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Gravetemplar
Metal freak

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PostPosted: Sat May 08, 2021 7:22 pm 
 

rawsewage wrote:
Any good horror movies from the last few years (19-20)? Been completely out of the loop. Pretty much any style minus found footage.

Hereditary and the last Suspiria remake.

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Empyreal
The Final Frontier

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PostPosted: Sat May 08, 2021 7:27 pm 
 

Us, Color Out of Space... and everything I talk about here: http://docuniverse.blogspot.com/2020/10 ... orror.html
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jimbies
Noose Springsteen

Joined: Thu Jul 21, 2016 2:52 pm
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Location: Canada
PostPosted: Sat May 08, 2021 7:46 pm 
 

rawsewage wrote:
Any good horror movies from the last few years (19-20)? Been completely out of the loop. Pretty much any style minus found footage.


I don't watch a lot of horror films, but I did like Goodnight Mommy and I am The Pretty Thing That Lives In The House.

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YesIam
Metal newbie

Joined: Mon Mar 08, 2010 10:44 am
Posts: 264
Location: Kenya
PostPosted: Sat May 08, 2021 8:18 pm 
 

There's been plenty amazing movies these last couple of years, and aside from the already mentioned The Color Out of Space which I love, I'd say Midsommar, The Wolf of Snow Hollow, Gretel & Hansel, VFW, Bacurau, Ready or Not and Boyz in the Wood are my favourites. And some people might not even rate the three last ones as horror movies in any way, shape or form. I do, tho.

Midsommar is a folk-horror movie drawing clear inspirations from The Wicker Man, but without actually copying it or anything. It's a much weirder movie, but a massive experience from beginning to end. Easily one of the best horror movies from last decade. Superb in every single way!

The Wolf of Snow Hollow is a black comedy horror movie, and I think it's a typical hit or miss-kind of movie. It's a bit weird and very off beat, much due to writer-director Jim Cummings lead performance. He's a weird as fuck actor, but I was totally captivated by his performance. Thought he was phenomenal. But at the same time I've seen a lot of people saying his performance ruined the entire experience for them. But for me it was a homerun.

Gretel & Hansel is a slow-burning folk-horror movies based on the tale of Hansel & Gretel, but from a slightly different view. It's really slow, but incredibly atmospheric, visually stunning and well put together. Guess I'd say it's similar to other modern folk-horror movies like Hagazussa and The Witch, but with a more dream-like and fairytale-esque feeling to it. Gorgeous movie!

VFX isn't scary or anything like that, but it's an incredibly fun and violent action-horror movie that pays great homage to the 80's and early 90's, starring legends like Stephen Lang, William Sadler, Martin Kove and Fred Williamson. Invite some friends, buy some beers and pizza and have fun. This one's a total blast!

Bacurau is a...uh...weird western horror thriller or something? It's unique, and it's superb as both entertainment and political allegory. One of those movies which SHOULD get a lot more coverage, but ends up being kinda obscure as far as I know. Imagine a weird-western horror version of Rambo and Assault on Precinct 13, but with a art-house-esque twist to it.

Ready or Not isn't very original, but it's loads of fun throughout. Got much of the same vibe as You’re Next IMO. Which is awesome.

Boyz in the Wood (or Get Duked! as it is known as) is a British black comedy horror movie. Hands down one of the funniest movies of the last decade, but without losing its thrills. A backwoods horror movie with a huge funny twist. This killed me!

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ChineseDownhill
Metalhead

Joined: Tue Apr 30, 2013 11:19 am
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PostPosted: Sat May 08, 2021 10:06 pm 
 

I'll try to focus on stuff that hasn't been mentioned yet on this page, except I have to give another vote to Hereditary.

Lower budget / non-theatrical
The Mortuary Collection - Liked this better than pretty much every recent anthology (V/H/S etc.)
Relic - Dramatic horror about mother and daughter dealing with grandma's mental decline
The Lodge - More dramatic horror about two kids stuck with future stepmom during snowstorm
Haunt - An "extreme" haunted house attraction takes things too far

Big budget / theatrical
Doctor Sleep - Well done, provided you don't consider a Shining sequel inherently blasphemous
Crawl - Competitive swimmer stuck in flooded house with gators
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Smalley
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Joined: Thu Jan 22, 2009 9:06 am
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PostPosted: Mon May 10, 2021 8:48 pm 
 

rawsewage wrote:
Any good horror movies from the last few years (19-20)? Been completely out of the loop. Pretty much any style minus found footage.

Annihilation?
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Subrick
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PostPosted: Fri May 14, 2021 8:36 pm 
 

Why do people like Signs again? Most people act like this is one of his good movies, but it’s a complete shitshow. Nothing about it makes sense, the characters all act like fools, and the ultimate message of the movie is completely fucking insane. I’m just gonna spoil the shit out of it, so warning for those that have never seen it.

Spoiler: show
Mel Gibson’s wife dies in a car wreck, and as she dies she tells him to tell his brother Joaquin Phoenix to “swing away”, among other things. Years later, Gibson, who was a reverend but renounced his faith after his wife died, is a farmer whose family begins to see crop circles. Turns out that hostile aliens are creating the crop circles and they want to fuck humans up. One alien gets trapped in the pantry of the man who killed Mel Gibson’s wife, played by M. Night himself. The alien can’t seem to get through the door. Later, an alien attacks Mel Gibson’s home, and during the attack the alien spills water on itself, causing the alien to have an awful burning reaction to it. It’s at this moment that Gibson recalls the memory of his dying wife telling Joaquin to “swing away”, and he tells this to Joaquin, who plays a former baseball player that crapped out of the pros by swinging too much. He takes a baseball bat and turns the alien’s head into mush. Gibson ends up returning to being a reverend afterwards, his faith restored. That means that this entire goddamn story of dead wives and aliens was, as interpreted by Mel Gibson’s character, God’s way of telling him in the past that Joaquin Phoenix needs to “swing away” to kill the alien attacking them in the future as a way to restore Mel Gibson’s faith, and to do that, he has Mel Gibson’s wife die and the planet mostly made of water and wood be invaded by aliens that are allergic to water and wood. That is...so out this world ridiculous and stupid and absurd that I cannot possibly imagine what M. Night was thinking writing it.


It’s astounding to me that this movie is somehow regarded as an underrated classic, but The Village is terrible and the first movie of his that sucks. Yeah no. Signs stinks.
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ChineseDownhill
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PostPosted: Fri May 14, 2021 10:33 pm 
 

I rewatched Signs and The Village a few months ago and my IMDB history says I gave Signs 5 / 10 and The Village 4 / 10. I don't know if I can provide any kind of convincing argument why I found Signs "better." I sort of remember the flashback scene to the accident in Signs being surprisingly effective, at least?

But it's a case where even the movie I liked more is still severely flawed. Once you know where Signs is going, it requires way too much suspension of disbelief even by sci-fi or fantasy standards.

Spoiler: show
Technologically advanced, water-hating aliens couldn't be bothered to wear space suits during a trip to Earth?!

I was told the ending of The Village years before I got around to watching it. Whereas Signs has occasional decent moments that don't add up to a successful whole, The Village is more of a flatline for me. For example I remember scenes of major characters dying, or almost dying, and I just didn't care.
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OzzyApu
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PostPosted: Fri May 14, 2021 10:37 pm 
 

I remember when Signs came out (I was 12) and I was scared. I remember watching it at a friend's house and like real wimps we did the "embrace each other in fear" hug. You know what scene it was at? The one where the alien on TV walks in frame for like a second.

I dunno, I hate almost every Shymalan movie (I even think 6th Sense sucks) and despite all the flaws with it, I do like the feeling of dread and isolation in Signs. It's definitely a slow burn movie. It does some right things, but yes it's impossible to overlook where it goes very wrong.
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Empyreal
The Final Frontier

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PostPosted: Sat May 15, 2021 1:11 am 
 

Signs is an awful fucking movie. I finally gave up on Shyamalan after 'Split' a few years back - a truly worthless piece of film that I guess some people found merit in. But I didn't.

Spiral - This was OK; some predictably gory stuff and they did a lot of shit like the real old SAW films which sort of makes it better than the new ones. But it's not gonna blow you away. Goofy dialogue and you don't really get a feel for who the characters are - it's almost like just half a movie. But I didn't hate it. Almost everything it did was straight from the old ones so none of it was really surprising. There was a bit of social commentary but I can't say it was too deep or anything. But eh they tried.
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Gravetemplar
Metal freak

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PostPosted: Sat May 15, 2021 8:58 am 
 

I didn't really like Signs but The Village was OK imho. When it was released that idea was kind of fresh, at least to me. It's been repeated ad nauseam ever since so I can understand why someone watching it now could think otherwise.

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Curious_dead
Metalhead

Joined: Wed Sep 20, 2006 12:13 pm
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PostPosted: Sat May 15, 2021 9:30 am 
 

Signs was terrible, doesn't make any sense, and I could guess the Village's twist from the trailers. I think the Village could be better if it was edited slightly differently.

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Face_your_fear_79
Metalhead

Joined: Sun Sep 21, 2014 8:18 am
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PostPosted: Mon May 17, 2021 5:16 am 
 

Watched 2001 again after a long while and I was reminded about how great the movie still is and still holds up very well especially today. Brilliant film and one of the few movies I truly think is worthy of being called a classic.

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Mystic_Stylez
Metal newbie

Joined: Thu May 13, 2021 2:22 pm
Posts: 31
Location: Philippines
PostPosted: Thu May 20, 2021 1:24 pm 
 

Can you guys suggest some good Netflix movies or movies that are on Netflix? I am looking for mostly action or gangster/crime films but if there’s some good thriller or any other type of movies you can recommend I’ll appreciate it. Maybe some dark comedy or some stuff like Pulp Fiction or Guy Ritchie type of films or anything as long as it’s good. Thanks in advance. I’m sorry it’s too much for me to read over all the pages I wouldn’t know what I wanna look for and I was reading the whole Jon Schaffer thread and I’m still not done it’s been a week I think. Thank you again folks.

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ChineseDownhill
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PostPosted: Thu May 20, 2021 6:30 pm 
 

I'm assuming any title with the red "N" logo on the thumbnail would be something Netflix has the rights to show in all countries.

The Irishman - Predictable choice, but absolutely worth watching even at 3.5 hours (I split it over 2 days)
The Night Comes for Us - Intense action with some actors from The Raid series

These aren't Netflix originals, so no guarantee they're available outside the US.

Training Day - Haven't watched in years, but remember being good
The Guest - Adam Wingard's best movie IMO, even though it's more suspense / thriller than horror
Scarface (Pacino version) - Just in case you haven't seen it, it's one of those movies everyone should watch at least once
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Empyreal
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PostPosted: Thu May 20, 2021 6:34 pm 
 

Anyone not seeing "Synchronic" on Netflix is doing themselves a disservice.
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Mystic_Stylez
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Joined: Thu May 13, 2021 2:22 pm
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Location: Philippines
PostPosted: Fri May 21, 2021 1:45 am 
 

ChineseDownhill wrote:
I'm assuming any title with the red "N" logo on the thumbnail would be something Netflix has the rights to show in all countries.

The Irishman - Predictable choice, but absolutely worth watching even at 3.5 hours (I split it over 2 days)
The Night Comes for Us - Intense action with some actors from The Raid series

These aren't Netflix originals, so no guarantee they're available outside the US.

Training Day - Haven't watched in years, but remember being good
The Guest - Adam Wingard's best movie IMO, even though it's more suspense / thriller than horror
Scarface (Pacino version) - Just in case you haven't seen it, it's one of those movies everyone should watch at least once



Thanks for the suggestions man. I’ve seen these movies actually except for the Guest. I love Night Comes for Us. Very violent and cool I like it. Of course Scarface is a classic and one of the best gangster movies but its been 10 years or so that I’ve seen it I think I’m gonna watch it again. Thanks though man.

I haven’t seen Synchronize but the way the poster said it I think I’m gonna watch it tonight. Thanks man.

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ChineseDownhill
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PostPosted: Sat May 22, 2021 8:12 pm 
 

Yeah I wasn't exactly unearthing obscure gems with those recommendations. Kind of figured you would have already seen The Irishman and Scarface at least, and possibly Training Day. But hopefully you'll like The Guest.

As long as I'm shilling for streaming services...

Psycho Goreman - This is in the top tier of recent Shudder.com additions. The title character is the most evil creature in the universe, but now he's stuck on Earth and under the control of a young girl and her brother. A common complaint seems to be that the girl is so obnoxious it ruins the movie. I absolutely admit she's not written to be likeable in the traditional sense, but in a weird, violent movie like this I thought her performance worked. Lots of fun low-budget practical alien designs in this one too. I'll be watching it again soon. 7 / 10
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Lane
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PostPosted: Sun May 23, 2021 10:35 am 
 

Took this long for me to see 'Cabin in the Woods'. It was on my watchlisdt for years and years...

I wasn't amused, wasn't scared, I was bored, pretty much. It's not total crap, but just a very average movie. Idea itself ain't that bad, but for some reason the movie really didn't humour me, plus I guessed what's going on when that weird guy phoned to "the bureau".
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~Guest 285196
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PostPosted: Sun May 23, 2021 1:13 pm 
 

Not a movie, but I finally watched the first season of True Detective. 10/10 stuff. Possibly the best acting I've seen from Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson. I won't spoil it, but it's basically a detective story with a murder mystery, but there is a sense of dread and horror that makes it a good watch. Nothing outright supernatural, but just something disturbing and unsettling that lurks around the edges of our main story.

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KeeperOfTheMissingLink
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Oct 08, 2014 11:05 am
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PostPosted: Sun May 23, 2021 6:22 pm 
 

I don't know why people don't like Signs. I try to see what people have issue with it, but whenever I watch it, I get completely engrossed in the film and by the time the ending comes around, it never fails to make me tear up a bit. I'm not religious, but I find it really inspiring that Graham goes from seeing the world as a random series of events to indicators that God is looking out for him. I don't see Signs as a message movie, since I don't think the point is that you share Graham's perspective by the end of it. I think the film works just as well if you only sympathize with his perspective rather than agree with it.

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Empyreal
The Final Frontier

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PostPosted: Tue May 25, 2021 7:18 pm 
 

The Killing of Two Lovers is a really arresting piece of film. Just this stark story of a family in this small town trying to stay together. There's not a lot of twists to it - just a straight-ahead tale. But it's done with so many layers and is directed so artfully. The camera holds on every uncomfortable scene from a bit back, letting you see the whole thing unflinchingly. The main guy's facial expressions and actions tell more of the story than the dialogue, and the tension builds like a fucking bomb about to explode despite everything happening being quite mundane if you just read it off a paper - it's just done so well on film. It's just a really exquisite portrait of human drama, and it stays interesting because you don't really know quite what to make of any character for most of it, with the dialogue only barely skimming the surface. I found this totally fucking gripping.
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Curious_dead
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Joined: Wed Sep 20, 2006 12:13 pm
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PostPosted: Tue May 25, 2021 7:46 pm 
 

KeeperOfTheMissingLink wrote:
I don't know why people don't like Signs. I try to see what people have issue with it, but whenever I watch it, I get completely engrossed in the film and by the time the ending comes around, it never fails to make me tear up a bit. I'm not religious, but I find it really inspiring that Graham goes from seeing the world as a random series of events to indicators that God is looking out for him. I don't see Signs as a message movie, since I don't think the point is that you share Graham's perspective by the end of it. I think the film works just as well if you only sympathize with his perspective rather than agree with it.


Well for me, the alien threat and their weakness makes no sense. It tries to capture War of the World, but whereas an advanced species could have missed the presence of a micro-organism to which it would have been weak, it's absolutely bonkers that aliens ignored that water burn them, and that they managed to not realize it before Gibson's kid starts hitting the glasses. Plus the "signs" from God are so obvious, I think the movie could have been good had it been more subtle. Plus I rarely felt much suspense in it too.

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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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PostPosted: Tue May 25, 2021 9:04 pm 
 

Curious_dead wrote:
KeeperOfTheMissingLink wrote:
I don't know why people don't like Signs. I try to see what people have issue with it, but whenever I watch it, I get completely engrossed in the film and by the time the ending comes around, it never fails to make me tear up a bit. I'm not religious, but I find it really inspiring that Graham goes from seeing the world as a random series of events to indicators that God is looking out for him. I don't see Signs as a message movie, since I don't think the point is that you share Graham's perspective by the end of it. I think the film works just as well if you only sympathize with his perspective rather than agree with it.


Well for me, the alien threat and their weakness makes no sense. It tries to capture War of the World, but whereas an advanced species could have missed the presence of a micro-organism to which it would have been weak, it's absolutely bonkers that aliens ignored that water burn them, and that they managed to not realize it before Gibson's kid starts hitting the glasses. Plus the "signs" from God are so obvious, I think the movie could have been good had it been more subtle. Plus I rarely felt much suspense in it too.

Or even if the movie was a little smarter about its aliens being weak to water. Like, have them in body suits, and Mel Gibson tears a big slash in the suit with an improvised spear, and then it gets hit with the water. Even a small change like that would make it so much less dumb.
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Empyreal
The Final Frontier

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PostPosted: Tue May 25, 2021 9:06 pm 
 

I just really hate Shyamalan's style in pretty much every aspect possible, and found the movie to be exceedingly stupid preachy garbage... then again it has been years since I saw it. But recent films of his don't make me want to go back.
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KeeperOfTheMissingLink
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PostPosted: Tue May 25, 2021 10:27 pm 
 

Curious_dead wrote:

Well for me, the alien threat and their weakness makes no sense. (...) I think the movie could have been good had it been more subtle.


But the film is subtle. It doesn't reveal the aliens' threat. XP

In all seriousness, I do agree that the aliens' perspective or history isn't explicit, but that's not the focus of the movie. Signs isn't a story about a war between an alien species and humanity, it's about a small, idiosyncratic, and traumatized family and community reacting to unknown invaders. To me, the family dynamics being engaging and memorable is my metric for judging Signs, not the mythology of the alien creatures. There's plenty of films that have the opposite focus which don't entertain me as much, so I'm glad with how Signs turned out.

Empyreal wrote:
I just really hate Shyamalan's style in pretty much every aspect possible, and found the movie to be exceedingly stupid preachy garbage...


By the way, what exactly do you think the film is preaching? I get that religion is in the film's text, but I just saw it as a side-effect of exploring the perspective of someone who has a theological crisis and never felt like it was telling me "do this and that".

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Curious_dead
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PostPosted: Wed May 26, 2021 6:26 am 
 

I get that the movie isn't primarily about the aliens threat, and indeed it's nice that Shyamalan focused on small family dynamics instead, but their presence is still integral to the movie and its developments, and they being incredibly stupid just ruins the whole thing. Plus, without them, you end up with something that is still a sub-par (IMO) family drama about faith. He tried to tell a family story through an alien invasion which is a good concept, but he totally botched the alien part (dumb alien weakness, little suspense) which leaves half a movie.

Oh, plus he made the movie about signs (the signs in the corn fields? no it's actually the signs from God), and the corn field signs are just another weak plot point.

Like, it's generally a great idea, I think; but the execution is just terrible. And believe me, I really wanted to love the movie, because I loved 6th Sense and Unbreakable and like I said, I think the general idea is great. Shyamalan often has cool ideas for his plots, but he's not a great director.

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~Guest 361478
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PostPosted: Wed May 26, 2021 7:58 am 
 

Tried watching the film 'Backdraft' the other night. I say tried, as we got about halfway through and had drowned in a lot of badly-abused 80s stereotypes - you've got the profession made out to be a cross between Jesus Chirst and John Rambo, you've got the new guy getting some grief, the old veteran marines firemen, the tragic death of some random background person, a random bully character playing up to the South Park 'OH IT'S STAN DARSH' type, the random Irish dancing interlude, more grab-you-by-the-feels incidental music than you can shake a montage at... I mean, I love 80s movies - but this was like someone said 'we're going to take all of the dull bits from Top Gun, Rocky IV, Deathwish III, Commando, and Ghostbusters and make a film about FIREMEN'. That this got Oscor nominations says something to the state of the academy in 1991 I think.

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Gravetemplar
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PostPosted: Wed May 26, 2021 8:12 am 
 

Curious_dead wrote:
I get that the movie isn't primarily about the aliens threat, and indeed it's nice that Shyamalan focused on small family dynamics instead, but their presence is still integral to the movie and its developments, and they being incredibly stupid just ruins the whole thing. Plus, without them, you end up with something that is still a sub-par (IMO) family drama about faith. He tried to tell a family story through an alien invasion which is a good concept, but he totally botched the alien part (dumb alien weakness, little suspense) which leaves half a movie.

This, totally. Can't the aliens just wear protective clothes? It makes no sense.

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CoconutBackwards
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PostPosted: Wed May 26, 2021 8:26 am 
 

Empyreal wrote:
Anyone not seeing "Synchronic" on Netflix is doing themselves a disservice.


I'll check it out. I hadn't even heard of it.

Netflix is consistently putting out so much dog shit that I've stopped paying attention to their monthly additions.

I am excited about the new episodes of Love, Death & Robots.
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Empyreal
The Final Frontier

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PostPosted: Wed May 26, 2021 11:00 am 
 

KeeperOfTheMissingLink wrote:

Empyreal wrote:
I just really hate Shyamalan's style in pretty much every aspect possible, and found the movie to be exceedingly stupid preachy garbage...


By the way, what exactly do you think the film is preaching? I get that religion is in the film's text, but I just saw it as a side-effect of exploring the perspective of someone who has a theological crisis and never felt like it was telling me "do this and that".


I never liked the "there's a reason for everything" kind of message. I remember the way it got that message across being very hackneyed and dumb - just super in your face for my tastes. These days my atheism is just a personal thing and I don't care anymore, so maybe I wouldn't be so bothered by what I perceived back then as "preachy," but eh I doubt I'd like the movie any more now anyway.

Quote:
I'll check it out. I hadn't even heard of it.

Netflix is consistently putting out so much dog shit that I've stopped paying attention to their monthly additions.

I am excited about the new episodes of Love, Death & Robots.


Yeah it's a Benson/Moorhead film - dudes behind The Endless and Spring as well. All great, very smart and evocative pieces of film. Even their first one Resolution is good. Got that old school DIY type of vibe.
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KeeperOfTheMissingLink
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PostPosted: Wed May 26, 2021 3:22 pm 
 

Curious_dead wrote:
Plus, without them, you end up with something that is still a sub-par (IMO) family drama about faith.


I think that's the main reason why you don't like the film. No matter what Shyamalan did to the aliens that made them more satisfactory, I think you'd still walk away from Signs not liking it because the family drama came off as sub-par to you.

And to all the people suggesting that the aliens should have been wearing water-proof body-armor or something, do you really think the movie would have been bettered by giving what's clearly meant to be a mysterious threat an arbitrary add-on and giving the audience some clunky exposition to explain what it is? I think at this point, you're just asking Signs to be a completely different movie than what it is.

Empyreal wrote:
I never liked the "there's a reason for everything" kind of message. I remember the way it got that message across being very hackneyed and dumb - just super in your face for my tastes. These days my atheism is just a personal thing and I don't care anymore, so maybe I wouldn't be so bothered by what I perceived back then as "preachy," but eh I doubt I'd like the movie any more now anyway.


That's a fair reaction. For what it's worth, I'm not religious myself, but the overall film still works for me, but given what I've deduced from your tastes, I think you're probably right in that you won't love the movie now. I'm one of those people whose Shyamalan's style works for and I can understand what works for me doesn't for other people.

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Curious_dead
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PostPosted: Wed May 26, 2021 4:11 pm 
 

If the alien part had been at least decent, I would have been more forgiving about the family drama.

And I'm not sure why a suit would have required an explanation; our astronauts don't go in space butt-naked.

And yes, I'm asking for Signs to be a completely different movie; I want it to be actually decent.

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Empyreal
The Final Frontier

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PostPosted: Wed May 26, 2021 4:21 pm 
 

KeeperOfTheMissingLink wrote:
Empyreal wrote:
I never liked the "there's a reason for everything" kind of message. I remember the way it got that message across being very hackneyed and dumb - just super in your face for my tastes. These days my atheism is just a personal thing and I don't care anymore, so maybe I wouldn't be so bothered by what I perceived back then as "preachy," but eh I doubt I'd like the movie any more now anyway.


That's a fair reaction. For what it's worth, I'm not religious myself, but the overall film still works for me, but given what I've deduced from your tastes, I think you're probably right in that you won't love the movie now. I'm one of those people whose Shyamalan's style works for and I can understand what works for me doesn't for other people.


The only ones I thought were passable that I've seen were Unbreakable and Sixth Sense, and even then, I didn't love those... I only tried Split out because it was supposedly this whole new chapter for him and there was all this talk of tying it in with Unbreakable. But after that flopped for me I just decided to let him go and quit focusing on things like his movies or Zack Snyder's where I just intrinsically don't like the directors' styles.
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KeeperOfTheMissingLink
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PostPosted: Wed May 26, 2021 5:11 pm 
 

Curious_dead wrote:
If the alien part had been at least decent, I would have been more forgiving about the family drama.

And I'm not sure why a suit would have required an explanation; our astronauts don't go in space butt-naked.

And yes, I'm asking for Signs to be a completely different movie; I want it to be actually decent.


How would your feelings about the aliens affect your reaction to the family drama? They're different parts of the film that for the most part don't really affect one another.

The suit would need an explanation because traditionally speaking, when Aliens visit Earth in science fiction, they don't wear or require space suits, so the explanation would be necessary for those members in the audience who'd be confused by that.

There's nothing wrong with wanting a film that you dislike to be a film that you like. What I'm saying is that you want Signs to be about something else entirely, not an improved version of what it already is (whatever that would look like to you).

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KeeperOfTheMissingLink
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PostPosted: Wed May 26, 2021 5:19 pm 
 

Empyreal wrote:
The only ones I thought were passable that I've seen were Unbreakable and Sixth Sense, and even then, I didn't love those... I only tried Split out because it was supposedly this whole new chapter for him and there was all this talk of tying it in with Unbreakable. But after that flopped for me I just decided to let him go and quit focusing on things like his movies or Zack Snyder's where I just intrinsically don't like the directors' styles.


I get that. I have a couple filmmakers where after watching only one or two of their films, I say "Nope! Not my cup of tea" and move on to stuff I would actually like.

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BastardHead
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PostPosted: Wed May 26, 2021 5:56 pm 
 

THESIS: By the time of Signs, Shyamalan was already known as "the twist ending guy" so people were on the lookout for the big shocking reveal. Signs didn't really have one, it just had a regular cinematic climax, so people were disappointed because they wanted some big reveal that would recontextualize the entire film like his first two did. Ergo, they latched on to the closest thing to a twist (the aliens being hurt by water) and got more upset than usual over how dumb of a plot element that is. Also he was known as primarily a horror guy thanks to The Sixth Sense, so the fact that Signs was primarily a drama about a crumbling family unit and a crisis of faith felt like a bait-and-switch, especially because the horror elements that remained were so corny and dumb.

ANITHESIS: You can argue that Sixth Sense and Unbreakable were already primarily dramas with some horror elements anyway, so it's not like it's a big departure from what made him famous in the first place. Also a lot of the criticism for the film seems based around that mid-internet style of super nitpicky hyperbolic reviews like Nostalgia Critic and such that couldn't tell the difference between plot holes and poor worldbuilding (hint: it's not a plot hole that the aliens landed on a planet almost entirely covered in a toxic substance) so whatever discourse still lingers around the movie online has been poisoned by screeching manchildren.

SYNTHESIS: Unbreakable also sucked and Shyamalan nailed The Sixth Sense on beginner's luck and has been awful ever since, so Signs being shitty shouldn't be a surprise to anybody.
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KeeperOfTheMissingLink
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PostPosted: Wed May 26, 2021 6:10 pm 
 

BastardHead wrote:
THESIS: By the time of Signs, Shyamalan was already known as "the twist ending guy" so people were on the lookout for the big shocking reveal. Signs didn't really have one, it just had a regular cinematic climax, so people were disappointed because they wanted some big reveal that would recontextualize the entire film like his first two did. Ergo, they latched on to the closest thing to a twist (the aliens being hurt by water) and got more upset than usual over how dumb of a plot element that is. Also he was known as primarily a horror guy thanks to The Sixth Sense, so the fact that Signs was primarily a drama about a crumbling family unit and a crisis of faith felt like a bait-and-switch, especially because the horror elements that remained were so corny and dumb.

ANITHESIS: You can argue that Sixth Sense and Unbreakable were already primarily dramas with some horror elements anyway, so it's not like it's a big departure from what made him famous in the first place. Also a lot of the criticism for the film seems based around that mid-internet style of super nitpicky hyperbolic reviews like Nostalgia Critic and such that couldn't tell the difference between plot holes and poor worldbuilding (hint: it's not a plot hole that the aliens landed on a planet almost entirely covered in a toxic substance) so whatever discourse still lingers around the movie online has been poisoned by screeching manchildren.

SYNTHESIS: Unbreakable also sucked and Shyamalan nailed The Sixth Sense on beginner's luck and has been awful ever since, so Signs being shitty shouldn't be a surprise to anybody.


COUNTERTHESIS: Shyamalan is actually one of the best filmmakers currently working in Hollywood and The Sixth Sense isn't even one of his top five best films. XP

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acid_bukkake
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Joined: Fri Jan 16, 2015 10:45 am
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PostPosted: Thu May 27, 2021 8:05 am 
 

Psycho Goreman was alright. I definitely think the director's previous work, The Void, is vastly superior, because that was focused and knew what it wanted to be from the word go. PG falters because it's a genre movie that is trying so, so hard to be a memorable genre movie, but never quite plays it the right way. Turbo Kid it is not.
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Curious_dead
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Joined: Wed Sep 20, 2006 12:13 pm
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PostPosted: Thu May 27, 2021 8:38 am 
 

KeeperOfTheMissingLink wrote:
Curious_dead wrote:
If the alien part had been at least decent, I would have been more forgiving about the family drama.

And I'm not sure why a suit would have required an explanation; our astronauts don't go in space butt-naked.

And yes, I'm asking for Signs to be a completely different movie; I want it to be actually decent.


How would your feelings about the aliens affect your reaction to the family drama? They're different parts of the film that for the most part don't really affect one another.

The suit would need an explanation because traditionally speaking, when Aliens visit Earth in science fiction, they don't wear or require space suits, so the explanation would be necessary for those members in the audience who'd be confused by that.

There's nothing wrong with wanting a film that you dislike to be a film that you like. What I'm saying is that you want Signs to be about something else entirely, not an improved version of what it already is (whatever that would look like to you).


Well, if at least one half of the movie had been interesting, I would have been more likely to overlook the other half's flaws.

And I know Hollywood tends to overexplain, but really, a spacesuit-wearing alien isn't new or confusing. I understand why from a Hollywood perspective it would be an issue since they really feel the need to explain every little detail, but I'm talking purely from a "let's make the movie better" perspective.

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