Rate The Last Movie You Saw - 2

[D-Money]

Prospect - 7.5/10  (On Netflix)

 

Solid sci-fi movie, which gets bonus points for originality and efficiency. It presents convincing new characters in a new time on a new world, and wraps up a complete and realistic story with them in about 90 minutes.

 

The actual plot isn't groundbreaking or anything. But compared to a lot of the drawn-out, pompous sci-fi in recent years (see: Interstellar, multiple Star Wars, etc.), I found it refreshing.

 

Edited April 10, 2020 by D-Money

[Monty]

23 minutes ago, D-Money said:

Prospect - 7.5/10  (On Netflix)

 

Solid sci-fi movie, which gets bonus points for originality and efficiency. It presents convincing new characters in a new time on a new world, and wraps up a complete and realistic story with them in about 90 minutes.

 

The actual plot isn't groundbreaking or anything. But compared to a lot of the drawn-out, pompous sci-fi in recent years (see: Interstellar, multiple Star Wars, etc.), I found it refreshing.

 

I started this about a year ago and turned it off after 10 minutes. Not because I didn’t want to watch it, but I’m sure it had everything to do with my daughter waking up. Totally forgot about it. Will watch it this weekend.

[Monty]

28 minutes ago, gurn said:

Guy on the left looks like Herschel of Walking Dead.

I saw the first movie, have not seen the last two, probably will not watch them.

It’s Nick Nolte  

[Monty]

The Social Network

 

In the middle of watching it, for probably the 8th time. I can always watch it. To me, one of the best films in the last 20 years. This is one of the best scenes.

 

 

[Bllewellyn]

The Postcard Killing

6/10

Very slow movie to watch. To be honest it took me all day to watch it fell asleep multiple times. Lol wouldn’t watch it again 

[Monty]

The Platform

 

Netflix acquired it and it’s currently at 82% on RT. Think they screwed up, should be at 28%. This movie is garbage.

 

[Down by the River]

The Gentlemen: Didn't care for it/10

 

Thought the story-telling device was gimmicky and wasted time. Felt like Guy Ritchie phoned it in. "If they talk in English accents and use slang, that'll be enough.. but we will throw some Americans in there so that people in the US will go see it". 

[nuckin_futz]

On 4/10/2020 at 2:26 PM, Monty said:

The Social Network

 

In the middle of watching it, for probably the 8th time. I can always watch it. To me, one of the best films in the last 20 years. This is one of the best scenes.

 

That really is such a good movie.

 

My personal favorite scene from that one...........

 

 

[Monty]

9 minutes ago, nuckin_futz said:

That really is such a good movie.

 

My personal favorite scene from that one...........

 

 

Yup. Those two scenes are terrific.

 

What’s more is the killer soundtrack for the film. Listen to it pretty regularly.

[Monty]

1 hour ago, Down by the River said:

The Gentlemen: Didn't care for it/10

 

Thought the story-telling device was gimmicky and wasted time. Felt like Guy Ritchie phoned it in. "If they talk in English accents and use slang, that'll be enough.. but we will throw some Americans in there so that people in the US will go see it". 

Watched it last night with the wife.

 

Came across as a knock of Guy Ritchie movie.

[Down by the River]

1 hour ago, Monty said:

Watched it last night with the wife.

 

Came across as a knock of Guy Ritchie movie.

This is the perfect way to put it. 

[Monty]

Enemy

 

Never watched it before. Not quite sure how I feel about it. I get what it’s saying. It’s well written and well acted. Definitely not Denis Villeneuve’s best movie, but it’s far from a dud. Still really good. But compared to the rest of his recent string of films since 2013, it’s at the bottom of the list. But again, that’s saying something. Because the dude knows how to make a phenomenal movie.

 

[UnkNuk]

The Seventh Seal

 

This Ingmar Bergman gem popped up on TCM the other day.  It's the one that contains the classic "Bergman" scene of a knight playing chess with Death.  A rather timely movie, too, given that the knight and his troupe are travelling through a plague-ravaged country.

 

  

[Monty]

Beastie Boys Story

 

Documentary on Apple+, directed by Spike Jonze. The “movie”, or whatever it is, was filmed in New York in 2018 with Mike D and Adrock on on stage in front of a crowd, as they go over their career from 1984-1997. They touch on, for like 30 seconds, 2009 and Adam Yauch’s cancer and death.

 

This hurts, because the Beastie Boys were such a massive part of my youth. First heard them when I was 12, Ill Communication, and I was hooked. Loved them so much. But this documentary is awful. Like, real, real bad.

 

I wrote more, but I lost all of it, because CDC does that sometimes on mobile. 
 

Skip it, it sucks.

[Tortorella's Rant]

On 4/19/2020 at 10:35 PM, Monty said:

Enemy

 

Never watched it before. Not quite sure how I feel about it. I get what it’s saying. It’s well written and well acted. Definitely not Denis Villeneuve’s best movie, but it’s far from a dud. Still really good. But compared to the rest of his recent string of films since 2013, it’s at the bottom of the list. But again, that’s saying something. Because the dude knows how to make a phenomenal movie.

 

He's doing that Dune movie. Him, that cast, the movie should be killer. 

[aGENT]

1 hour ago, Monty said:

Beastie Boys Story

 

Documentary on Apple+, directed by Spike Jonze. The “movie”, or whatever it is, was filmed in New York in 2018 with Mike D and Adrock on on stage in front of a crowd, as they go over their career from 1984-1997. They touch on, for like 30 seconds, 2009 and Adam Yauch’s cancer and death.

 

This hurts, because the Beastie Boys were such a massive part of my youth. First heard them when I was 12, Ill Communication, and I was hooked. Loved them so much. But this documentary is awful. Like, real, real bad.

 

I wrote more, but I lost all of it, because CDC does that sometimes on mobile. 
 

Skip it, it sucks.

Well, boo. Was looking forward to it 

[aGENT]

56 minutes ago, Tortorella's Rant said:

He's doing that Dune movie. Him, that cast, the movie should be killer. 

Re-reading the first book right now. One of my favourite books and he's one of my favourite directors. Can not wait to see the books finally done justice on film!

 

For the record, I thought Enemy was quite good. Uncomfortable but good.

Edited April 25, 2020 by aGENT

[D-Money]

Darkest Hour - 5/10

 

(Netflix) Well acted and shot... but seriously dull Oscar-bait. No surprises, and oozing with sentimentality. Although Oldman is a favourite of mine, I found Lithgow’s Churchill in The Crown more interesting.

 

 

Groundhog Day - 8.5/10

 

(Netflix) I couldn’t believe it when my wife of nearly 15 years said she’d never actually seen this. But I realized watching again how long it’s been since I had.  It still holds up. For a while it seems like just another 90’s-era comedy, but Murray and the writers keep going deeper and darker into the gimmick, and end up hitting not only comedic gold, but interesting life lessons, that might stick with you even longer than the jokes.

 

(Was also cool to see a young Michael Shannon in a bit part - 18 years before I started noticing him, but still recognized him as a teenager immediately.)

Edited April 25, 2020 by D-Money

[babych]

The Foreigner - 7/10

 

Very solid popcorn movie. It's nice to see Jackie Chan still kicking @$$!

[Monty]

On 4/25/2020 at 12:15 AM, aGENT said:

Well, boo. Was looking forward to it 

So, I’ve heard people have differing views on it. If you’re not too critical, then it might be right up your alley. For me, it was light and weak.

 

Not going to lie, sometimes when I write a review of a movie or gather my thoughts on it, I’ve heard others’ take on it so I go in already knowing the shortcomings. And I can’t pretend that those bias’ don’t shape my overall thoughts on the movie/show. However, that didn’t happen with Beastie Boys Story. I watched it immediately when it came out and didn’t read any reviews about it. I was also obsessed with the B-Boys growing up and in university, so I know tons about them. This documentary, or whatever they call it, was empty.

 

So, many documentaries about a particular topic will go deep into the inner workings of whatever topic they are discussing. I fully expected this one to be better than most, simply because 2 of the Boys are still alive and had cameras and videos taken around them for decades. The sheer amount of stuff to discuss was certainly worth more than a 2 hour, watered down documentary of their nearly 30 year career (and friendship). This could have been 3-5 parts.

 

My issues may not be felt by others. For starters, it’s odd to me that they only went through 1984-1997. Not only skipping over To the 5 Boroughs and Hot Sauce Committee entirely, but the entire 2000s as band mates and individuals. Not touching on “why” they spent so much time in between albums, what they did in between albums, Adrock’s criminally underrated solo project “BS 2000”, etc. This just seemed really strange. Whenever they did talk about themselves as individuals, it was Adrock and Mike D gushing over MCA. Now, when they do, it’s genuinely impressive just how talented MCA was (musically, handy, etc), and how kind and inspiring of a person he was to them and others. However, they NEVER discuss or go into the same detail of their own talents. For instance, it’s well known that Adrock is pretty much the creative driving force in the band. The amount he brought to them was far more than the other two brought (and they were both terrific). But he was the driving force. The only time this was touched on was leading up to the recording of Paul’s Boutique, as Adrock mentions he was listening to stuff that The Dust Brothers were doing in LA at the time. 
 

Second, they go into the most detail on the creative process for Licensed to Ill and Paul’s Boutique. That’s basically 2/3rds of the 2 hour documentary. And really, it’s mostly Licensed to Ill and that tour. But they gloss over Check Your Head, Ill Communication, and Hello Nasty. For instance, when discussing Licensed to Ill, they discuss numerous songs and the process of creating each one. They don’t do this for Paul’s Boutique at all, or Check Your Head, Ill Communication, or Hello Nasty. This is mind boggling to me. Paul’s Boutique is known to be the album that sampled the most songs of all time. They were settling in court with artists for decades because of the sheer amount that album borrowed. This wasn’t discussed. But it’s widely known. Would be nice to know their feelings on how lucky they were to create an album that everyone in the music industry says could never be done again. And yeah, never discussing the songs from Check Your Head to Hello Nasty is super weird. Especially considering Intergalactic and Sabotage are the two songs that really launched them into pop culture, again.

 

Third, not mentioning Mix Master Mike, ONCE. They have been quoted dozens of times saying that Mix Master Mike became the 4th Beastie Boy from Hello Nasty until the end of their career, and that he was a massive creative force for them. Any mention of him? Nope.

 

Fourth, as much as I “like” To the 5 Boroughs and Hot Sauce Committee Pt. 2, it’s clear those two albums were largely ignored and not cared about by the general public. Their feelings on growing older as a hip/hop group and what they each focused on during more during the years they weren’t as popular? Nothing.

 

Fifth, they mention how crucial Rick Rubin was in creating and producing Licensed to Ill, and Russell Simmons was promoting it, but they don’t really discuss the falling out, especially with Simmons. This is something everyone knows. We know that Simmons stiffed them financially and they barely received any money because Simmons is a d-bag. But the only mention of this was, “Pretty messed up we weren’t getting royalties.” Now onto the next thing.

 

Lastly, everyone has moments they like to forget, have do overs on, and moments that we learn from. It is also well known that the song “Girls” on Licensed to Ill has aged poorly and they are incredibly ashamed and embarrassed by. I knew this in the 90s, because they were outspoken about it. But here, Adrock quotes 4 lines from it and says, “That’s pretty messed up,” or something along those lines. No, “This was a something we wish we could remove from our catalog,” or “We would really like to apologize for this, because it was a joke that wasn’t funny or respectful to anyone.”
 

Along with this, when the band first formed, they had a 4th member, Kate Schellenbach. They kicked her out because they weren’t hanging out with her anymore once Rick Rubin entered the picture. You can see they are ashamed of this onstage, but again, no apology or remorse. Just, “That sucked.” Ok.

 

I really can go on and on about this. It made me sad, because there is no band I listened to more as a kid and university student than them. My best friend in university and I first began talking (in the same dorm) because we both started playing Paul’s Boutique at the same time one evening, cranking it in the dorm. Instantly friends. Was one of the best concerts I ever went to in Seattle. So tons of memories. But this documentary is a watered down version of what could have been. You know how you see unofficial biographies written that don’t have the sign off from an individual and you just know they suck? That’s what this seemed like. Like they didn’t put this together. 
 

So many issues with it.