Recently watched movies!

[Dr Kain]

The FIrst Purge - Well, at least it was better than the third movie, though that isn't saying much. It was pretty generic, went as you would expect it to go, but at least the last 15 minutes were cool. Though, if this movie cut down on some of the slow motion scenes, it would probably be like an hour long. None of the "plot" made any sense and it's pretty lame that they went the route of, "Oh, well since no one is actually going anything violent except one guy, let's send in mercs to spice things up." So friggin stupid. Still, it could have been worse, so I will let it slide with a 6/10.

Also:

Me - Nothing wil be worse than Red Sparrow in 2018.

Gotti - Hold my beer.

[jellydonut25]

I didn't care for the First Purge. So far, the only Purge movie that hasn't been a disappointment was the second one. I'm pretty much out on the series.

[Dr Kain]

[lhb412]

Revenge

This is a new one I'd been meaning to see. Starts out with a handsome rich fella bringing a this young hot girl, Jen, to his secluded villa in the desert. His two hunting buddies show up and the next day one of them rapes Jen. When rich guy shows up soon after he finds Jen inconsolable and soon decides it's best if she doesn't leave the desert. She's left for dead, but instead of dying she undergoes a kind of spiritual and physical transformation (nothing supernatural, but we do have some peyote-induced supernatural imagery) into, basically, the heroic flipside of a slasher villian: stalking the three men.

Nice title, but really everything she does is as much self defence as 'revenge.'

This is a gorgeously shot movie, and offers some really amazing action and suspense - not to mention wince-inducing gore. Like with Upgrade (also this year) this is the kind of movie folks say they don't make anymore. If movies like the original Mad Max are your thing you've gotta see Revenge.

[jellydonut25]

I wasn't super keen on Revenge at first, but there's a certain point where you ultimately realize you are watching an exploitation movie and the rules of reality aren't at all meant to apply and it becomes so crazy and insane that I felt like I understood what it was going for and was on board.

I'll be curious to see how the first 30 minutes or so (maybe it was more like 45 before the drug-induced scene of awesome happened) hold up given me knowing where it leads when I ultimately re-watch the movie at some point.

[klen7]

^ everything I have heard about it sounds like another remake of 'I Spit on Your Grave' - its been getting good buzz, but rape scenes in movies really put me in a sour mood so I doubt I will ever watch it.

Overlord - So this was a crazy, fun, good time at the theater. It has more than a couple places where i question the logic, but the whole-hearted embrace of the concept really just makes you smile. It's plenty gory with a few jump scares, but it's briskly paced and delightful in it's execution. I might rate this above Upgrade at the end of the year just because of the fun factor. Really the only disappointment for me was no post credit scene.. i guess i was hoping for some sequel bait, but it's certainly open to a sequel if it does well... that said it was opening weekend and it was being shown in the small auditorium at my local theater (the smaller screening room where art house flicks and stuff in it's 7th week typically show...) There were less than 25 of us at the screening and strangely most of the audience was older than me, which is something that never happens anymore. I really love these B-movies getting A-level treatment, so i hope this risk works out for them

Suburbicon - A Coen Brothers comedy directed by someone other than the Coen Brothers...George Clooney. In a lot of ways it feels exactly like that. The comedy is very much Coen Brothers but the execution is not. It's definitely not a Hollywood flick, which keeps you engaged. I laughed, the Mrs did not. If you're a fan of the Coen''s offbeat and dark comedy, you'll find something to enjoy here for sure, if you aren't or don't know I am talking about this movie will leave you confused or frustrated

[lhb412]

[UltraDada72]

[Dr Kain]

Wreck It Ralph - I haven't watched this one since it was in theaters, but it is still so damn good. It is hands down the best video game related movie ever. The jokes hit, the easter eggs are plentiful and delicious, and it's just an incredibly fun movie as a whole. The only downside is that it does follow the normal tropes movies like this play out, which is a shame, but at least it does it with finese. A 9/10.

[jellydonut25]

BlacKkKlansman - very good, very powerful movie that aims a little higher than it can quite reach.

The story itself kind of sets itself up as one that can't quite hit the lofty high of "address all the racial issues in America that have lingered since....forever" because it's the story of making a FOOL out of the KKK. While that plays well, and definitely for some laughs, it also undermines the severity of the issues. A little bit. Lee does good job of making the situation seem severe, but by portraying the dangerous rhetoric of the KKK as thought of by a goober who can get duped by a black man, it undermines the situation a tad.

Then there's the ending, which for me is where the movie loses most of its "points" in my star-rating. That Ron's life becomes this sort of wish-fulfillment scenario is a bit too neat and tidy a bow. He exposed white people in a white populace and suddenly is a hero among them all? It's a bit too much...and then the very very ending is...just exploitative, and honestly unnecessary, it also rather firmly dates the film, which is unfortunate because the themes and issues are universal and won't be over just because this movie came out and brought them to people's attention...especially because this movie wasn't seen by a lot of people for various reasons (not the least of which being "Spike Lee sucks").

Still, it's a very entertaining ride during its run time proper, and is filled with a lot of tension and good characters, so it's well-worth a watch. WELL-WORTH.
I just don't know that it's worth a RE-watch, because that ending is a bit of a bummer.
3.5/5

[jellydonut25]

Hotel Artemis - Everyone kind of dismissed this before it had a chance, and I get why, but it was also decently fun. 3/5.

Alpha - aka A Boy and His Dog 2018. Starts BAD, gets better. Winds up being okay. 3/5.

The Predator - The dogs have Predator heads and then one gets brain damage and spends the rest of the movie puking up grenades and running into stuff while everyone calls him a "r*tard". This ACTUALLY HAPPENS in a movie made in 2018. 1/5.

[Dr Kain]

One of the things I liked about BlackkKlansman is how it shows both sides in the wrong at times with their way of thinking.

[Dr Kain]

Fantastic Beasts 2 - Not as good as the first one, but not terrible, though kind of boring in parts. 7/10

Sorry to Bother You - A masterfully crafted film about corporate greed and our current viewpoints in America, "You get used to it." The first two-thirds of the film is absolutely brilliant as Lakeith Stanfield continues to demonstrate how much of an impressive actor he is (hell, he was the only actor who actually tried in Netflix's Death Note adaptation), portraying a man who begins the film without a job and how the greed of money influences his decision making as he ascend the corporate ladder. Unfortunately, the movie's final act is extremely jarring and feels out of place, which really broke the immersion. I completely understand what they were going for from a social commentary standpoint, but it just didn't gel with me in my book. As such, I have no choice but to give the film a 7/10 as it stampeded over my enjoyment of the film. I feel like I suddenly started watching a different movie.

[jellydonut25]

I loved the third act twist.

[klen7]

Hold the Dark - The first act of this drags the whole film down in a way its hard to recover from. Saulnier has an interesting relationship with violence in his films. It's quick, it's brutal, it isn't overly stylized, but it is very effective and feels incredibly realistic at times. This movie has a few deaths/kills that go beyond that but overall this movie continues that trend. This is the first Saulnier movie I don't plan to buy on dvd/bluray


Ballad of Buster Scruggs - So i was just talking about Coen Brothers doing dark comedy the other day, without any idea this was on the horizon. It's an anthology, so it's hit or miss, but for me its more hits than misses - granted the whole thing should have been cut down about 20 minutes. The first two segments were laugh out loud funny for us, then the third story is pretty dark and dismal. 4th story is a bit longer than it should be, and the 5th was good, and the 6th/final segment felt appropriate for an anthology.

[jellydonut25]

[Dr Kain]

Deadpool 2 Extended Cut - Better than it was in theaters, though still inferior to the original. It remains a 9/10 though and some of the new scenes were fantastic.

[jellydonut25]

Been watching some movies:
Christopher Robin - I'm a bit of a Pooh apologist, so I found enough to enjoy, but this does commit an awful lot of the sins of nostalgia-wankery and tearsploitation that drive me nuts. 3/5.
Terrified - This has been getting a lot of buzz on Shudder. It's acceptable, but there's so much time spent on discussing what is happening and what the apparitions are, and not a single second spent on WHY and it just kinda comes across as a bunch of spooky imagery without a real idea holding it down. 3/5.
The Domestics - Mad Max meets The Purge...not as good as that sounds. Definitely lots of plot holes, but I had an okay time with it. 3/5.
Pyewacket - A girl summons a demon to kill her mom because her dad died and her mom tells her that she wishes the daughter were dead (either too or instead...I dunno). It can't quite always maintain its dread, but there is some cool stuff...I really like this one moment where something happens to a character, but it's off-screen and never explained, but it just ruins that person and they are terrified beyond speech. I like the IMPLICATION of something so terrifying it can't be explained. It gets good towards the end. 3.5/5
Cam - A camgirl gets her identity stolen. This has been getting some buzz too but I found it BORING. It's 90 minutes but felt like a solid 14 hours. 2/5.
Satan's Slaves - Indonesian horror movie about a family being tormented by their convalescent mother and then her ghost. Really quite good. 4/5.

The Witch in the Window - I really liked this one. Not scary, but a nice character piece about a father and son growing close and bonding. It could have felt rushed, since it's only like 75 minutes, and to a certain extent I thought one or two elements could have been given more time to breathe and be properly wrapped up, but it focuses in on the relationship so much that it doesn't matter. 4/5.

Overlord - REALLY good. A shame this isn't doing better, because you hear "Nazi zombies" and you just basically by default expect "Wolfenstein," and some day I really would like to see a really weird, goofy, over-the-top Wolfenstein movie (oh and a GOOD one, by the way...I know there are exploitation movies out there with Nazi zombies). Overlord though seems to have said to itself "Yeah but what if someone took that premise seriously?" It's not a bad idea in a world where we've recently had some outright comedies about Nazis zombies in recent years, even though it's not how I personally would have approached it. It's one full of some pitfalls, and though Overlord doesn't quite sidestep all of them, it does manage to be both a solid war movie and a solid horror movie and a somewhat slow burn while also being briskly paced without ever feeling like those are incongruent ideas. Some of the performances are a little too...scenery chewy for something that plays it a little more straight, but Overlord won't disappoint for anyone who thought it could be a fun idea based on its premise. 4/5.

The Night Comes for Us - So violent it'll make you wonder if John Wick and The Raid movies are for babies. Awesome action and just enough of a story and heart to keep pushing things along. I loved this. 4.5/5.

[klen7]

^ I preferred Headshot (same creative team) to The Night Comes for Us

Overlord is being criminally ignored, a lot of fun. Looking forward to revisiting it

[Dr Kain]

Add me to the list that doesn't have any interest in Call of Duty Zombies. Sorry, but the movie just looks dumb and I'm sick and tired of zombies. Not to mention from what I hear there is really only one zombie.

[klen7]

It's a fun horror flick (too many/not enough zombies aside)

[jellydonut25]

Yeah, sorry you're not interested in a fun, well-done horror flick with a decent amount of practical effects and some really good directorial work because you've already pre-decided that it's "Call of Duty Zombies" and "Zombiez are the suxorz"

What a wonderful open minded view.

[Dr Kain]

[jellydonut25]

[lhb412]