Films You Have Watched

[Atticus]

I went to see LNwtD too. It wasn’t played with quite the authenticity of Ghostwatch but it was certainly a lot of fun. And I’m a sucker for the period sets and look.

[Dogg Thang]

It wasn’t played with quite the authenticity of Ghostwatch

Yes, I think there was another possible path for this movie, leaning into that more authentic feel and it probably would have been scarier. But what we got was a lot of fun and maybe that other path would have ended up being a little more typical than the movie they actually made.

[fuse]

I'm a bit wary about watching it as it sounds like a couple of creepy dudes Frankenstein a young woman so that they can bone her.

Sounds like a less-funny but more predatory version of Weird Science...

It's definitely an uncomfortable watch, but I've also heard some opinions from folks who seem to think that it's applauding the behaviour of the creepy guys just because it doesn't call it out explicitly. I didn't feel that way about it at all and felt it was very clearly critical of the men. Not saying that's where the other folks in here who didn't enjoy it are standing btw, just that I know there's some pretty wildly varying stances on it.

Quite a few things watched lately:

Punch-drunk Love - very aware some friends hold this in quite high regard, and as such was perhaps a little oversold. Sandler's good (this would have been more of a surprise had I not seen Uncut Gems before), there's some great cinematography, and when "things" happen it is very explosive and shocking, which definitely works in its favour. Just didn't come away as impressed as I wanted.

Toni Erdmann - good! Weirdly reminiscent of The Office, in the sense that it makes smart observations about modern life and office politics in particular, but you are more likely to want to uncomfortably fold yourself into the foetal position rather than being able to actually laugh freely.

American Fiction - not helped by the trailer spoiling the best laughs. Thought the satire got a bit limp, but liked the main characters a lot.

Frances Ha - quirky and fairly charming but also quite self-indulgent. Probably would've preferred to see a film about characters lacking direction when I felt the same way and was the same age as them, rather than being 10+ years older than them and still lacking direction.

Scanners - having seen that bit in gif format 13981351938 times before I figured I should watch this. It has such a solid start! It... does not maintain that. Still, fun physical effects.

One Cut of the Dead - definitely one where you don't want to know too much before going in, and just have to kind of trust that the lulls have peaks to balance it all out. I did enjoy it, but more than pure enjoyment I really, really admire what they've made and how they did it. Real genre love letter stuff.

[Brad]

Ford Vs Ferrari (might have been the other way around)

This was a pretty entertaining watch, really enjoyed it.

Unlike...

Ferrari

Utterly pedestrian interest really.

[Finsbury Girl]

Finally got around to watching The Creator. It could've been so good but the premise can only get you so far. It was very disjointed things happen for no reason, characters exist with almost nothing to do and arcs that go nowhere. I thought the acting was fine, the sets and FX were great for what I assume was a low budget film. What I noticed the most is that John David Washington at times sounds EXACTLY like his old man. It you had your eyes closed you'd swear it was Denzel.

[fuse]

Without any vested interest in Elvis, I found myself pretty disappointed, and honestly, bored by Priscilla. It handles the whirlwind that is the relationship well enough, but I had some expectation that it might have something more to tell us about her that isn't contextualised by Elvis, but... it doesn't even try to do this. For all the effort they took trying to nail the look and feel of the era, they also dropped a jarringly modern Dan Deacon track in one scene that got me sat bolt upright.

[Neon Ignition]

The Amazing Spider-Man 2
More palatable than it used to be thanks to how low the bar has fallen with some releases and the franchise not being solely dependent on the direction this was headed. A third would have none the less remained interesting to see given the rare choice to end things on a loss for Peter.

[Neon Ignition]

Damsel
It's still weird to have Netflix making films that look cheaper than their series. This is another princess saves herself movie and it takes a fair while to get going, even when it does you're twenty steps ahead of it and it doesn't do anything exciting once things are in full motion either.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
Be unmoved by Frozen Empire all you want, that the past week or so has seen two films released with a hot city freezing over as people face huge dangers of an otherworldly threat... and that this is the one that makes all the money... that's depressing. Despite the title this is a Kong movie which presents two problems: The first is that Godzilla's role in the film is very straightforward and yet you still can't think about it because the logic breaks as soon as you do. The second is that you can't make a Kong focused movie without immediately bringing to mind Skull Island and that just invites sadness in your heart as you contemplate how we got from that film to this one. GvK was not a good film, but it skated by largely on how ridiculous things got for a franchise that only two films before had tried to build in some reverance of the titans. GxK steps right in where the previous film left off, humans exist solely now for exposition with the world just ignoring the frequent deaths of tens of thousands and the regular destruction of cities and monuments. Seen Monarch? The filmmakers haven't as it completely ignores all the world building and logic that series literally just put in place. This is a weaker film than the previous one though, it doesn't embrace the lunacy of things like MechaGodzilla and relies on everything you saw in the trailer. With little of it being interesting and the tone becoming increasingly like the latter Transformers films I wish I'd managed to catch Minus One.

[Yakumo]

Godzilla VS Kong doesn't open in Japan for a while yet but I did see the trailer before Ghostbusters 4. Even from the trailer it looked lame. I actually thought, "oh, another boring Marvel type movie" when watching it.
It just lacked imagination even in the trailer. That is not a good sign.

[Neon Ignition]

Yep, I'm surprised in a way that the new one is doing as well as it is as it's not as much of an escapist movie either. A lot of time is spent in Hollow Earth where most of the sense of scale is lost on the titans, they're definitely steering hard down the 'take the money and run' route whilst audiences are suddenly lapping it up

[prinnysquad]

What do you make of the Showa entries, Neon?

Godzilla x Kong is stupid. It’s throwaway tat with predictable story beats, absurd logic and needless contrivances. Yet I thoroughly enjoyed it as a spectacle. I did find it escapist. It reminded me a little of the stupider entries of the Toho series. They have to ditch Hollow Earth in the next film, though. And they have to make a proper Godzilla film. They need an external threat. I absolutely agree with your comment about scale. The titans duking it out during some twaddle-esque antigravity Hollow Earth sequence could be 200m high, or 200mm. It’s pointless.

I actually enjoyed this more than my first viewing of GvK. I think it’s because I was prepared for the tone.

It’s vastly inferior to everything about Minus One. That film has actual characters, a decent script, a sense of context and setting, meaningful action sequences, pace, impact and genuine menace. GxK has none of that. I just approach them from different angles and expectations. Minus One is a superb Godzilla film, and a very good film, period. You’ll hate it, Neon. You’ll be on your mobile with 15 kids running round and 10 games on the go at once. It’s a ‘give it all your attention or piss off’ film.

[Neon Ignition]

It's been a long time since I've seen any of them, I remember it varying a lot between the many entries though and the alien stuff never won me over

For GxK, I think it slips too much into the same generic action we've seen too often in stuff like TF. Brief as it is, the bridge attack sequence in Monarch felt like it carried more impact than anything in the new film. The choice in villain monsters didn't help either, Lanky Kong and an Godzilla clone. I know they're planning another GvK style entry (they seem really wary of making Godzilla 3 since KOTM underperformed) so if I had a preference I'd go for something that emerges from the deepest layers of Hollow Earth and largely decimates it on its way to the surface. A monster that before the midpoint absolute KO's Kong and Godzilla in order to re-establish the threat, stakes and the level of destruction (which in GxK the world seems to just shrug off).

I don't think watching Skull Island and Monarch near to GxK helped me, the tone of the former two is one I much prefer. When the time comes for Minus One though, it'll be a late night one, no risk of kids

[Baseley09]

It's a shame this franchise has turned into dribble, the earlier more grounded entries really wet the whistle, I knew it was lost in the last one when anti gravity crafts were going into the hollow earth.

[Neon Ignition]

The Beekeeper
It's John Wick. Except with a lot of bee references. Also no world building. Also no excitement despite Statham trying his best to keep it all going.

[prinnysquad]

It's been a long time since I've seen any of them, I remember it varying a lot between the many entries though and the alien stuff never won me over

For GxK, I think it slips too much into the same generic action we've seen too often in stuff like TF. Brief as it is, the bridge attack sequence in Monarch felt like it carried more impact than anything in the new film. The choice in villain monsters didn't help either, Lanky Kong and an Godzilla clone. I know they're planning another GvK style entry (they seem really wary of making Godzilla 3 since KOTM underperformed) so if I had a preference I'd go for something that emerges from the deepest layers of Hollow Earth and largely decimates it on its way to the surface. A monster that before the midpoint absolute KO's Kong and Godzilla in order to re-establish the threat, stakes and the level of destruction (which in GxK the world seems to just shrug off).

I don't think watching Skull Island and Monarch near to GxK helped me, the tone of the former two is one I much prefer. When the time comes for Minus One though, it'll be a late night one, no risk of kids

Yeah I get what you’re saying. King of the Monsters and Skull Island both had weighty, meaningful action. GxK was very glitzy and lacked impact. I still enjoyed it, but the lack of real world grounding meant that it was too abstract to be impressive. Minus One is the opposite. Every sequence has build up and meaning. Monarch was character-heavy. They weren’t particularly great characters, and the arcs were standard, but at least it meant that when the big sequences per episode did arrive, they were a decent event. Minus One draws good characters and a sound script, so Godzilla as a force of nature, and not a WWE titan sidekick, really did make his sequences pack a punch.