Rate the last movie you watched.

Magnolia sent us a screener out of the blue for "Lemon", which was cool only being a film festival in our second year. It was directed by a up and coming director, Janicza Bravo, who directed the Juneteenth episode of "Atlanta". It's an awkward, uncomfortable comedy that uses the common subject of a dumb, white man fumbling his way through life and creates something new and incredible. It's about an out-of-work actor, who doubles as an acting coach, who's blind girlfriend threatens to leave him as he finds a new love interest. A perfect cast of Brett Gelman, Judy Greer (with a fun and meaty role for the first time in a loooooong time), Michael Cera (if you loved his cameo in Twin Peaks, then you'll love this), Nia Long, and Gillian Jacobs (being involved in a hilarious long running gag as a acting student of the main character.)

It's beautifully filmed with extreme detail to lighting, framing and editing that is uncommon in both new filmmakers and comedy.

3.5/4 Stars my duders.

Z For Zachariah 3/5

A weird (misguided?) interpretation of the book. Also, the radiation suit looks like a post-apocalyptic version of Rick Moranis' costume in Spaceballs...

I, Frankenstein is a dumb, lumbering doldrum of a movie that answered the question "What if Underworld but for Frankenstein?". Only no one actually asked that and the answer was about a decade too late. It is stupid, lazy and an absolute slog of 90 minute fuzzy-cgi drivel. Also, within the first 5 minutes they fuck up the title. 1/5 IT'S ALIVE!

A History of Violence 2/5

Presumably a drama, but some of the writing/acting feels (unintentionally) comedic - particularly towards the end.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children - 4/5

Tim Burton Presents: Lovecraft X-Men. Took too long to really get going, and when it did it wrapped up too quickly. Villains introduced too late and not used to full effect.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them

Fun movie if you don't think too hard about it. Best enjoyed by someone who watched all the other movies, but didn't read the books because it's chock full of plot holes and universe inconsistencies for those who did.

7/10

Hunt for the Wilderpeople, cute movie, it's got a lot of heart amidst some surprisingly cartoonish humor, real human drama, and even some dark moments here and there, thought the pacing could have been smoother tho, 3/5 but maybe 4/5 if I go by how refreshing it is to have a movie that's a little more unique to watch than what you normally get nowadays.

Storks. Wolf pack form of a 9 out of 10.

I finally watched Jurassic World

8/10, thoroughly enjoyed it despite it being very silly at times. Just happy enough to have another Jurassic movie.

I just saw Wonderwoman in theaters and it was actually pretty good! I think the last comic book movie I enjoyed was the first Guardians of the Galaxy (Edit: I lied, it's actually Deadpool, but that's still a pretty big gulf), so I went in with lowered expectations, which set me up to enjoy the movie a great deal!

I don't think the movie is without flaws, however - namely the motivations of certain characters and their reactions in a few places that don't seem to hold up, and a seeming overindulgence in having Wonderwoman be overly-emotional (it's backed up by her character but I think the movie beats you over the head a little bit about it) and in having her strut around in slow-mo which added little but on the whole it's a rollicking good time. The cast is great and Chris Pine and Gal Gadot play wonderfully off eachother, the dialogue is witty and funny and scenes move at a decent clip.

7/10 Definitely worth seeing, even for those who are burnt out on comic book films.

There Will Be Blood - 4/5

It's pretty good. Didn't blow me away or anything, but I enjoyed the bleakness and such. Certainly likes to move at its own pace, not unlike The Master and Inherent Vice.

@indigodays: I also recently saw Wonder Woman. It was a fun movie to watch. Granted, I haven't seen a comic book film in forever. But it was still enjoyable.

I thought they overplayed the whole leaving the island for the first time, ignorant of how the world works bit. She struggled to adjust to the real world, which is to be expected, but they just kept it going. They make her look downright stupid.

7.5/10

The Gift 5/5

Wow...

lol, fucked up right?

He Died with a Felafel in His Hand 3/5

A series of very odd, very Australian interconnected vignettes. Reminded me a bit of Clerks.

Fire Walk With Me. It was pretty bad and I have very low standards for movies.

Commando. 8/10. Solid action flick with totally kick ass final 1/3.

"Kimi no Na wa" aka "Your Name" - 5 comets out of 5. Its an anime movie, very good, came close to tears.

Battle Royale - Been years and years since saw this last time, still kicks ass.

Just watched The Blues Brothers (again). 14 / 10

Life - Decent sci-fi creature feature. Nothing amazing but it’s enjoyable. 3 out of 5

Lego Batman - not a big fan, felt like everyone was trying way too hard wth this one. 2 out of 5

The Mummy(Frasier One) - Still great after all of these years. This is how you make a popcorn flick. It’s fun, has decent acting, doesn’t overstay it’s welcome, and has interesting characters. I still love it. 4 out of 5

Samurai Cop - it’s a new cult favorite for a reason. Amazingly stupid movie that I can watch over and over again. 4 out of 5

Troll II - first time I’ve seen it, I always put it off for some reason. I was a bit disappointed actually. It’s stupid but isn’t always stupid in a fun way. 2 out of 5

Basket Case - oh man, that tantrum scene is glorious. Great stuff here. 3 out of 5

Recently did my monthly viewing of my all time favorite movie, Big Trouble in Little China. 5/5 stars. It has the perfect mix of corny lines, Kurt Russell, and action packed martial arts how can you not love it? I never want to get off the Pork Chop Express.

John wick 2... 3/5, still enjoyable and recommendable, but not as cool as the first.

I always prefer simplicity and novel ideas over bloated sequels (Portal 1>Portal 2, Bioshock 1>Bioshock Infinite)

Just like Portal and Bioshock, John Wick has a mysterious world that is never fully explained and a very simple story line that works. As the sequel drags on and tries too hard, more and more things are added that don't need to be explained or explained in unsatisfactory ways.

I've seen it several times and while I still prefer the first movie, John Wick 2 is fantastic and very restrained. Yes, more is explained but not much more really, what new stuff do you know about the inner workings of the weird assassins guild thing? Not much, you simply get glimpses into that world; it's more much restrained than almost any other movie would do, if it was mainstream there probably would have been some dumb scrolling text at the beginning of the movie that would tell you every little secret.

Moana - 4/5

Sailing, demi-gods, great animation, and great performance from the titular character.

Dwayne Johnson however was comparatively unemotive, unfortunately. The ending was also lacking in the oomph department, and felt like a throwaway resolution to everything, which ultimately isn't a huge damper considering the real story is about Moana's adventure, rather than some Lady Green Giant.

Maui's song was alright, but the fuckin Jemaine Crab sequence was so good.

Much better than Tangled, not better than Frozen.

I really disliked Frozen. None of the characters were likable and the singing was awful. Even my kids didn't like it, but they loved Moana. Still, The Good Dinosaur is my favorite Pixar movie. . . weirdly enough.

Never saw The Good Dinosaur (it's on Netflix I think, so I'll give it a shot).

Frozen however is one of my favourite movies ever. Great characters, great songs, great story, great everything.

@theht: a lot of people don’t like The Good Dinosaur. It’s just a weird ass movie which is why I like it. I have funky taste though.

Saw Logan and, holy shit, Fox finally made a good Wolverine movie. I guess the devil's pact they made that kept them trying to do it is now broken and the character can rest for a bit? The movie is fantastically crafted and delivers a really wonderful send off for Jackman's Wolverine. Kicked enough arse without forgetting to make it about the characters. Just great. 5 1/2 claws out of 6.

Shin Gojira (2016)

This latest Godzilla film, directed Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi, differs the most from previous films in the cult franchise. More a political thriller, in parts even swaying into satire, the film focuses on the ineffectiveness of government bodies during a sudden crisis such as the surprise attack of a seemingly invincible atomic monster. In large parts, the film is an allegory of the 2011 Japanese earthquake and ensuing Fukushima nuclear disaster, reflecting the double-tragedy in the sequence of events, government response, use of news and mobile phone footage and multiple underlying plot points.

The few action sequences really show the legacy of Evangelion and Attack on Titan, all the way down to some very familiar shots and even the use of the battle theme from NGE. The special effects tow a brilliant line between the CGI creations of the American Godzilla films, and the classic puppetry and full body suits of the historic Japanese films. There's real tension and some truly horrific scenes of destruction. Despite their scarcity and thanks to some rock-solid cinematography, these action sequences are probably the best the Godzilla films have ever seen.

The main body of the film, long discussions within government agencies, are interesting to follow and generally well written with well acted characters spread throughout. However, due to the large number of actors involved in these scenes, a few flaws do show through. UN-Japan-US relations mean the inclusion of English speaking characters in the film. These English spoken roles vary from passable to incomprehensible. A particularly distracting role is that of Kayoko Ann Patterson, played by Satomi Ishihara. Her role as an American diplomat is ruined by Ishihara's dreadful English, which simply can not be understood without reading the subtitles. Some other roles are handled almost as badly, but as a major and frequent character in the film, she is the worst offender by far.

Even with these flaws in casting, Shin Gojira remains a well paced, beautifully shot and scored movie. The themes are extremely current, dealing with world events beyond the recent tragedies faced by Japan. While not necessarily for fans of the pure-action Godzilla productions from America, Shin Gojira holds true to the spirit of the Japanese classics and offers a refreshing take on the monster-movie tropes. In the end, this movie has probably risen as my favorite of all the Gojira/Godzilla films, and is a quick contender for one of the best movies I've seen all year.

4/5 stars.

Wonder Woman. I give it a perfect 5/7

John Wick 4/5

Video Game: The Movie.

It Comes at Night: way more of an art-house kinda movie than anything fun. I don't think that that's a bad thing, just that, as it's probably been said tenfold by now, one probably shouldn't come in hoping for campy horror gruesomeness. It's gruesome, but in a lot more of the sort of themes it sets up. Totally glad I saw it and I came away thinking that it had a real profound statement to say. Maybe a 3/5 if you value thrills more than anything (I mean I can't lie I almost fell asleep it's a slower movie than the hour-and-a-half would entail), but everything about the movie-making is so immaculate that I could easily bump it up to a 4.

Silence: As long and seemingly excessive as it seems, it was a pretty enticing movie throughout. A great examination of how grey area having faith can really be. 4/5

Wonder Woman (2017)

Wonder Woman is... OK.

Nothing remarkable. But compared to the other DC films of recent years I guess "OK" is a huge step up.

Gal Gadot still isn't a very good actor but director Patty Jenkins manages to mostly work around that and surround her with good actors who can help shoulder the load. The classic "fish out of water" setup and the humour that it brings can also only be used once so I wonder where they'll go from there. The plot itself isn't the most sensical but my expectations were sufficiently low to not really care.

The quality of the CGI lags behind its contemporaries, giving the scenes which make heavy use of it a look that reminds me of Zack Snyder's early work and not in a good way. The action choreography is serviceable. Nothing really standout or impressive but nothing really terrible either except for the "final battle" which is pretty poor and really shouldn't have been there at all, although the studio execs would probably not allow that.

All in all, a step up for the DC movie franchise but not exactly a big one. Let's hope it's the first step towards something good or even great.

3/5

Looking for advice, I am currently watching F8 for the second time, correction trying to watch. So far, I think its an absolutely horrible film....any hope/worth seeing it through? Back half make up for the shit that makes up the first hour? Its some how boring, poorly paced, idiotic and not even remotely funny, what the fuck does this movie want to be?!?! Fuck...

Baby Driver - Starts off a little shaky but quickly picks up. It's a smart, fun, and heartfelt film that everyone should watch. 4 out of 5

The Invitation - The whole idea for this movie is to build up tension, but it rather built up a bunch of sleepiness in me. It works towards a single moment in the film ("is the main character's suspicions right or not") and that minute is pretty good, but the rest of the movie is not worth to watch.

2/5

Resident Evil: Vendetta

Leon's a drunk and Chris is an asshole but no one can slow mo shoot zombies like they can, so once again its up to them to save the world from the ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP Virus.

1/5

GO SEE BABY DRIVER GO SEE BABY DRIVER GO SEE BABY DRIVER GO SEE BABY DRIVER

Alright, forced myself to finish F8...it is the worst movie I've seen in years. It was just to dumb for me and I was just stoned faced watching it. Couple things, Roman is the worst, I'm the biggest 2F2F defender, but I wish that movie never happened because it adds fucking nothing to movies and this just took it further than ever. Cypher sucked, wasn't a very good bad guy. Final rankings of the FF franchise since I've seen them all this year....

5>3>6>7>2>1>4>>>>>>>>>>8

• 5 is the best pure movie. Best action scenes (safe scene is still the best shot and choreographed in the series). The little humor in it works and isn't overwhelming like future installments. Best ending and twist. Just fucking great.
• 3 is my guilty pleasure. Best character introduced (Hans) and the stupidity I can get behind. Love its still about racing.
• 6 has the first or second best bad guy, action scenes are great but become....less enjoyable to me starting here.
• 7 is such a mix bag, the final action stuff is horrendously boring, becomes even more stupid than 6 BUT they nailed that ending, literally cried both times I watched it this year. Crazy that they nailed the farewell, where the franchise should've ended honestly.
• 2 I enjoy the film, its a bad/good movie too me. My favorite bad guy in the series, or at least number 2 next to Owen Shaw.
• 1 is a good movie, that is all. Can't complain about anything really.
• 4 I came around on it this year, its an ok to good movie, least favorite of the core 7
• 8 pretty much ends my interest in the franchise. It is on the level of CA Civil War in that I don't want to see anymore movies in said universes. If they turn it around with future movies, I'll try again, but 8 couldn't have been more of a failure to me.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Disney Version, 1996.

Hadn't seen it since I was 7, and never really thought much of it. But it turned out to be a masterpiece and one of my favorite animated films of all time.

10/10, easy.

Okja - 5/5

Delicious. Beautiful.

@mamba219: Man, got me here watching clips and reminding of how amazingly dark Hunchback was. What was a great era of Disney movies. The big ones in my memory are always Aladdin and Lion King, but those afterwards were so fucking fantastic as well. Pocahontas, Hunchback, Mulan. Hercules I remember being a disappointment as a kid, but Tarzan is where I dropped off (till Frozen).

I should watch Hercules again. I remember being most hyped for that one way back when. Got my McDonald's Hercules plate and everything.

Recently just watched the whole Evil Dead series. The only one I had watched was Army of Darkness and the TV show, which I had enjoyed both quite a bit. Finding the original two in person has been difficult for me for some reason, so I was pretty happy to just order them finally.

Evil Dead: What I enjoyed most about this movie was the pacing for 3/4 of the movie. There's a very distinct build up in what is going on throughout the whole movie and it doesn't feel like it drags on like many horror movies tend to feel like currently. It's short, sweet, and to the point, yet also gives the audience a time to feel the creeping dread of 'the Force' trying to find a victim. The low production of it all is pretty great to watch too. It still feels like a fun movie your friends made over the summer and there's something endearing and fun about it all, which is pretty different in comparison to the other ones in the series. The cinematography is such a staple of the series and it's really great to see these humble beginnings. . 4/5

Evil Dead 2: Basically a retelling of the first one, it was a bit odd to watch immediately after since it basically retconns everything that happened in the 1st one, but it ends up paying off with the obvious increase in budget. There are some really great props, practical effects, and monster designs in this movie. The demons and deadites go away from looking like amateur playdough monsters to looking like practical creatures or just better make up design and costumes. What's also introduced into the series is the adding of more humor. Ash starts saying his catch phrases which are so common in the current show and in Army of Darkness. The monsters even have their own comedy time toying and tormenting Ash, which again became a staple for the series. I think in comparison, the issue with this movie is that the pacing in this movie is not as strong as in the first one. There's no build up at all since we immediately get to the point where 'the Force' is after Ash in the forest and cabin. The supporting characters are also not that great...even though we dealt with your typical 'young isolated people' type characters in the first one, you still kind of felt like encouraging them to survive. I don't really understand the point of having the redneck characters in this film other than adding more conflict that wasn't really needed. Still, this is a pretty fun movie and the practical effects of it are awesome to watch. I suppose if you wanted to get into this series in chronological order, you would have to watch this one first, since the actual first movie seems to be optional. 3/5

Army of Darkness: Still probably one of my favorite movies ever made. This was the movie were they probably got the best despicable version of Ash ever. It goes away from its horror roots in favor of more comedy and action vibe, but the production and writing is through the roof in this movie. I hadn't watched this movie in years and yet I still remembered a bunch of Ash's lines. It's definitely a classic that I think is still the best out of the three. They got the pacing just right again in this one as well with the introduction of Ash's character being put in the 14th century and it leading up all the way to the fantastic end battle. Again, it's a short and sweet movie, yet it's jam packed with so many great scenes that it feels like it should be longer. 5/5.

Just going to say it: Hercules is easily the worst of the Disney movies of the era. I don't think much of Pocahontas either, but Hercules feels dated in a way that only the Jungle Book manages to do in the Disney animated canon. Hades is great and does his best to save the movie but it's full of weird 90's pop culture references that suck out a lot of the fun for me.

Mulan, though, is totally great. And I don't feel the need to defend Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, or Lion King - only issue for me is deciding where Hunchback fits in my ranking of those. A good problem to have.

I watched Don't Breathe twice this week. Not necessarily on purpose, but I didn't object to the second viewing.

Don't Breathe is lean, mean, and efficient, not to mention inventive and original almost every step of the way. It was way more intense than I had anticipated as the characters just kept getting fucked over left and right. It definitely takes a creepy turn towards the end, too. It also managed to cover its own tracks when it came to the logic of its characters and plot holes and such. I was impressed. I'm really eager to see exactly what the sequel is going to be. 5/5, but Jane Levy being so staggeringly beautiful even when she's bruised and bloodied bumps it up to a 6/5

I just...can't even deal with this right now...

Baby Driver! Its a no holds-barred adrenaline-fueled thrill-ride (and requires no paperwork)

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