All Things Movie/Documentary Reviews/Recommendations Thread

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JimmyJamesMD said:
Which one is better?
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I would have to rewatch Dunkirk to give an opinion. I only watched it once and it was several years ago. I know it was good but can't give specifics. Now days, I can barely remember what I ate for lunch yesterday!
 





1917, as a story, is night/day better than Dunkirk. If you enjoy things like how a film is artistically shot, or you enjoy actor performances for the art/talent of acting ... maybe then you could say they were equivalent.

That type of stuff, in of itself, just doesn't do it for me. I need a story to be engaging for it to be a good film for me. Granted, if those other things aren't done decently well, it of course can take away from a good story.


But even then, the opening "scene" -- if you can even call it that -- of 1917 is like 30mins long. I s___ you not ... the camera doesn't break for like 30mins. It just follows the two main actors around in one long continuous take. Never seen anything like it. Incredible.

Definitely one of most engaging films I've seen at a theater in some time. When a movie can completely engulf you and make you lose sense of your own time (ie, "holy cow, 2 hours just went by??"), that's when you know it's really good.
 

Cant wait for1917 to be available via streaming services--Apple 4k TV in my case.
 

Ok, I have now seen The Lighthouse. Damn... I was expecting it to be intense and strange but I was still unprepared for it. Dafoe and Pattinson are both great and you are essentially watching two liars drive each other crazy in the middle of nowhere. Throw in some supernatural horror and an ending the references an ugly part of Greek Mythology. Apparently it was shot in an unusual aspect ratio to give it an extra unsettling feel.

Also, here's a great interview with Dafoe. https://film.avclub.com/green-screen-working-with-kids-rubber-overalls-willem-1841189337
 

I watched Parasite, academy award winner, via Apple iTunes. It sucked. Can't believe it won several oscars.
 

OldBob53 said:
I watched Parasite, academy award winner, via Apple iTunes. It sucked. Can't believe it won several oscars.
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Interesting. Now I HAVE to see it--to find out for myself. Nothing personal, but some of my favorite movies have gotten mixed reviews.

Parasite did make me do some thinking about foreign-language films and the Academy Awards. OK, I'm not saying that Amadeus wasn't Oscar worthy. It was obviously an impressive film. But what I AM saying is that "My Life as a Dog" (Sweden) was a better film that year.
 

I went to "Downhill" tonight with Will Ferrell and Julia L-D. Holy mother of God, that's quite possibly the worst movie I've ever seen in my life. And I'm one that thinks very, VERY few movies are "bad", especially if the popcorn is good (and tonight, even the popcorn was subpar).

Just a terrible train wreck of a movie; slow moving, terrible casting, no on-screen chemistry, shitty story line (whatever it really was), and it just seemed to never ever go anywhere. Wow.
 

Just binged watched a show called West Wing. It’s about right wingers running the White House. It’s bit in anymore. Must’ve been cancelled.
 

We just watched documentary The Pharmacist on netflix. Really, really good. It's about a pharmacist that lost his son and his battle against the opioid epidemic. Amazing how bad it got and still is.
 

In reference to 1917 being shot to look like one continuous take. Alfred Hitchcock did that with a movie called "Rope." it was based on a real life story about two spoiled rich kids who commit a murder just to see if they could get away with it. Hitchcock shot the movie in continuous 20-minute segments and then used editing tricks to disguise the cuts from one segment to the next, so it looked like the entire movie played out in real time with no cuts. It's not considered one of Hitchcock's best movies. Known today mainly for the technique.
 

Ogee Oglethorpe said:
I went to "Downhill" tonight with Will Ferrell and Julia L-D. Holy mother of God, that's quite possibly the worst movie I've ever seen in my life. And I'm one that thinks very, VERY few movies are "bad", especially if the popcorn is good (and tonight, even the popcorn was subpar).

Just a terrible train wreck of a movie; slow moving, terrible casting, no on-screen chemistry, shitty story line (whatever it really was), and it just seemed to never ever go anywhere. Wow.
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I heard the Swedish movie Downhill is based on is actually pretty good. But yeah, this looks terrible, so thanks for the confirmation. I'm surprised JLD signed on for it. Will Ferrell makes lots of bad movies, but JLD at least seems a bit more discerning.
 

Bad Gopher said:
Interesting. Now I HAVE to see it--to find out for myself. Nothing personal, but some of my favorite movies have gotten mixed reviews.

Parasite did make me do some thinking about foreign-language films and the Academy Awards. OK, I'm not saying that Amadeus wasn't Oscar worthy. It was obviously an impressive film. But what I AM saying is that "My Life as a Dog" (Sweden) was a better film that year.
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Parasite is excellent. I don’t know if it’s better than 1917, for me, but it was worthy of best film.

Don’t want to spoil anything for you, so I’ll just say that the story goes from amusing ... to very dark.
 

Wow.

I just watched "The Kingmaker" off Showtime last night, with the benefit of a few Filipino in-laws commenting during the show. It chronicled the reign of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos for 20 years and what has happened to the family since then and their push to remain in power in some fashion even to this day.

What a story of corruption and political strength in a 3rd world country, and also to some extent the power of propaganda and some control over social media. Actual footage of young grade schoolers TODAY talking about how things were so much better in the country when Marco imposed Martial Law decades ago. "Martial Law was great, things were so much better under Martial Law.." WTF??? Couldn't help but think to a small extent about that happening in our country, the indoctrination of today's youth in a hyper liberal educational and media environment.

It was really really good, and it had me thinking for quite a while afterwards. Kind of disturbing how Imelda Marcos, 90 years old today I think, and her family could maintain such a powerful grip on an entire country over a half a century after her and her husband first gained control.
 

What can you say? Some people have much less of a jerk off attitude towards authority, than you do Ogee.
 

1917 is very good, I liked it better than Dunkirk. Once upon a time...absolute pile of crap. I like a lot of his other movies too. Great acting but an awful movie other than the Bruce Lee scene. Joker sucked, Jaquien was fantastic and deserved all the accolades but those 2 hours I'll never get back. Peanut Butter Falcon was just a great flick. One of the best I've seen in a long time.
 

I occasionally peruse the "Just Added" section on HBO Go to see what they have.

Decided to give "Anna" (2019) a shot last night. Lot of action, basically a "La Femme Nikita" type of deal. Not bad. Some gorgeous women. Had never heard of the lead actress, a Russian super model. But she's pretty good.

Got slammed on Rotten Tomatoes, 37%. I don't think it's that bad at all. I'd give it a 7 out of 10.
 

Finally saw Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Outstanding.
 


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