Rate the Last Movie You Saw

[Sock Monkey]

I've just started working through the Vinnegar Syndrome Lost Picture Show boxed set. All the films in this set were considered lost and were located & restored by Vinegar Syndrome. Most of the films are low-budget genre pics from the early 60's-70's. Watched the first film last night, Carlos Tobalina's "What's Love?" and was pleasantly surprised. Very sleazy low-budget film about the devil coming to earth and seducing three sets of people: a cop, a priest, and a troubled married couple. Has all sorts of neat 70's type freakouts, a fun soundtrack, and much more nudity than I had expected, including the infamous Ginger Lynn. Overall, while not a great film by any standards, I am glad to have seen this and think it was a fine start to this box set.

I'm always intrigued by these box sets, but I'm always afraid they're gonna be a bust, so I never buy them. However, I'm interested in hearing your thoughts on the rest of the films in the set. This reminds me that I still need to pick up their VILLAGES OF THE DAMNED set. I see that I just missed their Halfway to Black Friday sale. To ward off my disappointment, I'm pretending that everything they had for sale was of no interest to me.

[sholloman81]

I've just started working through the Vinnegar Syndrome Lost Picture Show boxed set. All the films in this set were considered lost and were located & restored by Vinegar Syndrome. Most of the films are low-budget genre pics from the early 60's-70's. Watched the first film last night, Carlos Tobalina's "What's Love?" and was pleasantly surprised. Very sleazy low-budget film about the devil coming to earth and seducing three sets of people: a cop, a priest, and a troubled married couple. Has all sorts of neat 70's type freakouts, a fun soundtrack, and much more nudity than I had expected, including the infamous Ginger Lynn. Overall, while not a great film by any standards, I am glad to have seen this and think it was a fine start to this box set.

[Sock Monkey]

Watched two films this weekend:

The Trip, a dark comedy about a disgruntled married couple who both have secretly planned to murder the other while on their trip to the family cabin only to be taken captive by three escaped convicts, struggled to hit and maintain the proper tone to make the film work. The dark comedy mostly works until a scene that starts off with a funny gag, then stays on this beat for too long and becomes rather disturbing. I thought this was going to signal a shift in the narrative to a more serious tone, but the film veers back into over-the-top, almost slapstick, violence and silly gags about hiding billiard balls up one's bum. At almost two hours, the film also overstays its welcome. I love dark comedies, but this one just did not hit for me. Grade: C-

Hacksaw Ridge was a rewatch and the problems I had with on my first viewing are the same that I have on this one. The film is almost 2.5 hours long and even though I like all the actors involved, all the characters feel like stereotypes and their arcs are exactly what you'd expect. The film's power comes from the depiction of Doss's heroic actions by staying behind to rescue injured soldiers. This isn't a bad film, and Doss is a great subject for a film, but for me, it quickly fades from memory. Grade: C+

[Sock Monkey]

Re-watched Adventures in Babysitting last night. Nostalgia with this one but overall a fun, silly, and enjoyable film. So many of these films from my earlier days just don't hold up but this one is still good enough for a watch every now and again. 3 out of 5 stars.

I remember Adventures in Babysitting. I'm not entirely sure that I watched it all the way through, though. I just remember that I was pumped because the little girl was obsessed with Thor and being a big comic book nerd, I was happy anytime that comics were on film.

Even though my pre-teen years were in the 80s, I have little to no nostalgia for films of the era. There are outliers of course, like Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Back to the Future. My recollection of the admittedly limited movies I watched in the 80s were that they were fine, but I don't feel the pull to revisit films from that era too often. My prime movie-watching period was the 90s and that era constantly pulls me back in. The stories seem darker from that period than the 80s, almost like a throwback to the darker cynicism of the films of the 70s. Whether it's the desperation of Jack Lemmon's character in Glengarry Glen Ross, the one-two punch of Brad Pitt in Seven and Fight Club, the redemptive power of The Shawshank Redemption, or all the tons of indie films that crammed the video store shelves during that time, I just keep going back to it.

[Ben Staad]

Re-watched Adventures in Babysitting last night. Nostalgia with this one but overall a fun, silly, and enjoyable film. So many of these films from my earlier days just don't hold up but this one is still good enough for a watch every now and again. 3 out of 5 stars.

[Ben Staad]

Re-watched Terminator 1 and 2 over the weekend. Solid action flicks that are still watchable although dated. I'm not rating these but I will say plot holes abound however the nostalgia is strong in these for me. In particular the music in T2 brings back memories of my teen years.

[dannyboy121070]

We saw FURIOSA today at the IMAX, and I was soooo disappointed. I thought FURY ROAD was one of the best FILMS, period, that I've ever seen. I never get sick of watching it. Maybe it's my general distaste of prequels. I don't need to know the minutiae of how Darth Vader became Darth Vader. I saw the original films, and just assumed Anakin Skywalker was a dick. They spent three films and hundreds of millions of dollars to show me that...he was a dick. Backstory isn't always necessary.

And it sure wasn't necessary here. FURY ROAD told me, between the lines, all I needed to know about Furiosa. She was stolen as a child, and had a shitty, shitty life. I don't need a whole film devoted to it.

The mainly practical effects of FURY ROAD are replaced by a lot of CGI, green screen, just plain fake stuff, that really takes you out of the film.

Plus, George Miller is around 80, and i doubt he has another one of these in him. He could have made a Mad Max sequel and wrapped up his series, instead of telling a completely useless, predictable story.

Not terrible, just very rote, standard stuff. And SO....SO...long.

[Sock Monkey]

We watched BRIDGE OF SPIES on Apple last night. Really good Hanks/Spielberg cold war thriller. Very well done.

It's been a very long time since I've seen that one. I don't remember liking it that much, but I think I need to give it another shot.

[dannyboy121070]

Watched Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes today at the theater. It was very long.

Visually it was well done. Beyond that there are huge holes in the story along with some puzzling reveals. I can't imagine ever wanting to watch this again even casually. 2 out of 5.

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It WAS way too long, and definitely one of those "Don't think too hard about any of this" kind of movies.

We watched BRIDGE OF SPIES on Apple last night. Really good Hanks/Spielberg cold war thriller. Very well done.

[Ben Staad]

Watched Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes today at the theater. It was very long.

Visually it was well done. Beyond that there are huge holes in the story along with some puzzling reveals. I can't imagine ever wanting to watch this again even casually. 2 out of 5.

 

[Sock Monkey]

Watched American Fiction last night, which is about a Black literary author, who, in a fit of anger, writes a parody of "Black Fiction" under a pseudonym, only to find it being taken seriously and labeled the "Next Big Thing." I was a little hesitant if this was going to be my cup of tea as I didn't know if I wanted to engage in more art centering around modern racial dynamics. This sentiment isn't political in nature. Exploring racial dynamics or gender dynamics in art is important and both are center to our experiences as people and as a society. However--and I don't think I've talked about this much, if at all--I've returned to college and a lot of the reading and writing in my literature and film classes center around race, gender, and sexuality. I enjoy the discussions and analysis, but after finishing these assignments, I usually want my entertainment to focus on something a little different or not so on-the-nose. (This is also part of the reason why my final paper for my last film class was focused on John Carpenter's The Thing and its themes of identity loss as a metaphor for man's existential dread of meanlinglessness). All of that being said, I've heard so many good things about the film, I love Jeffrey Wright as an actor (I'll still go to bat for Hold the Dark), and the rest of the cast is pretty darn impressive as well, so I gave it a shot and...I absolutely loved it. It's so smart, laugh-out funny, full of both cynicism and heart, and rejects pat answers. I also have a soft spot for stories of about curmudgeons and Wright's Monk definitely fits the bill. Grade: A

[Sock Monkey]

Saw Abigail last week.

Went into it with no expectations, and was pleasantly surprised.

More funny than scary (though certainly not played as a comedy), with a lot of gore.

Well acted for the most part, though all the characters were cliches, and none drifted very far from their respective roles.

Had a Reservoir Dogs-esque feel to it in the beginning, until about at the 30 minute mark, when the shit started to hit the fan.

Clocking in at a relatively lean 90 minute, the movie was fast paced and I was never bored with it.

The ending was over the top, though that’s expected for this kind of movie.

Overall, I enjoyed it. Certainly not a great movie, but not the worst way to waste 90 minutes either.

B

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I was fully set on giving this one a pass even though I'm a big Dan Stevens fan, However, I keep hearing good things about it, so it has definitely landed on my "need to watch list," probably making its way on to my Halloween viewing this year if I don't see it sooner than that.

[dannyboy121070]

Saw Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes last week and enjoyed it.

No need to have seen the previous movies in the new ape series (I’ve seen some and missed others). Really all that’s needed is a general knowledge of the POTA story to follow this latest installment.

There were several homages in the film to the original 1968 POTA movie, which I enjoyed.

Certainly not a perfect movie, there were several issues / plot lines that went unanswered or were just dropped (what did the apes do with the people they captured?, where did the girl get the explosives?, what happened to the gun at the end of the movie?). I guess William H. Macy was the best known actor, but his character was wasted. Could’ve been dropped from the storyline without missing a beat.

At 2 hours and 15 minutes, the story was well paced and I never got bored with it.

The ending certainly sets up the next installment in the series, which I am looking forward to.

B

We saw KINGDOM yesterday, and my son and I enjoyed it. My wife called it a  "snoozefest", lol. The effects were great, Freya Allen is certainly easy on the eyes, and I enjoyed the main ape character, but, without spoilers, the actions of Nova/Mae towards the end just seemed over the top at the end. All of a sudden she goes into the movie cliche "But I'm really a special ops veteran!" mode. Good overall, though. POTA is one of the few franchises here I can say that I've enjoyed almost all of the films a great deal.

[brlesh]

You know, I liked this one quite a bit, but I saw it at a film festival with no previous expectations. I do agree with your complaints about the confusing mythology, though. I kept waiting for payoffs to rules they discussed that never came. Ultimately, I felt that the first half was much stronger than the second.

I agree. I liked the movie very much, though it definitely had issues.

I also agree, the first half was more effective than the second, though I thought the payoff at the end was very effective.

The last time I left a movie theater with the same gut punched feeling was with Hereditary, another very visceral film with plot line issues.

Overall, it’s a movie I would recommend for it’s visceral effects on the viewer. If you’re looking for a well structured story / plot line, When Evil Lurks is not for you.

B

 

[brlesh]

Saw Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes last week and enjoyed it.

No need to have seen the previous movies in the new ape series (I’ve seen some and missed others). Really all that’s needed is a general knowledge of the POTA story to follow this latest installment.

There were several homages in the film to the original 1968 POTA movie, which I enjoyed.

Certainly not a perfect movie, there were several issues / plot lines that went unanswered or were just dropped (what did the apes do with the people they captured?, where did the girl get the explosives?, what happened to the gun at the end of the movie?). I guess William H. Macy was the best known actor, but his character was wasted. Could’ve been dropped from the storyline without missing a beat.

At 2 hours and 15 minutes, the story was well paced and I never got bored with it.

The ending certainly sets up the next installment in the series, which I am looking forward to.

B