Swift Posted March 17, 2022 Share Posted March 17, 2022 Recently introduced my son to The Sixth Sense. At 13, maybe a little too young for it as it's quite slow moving, but wanted to introduce him before he ever became aware of the twist, and he ended up liking it overall. We've also recently had a small Mark Wahlberg run with The Other Guys and Daddy's Home. I remembered that Shyamalan and Wahlberg did a movie together that was absolutely pilloried but I had no other knowledge of it and pulling up some scenes on YouTube, we laughed our asses off. So of course that was the next movie we watched. It is shockingly inept and I honestly have no idea how Wahlberg or Deschanel ever got work again, particularly the latter. Amazingly wooden performances. Total turkey, but if you don't want to watch it to see, the Honest Trailers video has all the best bits. Anyway, that led us to looking up Shyamalan's filmography on RT. This film has 17%. After Earth has 12% and The Last Airbender has 5%. Are they worth watching for so bad they're good type laughs, or are they just worthless? Is the low score on the Avatar one just because it strayed from the cartoon (never watched it so have no attachment to it) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odessasteps Posted March 17, 2022 Share Posted March 17, 2022 I'm sure Aibender is bad (never saw it), but I wouldn't be surprised if it was artificially down voted by the people who objected to the casting of some of the actors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted March 18, 2022 Share Posted March 18, 2022 Woof. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(BP) Posted March 18, 2022 Share Posted March 18, 2022 One of the myriad of weird things in The Happening is that Brian O’Halloran is in the movie, but his scenes are edited in such a way to diminish what was clearly a speaking role down to only what couldn’t be cut out. It’s like M Night decided Dante from Clerks was a distraction and that would be the thing people thought was silly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Natural Posted March 18, 2022 Share Posted March 18, 2022 On 3/15/2022 at 6:08 PM, Tabe said: I remember watching Harry Brown several years ago. I don't remember any details about it, just that I liked it even though Caine is a tough sell in terms of believability. One of the few films I turned off halfway through. Bridesmaids is another. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabe Posted March 18, 2022 Share Posted March 18, 2022 17 hours ago, Swift said: We've also recently had a small Mark Wahlberg run with The Other Guys and Daddy's Home. I absolutely love The Other Guys. The opening with the Rock & Samuel L Jackson is a riot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raziel Posted March 18, 2022 Share Posted March 18, 2022 Airbender was a really awful movie. I don't know about his worst one, but it should've been a license to print money for a decade and was pretty much something that no one though could be seriously screwed up, and damned if Shyamalan didn't find a way to fuck every single part of it up. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odessasteps Posted March 19, 2022 Share Posted March 19, 2022 I went looking for True Stories but it wasn’t on there. But I did see the original Death on the Nile. Funny to remember Lois Chiles is so high in the cast, a year before Moonraker. And Manimal’s Simon Macorkindale too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jm29195 Posted March 19, 2022 Share Posted March 19, 2022 Regarding Last Airbender, being British and watching it with my children at the time, it does have an unfortunate title, which is then used over and over again to make the less mature of us crack up into coughing fits of laughter... 'he is a very talented bender' for example. Seriously, I think this review puts it far better than I ever could: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/aug/12/the-last-airbender 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S.K.o.S. Posted March 20, 2022 Share Posted March 20, 2022 On 3/14/2022 at 11:27 PM, Contentious C said: No One Lives - Uggggggggggggggggggh! My first, accidental foray into the "output" (read: something else from an orifice) of WWE Studios! This has...wait, no wrestlers in it Brodus Clay/Tyrus is in this. Idk how or why I know that, because I've never actually seen the movie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Contentious C Posted March 20, 2022 Share Posted March 20, 2022 1 minute ago, S.K.o.S. said: Brodus Clay/Tyrus is in this. Idk how or why I know that, because I've never actually seen the movie. So like I was saying... 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EVA Posted March 20, 2022 Share Posted March 20, 2022 DEEP WATER: Improbably, 56-year old Tracy Letts as a doughy wannabe mystery writer steals the movie from the young, sexy people cavorting nakedly. I’m not sure if his character was meant to be comic relief, but he features in two of the funniest film scenes I’ve seen in recent memory. Even as Ana de Armas seductively diddles herself, your mind will be focused on one thing only—I wonder what’s going on with Tracy Letts’ character right now? My wife found it unlikely that Letts could be married to a lovely woman Kristin Connelly’s age, but then I told her he was IRL married to Carrie Coon. She was floored. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(BP) Posted March 20, 2022 Share Posted March 20, 2022 Letts got that big Arthur Miller energy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John from Cincinnati Posted March 20, 2022 Share Posted March 20, 2022 Watching weird CODA backlash develop in real time is a bummer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig H Posted March 21, 2022 Share Posted March 21, 2022 On 3/20/2022 at 10:00 AM, EVA said: DEEP WATER: Improbably, 56-year old Tracy Letts as a doughy wannabe mystery writer steals the movie from the young, sexy people cavorting nakedly. I’m not sure if his character was meant to be comic relief, but he features in two of the funniest film scenes I’ve seen in recent memory. Even as Ana de Armas seductively diddles herself, your mind will be focused on one thing only—I wonder what’s going on with Tracy Letts’ character right now? My wife found it unlikely that Letts could be married to a lovely woman Kristin Connelly’s age, but then I told her he was IRL married to Carrie Coon. She was floored. This makes me want to watch Deep Water more than anything else. I didn't even know Tracy Letts was in it. I'm shocked he's been in so few things. He stood out really well in the Big Short and Lady Bird, popped up on that series Divorce which I think I wound up watching more for him than anything else, was great in Ford vs Ferrari, and I'm waiting for him to pop up in Winning Time. Can't believe I'm going to watch Deep Water just based on what you wrote. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EVA Posted March 21, 2022 Share Posted March 21, 2022 (edited) 13 minutes ago, Craig H said: This makes me want to watch Deep Water more than anything else. I didn't even know Tracy Letts was in it. I'm shocked he's been in so few things. He stood out really well in the Big Short and Lady Bird, popped up on that series Divorce which I think I wound up watching more for him than anything else, was great in Ford vs Ferrari, and I'm waiting for him to pop up in Winning Time. Can't believe I'm going to watch Deep Water just based on what you wrote. Lol I want to be clear that this is not a good movie before you do anything rash. Gloriously bizarre is the highest praise I can give it. Edited March 21, 2022 by EVA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Log Posted March 21, 2022 Share Posted March 21, 2022 21 hours ago, John from Cincinnati said: Watching weird CODA backlash develop in real time is a bummer. What's happening there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swift Posted March 21, 2022 Share Posted March 21, 2022 On 3/19/2022 at 11:42 AM, jm29195 said: Regarding Last Airbender, being British and watching it with my children at the time, it does have an unfortunate title, which is then used over and over again to make the less mature of us crack up into coughing fits of laughter... 'he is a very talented bender' for example. Seriously, I think this review puts it far better than I ever could: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/aug/12/the-last-airbender Another unfortunate movie title... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John from Cincinnati Posted March 21, 2022 Share Posted March 21, 2022 4 hours ago, Log said: What's happening there? The movie's seemingly ascendant Academy Award prospects are causing some people get silly. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Log Posted March 21, 2022 Share Posted March 21, 2022 6 minutes ago, John from Cincinnati said: The movie's seemingly ascendant Academy Award prospects are causing some people get silly. Oh, right. Yeah, it's looking like it could pull a Green Book, and people are getting pissed I guess. Too bad. I've heard it's a good movie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Contentious C Posted March 22, 2022 Share Posted March 22, 2022 (edited) Yeah, it's Monday, it's that time. Movies. I watched them. Not really terribly excited about it even though this was a decent batch for once; maybe I've let this go on too long, because we're now at Day 251 (and counting) of Some Movie Bullshit, Globetrotting Edition... Hot Garbage Legally Blonde - Yeah, no surprise this ends up where it ends up. I asked myself what the point of this was a couple of times - to break stereotypes? To reinforce stereotypes? And then I remembered, ah, of course: to make money. It did that. Just about everything else about this is dumb. I laughed a couple of times, but otherwise this is like someone took an Amy Heckerling movie and Xeroxed it about ten million times, then wrote a new title on it and said, "Good enough!" Should have called it Legally Bland. The Big Boss - Yes, this is, in fact, the first Bruce Lee movie I have ever watched; I had an Internet issue last week, and so I had to dip into the physical media options to keep the streak going. I don't know what I expected out of this, but I wasn't quite expecting it to be an exploitation movie, but it damn sure is that, all the way to the hilt. I think if you wanted to, you could make a pretty interesting Marxist read of this that would hold up well, so maybe for that reason alone, it deserves a little more credit, but I can't exactly say I was entertained by this, so here it stands. Most of the stunts aren't that great, even by the standards of the day, and there are just a few too many instances where you can see someone being beaten with a "stick" that clearly bends like a piece of rubber for me to do much more than groan at it. Eventually, it's like they caught on and leaned into the goofiness - see the bit where the bad guy gets knocked through the wall and makes a Looney Tunes outline - but, hey, pick one. Either be serious or be slapstick, but don't try pulling off both. Acceptable The Gold Diggers - I only watched this because Sally Potter directed it and...well, it barely squeaks into this category for a couple of scenes I really enjoyed. But I doubt I would recommend this to nearly anyone, since it's as arthouse as an arthouse movie gets - if your tolerance for that is extraordinarily high, then you might be OK with this. It's got a lot of anti-capitalist stuff to say, but the structuring of the film, split between two somewhat different women's perspectives, often derails the messaging that could otherwise be more effective. But the best parts are the drumming scene in the middle and a tapdancing section not long after that. The rest isn't always terribly engaging. Japanese Story - This could have been destined for Hot Garbage had it stayed on its initial boring story course of "two strangers start out hating each other but adversity forces them together" that's been done to death. However, it's got two things going for it: 1) Toni Collette, who is always wonderful, and 2) a HUGE left turn in the middle that totally alters its trajectory. Sometimes, there are moments where you think Collette is going for the Most Actress Academy Award with a scene or two, but let's face it, I'm not sure anyone does the kind of stuff she does here better (not saying what just to avoid spoilers, but if you're a fan of hers, you probably know already). There are a couple of really, really interesting shots in the middle that really hammer home the big event, but as good as they are, they just provide the wrong sort of contrast, making you wonder why the rest of the movie looked like something that would have been shot in the 80s while that one section is more inventive. The last 30+ minutes of this leave you with something to think about, but getting there is a bit of a chore, as this is a good example of the limits of how much one talented contributor can drag something to watchability. The Counterfeiters - This was pretty damn good, almost good enough to crack Awesome, but I'm just floored this won Best Foreign Film in 2007 when The Diving Bell & the Butterfly wasn't even nominated. Fucking travesty. The acting is solid, and the moral dilemma at the center is an unusual one, but the movie sometimes poorly-lit, to the point of not quite following what's going on in a couple of key scenes, and it's generally a little scratchy in appearance. Maybe that was the transfer talking, but it stands out for a movie that's only 15 years old. Once came out the same year and looks "bad" because it's supposed to be a slice-of-everyday-life kind of undertaking. This, on the other hand, has scenes in Monte Carlo and still looks a bit too dim and fuzzy even in those. I'm also kind of over Holocaust movies in general, so that probably doesn't help. But if you're not, this is very much worth a look. Awesome Amour - One of my bigger omissions from the 2010s watchlist, but I doubt it would have made my top 100 anyway. It's right there with a whole lot of other movies, though, that would be just off the back end, like Wildlife or Amazing Grace and some others. I think if this has a weakness, it's that the characters are not particularly likable people to begin with. They aren't bad people, but you don't really get a lot to work with early on in terms of seeing some real depth from them. Their lives are shown more by the intrusions of others than by the activities they themselves ever did. A lot of the development feels like it's backloaded to the last 45 minutes or so, but those 45 minutes are a fucking doozy. Emanuelle Riva does a ridiculously great job in this, and it adds to the list of times that Oscar Got It Wrong (sorry not sorry, J-Law). The quiet and simplicity of the film help to contrast how good it looks, as well as lulling you to sleep for the macabre, deterministic way the plot unfolds. I definitely prefer 45 Years to this, as a sort of deceptively darker partner about an elderly couple, but this is a pretty great movie, too. Winner Winner, Chicken Dinner A Separation - The single biggest omission from my 2010s watchlist, and yeah, if I looked at my list now, it would damn sure look a lot like the Vulture Best of list, but I can't help it if they were right about a lot of shit! They were certainly right about this. I'm not 100% certain it would be in my top 10, but I think I'd have a hard time leaving it out. I watched this and couldn't stop thinking of the full quote about history repeating itself, and if this film is the tragedy, then Parasite is the farce. But so many of the themes of these two movies are so similar and so well-done that it's difficult to avoid the comparison. Also, how many films lately could say they have an opening scene and an ending scene that are among the best in recent memory? This would certainly have a claim to both. I think the ending could annoy some people in the way Lost in Translation did, but wanting to "know" some particular detail misses the point for both films. The acting is basically perfect, the script is even better, considering how everyone in the movie manages to be right and wrong at the same time, and then you get to that devastating ending, and if you aren't floored by that point, you must be a cyborg or something. Edited March 22, 2022 by Contentious C 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odessasteps Posted March 22, 2022 Share Posted March 22, 2022 You should pair the Gold Diggers with watching Gold Diggers of 1933. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AxB Posted March 24, 2022 Share Posted March 24, 2022 https://watch.eventive.org/satoshikon From Saturday, for a week, all of Satoshi Kon's movies will be streaming for free. For 7 days. You should watch Perfect Blue, at least. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.T. Posted March 24, 2022 Share Posted March 24, 2022 (edited) Watch them all. Paprika is a great sci-fi romp and Tokyo Godfathers is a movie with so much heart. My father was diagnosed with dementia before he died, so Millenium Actress holds a special and bittersweet place in my heart right now. It is so heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time. I took the liberty of cross posting AxB's post into the Anime omnibus thread. Edited March 24, 2022 by J.T. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Control Posted March 26, 2022 Share Posted March 26, 2022 Apropos of nothing, but I think it’s possible WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? is actually underrated. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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