The Movie (and TV show) Watching Thread

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Power Rangers are back not the kids show I haven't watched it since the Dino Thunder era with Tommy Oliver and returning 100th Episode long time ago, but the old Mighty Morphine Power Rangers the version before cell phones I stopped watching it the new versions as I grew up got so silly.

I probably will watch this version as well but it's no Lord Zedd it's just Rita Repulsa no Rito Revolto and I don't know about Square and Baboo Goldae and Finster

[Ferguson97]

Anyone here watching Yellowjackets?

[vitoNova]

I'm watching Mad Men for the very first time, because it's free on Amazon Vid right now.  I'm on Season 3, and I'm unexpectedly hooked, and didn't think it would ever be a series I'd be in to. 

My favorite character so far--and the one I identify with the most--is Peggy. 

[Oleg 🇰🇿🤝🇺🇦]

On the second of April I saw "Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves" in the cinema. Great movie for family viewing and for people who have played Baldur's Gate. The characters have been made archetypal a standard party-like and are therefore completely devoid of any uniqueness, which is bad for an upcoming Marvel-way franchise. In general, the film left a vivid pleasant impression, I recommend watching it with friends or family.

[Mr. Smith]

Just saw Mario yesterday.

Needed an extra minute on each scene for the characters to sink in, but it did the job. Definitely the best visual experience thus far.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Guardians of Lost Galaxy coming up, Fast and Furious and Flash

[President Johnson]

Finished watching The Lincoln Lawyer yesterday. The first season from 2022 contains ten episodes. Another season is in the making.

I enjoyed watching; the story line was overall solid and can recommend to anyone who's a fan of series about crime and lawyers. Interestingly I never heard of any participating actors except for Neve Campbell (she played political operative LeAnn Harvey in House of Cards; in the series she works as a prosecuter and is the main character's ex-wife). Mexican actor Manuel Garcia-Rulfo is in the main cast as "the Lincoln Lawyer", a brillant legal mind, and does well in that role.

Since this is a political forum, the title has nothing to do with the 16th president. The main character is referred to as "Lincoln Lawyer" because he has a weird habit of getting his best work done on the road. He prefers working in his car (a Lincoln) while driving through the Los Angeles area.

[LBJer]

I'm watching Mad Men for the very first time, because it's free on Amazon Vid right now.  I'm on Season 3, and I'm unexpectedly hooked, and didn't think it would ever be a series I'd be in to. 

My favorite character so far--and the one I identify with the most--is Peggy. 

Peggy is my favorite too.  Her transformation over the course of the series is incredible.

[T'Chenka]

Guardians of Lost Galaxy coming up, Fast and Furious and Flash

Suzume just came out (seeing it in 1 hour) and Beau Is Afraid comes out next week. I have a lot of hype for both, and both have very good reviews from critics so far. Apparently Beau is divisive though... some people think it's a masterpiece, and some people are angry when the credits roll and say the movie was garbage. That's the kind of thing that just gets me even more excited to see a film! Ari Aster is one of my favourite directors.

[NewYorkExpress]

Saw Super Mario Bros. today. Really good voice acting, really good writing.

My only complaint is using pop music in place of the soundtrack from the games.

I wouldn't be shocked if this gets nominated for best animated picture at the Academy Awards next year.

[T'Chenka]

Beau Is Afraid
2023
director Ari Aster

7.5 (almost 7.0) / 10

A surrealist Kafkaesque nightmare. This is really something new from Ari Aster, and should not be directly compared with his other two films. This is more in the ballpark of Charlie Kaufman or David Lynch, with an Aster visual style. DEFINITELY going to be a divisive film that will often be underappreciated by some and overhyped by others.

Positives... the directing is very good. Phoenix is great. Production design and editing are great. Pacing isn't great, but for a three hour film, it isn't bad either. The movie doesn't fly by, but it only drags a bit in the middle, and it's not that bad. The supporting cast does a good job. Basically almost all aspect of filmmaking are good or very good.

So what's flawed here? WELL. Like I said, this is Kaufman-esque and Lynchian. There is stuff that happens here that makes no sense or doesn't connect well to the overall film. Is that bad writing? Is that part of some unforseen metaphor that we can't figure out? Ultimately, I think some things are just a little too weird but also don't fit into the script smoothly enough. I think the script could have been a little tighter and left slightly fewer question marks for us. You could see that Aster set himself up to be able to do so, if he had wanted to. He should have IMO.

All in all, this is a unique and hilarious and disturbing film. I would HIGHLY recommend this, even if you think you might hate it. It's definitely worth watching once, whether or not it's your cup of tea.


This first trailer doesn't give away or show too much. Just enough to get you interested.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Suzume, Beau is Afraid and the Super Mario Bros movie are probably the 3 films from this year i'm hyped the most for so far to watch.

[T'Chenka]

Suzume, Beau is Afraid and the Super Mario Bros movie are probably the 3 films from this year i'm hyped the most for so far to watch.

I was too lazy to write a review for Suzume, but I gave it "7.5 (almost 8.0) / 10". It's REALLY good, but it also has MANY script issues. The movie for me had all the necessary ingredients for an 8.5 or 9/10 type of film, and it often felt like that kind of film, but the script issues are hard to ignore. The more you think about them afterwards, the worse they get.

In terms of Shinkai films, it's not as good as Your Name, but it's better than Weathering With You.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

For april

First time viewings:
1. The Menu (2022) - 8/10
2. The Banshees of Inisherin (2022) - 8/10
3. Office Space (1999) - 8/10
4. Turning Red (2022) - 7/10
5. The Volcano: Rescue from Whakaari (2022) - 7/10
6. The Breakfast Club (1985) - 7/10
7. The General (1926) - 6/10
8. Barbarian (2022) - 6/10
9. Sherlock, Jr. (1924) - 6/10
10. Incredibles 2 ( 2018) - 6/10
11. Toy Story 4 (2019) - 5/10
12. Anastasia (1997) - 4/10

Shorts:
The Sprinkler Sprinkled (1895) - 6/10
Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory (1895) - 5/10
The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (1897) - 5/10   

-> Of course, more groundbreaking from a technical POV. It kinda reminds me of the earliest YT videos kind of atmosphere which looks silly now too after 15 years of YouTube culture developing.

Rewatches:
1. Toy Story 3 (2010) - 8/10
2. Moana (2016) - 8/10
3. Toy Story 2 (1999) - 8/10
4. The Incredibles (2004) - 8/10
5. Inside Out (2015) - 7/10
6. Toy Story (1995) - 7/10

[Thank you for being a friend...]

Tomorrow playing at the cinemas: Evil Dead the sequel, Are You There God Its Me Margaret?, Super Mario Brothers, and the re-release of Return of the Jedi... I love Yoda and the Ewoks so I'll be seeing ROTJ.

[T'Chenka]

Watched Dope (2015)... very good but not amazing. Recommended.

Also watched The Firm (1993), a Sydney Pollack film starring Tom Cruise and Gene Hackman. Thought it was really good. The internet seems to think it's merely "good". Underrated IMO.

[Progressive Pessimist]

It's been a minute since I last posted on this forum in general (it's been a surprisingly busy year for me) but in that time I still managed to see a few movies for the first time, I'll try to keep my thoughts on them short...I'll try:

'Tenebrae:' With this I think I have seen all of Dario Argento's most celebrated gialli. I've had a very mixed opinion on them as a whole but this one kind of falls in the middle for me. It shares a lot with most of the other ones to the point where it borders on formulaic, but certainly is among the least predictable. Sometimes the culprit of the murders in his movies is very easy to figure out, sometimes it's literally impossible until the movie goes on more. 'Tenebrae' fits into the latter and it was certainly an interesting reveal, but also among the most poorly explained and muddled when it came to the motivation for the killer. Their motivation is explored through flashbacks, as is often a feature in giallo films, but I honestly have no idea how they connected to anything. It was better than 'The Cat O'Nine Tails,' 'Inferno,' and 'Opera' though. I f***ing loved the score by Goblin though. It's weird to have such a funky  theme that you want to dance to in a violent film like this, but it worked.

'The Super Mario Bros.' (1993): I have never seen this infamous movie and always wanted to, especially with the release of the recent adaptation. It's considered one of the biggest cinematic disasters of all time and I just had to experience it. It lives up to that reputation, but for everything I've heard about how bats*** insane it is and how unfaithful it is to the property it's adapting, it's even more of that when you see the full product. I kind of loved it though for those reasons. It's really fun for me to see how badly this was f***ed up, and the behind-the-scenes stories alone about it are entertaining in their own right. I actually recommend it.

'The Northman:' This has been the movie I most wanted to see from last year, and I finally got to. Well, once again, Robert Eggers did not disappoint. I f***ing love this guy! The film is a bit of a departure for him with this being a film he didn't have final cut privileges on, and in its grander scale, but still contains the visual hallmarks and meticulous historical detail that his movies have become known for. He is a true auteur. It's the simplest story he has ever told-essentially a revenge film a la 'Gladiator' with a lot of 'Hamlet' influence (which was supposedly inspired by the Norse myth that the movie is based on) and a dash of 'The Ten Commandments.' The story is very straightforward but it is elevated by the visual spectacle and the grit. It dabbles a bit in exploring the concept of fate but is still uncomplicated enough where it can be followed by audiences who aren't as interested by artsy stuff like I can be. It's Eggers' most accessible and least abstract film yet, though there are still those elements in the background which really spice up the film. Specifically, I enjoyed the ambiguity of the Norse mythology elements. It's kind of left up to you whether the supernatural occurrences were real or not. I personally think the film is more fun if they were to be considered literal and real, it's a myth after all, as historically accurate as its portrayed (though they do speak English in how it probably would have sounded at the time, which is fine. Would you really want to watch a two hour film where nobody speaks anything but Old Norse or Slavic?). The fact the he was able to still make a film like this, in spite of apparent studio interference in some ways, is a real feat. I want to see more movies like this, and I have no idea what Eggers will do next, but I'm confident it will be incredible.

If I could nitpick for a moment though-this is probably the first time I ever criticized anything about an Eggers film-I was a little bothered by how anybody who wasn't a kid in the prologue barely aged when the film skips forward in time about 20 years. Nicole Kidman especially somehow looks exactly the same in that time span. It took me out of the movie a little bit and her inclusion in general was somewhat distracting and felt like the studio required her, as a bankable star, be in the film. She was great in the role, don't get e wrong- it was one I've never really seen from her,-but they couldn't put a couple grey streaks in her hair or anything? That's really my only criticism. This is truly my favorite film of 2022 with that aside.

Oh, and one more thing: Was Anya Taylor-Joy grown in a lab to be the most cherubic being possible?

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Dungeon and Dragons has been the best movie hit so far this year

[Neo-Malthusian Misanthrope]

I finally watched the Everything bagel movie. I enjoyed most of the first half despite the bizarre dildo-and-buttplugs-and-hotdog-fingers humour, but the second half lost me. Seemed to me like an overwrought way to say that everyone has their own regrets and we're all just trying to get by despite them. Great choreography and acting though. Ke Huy Quan was the standout.

[vitoNova]

Damn.  

Can we talk about them Mad Mens ending?

My take:

you can never redeem the irredeemable


Even if in the end, that results in a positive good. 

[T'Chenka]

Ladies and gents, Martin Scorsese has gone woke.

[President Johnson]

After three seasons, I'm looking forward for the fourth season of Snowpiercer. I enjoyed watching the series.

[Progressive Pessimist]

I've been watching 'Barry' season four, and it has really taken a turn again. Only two episodes left and I really don't know what to expect.

Other than that, I saw 'X' yesterday night. It was a very well-crafted homage to 1970's exploitation slasher and porn films, but kind of not my thing. I've been enjoying this wave of "elevated" artistic horror, but this one was just not all that amusing or entertaining to me. Maybe it's because I'm such a prude at times that the amount of sex and nudity combined with violence just kind of made me feel gross while watching it. But I'm sure that was intentional. It's still a very well-made horror movie in most every facet, I would recommend it to those who like slashers but in spite of its surface-level sheen, it kind of felt too familiar to me. And I guess that was another point, to take tropes and put them in a different context. So it does work, it's just not for me.

And maybe part of that is that I hated seeing what happened to Jenna Ortega in this movie. She is another one of those actresses who seems to have been bred to come across as innocent and cute as possible. But that was probably the point of her being cast in that role as well as an increasing number of horror roles.

But I will say, I do want to see 'Pearl' the quasi-prequel to 'X.' I do really appreciate Ti West making a micro-cinematic universe out of this franchise and with each seemingly being a different take on an era of film. Maybe I'll enjoy that one more with it being a homage to the technicolor golden age of Hollywood with a dark twist.

[Oleg 🇰🇿🤝🇺🇦]

Beau Is Afraid
2023
director Ari Aster

7.5 (almost 7.0) / 10

A surrealist Kafkaesque nightmare. This is really something new from Ari Aster, and should not be directly compared with his other two films. This is more in the ballpark of Charlie Kaufman or David Lynch, with an Aster visual style. DEFINITELY going to be a divisive film that will often be underappreciated by some and overhyped by others.

Positives... the directing is very good. Phoenix is great. Production design and editing are great. Pacing isn't great, but for a three hour film, it isn't bad either. The movie doesn't fly by, but it only drags a bit in the middle, and it's not that bad. The supporting cast does a good job. Basically almost all aspect of filmmaking are good or very good.

So what's flawed here? WELL. Like I said, this is Kaufman-esque and Lynchian. There is stuff that happens here that makes no sense or doesn't connect well to the overall film. Is that bad writing? Is that part of some unforseen metaphor that we can't figure out? Ultimately, I think some things are just a little too weird but also don't fit into the script smoothly enough. I think the script could have been a little tighter and left slightly fewer question marks for us. You could see that Aster set himself up to be able to do so, if he had wanted to. He should have IMO.

All in all, this is a unique and hilarious and disturbing film. I would HIGHLY recommend this, even if you think you might hate it. It's definitely worth watching once, whether or not it's your cup of tea.


This first trailer doesn't give away or show too much. Just enough to get you interested.

I was really looking forward to when this film would finally start rolling in Kazakh cinemas, but as far as I managed to notice, it was played only for two days at 23:35, after which it was immediately withdrawn from the distribution. Due to my work schedule, I couldn't get in. From the description, I recognized myself in the character and am very upset by this situation, although I am glad with its authenticity to the film.

[Progressive Pessimist]

At Landslide Lyndon's behest I managed to see 'Umberto D,' another neo-realist film by Vittorio De Sica, director of 'Bicycle Thieves,' one of my favorite movies. While I still think I prefer 'Bicycle Thieves,' this was also a very excellent examination of the struggles of the working class in post-Fascist Italy. In this case a senior having to rely on a meager pension in retirement and on the brink of losing his living space. It's actually a lot more depressing, somehow, than 'Bicycle Thieves,' because at least there is the potential for Antonio to get another job at some point, but Umberto ends up in a much worse situation that is punctuated even more when he faces problems with raising his dog, his only real friend outside of his boarding house's maid, who has her own personal strife. This movie really made me want to hug my dog and be so grateful that he is safe, when I was done watching it (then he pissed on the floor and I got my mad at him...). The film is a real testament to how the innocence of animal companions can get people through the most troubling times, and in that sense it ended on a slightly nicer note than 'Bicycle Thieves' even though Umberto's fate is likely worse.

Upon watching that and another Italian film, 'Tenebre,' recently, one of cult film director Lucio Fulci's highest rated movies was recommended to me by an algorithm, I guess: 'Don't Torture a Duckling.' It wasn't as good as some of Argento's giallo films I've come to like, but it was still a decent murder mystery. I think I admired it the most for the boldness of who the killer ends up being (even if it's easy to predict) and how ballsy its negative portrayal of rural Italy was. However, that was kind of undercut by a really bad dummy that gets focused on too much when the killer finally gets his comeuppance in true giallo fashion. That was laughable and kind of ruined what could have been a great commentary on religious extremism and superstition.