Jump to content
DVDVR Message Board

2021 MOVIES DISCUSSION

RIPPA

By RIPPA
in MOVIES & TV

 Share

Recommended Posts

Contentious C

Contentious C

Posted
Posted

I don't know why I rewatch some things, but I rewatched things last night.

Jennifer 8 is a suspense movie from the early 90s that has basically nothing about it that makes it worth watching, but I couldn't recall if I'd seen it all the way through or not.  I think I watched it probably 20 years ago and saw through to the beginning of the twist, but not the whole ending.  Of course, 10 minutes in, I remembered all this and saw everything coming a mile away.  Totally generic and feels/looks like something from 1982 instead of 1992.  Shot incredibly darkly, for some reason - I guess someone thought it was good for this type of movie, but really it just makes everything harder to follow for no good reason.  Oddly enough, this might be the only time I've ever liked Andy Garcia in anything, as he is full-blown manic at times in this, and it's the only positive thing there is to say about it.  I've been thinking of rewatching Prisoners lately, since I just picked it up on Blu-Ray, and a movie like this *really* helps draw the distinction between something utterly ho-hum and an actual masterpiece within the genre, as Prisoners is.

I also saw that Unbreakable was sitting there on Amazon Prime, so I rewatched the first hour-plus of that before I got tired and went to bed.  Man, whatever else you have to say about Swervy McTwistyface's movies, they do NOT look good.  I remember rewatching The Sixth Sense probably 5 years ago and being surprised by how dull it looks, and this is just as dull (granted, it came out a year later, it's not like was going to suddenly turn into a genius).  But it's just...it's just an ugly-looking film.  And the stuff that draws your eye is the most Muppet Babies-basic crap imaginable: "Oh, lookie, this guy's wearing a bright color, he must be someone we should pay attention to!"  GTFOH with that.  I also didn't remember it being quite so slow, despite being a short-ish movie.  The one really gut-punch scene here was the gun bit, and there's some fairly compelling stuff going on with the family relationships that feels like it could have done more.  But I'm not sure why people go ga-ga over this movie.  It's just OK.  Split was probably better.

EVA

EVA

Posted
Posted

About to start up ARMY OF THE DEAD and saw that it’s TWO AND A HALF HOURS LONG.  You’ve got to be kidding.

EVA

EVA

Posted
Posted (edited)

He’s made short movies before!  And you’d think it would be self-evident that “zombie heist” movie should be fast-paced.  An in-and-out job, so to speak.

Anyway, it goes without saying that this was not good.  It pains me to say that, because I liked Snyder’s DOTD remake back in the day and loves a good heist movie.  But in a good heist movie, the actual heist has to either be very clever or meticulously detailed, and this isn’t either of those things.  Worse, there’s this whole other plot that serves no purpose other than to put Big Dave’s daughter in harm’s way, and why someone thought THAT was necessary is beyond me.

As a zombie film goes, it doesn’t work because the zombies never actually feel dangerous until the script arbitrarily decides that it’s time for someone to die.  Everybody is playing this video game in God Mode, with brain-magnet bullets and unlimited ammo...until it’s time to go, then they’re empty.  And the weird lore around these zombies is strange and half-baked.

Poor Dave is a good actor but gets totally hung out to dry by this script.

It’s also very strange that, aside from the opening credits sequence and the climax, most of the movie could’ve happened anywhere else in the world.  They didn’t get much mileage out of the Vegas setting for most of the movie, nor did there ever really seem to be much of a point to why it was set there to begin with.

Edited by EVA
Mister TV

Mister TV

Posted
Posted

If Army of the Dead was from a traditional studio, they would have cut it down to 100ish minutes and maybe it would have been halfway decent. 

  • Like 1
J.H.

J.H.

Posted
Posted

The yearly rewatch of Miller's Crossing is in progress and just the first scene reminds me how fuckin awesome Jon Polito was! Hell everyone in this just brings their fuckin A+ Game in what might be my favorite Coen Brothers movie

James

  • Like 2
Craig H

Craig H

Posted
Posted
On 5/7/2021 at 3:59 AM, Brian Fowler said:

M. Night co-wrote and produced Devil, but he didn't direct it.

I remember years ago telling this story on here, but who cares, it's like 11 years ago. I can't remember which movie I was at, but the trailer for Devil came on. It's a really strong trailer, and the audience, myself included, were all getting sucked in. Then his name came up, and, swear to God, you could see the whole theater lose interest all at once. People leaned back into their seats, you heard whispering and snacking again, etc. I've never experienced anything else like that, before or sense. His name alone killed the interest.

(The movie was pretty okay iirc)

It was either The Dark Knight or Inception. Probably Inception. I remember because we both saw the movie the same day and your audience reaction was similar to mine for that Devil movie, except people at mine laughed when they saw M. Night's name pop up.

Craig H

Craig H

Posted
Posted

Holy shit. Normally I don't watch Pitch Meetings for movies I haven't seen yet, but I honestly couldn't care less about Army of the Dead getting spoiled.

This movie sounds like total and complete dogshit.

  • Haha 1
Brian Fowler

Brian Fowler

Posted
Posted
45 minutes ago, Craig H said:

It was either The Dark Knight or Inception. Probably Inception. I remember because we both saw the movie the same day and your audience reaction was similar to mine for that Devil movie, except people at mine laughed when they saw M. Night's name pop up.

Definitely wasn't Inception for me, because I didn't see that in a theater.

But that's probably the right time, because Inception and Devil both came out in 2010.

Eivion

Eivion

Posted
Posted
14 hours ago, Craig H said:

Holy shit. Normally I don't watch Pitch Meetings for movies I haven't seen yet, but I honestly couldn't care less about Army of the Dead getting spoiled.

This movie sounds like total and complete dogshit.

It was a waste of Batista's talents. There is stuff you can enjoy, but so much stupid as well like the vid mentions.

  • Sad 1
elizium

elizium

Posted
Posted

Army of Dead needed 45 minutes and a couple subplots chopped from it and it would have been fine. As it is, it is a slog to get through. On the plus side, that movie is proof that Tig Notaro needs to be CG'd into more movies

AxB

AxB

Posted
Posted

This weekend, I watched Stardust (2020) which was utter shite. The David Bowie biopic movie, which is horribly miscast, badly written and not well acted. I also watched Bad Times at the El Royale (2018) which was actually really good. Cynthia Erivo is a *star*.

  • 2 weeks later...
Fuzzy Dunlop

Fuzzy Dunlop

Posted
Posted (edited)

Yeah, so, Nobody was the Breaking Bad spin-off no-one (or...nobody) was quite predicting, in which Saul Goodman goes full John Wick, fucks everyone up and features a scene in a nursing home involving THE Christopher Lloyd that, to paraphrase that lame as fuck quote, will have you MARKING OUT BRO.

80 gazillion stars and not just because it was the first time I was back in a cinema since what feels like 1973.

Edited by Fuzzy Dunlop
Control

Control

Posted
Posted

Trying to figure out which Western I’d better watch from those leaving the Criterion channel this month. Options are:

THE MERCENARY
COMPANEROS
DEATH RIDES A HORSE
THE BIG GUNDOWN

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...