Rate the Last Movie You Saw

[Ben Staad]

KL Zombi. This is a Malaysian zombie film that I came across on Netflix. It's a silly, nonsensical, mess which me and my daughter giggled at for about 90 minutes. If you like schlocky stuff you may enjoy this as well. Not sure I really enjoyed the film but I didn't hate it either. There was something nice about a cheese-ball foreign language zombie film. The actors just looked like they were having fun and it was a little contagious.

I'm not going to rate this one.

[Ben Staad]

Light of my Life. Just finished this up on Amazon Prime today. Solid 4 out of 5 for me. The movie isn't particularity breaking new ground but I thought the acting was very good, score complemented everything well, and the visual aspect of the film was appealing to me. The movie was edited together well and there were some really great lines.

If you like the art house style movies this may be something to check out.

[Brian861]

Does re-watching the first 15 minutes of Airplane count? If so that is still a funny as hell movie. After all these years I'm still picking up little things that I've previously missed.

Go easy on the glue

[Ben Staad]

Does re-watching the first 15 minutes of Airplane count? If so that is still a funny as hell movie. After all these years I'm still picking up little things that I've previously missed.

[Ben Staad]

Watched a movie on Netflix this week called The Last Laugh. It starred Chevy Chase, Richard Dreyfuss, and Andie Macdowell.

It wasn't bad and it wasn't great. It was basically what you would expect from a comedy starring a group of aged actors.There were some laughs and a fairly touching moment at the end. I think, for me, it brought a little nostalgia and I enjoyed what I saw as moments of double meaning regarding friendships, love, and life.

3 out of 5 stars.

[Ben Staad]

Yea. I must of heard (or read) about this from someone as I had it saved in my watch list. Didn't remember putting it there and certainly didn't remember why though.

Glad I watched it. Still thinking about it today.

SESSION 9 is fantastic. Stumbled across it when it first came out years ago and still revisit it every so often. Very underrated, in my opinion.

[Sock Monkey]

Just finished up watching Session 9. Probably not the best choice for someone who is feeling a bit down to begin with.

Either way the movie was not what I expected and really delivered some creepy atmosphere. I liked the movie a lot and enjoyed that it was not the normal, or safe, story.

SESSION 9 is fantastic. Stumbled across it when it first came out years ago and still revisit it every so often. Very underrated, in my opinion.

[Ben Staad]

Just finished up watching Session 9. Probably not the best choice for someone who is feeling a bit down to begin with.

Either way the movie was not what I expected and really delivered some creepy atmosphere. I liked the movie a lot and enjoyed that it was not the normal, or safe, story.

[sholloman81]

Diggstown (1992): Another entry in my "Not a great movie, but I absolutely love it" list. James Woods plays a con man just out of prison who's set his sights on hustling the richest man in Diggstown. He sets the con up with his friend, Fitz (played by Oliver Platt), that an old retired boxer, "Honey" Ray Palmer (Louis Gossett, Jr.) can take on any ten men from Diggstown in a 24 hour period. What follows is almost exactly what you'd expect from the set-up. Boxing, cheating, double-crossing, and melodramatic early '90s slo-mo. It's nothing new and the characters' motivations are about as deep as a July rain puddle, but it's a fun if empty watch, like the cinematic equivalent of cotton candy.

Grade: C+ on cinematic merits; A+ on Dad Movie Rewatchability Scale.

Always enjoyed this one myself. Whenever I'm flipping around the tv and happen upon it, I usually end up watching it. Can admit that it isn't the best movie but it does have a certain likability to it. I also usually enjoy James Woods, as an actor. On a side note, just watched Videodrome again the other night and still find it completely bat shit crazy (in a good way).

[Sock Monkey]

Diggstown (1992): Another entry in my "Not a great movie, but I absolutely love it" list. James Woods plays a con man just out of prison who's set his sights on hustling the richest man in Diggstown. He sets the con up with his friend, Fitz (played by Oliver Platt), that an old retired boxer, "Honey" Ray Palmer (Louis Gossett, Jr.) can take on any ten men from Diggstown in a 24 hour period. What follows is almost exactly what you'd expect from the set-up. Boxing, cheating, double-crossing, and melodramatic early '90s slo-mo. It's nothing new and the characters' motivations are about as deep as a July rain puddle, but it's a fun if empty watch, like the cinematic equivalent of cotton candy.

Grade: C+ on cinematic merits; A+ on Dad Movie Rewatchability Scale.

[Sock Monkey]

Deep Rising (1998): Boat captain John Finnegan's motto is "if the money's there, we do not care". With such a dubious life philosophy, it shouldn't surprise him that he's rented out his boat and crew to a group of well-armed mercenaries whose target is a state-of-the-art cruise ship that caters only to the richest, most elite clientele. What does surprise him is that when his boat gets critically damaged and he and his sidekick have to board the luxury liner with their mercenary customers, he finds the boat destroyed and empty. And then the very hungry, tentacle monsters appear...

Listen, I'm not going to tell anybody that this is a great movie, because it isn't. The characters are all pretty much stereotypes. From boat captain Finnegan as the wisecracking everyman, to his long-suffering and funny sidekick, the beautiful female con artist with a heart of gold, the sneaky double-crossing business man and the overly testosterone-fueled so-manly-it-hurts mercenaries, there isn't a lot of depth. Couple this with a pretty by the numbers monster movie plot and some CGI that looked dated when it was first released and you can be sure that you don't have a "hidden masterpiece of the genre" on your hands.

But what it does have is a great sense of fun, cool monster action and charismatic actors in their roles. And I absolutely love this movie.

Director Stephen Sommers, who also wrote the script, does a balancing act that is so difficult to accomplish: make a movie that knows that it's supposed to be fun, but doesn't wink-and-nudge the audience with an "so-bad-it's-good" meta-awareness. It knows it's monster movie fun, but it takes that fun seriously. It's earnest and sincere in it's goofiness. Yup, there's dumb action movie moments like if you shoot the elevator buttons with a shotgun, it'll automatically open the elevator doors, right? But hey, once you've bought into the fact that if a tentacle monster can come out of the toilet and tries to pull you down into said toilet, you'll pop like a blood-filled water balloon, the shotgun/elevator door thing isn't that big of a deal.

And back to those actors a bit. This movie--and some of the lines--could easily be groan-inducing (okay, most of it is still very cheesy), but with such charismatic actors like Treat Williams (very underrated, in my opinion), Famke Janssen, Wes Studi, Kevin J. O'Connor, Cliff Curtis, and others, it works way much better than it should.

So, yup, silly monster movie fun, but perfect for lazy Sunday afternoons.

Grade: Your Mileage May Vary

[Sock Monkey]

HOST (2020):

Six friends who are self-isolating during the COVID-19 pandemic decide to invite a medium to their weekly Zoom call to help them perform a seance. When one of the friends decide to make up a story about a schoolmate that hung himself, they inadvertently summon a demonic presence.

While this film was on my radar, I kept putting it off for a couple of reasons. First, I don't know if I need movies starting to drop COVID-19 in as plot points. We've all been dealing with the pandemic to some extent or another, but I don't necessarily want it to infiltrate my escapism, as well. The second was that the plot sounded awfully similar to Unfriended, the haunted Facebook movie from a few years ago. I quite liked Unfriended. It wasn't amazing but it was very watchable and had a good time with it. I just didn't know if I needed a second movie treading such similar ground. Obviously I pulled the trigger or I wouldn't be writing this review, but the two things that pushed it over the edge was that it actually has gotten pretty good reviews and it's runtime makes for a very minimal commitment by the viewer. And it's the runtime that helps the movie out the most.

Clocking in at a scant 56 minutes, the movie easily clears the hurdle of most "found footage" films that this film's format emulates: how do the filmmakers pad out the first half of the film to hit that 90-minute running time and have it make sense that people would still be filming what is going on. The solution is usually a rather uneventful first 70 minutes followed by an intense final act. Since the film is less than an hour long, the movie slides through the introduction of the characters and the set-up rather easily, letting us get to know the characters a bit before the creepy goings-on begin. Unfortunately, due to the runtime there isn't a whole lot of character development beyond "this is the one that takes it seriously", "this is the character that is easily frightened", and "the one that thinks it's all a joke", but beyond only a few moments of attitude between the mostly female cast, the characters are all rather likable. Unlike Unfriended, you don't really want to see any of these people get hurt. And since the runtime is so short there's no subplots to muddy the waters. This is all about set-up building to payoff. Short and simple. But also unlike most found footage movies, this one doesn't hold back on the carnage.

The demonic force that has been accidentally summoned has no qualms about unleashing its wrath. Some of the scare gags will give flashbacks to other found footage movies, mostly the first Paranormal Activity, but the scares are executed so well, that it was hard not to get sucked in, even though I knew exactly what the film was doing. I didn't love all of the jump scares as a couple were a little too obvious--it doubles up on one in short span that really sticks out like a sore thumb--but there are a couple of moments that really left me surprised.

If found footage isn't your jam, this movie probably won't change your mind, but if you do like them, this is a little gem and a pretty nice way to spend an hour.

Grade: B

[Sock Monkey]

Just saw the trailer for the New Dune Movie, I think it's set to be released this December, looks pretty Damn Good!

I saw it as well and I'm quite interested in how this is going to turn out. Denis Villeneuve has definitely earned my trust. I haven't yet to see a film by him I haven't liked.

[mhatchett]

Just saw the trailer for the New Dune Movie, I think it's set to be released this December, looks pretty Damn Good!

[Brian861]

The Leftovers does get a little esoteric and surreal at moments and my wife was a firm “nope”. She has to get lulled into genre elements a little more, especially sci-fi and dream logic stuff. What she liked about The Leftovers was mostly season one stuff and a good part of Season Two. The ending is Season Two and most of Season Three goes a little out there for her tastes. I liked it because it really swung for the fences each season in what it was trying to do and be.

I thought that as well. As far as swinging for the fences.