The Films You Watched Thread VI: The Undiscovered Movie

[Dogg Thang]

I have watched loads of films over the last few weeks and keep forgetting to post in here. And now I've forgotten many of them. But I had a serious quality double bill this weekend. First up was Us. Genuinely tense, it's a smart horror that worked really well for me. As a basic scary movie, it does exactly what it needs to and has lots of very cool moments and the concept alone is pretty creepy. It's riddled with messages and subtext that, at a couple of points, pretty much become just text but I think, overall, it pulled it off really well but I did wonder if I missed some of the meaning due to not knowing some of the references (like Hands Across America, for example). The final beat I saw coming right from the start but what was interesting there was that seeing it coming robbed none of its power because what I didn't see coming was the context of it all. It's a rich movie.

Next was Parasite, which in many ways is actually a similar film, only not a horror. But like Us, it works on its surface level as a fantastically entertaining movie. It's funny, it's sad, the characters are brilliant and the twists and turns are all wonderful. But then there are the messages, the subtext, and Parasite for me got this absolutely perfect because there are many grey areas in the movie, lots to think about, and yet other very clear statements that are right there for you to see without it needing to break for exposition. It's all just in what plays out on screen. It's a clever movie and I can see why it cleaned up in awards. I totally loved it.

[QualityChimp]

I think I'm the only person underwhelmed by Parasite.
It was okay and worth watching, but relied too heavily on the stupidity of the rich couple.

[Neon Ignition]

I'm in pretty much the same boat. Parasite was solid until the twist and then it unravelled.

Same with Us, I preferred it to Get Out but in essence both fell at the same point where both are incredibly effective films but collapse due to Peele's insistence on having a naff 'Twilight Zone' style twist to the story that utterly robs the effectiveness out of the scenarios and reduces them to being bad X-Files episodes. I get he loves the show but as his reboot showed, he's no good at making them. If he makes another but skips the stupid B-movie sci-fi twist he'll probably make a classic.

[wakka]

Parasite is a masterpiece imo. It's probably one of my favourite films, and one reason why is also a reason why Us fell somewhat flat for me - the tone. It's heavily symbolic, to the point of being fable-esque, but it has this blackly comic streak throughout that prevents it from becoming heavy handed and instead makes it feel playful and satirical. And I felt that tone was really consistent throughout, ramping up as we moved towards the finale.

Us, on the other hand, felt like it veered wildly from tense home invasion thriller to horror-comedy to horror-sci-fi, and it felt, for me, uncohesive. Very much a curate's egg.

[JazzFunk]

'Twas PEEPING TOM, tonite.

What a boring film. The lurid, early-60s, full-colour film stock is LUUUUUUUUUUSSHHHHHH.

But the film itself? Overlong, boring, illogical, don't waste the remaining minutes of your life on it (seriously).

[JazzFunk]

PS: I've long thought the recent PARASITE sounds burrrillliiant. I need to get on that.

[wakka]

@JazzFunk it's on Prime Video, if you have that. There are two versions, colour and black and white. I would watch colour first and then watch B&W at some point if you really like it.

And that's a shame about Peeping Tom! I do quite like that film, but I know what you mean. I can see how it was quite groundbreaking at the time, but to be honest it's pretty dated now.

[JazzFunk]

Ah, damn, it's always on Prime these days, never Netflix!

I was actually a bit sad about PT, I was expecting it to be a gloriously colourful masterpiece. But at least it was gloriously colourful, I can't take that away from it.

[Dogg Thang]

@JazzFunk it's on Prime Video, if you have that. There are two versions, colour and black and white. I would watch colour first and then watch B&W at some point if you really like it.

I did not know there was a black and white version. That's interesting because I felt colour was quite a core part of the movie. But then I felt the same about Fury Road and they released a black and white version of that too.

[wakka]

Yeah, agreed about colour being important in the film. I haven’t actually watched the b and w version but wanted to steer Jazz onto the right version for his first viewing, especially as the Prime Video interface and categorisation is a bit of a nightmare.

[Neon Ignition]

Willy's Wonderland
A bad Five Nights at Freddy's rip-off that is somewhat mesmerising but executes the concept poorly

Coming 2 America
Unless you're purely approaching this as a nostalgia fest nod back to the original it's bad. As a fan piece though it's solid fun and the flashback to the original film is just insanely well done.

Raya and the Last Dragon
The kids making us watch it again in future might have the usual effect of making us like it more but this otherwise came across as a solid but unremarkable entry to Disneys animated arsenal.

Convoy
The first of a trio of films, all about some truckers and it barely has any plot of any kind. Naff

F.I.S.T
Also tied with truckers even if not on the road as another early Stallone film. Dull and forgettable.

Every Which Way But Loose
Yet again another '78 film with no real plot. Literally like someone threw an ape in there to distract from the film having nothing notable at all about itself.

The Omen II: Damien
This isn't a great sequel, largely it's a retread but I'd say that during the later stages of the film it comes together a bit more as Damien and those around him become more aware of what he is.

[Atticus]

Resident Evil and Resident Evil: Apocalypse. Despite being a fan of the games I've always been overly snobby about the films. But there was one on in the background a week or so back and I got drawn in. It was super cheesy but super good fun. Then after another play-through of Resi 3Make I was in the zone to watch the films proper so took a punt on the box set.



First film is really good ... a decent side-story to the first game that segues nicely. Second film was slightly more stupid but still enjoyable. These are great late Saturday night watches (apart from the Dolby Atmos soundtracks rocking the foundations). Nothing too taxing. Good trashy fun.

[QualityChimp]

After Neon's Film of the Year threads, I found myself watching a couple of Fincher films I'd never seen, Zodiac and Gone Girl, both of which were great, although quite long.

[Neon Ignition]

Dawn of the Dead
So, back into the '78 era films and I'd been interested to watch thsi having not seen it since being an early teenager. I'd completely forgotten the first half hour but it didn't matter as the film didn't click. I don't think it was for any other reason though than it's aged too much.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers
There's moments of this were I really wasn't sure about it and I would have liked for it to have shown more of the wider effects in the world as the takeover unfolds as the film stays to rigidly tied to its central cast that you are limited in that regard but it was still a good watch.

[QualityChimp]

FFS Neon.
"The film didn't click - it's aged too much"

"Limited, but a good watch"

Some stone-cold classics there, man, and they're just meh, you bloody grump!