Last Movie You Saw, Name & Review Movie • Page 219

Caught a showing of A Woman Under the Influence this weekend. Gena Rowlands is so phenomenal, the scene where she asks her dad if he would stand up for her and he misunderstands and literally gets up so she has to ask again, man…

Also watched Late Night With the Devil. David Dastmalchian rocks but otherwise I was kinda let down by this

 

Blink Twice was better than I expected. The ending gets way too on-the-nose with characters becoming 1-to-1 avatars of specific personalities within the #MeToo movement, but it is shot like a classic suspense story and forces you to get lulled into a false sense of security before the threads come together.

Leaving the theater, a guy yelled that it was even worse than Asteroid City. He even stopped by concessions to tell the underpaid teenagers. I wonder what someone watches regularly if they think the worst movie ever is Asteroid City until they watched Blink Twice.

 

Alien Romulus - 2/10, woah I didn't expect to hate this as much as I did.

 

I feel like this guy sees every movie and hates everything

 

I assume he saw names like Tom Hanks and Scarlett Johansson for Asteroid City and went for that reason. It happens all the time with the bigger indie films with a star or too. A lot of Sandler fans felt burned by Uncut Gems. I remember movie theaters warning customers about Greenberg because they were about to stumble into a downer indie film because of Ben Stiller.

 

I would get it a lot when I was off during the week and inevitably some old couple would walk out of the movie pissed. This older couple were so mad after silence, the guy just yelled “what the HELL was that?”

 

Two I will always remember are an older couple storming out in the middle of The Master when Hoffman's character is singing and all the women are nude and when a dad with very young girls stormed out of the first three minutes of Spring Breakers.

 

A lady sat through all of Beau is afraid with an 8 year old. Insane.

 

I'm appalled at how many people just assume we're supposed to think the ending is something the movie is advocating for or condoning. The two characters make a clear argument for the two paths you can take in ending the patriarchy: you can destroy it and leave it behind entirely or you can try to rebuild it with you in the power position. I really didn't think they were advocating that her choice was "right".

 

That final few minutes seems to be the biggest contention with a few of the reviews I saw, but she was never really a hero to begin with. She used her job to infiltrate a party and meet people she probably never would have in the first place, so she was already portrayed as a social climber to begin with.

The film might have the title of the most interesting casting choices. It is such a spread of actors you haven't seen in forever.

 

I only saw Blink Twice because my mother wanted someone to go with her now that my father is gone and she has a lot more free time. To my horror she said the Joker movie (this is the woman who introduced me to The King of Comedy when I was a mere child) looked good so if I have to see that in theaters I will be drinking a bottle of NyQuil beforehand.

 

Then you’ll have to see it again because it won’t count as you’re under the influence.

 

Joker 2: The Musical directed by the guy who made The Hangover 3 doesn't deserve a real watch.

 

She is also willing to ignore her friend's best interests for her own pleasure, too. Some people just can't process a movie where the lead isn't intended as a moral center.

 

I am trying to skip this posts so I don't get it spoiled.fo.me, lol

 

The Slumber Party Massacre (1982) - 7.5/10
First film of The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs: Nightmareathon. I liked this more on second watch! It still reads to me like you took Halloween and stripped it of any additional thought or frills, but knowing that it was written as a parody (eating pizza off the delivery guy's dead body) and filmed as a straightforward slasher film definitely helps me understand why the execution feels off at times. More than anything, I wish they didn't reveal the killer's identity immediately, because they still treat the neighbor like a red herring after the fact and it's honestly baffling. Regardless, a fun albeit slight slasher with an obviously great weapon choice. Plus, we love a 75-minute runtime.

When Evil Lurks - 8/10
Second film of The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs: Nightmareathon. So close to be great, and at times, it does get there. It's an incredibly bleak film, but one that's so well-made that you understand each character's fate even while you root for them. (Unlike The Mist, this is not just bleak for bleak's sake.) Characters are fleshed out and subject to some of the grossest practical effects in recent memory. The film gets points for creating new rules in the possession subgenre, even if some of them occasionally become redundant or confusing. Just really amazing worldbuilding here. Consistently tense and occasionally jaw-dropping. The goat scene is an all-timer.

Bloody Muscle Body Builder in Hell - 10/10
Third film of The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs: Nightmareathon. An hour-long Japanese DIY riff on Evil Dead. That should immediately tell you whether you will love or hate this film. I don't know how much of it is new, per se, but the whole thing is a 90s fever dream with wood-paneling everywhere. More than anything, there is a charming ingenuity that comes with the third act's unbelievable special effects that really pushed this one over the edge for me. Impossible not to have fun with, especially when enjoyed with a few friends (or drinks). I would die for Japanese Bruce Campbell.

Fade to Black - 6.5/10
Fourth film of The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs: Nightmareathon. Another film I should love in theory (and do enjoy), but one that always seems to be missing something for whatever reason. It could be Dennis Christopher's over-the-top performance or the way the kills begin to repetitively mimic movies he loves (which certainly starts as a feature that only begins to bog down the film with time). Regardless, it's hard not to appreciate a horror movie that's so obsessed with horror movies (and film) in general - I love clips of other films dispersed throughout.

Kinds of Kindness - 8.5/10
I like Yorgos, but I wouldn't call myself a major Yorgos fan or anything. I really enjoyed The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer, and Poor Things certainly grew on me with time. I had no idea what to expect from this based on the trailers aside from an all-star cast (Plemons, Stone, and Dafoe all deliver in spades here). Turns out this is basically the director's Twilight Zone Movie, or as I saw someone else refer to it, his Treehouse of Horror, which means it was essentially built in a lab for me. Incredibly dark and sporadically very funny; three absurdist fables about different forms of abuse, brought to life by a beloved ensemble cast that spans generations. It is, for lack of a better term, punk rock cinema - it never flinches at its subject matter takes nearly every dark turn it can think of (bordering on straight-up horror at times), which is undeniably admirable after the surprising amount of crowd-pleasing done by Poor Things. It should come as no surprise, but this thing has style for days. It's certainly not for everyone, but for those like myself who really latch onto it, it's likely one of the best films of the year.

Hard Candy - 7.5/10
I remember this movie blowing my mind when I saw it in high school. It was so stylish and unabashedly dark, but not in the same way that Requiem for a Dream was, which felt intentionally designed to either blow your teenage mind or leave you feeling like shit (maybe both). Well, I'm pleased to report that aside from some cringe-inducing dialogue, it mostly holds up! It's interesting seeing what essentially is (or could be) a stage play depicting predator catching before it became popular in other media and online (the first episode of To Catch a Predator aired two months before this premiered at Sundance). It carries a bit of the tone of a torture porn film (complete with an extended non-graphic psuedo-castration sequence) with a minimum of onscreen violence, relying primarily on style and dialogue, which is unfortunately the only element that really starts to feel unwieldy after a while. Page and Wilson are expertly casted and do the best with the material they're given, and you'll be shocked and how most of it holds up. I wouldn't call this a great film, but it's a shockingly contemporary and unique psychological thriller that I would likely recommend to genre fans who haven't seen it.

Circle - 4/10
One of those movies where the premise is simply much better than its execution, and even then, it's the kind of premise that could hold up 20-30 minute short max. This 85-minute psychological stage play by way of technical sci-fi thriller plays like a Twilight Zone episode stretched to its limits. There's a distinct lack of style as 99% of the film takes place in a dark room without movement, and the dialogue given to characters, while occasionally believe, essentially boils down to, "How can we make this person a stereotype?" The film's ending is simultaneously audacious and insane (how it connects to aliens or how they are making a sequel out of this, I do not know). It's compulsively watchable, but ultimately, trash.

Sea Fever - 8/10
Sea Fever wears its influences on its sleeve, clearly indebted to The Thing and Cabin Fever, while also being surprisingly restrained and heady for creature feature infection flick. Fortunately, that transparency isn't an issue here as the film is simply so well-written and competently directed that you'll have a hard time believing you found in it the depths of Shudder or Hulu. It's occasionally predictable with an ending that seemingly undermines the main character's intelligence (making one of the dumbest horror movie decisions I've seen in recent memory), but regardless, it's hard not to appreciate this thoughtful and well-acted sea-set horror flick - especially considering it was released just a few months after the pandemic hit Europe and the U.S.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) - 8.5/10
Needed a comfort watch and this did the trick. Even before the quips, Freddy was always a dweeb; it's what he's capable of that so scary, even today. Sure, some of the rules might not add up, and they may not have nailed his tone on first go, but Craven set out to create a new landscape for horror and succeeded with flying colors. What other film has at least two (if not four) of the most iconic moments in horror within an 85-minute runtime? I do, unfortunately, think of the main horror franchises, this is likely the one with the highest drop in quality over time (at least Halloween tried some new things), but the sequels are fun for what they are, and more importantly, performances from Lagenkamp and Englund really bring this original game-changer to life. From THAT New Line Cinema title card to an ending that is incredibly goofy in all the right ways, this one remains a classic for a reason.

 

Sorry, I don't feel like writing every day and then I have a three-day weekend and end up with nearly a dozen films to review, lol.

 

Sea Fever - 6/10

at times this was gripping and at others it was completely monotonous. I alternated between being invested in the story and checking to see how much time it had left. It feels much longer than its runtime. also: who takes a job on a boat without knowing how to swim?

 

my thoughts exactly, although i'd probably give it a 5, tbh

 

i debated on that number but I didn’t wanna be too hard on it. it has its charms even if they wear off rather quick

 

Damn, I enjoyed it much more than you guys. Felt like a relstively grounded sci-fi/horror/thriller hybrid to me

 

it wasn't terrible. had some freaky moments for sure. just didn't keep me as engaged as i thought it would. was fun seeing Olwen Fouéré again.

 

The Elephant Man - 3/5

perfectly fine but nothing uniquely special, outside of the beginning sequence and maybe some of the freak show stuff I never would have guessed this was Lynch

Dune (1984) - 3.5/5

A bit of a mess but I loved what he was going for even if he misses the mark a bit. I would love to see a longer cut because without reading the books or seeing the 2 new Dune films this would be very hard to follow. He just blows through the story so quickly with a lot of exposition that doesn’t make sense if you aren’t familiar with the story.

His first 3 films are all wildly different. Excited to rewatch blue velvet as it’s the only film of his I’ve seen.

 

I'm interested in rewatching his Dune now I know what is actually happening.