Re: Movies that aren't really BAD -- but aren't very good, either
I haven't seen any of the Purges but I kinda assume I would spend most of the movie mulling over details and edge cases of the Purge, similar to Ralph Breaks the Internet where I was wondering if they would ever address
Ralph being the fucking singularity! Like I understood it as reboot style where what we are seeing is a representation of inner workerings and then Ralph posted his dumb face to youtube looking like any other human and I immediately had questions.
Re: Movies that aren't really BAD -- but aren't very good, either
I thought Ralph Breaks the Internet was enjoyable but distinctly not as good as the first one.
I haven't seen Mirai or The Isle of Dogs, but I think Spider-Man should win best animated film (over The Incredibles 2 and Ralph). I have a similar opinion of The Incredibles 2... enjoyable, but distinctly inferior to the original, although less so than for Wreck-It Ralph.
Re: Movies that aren't really BAD -- but aren't very good, either
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ari
I haven't seen any of the Purges but I kinda assume I would spend most of the movie mulling over details and edge cases of the Purge, [...]
Yeah, you kind of *have* to ignore all the details. It's a ridiculous and unworkable system, but that's also the point the movies are trying to make - extreme right wing "every man for himself" style philosophies break down in any real world system and only benefit the people who already have the most privilege. By the 2nd movie, it's revealed that most people (especially the poorest) find shelter and avoid the Purge as best they can, and
as a consequence of fewer people Purging, the government sends in hit squads into impoverished areas to ensure the death quota for those under the poverty line is met
.
I've avoided some details to keep things spoiler-free, but in every movie, there are personal conflicts that escalate into violence because the Purge gives the people license to "solve" the conflicts through attempted murder. So, the Purge attempts to answer some of the questions that ran through my mind as I was watching these.
It's still an intensely stupid movie premise. If you can't get yourself past that, you shouldn't even try to watch it.
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Last edited by specious_reasons; 01-23-2019 at 03:45 AM.
Re: Movies that aren't really BAD -- but aren't very good, either
Bohemian Rhapsody
It's way too wishy-washy-family-is-important-PG13 bullshit for me. Rami Malek is good as Mercury and the music is of course excellent but no. Not for me.
You cannot make a PG13 movie about the least PG13 person in the universe. It just doesn't work.
Re: Movies that aren't really BAD -- but aren't very good, either
I don't normally pay much attention to the Oscars, but that almost seemed intentional somehow. First, they announced they were going to announce the editing award during a commercial break, then people complained, so they aired it and gave the award to that, almost like it was hostile compliance.
Even I could tell what was wrong with it.
The only reason I think it might not have been intentionally insulting is that I can't imagine what the motivation would be.
Re: Movies that aren't really BAD -- but aren't very good, either
The Girl on the Train
I finished reading the book today, and wanted to see how the movie stacked up against it. It wasn't bad, but like a lot of movies based on novels, it just covers the basics of the story. The actors are all pretty good, but there's not anything distinctive about the style of the movie, and it didn’t really do a great job of keeping my interest.
Re: Movies that aren't really BAD -- but aren't very good, either
Darling 2015
A low budget horror/thriller, Darling is the first name of the main character, who occupies almost 100% of the movie. She's caretaking a big old scary mansion in New York. Because this is a big old scary house and it has a history, mysterious things happen, and Darling's grasp of reality is threatened.
Kind of a classic "is the main character crazy, or is the house haunted"? movie, with lots of fast cuts and jump cuts between the everyday and the horrific.
If you like slow burns like The VVitch or Ti West's The House of the Devil and The Innkeepers this is a less impressive entry into that genre. The thing that makes this movie is the main actress, Lauren Ashley Carter, who has a compelling screen presence, with huge expressive eyes. A less competent actress would have made this movie appear in the crappy movie thread.
Despite the "only OK" status of this movie, it feels like there's some promise here. I'll probably be willing to watch more from the people who made this. Apparently, this actress and the director of this movie made another low-budget horror together (Pod), and it went right on my queue.
Re: Movies that aren't really BAD -- but aren't very good, either
Detective Pikachu is maybe kinda on the borderline of going in this or the good movies thread.
If you like Pokemon or played it as a kid, etc. you'll appreciate a lot of references and seeing the weird designs of the "live action" Pokemon. It's a cute and enjoyable movie, but it doesn't really rise much above that.
Re: Movies that aren't really BAD -- but aren't very good, either
This happened a few weeks ago, but I was reminded of it:
Mr. 3000
A sports comedy. Bernie Mac is middle-aged retired baseball player who goes by "Mr. 3000" - his lifetime hits. Somehow, it's discovered he doesn't actually have 3000 hits, so as a publicity stunt for the team, he plays a season in order to get up to 3000.
Mac's character was a bit of a grandstanding ass who burned his bridges the first time, but now he a grown-ass adult who wants to make things better, including reconnecting with an old flame, played by Angela Basset. Life lessons are learned, endings are happy.
So, how I watched this is part of the story. I'm in Illinois, helping to deal with my mother's health issues, and I'm staying at a hotel, because her house isn't fit for another person to live there. I turn on the TV for some news/white noise one morning, and I wind up watching most of this mediocre movie.
I'm basically watching it because most of the people in it are inherently watchable. You've got Bernie Mac and Angela Basset, a few recognizable character actors, and then a bunch of mostly unknown (to me) actors, who were all good enough.
Then I understood. Why does Hollywood churn out a bunch of middle-of-the-road material that rarely make back the money spent on them in the theaters? Because they can sell them to TV networks so the networks can fill up their schedule. I was mildly entertained and not challenged at all, and the TV network got some of my attention for the better part of 2 hours. Everybody but me wins.
Looking after a five and a seven year old, I can't exactly pull out the usual fare.
Some of these modern Scooby-Doo flicks aren't half bad and have some fun and unexpected updates to the genre. Looking after some kids? Got some in that age range? Just want some Nostalgia? Want to screw your Netflix recommendations forever? This one will doo...be...doobeeDOO!
fuck.
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What is there to say? It was really cute. There were a lot of cute moments. The protagonist is cute. His friends and family are cute. The music is great, probably even greater if you're a big fan of the Beatles (obvs).
For the longest time I couldn't figure out who was playing one of the roles, and I was like, "I know this lady! Is she Miley Cyrus? Charlize Theron? Who?!" Turns out it was Kate McKinnon. (She's an SNL actor who does excellent impressions of both of those women, and a ton of other people.)
I don't think it's spoilery to give this one thing away, which is that the Beatles are not the only thing that the world has forgotten. A few different times, the protagonist randomly drops a well-known thing into conversation and the rest of the people are like "the what now?" and he's like you have got to be kidding! It's pretty hilarious and doesn't get old.
As far as I could tell, there was never any explanation for the global event/phenomenon, which is fine. Not important to the story.
Re: Movies that aren't really BAD -- but aren't very good, either
Under the Silver Lake
This was better than most movies that try to be David Lynch movies, but that's not saying much because I never like those. But it's also really good at doing an updated noir thing. But then it throws in all this cheesy crap like from a Scooby Doo episode or a really bad network TV detective show, and I think it doesn't distance itself enough or something. Like I was literally wishing for some parts to literally spell out that they're a dream sequence because I could think of no other excuse. And hooey, do I dislike it when movies are too reliant on pop culture references. Even though I liked a pretty good amount of the specific pop culture referenced.
But it was still well made enough that I want to kind of rationalize the parts I didn't like.
Re: Movies that aren't really BAD -- but aren't very good, either
Yeah, maybe that's it. It got some pretty great reviews from places that I normally get recommendations from, but those places seem to be pretty male dominated, so a lot of the recommendations fall flat for me for man reasons.
And it occasionally occurs to me that maybe the people on those sites doing the readers' polls and stuff sway not just male, but also really really young. Because a lot of the overarching themes and stuff strike me as kind of facile. (Linklater is always way overrated as far as I'm concerned.)
Re: Movies that aren't really BAD -- but aren't very good, either
The Ninth Gate, a movie I torrented a long time ago for some reason but never bothered to watch. Picking a movie this way can be interesting as I only later learned any details behind it or even when it was made.
So off we go with a bit younger, hotter and clearly still thinking he had to act to earn a pay check Johnny Depp as Corso a rare book hunter being tasked in finding and comparing a copy of the Nine gates with the other two remaining copies to tell if it’s a forgery. Along the way we discover the occult, death, sex, bad robes and oddly placed hilarity. Parts of the film seemed to suddenly change tone from the more serious mystery to some sort of benny hill comedy and then back a few times, and it has a feel of a higher budget film school student film where some directing and editing choices were made because they wanted to try them out for the first time, not because they would fit.
Depp very much saves this film as the main mystery isn’t that complicated to figure out as a viewer but the interest is watching this book nerd detective work his way through it while drinking almost as much as Depp does now. As well as the bigger mystery of who this girl that follows and helps him is and why she can cast puppet strings feather fall, floating down from high places, among other DnD spells.
It is surprising at the end we find out that the mysterious girl is actually Lucifer making sure not any greedy fart who does a fetch quest can gain his powers but might lead the devil to find a true deciple of satan; that gaining the powers of the ninth gate meant lending his body over to satan for a time to exist on earth, as the girl, a witch of centuries ago, had previously done, the last person to successfully enter the Gate. Er wait no, that’s all just bullshit I made up in a few minutes because they tell us nothing.
Who is the mysterious girl with magic powers? Another witch, a succubus demon, just some random college student who took way too many research-chemicals and accidentally stumbled into another part of reality? Was she even real at all and this was all some sort of Fight Club delusion? Who the fuck knows. As we get a ‘he completes the fetch quest to pass through the Ninth Gate and then fade to black’ ending. Oh thanks movie. And you’ll notice I keep calling her ‘the girl’ because the movie doesn’t even give her a name.
Who was this interesting but highly flawed film directed by? Oh, well shit, acclaimed director and rapist Roman Polanski and released in 99. It feels disappointingly mediocre and cliche in many ways and while overall entertaining to watch, it’s skewed my later views finding out that people supposably highly creative and cherished made it, because I’m not sure the acclaim is warranted.
Re: Movies that aren't really BAD -- but aren't very good, either
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kamilah Hauptmann
That new Lion King.
Mostly the same.
I'll elaborate a bit:
Recalling the Beauty and the Beast remake, that also was mostly the same as the original but had a couple all new things in it, most memorably a solo by the Beast. It was an alright production.
The Lion King too was an alright production but it lacked that extra effort. They could have had a great solo by Nala made for the show, or maybe a duet with Nala and Simba's mother, maybe even a chorus by the lionesses. I dunno. Instead in the remake all I remember being any different or new was telling a couple jokes differently and referring to the original, and the hyenas were way more hyena-ish. And potentially scary as hell for small kids.
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Re: Movies that aren't really BAD -- but aren't very good, either
I watched Hell or High Water today. Pros: Western landscape, music, I liked the ending. I thought Ben Foster was the best actor. Cons: I didn't like the first 2/3 of the movie, pacing, and I couldn't believe in the con.
Re: Movies that aren't really BAD -- but aren't very good, either
Avengers: Endgame - starring everybody in the universe
Yes, so this was just ok. Just. It's 3 hours long and it feels 3 hours long. The story is absurd and hinges on a rat accidentally pressing a button. In a van. Once that happened, they had to find 5 or six magic stones in the past ...
The acting is fine and the battle scene at the end looked really good (but also looked a lot like the battle for Minas Tirith ...)! The jokes mostly don't work (for me)
The good:
Brie Larson is awesome as Captain Marvel
I quite like Antman
The bad:
Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski playing Thor. What the actual fuck?
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