and characters, the accents were unconvincing, there was little plot momentum for the first two thirds. A couple decent moments saved this from being as bad as the first Suicide Squad, but I can't recommend it even at 94 minutes.
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Curious_dead
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 17, 2022 12:06 pm 
 

Watched Encanto this weekend. I liked it, it's beautiful, and it has charming characters, but I did not love it. One thing Pixar movies has over Disney is the lack of songs. Don't get me wrong, as far as Disney songs go, these are great, but I always feel like they take me out of the story, and they don't help the pacing. Plus, there are many interesting characters, I would have preferred if they had more time devoted to fleshing them out, rather than singing and dancing. I'm also not 100% on board with the whole "magic is fading" problem and the final resolution, the tension between the sisters didn't have enough room to feel like an actual issue until it becomes crucial, and I'd have preferred if they didn't randomly recover their magic at the end (but Mirabel is still hosed).

That sounds critical, but I did actually enjoy it, I just feel it could have been stronger and I don't understand all the praise it gets. Its characters are really saving it.

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acid_bukkake
SAD!

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PostPosted: Mon Jan 17, 2022 8:23 pm 
 

The Harder They Fall (2021) may not be on the level of Unforgiven or The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, but it is absolutely in the same tier as Tombstone and The Hateful Eight. The cast is incredible, the gunfights are brutal, and the changes in tone between modernized spaghetti western and homage to blaxsploitation classics (namely the Maysville scene) is handled very well. It's the rare movie that immediately entertained me on many levels while watching it, and just gets better and better the more I've digested it since first watch. 8.5/10
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Empyreal
The Final Frontier

Joined: Thu Nov 30, 2006 6:58 pm
Posts: 35180
Location: Where the dead rule the night
PostPosted: Thu Jan 20, 2022 3:32 pm 
 

The Matrix Reloaded - I'd seen the first one but never any of the sequels. This one had a shitload of really excellent action scenes, like genuinely cool and impressive. I didn't think the story was interesting though, mostly just felt like a dumber and less well thought out version of the first one. It's possible I'm missing something, but I dunno, I just don't really spend time thinking about whether or not reality is real. But I liked the fight scenes.

The Matrix Revolutions - This one was pretty awful really. All the cool stylish flourishes of the first two are gone and what's left is a bargain bin dollar store Star Wars plot, without anything cool about the good Star Wars movies (memorable characters, dialogue, etc). There's maybe one good scene at the end and even that's ruined by some shitty cliche dialogue. I really found this an exhausting and childish slog of a movie. I found myself mostly feeling like I'd just wasted two hours.

The Matrix Resurrections - So this one's gotten a lot of flak and controversy. It's pretty blatant trolling, the dialogue is very on the nose with its themes of taking back this story from the online right-wing trolls and all that. I liked the impish playfulness of it. The visuals were back to the good stuff again and it was all very stylish. Action was mostly fine - it didn't need to be 2.5 hours, and none of the action matched the first two, but it was entertaining enough. Ultimately this was made for a very specific purpose of throwing a middle finger to parts of the audience, and I guess if you think franchises have these deep responsibilities to fans, you might really hate it. I thought it was alright.

The Lost Daughter - If you want likable characters this isn't for you. But I don't care about that. Maggie Gyllenhaal's directing makes this a slow moving dreamy haze with threats of paranoia and adversity on the edges. Unflinching look at parenthood and humanity - really compelling once you see the whole of it. Takes attention and not for a background viewing. There's something alluring about beachy vacation settings used to tell sordid stories that I like. See it if you want something odd to get lost in.

Drive My Car - This is a 3 hour long movie and there's just so much in it that I still don't know if I unpacked everything. It's both relentlessly straightforward and also has just this wealth of depth and richness in this whole story about regret and moving on and just raw humanity. That's why I like fiction. Can be really good like that. It can occasionally be stuff you can keep going back to and trying to decipher. A sense of mystery. There was a real quiet and sense of pacing going on, and nothing was spoonfed to you. Ultimately it actually makes use of all three hours and really comes together as well as any movie can. I was enthralled. Really loved it.

Class Action Park - Pretty wild doc about this Action Park from NJ that basically had no rules or restrictions on rides and just let people break bones, lose teeth and die on these fucking things. It's a fun watch, snappy and entertaining. But it doesn't pull punches. It's revelatory about an aspect of American culture that's always fascinated me; this kind of break-neck, crazy experimentation and frontier-forging at any cost, often ending up detrimental. But the experience is interesting if not admirable.

Also rewatched Von Trier's The House Jack Built with a friend who hadn't seen it, thinking ah maybe it'll make even more sense and I'll get something new from it. Nope. I actually really couldn't stand this shit this time. It's actually amazing how awful and self indulgent it was, just two and a half hours of this guy jerking himself off with "quirky" serial killer monologues and absurd scenes that mostly come off contrived. It's just an empty, worthless experience, saying nothing, a total void of any substance. Ugly and pointless. I liked a few of his older movies but God this one was terrible.
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Jonpo
Hyperc6l6mb6wler

Joined: Tue Jul 31, 2007 10:05 am
Posts: 7735
PostPosted: Sat Jan 22, 2022 1:32 am 
 

Just finished watching Green Room for the 2nd or 3rd time. I think it gets better every time which is weird for a movie that hinges so deeply on the tense atmosphere. I'm smitten by how "real" every character seems. Had to throw on Agent Orange Living in Darkness after it ended because it makes me wanna jam some punk music that ISN'T made by nazi fuck scum.
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darkeningday
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 22, 2022 3:19 am 
 

Green Room is so good. I'm watching the movies RLM recently recommended, currently The Empty Man. Looks interesting, anyone seen this?
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Empyreal
The Final Frontier

Joined: Thu Nov 30, 2006 6:58 pm
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Location: Where the dead rule the night
PostPosted: Sat Jan 22, 2022 8:07 am 
 

Love Green Room and the other Saulnier movies... just so good.

The Empty Man I really wanted to like, but it wasn't really all that good. Mostly gimmicky and the ending I'd say was actually pretty stupid. They put a lot of work in though.
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darkeningday
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Joined: Mon Aug 23, 2004 1:20 pm
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 23, 2022 12:59 am 
 

I thought The Empty Man was an enlightened anatomy of the works of Jacques Derrida synthesized through The Slender Man fad. It felt like a Darren Aronofsky film or even a Sucker Punch with the way every part of the narrative was free to be sacrificed in service of the almighty metaplot. The actual story of this mammoth 2 hours and 20 minute movie is insultingly inconsequential for how alluring (never mind time consuming) the setup of this supernatural-cum-procedural-cum-secret society-cum-philosophical thriller is. Without spoiling anything, none of the interesting things that happen matter much once you hit the final reveal, with an ending that borders dangerously close to "it was all a dream."

No, little of the conventional plot can be salvaged so instead you have to dig into the metaplot to find anything of substance: teens may be trying to conjure a silly fictional being (e.g. Slender Man), but if it leads to real-world, permanent consequences (e.g. the murder of your friend) is that fictional being really just fiction? And if this philosophy was accepted by the institututions that shape this world, wouldn't that make this stupid fad, and any similar to it, a very real threat?

I'm kind of at a loss here because I hate Aronofsky and metaplot films in general, but this struck a chord with me despite most of it not really working and being a hour too long. I guess I'd recommend just reading Derrida and creepypasta instead, but if you ever wondered what a movie of that would look like, you have only to watch The Empty Man.
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ChineseDownhill
Metalhead

Joined: Tue Apr 30, 2013 11:19 am
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Location: United States
PostPosted: Tue Jan 25, 2022 10:28 pm 
 

Nobody - Jeez, I know I keep hammering this point, but ..... not only did the new James Wan horror movie have better action than Matrix 4. Now there's a vehicle for Saul Goodman that pulled off the same upset? Thanks to everyone who recommended this. 7.5 / 10

Memento (rewatch) - I found Inception massively overrated and still haven't seen Tenet, but this early Christopher Nolan flick still works for me. The entire cast needed to be good because Carrie-Anne Moss almost stole the movie with that obscene rant around halfway through. 8 / 10
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acid_bukkake
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 26, 2022 9:56 am 
 

ChineseDownhill wrote:
Nobody - Jeez, I know I keep hammering this point, but ..... not only did the new James Wan horror movie have better action than Matrix 4. Now there's a vehicle for Saul Goodman that pulled off the same upset? Thanks to everyone who recommended this. 7.5 / 10

I also watched this last night. I'd rate it just a tad lower, in that 6.5-7/10 range, but it was basically "Commando by way of John Wick" with a great Odenkirk performance in it all. A fun spot fest of a movie. I wanted there to be some sort of emotional motive for things, but I'll take Christopher Lloyd with a shotgun any day.
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acid_bukkake
SAD!

Joined: Fri Jan 16, 2015 10:45 am
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 27, 2022 12:04 am 
 

...why did I agree to watching the Warrenverse movies...in chronological order...

-The Nun is drizzling shit after the first half, which at least features a solid performance by Taissa Farmiga and some interesting scenes that blend jump scares with thick tension. Saw it in the theater while baked, tried again sober and fell asleep. FAIL.
-Annabelle: Creation is one of the only movies I've fallen asleep during in the theater. At least as an adult. The attempt at a re-watch was no different. MASSIVE FAIL.
-Annabelle is...alright. There's a great scene about halfway through that is horror scene construction 101, just a great example of how to dial up the dread and deliver, but the rest is just...there, until the shit ending that feels like it could have worked if it was built up prior. MINOR PASS.

Next up is The Conjuring, which I remember really enjoying, so we'll see how that goes.
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acid_bukkake
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 02, 2022 9:07 pm 
 

The Conjuring holds up pretty damn well, and is easily the best of the Warrenverse movies. Best direction, best acting, best pacing, etc. The drop off after is insane for such a big franchise, maybe worse than any other besides HalloweenI.

Annabelle Comes Home is a waste of McKenna Grace and feels like a lamer episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark? or the Goosebumps show. We watched Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark last week, and it was very flawed but ultimately enjoyable, and this piece of shit is...not. McKenna Grace delivers what she can, but it isn't a whole lot.

The Curse of La Llorona is one of the laziest movies I have River seen in my entire life. I have seen shot-on-VHS abominations that put forth greater effort than this. How the FUCK do you cast Linda Cardellini in the lead and make it so you don't care about her? HOW?!?!?

The Conjuring 2 is a step in the right direction, with some good ideas peppered throughout (like having the very real skeptics of the Warrens in key moments, and basing much of it on the "factual" elements of the Enfield Poltergeist case), but still comes up very, very short. There's a nice angle here, of presenting the skeptic's views and then favoring the "but what if..." side (since the Warrenverse movies hinge on their BS being what actually happened), but the ending is just...yeeeeeeeesh.
Spoiler: show
They defeat the demon, the Nun, by saying its name. That's it. After 4 movies hyping up the Nun, Valak, as being an absolute insane boss of a demon? "I know your name, which means I have dominion over you! I condemn you to Hell!" And back to Hell the demon goes.


Watching the final one, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, tonight. Wish me luck.
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It just dawned on me that if there was a Christian equivalent of Cannibal Corpse, they could have the song title I Cum Forgiveness.

darkeningday wrote:
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Zelkiiro
Pounding the world with a fish of steel

Joined: Sat Apr 18, 2009 5:30 pm
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Location: Pennsylvania
PostPosted: Wed Feb 02, 2022 10:01 pm 
 

acid_bukkake wrote:
The Conjuring 2 is a step in the right direction, with some good ideas peppered throughout (like having the very real skeptics of the Warrens in key moments, and basing much of it on the "factual" elements of the Enfield Poltergeist case), but still comes up very, very short. There's a nice angle here, of presenting the skeptic's views and then favoring the "but what if..." side (since the Warrenverse movies hinge on their BS being what actually happened), but the ending is just...yeeeeeeeesh.
Spoiler: show
They defeat the demon, the Nun, by saying its name. That's it. After 4 movies hyping up the Nun, Valak, as being an absolute insane boss of a demon? "I know your name, which means I have dominion over you! I condemn you to Hell!" And back to Hell the demon goes.

I mean, that's part of why you don't bother with those side movies--so you don't get your hopes amped up for what is a very standard demon villain.

Conjuring 3 was super frustrating and dumb. Had some very good moments sprinkled throughout, but basically the entire second half is complete bollocks.
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acid_bukkake
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 03, 2022 7:22 am 
 

Okay. The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It. Done. Over with.

It was one of the most enjoyable movies in the series, second to the first one in entertainment and quality (which isn't saying much), and is the most visually interesting of the entire series.

But holy motherfuck GODDAMN do they need to find a screenwriter who understands that the final act needs to breathe a little more. There was a lot of good going on, and I loved the change that the Warrens were investigating crime scenes and unraveling murder mysteries instead of just another haunted house, but it's another case of everything getting wrapped up too quickly and too easily. The one horror trope these movies don't use and abuse, the drawn-out finale, is probably the only one that they really should be.

Overall, I'd give it a 6.5/10. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson can do so much better, and I really do love their chemistry, but they deserve more than these odes to known hucksters.hecklers.

FINAL RANKINGS, best to worst:
The Conjuring
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It
The Conjuring 2
Annabelle Comes Home
Annabelle
The Nun
The Curse of La Llorona
Annabelle: Creation


There is such a steeeeep drop in quality after the first Conjuring. Maybe one of the worst dips in a major horror series.
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Dembo wrote:
It just dawned on me that if there was a Christian equivalent of Cannibal Corpse, they could have the song title I Cum Forgiveness.

darkeningday wrote:
I haven't saw any of the Seen movies.

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Curious_dead
Metalhead

Joined: Wed Sep 20, 2006 12:13 pm
Posts: 1476
PostPosted: Thu Feb 03, 2022 9:45 am 
 

I watched the Conjuring years ago, I liked it. Then we (my girlfriend and I) watched parts of the rest, usually catching a few scenes on TV here and there, and nothing we saw made us want to watch them. I like what they did, basically a sort of horror cinematic universe with recurring characters that are not just returning villains, but everything tells me to stay away from these (except the first one). Good concept, bad execution.

I rewatched Dune last weekend. I think I liked it even better the second time. Maybe I was anxious that I was overhyping it, or wondered if the sequel would even be greenlit (seriously WB should trust more into its movies and should have greenlit the whole thing way before so the production would have started already). It's long but it doesn't feel like it, and the visual effects are just stunning.
Spoiler: show
I got the feeling that Duke Leto may have been an inspiration for Ned Stark - he's the honorable head of his house who is a good man, who loves his family, but he ultimately gets stabbed in the back and dies too early because of it.

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acid_bukkake
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 03, 2022 11:30 am 
 

I will say this, in very strong favor of Conjuring 3:

There are a ton of very, very well executed camera tricks and framing of scenes. There's an excellent nod to the classic "priest under the street lamp" scene from The ExorcistI, a pretty good "nightmare logic" sequence, and very solid use of shadows and actions just out of frame. James Wan clearly knows what he's doing, but it's the script that hampers the Conjuring sequels.
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Dembo wrote:
It just dawned on me that if there was a Christian equivalent of Cannibal Corpse, they could have the song title I Cum Forgiveness.

darkeningday wrote:
I haven't saw any of the Seen movies.

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