what was the last movie you watched?

My wife wanted to go see The 355 tonight - it's like the Ocean's 8 of popcorn action/heist flicks. Don't go in expecting much and you might be entertained. Not a bad movie, but not really a "good" one either.
 
Just watched The Painter And The Thief, a 2020 documentary - the basic setup is this: at a trial following an art heist, the victimized painter reaches out to one of the perpetrators, hoping to figure out where her paintings are.

Bottom line, if I've seen a better documentary, I'm not sure what it was; and in terms of a piece of art, I'm quite confident I've never seen one better. The final shot is downright stunning, and the filmmakers set you up for it, but they did it in such a way that you had no inkling they were doing it.

It's not an action film, it's a documentary, but if you want to sit down with a glass of wine and enjoy a really well made film, 10/10.
 
Eye in the Sky (Netflix) - pretty decent movie about the intricacies of executing a drone strike in a non-combat area - with a good cast (Helen Mirren and Alan Rickman, with others). A bit dramatized at times but recommended.
 
Watched Dune again today while donating blood and then finishing it up this evening. This time I tried to step back a bit more from looking at it from a Dune-centric position and watched it more like a typical "film". It holds up and holds up well.

I also found myself catching a few more details here and there - some of the little details, especially in his dreams, came together a bit better this time around.
 
I watched Oxygen (Netflix) about a woman who wakes up inside a cryogenic chamber and struggles to find a way to live as her oxygen levels deplete. I guessed one of the twists right away. The movie seems to take a bit too long to get to the end, and then seems to rush that part a bit. There are a couple parts they overplay for drama which could have been cut out or done a different way. But it is pretty well done overall and worth the watch.
 
Capt. Factorial said:
Looks like this is NOT a remake of the 1936 Hitchcock film, which I would actually recommend. Unless you are a dog lover. Then I'd say maybe no.
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I actually watched this (Sabotage) on HBO with my folks a couple nights ago. Not bad, especially for 1936.

Took my dad to go see Uncharted the other day as well as he wanted to go. The thing is, I knew he wouldn't like it. The movie has a lot of over-the-top action scenes I knew he'd hate because they are so unrealistic, but we went anyways. Other than that, I actually thought it was entertaining with all the leads doing a good job. It's a "turn off your brain" action flick. If you like that, go see it.

My wife and I went to see Death on the Nile last night - not an "OMG, FANTASTIC" movie, but very enjoyable with a good cast, it's well-acted, with good music, beautiful cinematography, and an engaging story. Recommended.
 
Warhawk said:
I actually watched this (Sabotage) on HBO with my folks a couple nights ago. Not bad, especially for 1936.

Took my dad to go see Uncharted the other day as well as he wanted to go. The thing is, I knew he wouldn't like it. The movie has a lot of over-the-top action scenes I knew he'd hate because they are so unrealistic, but we went anyways. Other than that, I actually thought it was entertaining with all the leads doing a good job. It's a "turn off your brain" action flick. If you like that, go see it.

My wife and I went to see Death on the Nile last night - not an "OMG, FANTASTIC" movie, but very enjoyable with a good cast, it's well-acted, with good music, beautiful cinematography, and an engaging story. Recommended.
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I had to choose between Uncharted and Death on the Nile last Friday and went with Uncharted. I second your assessment. I’d never call it a good movie, but definitely entertaining enough, with the leads dragging the movie kicking & screaming into enjoyment territory through sheer force of will/charisma.
 
Saw The Batman last night. To be honest, when I first heard this was being done again, I was not interested and even more so when I heard “Edward” was playing Batman. That being said, I really enjoyed this film. Much darker than it’s predecessors, score is phenomenal, cinematography is top notch. It’s long but it didn’t feel too long. It’s up there with Nolan’s trilogy. Highly recommend.
 
LoungeLizard said:
Saw The Batman last night. To be honest, when I first heard this was being done again, I was not interested and even more so when I heard “Edward” was playing Batman. That being said, I really enjoyed this film. Much darker than it’s predecessors, score is phenomenal, cinematography is top notch. It’s long but it didn’t feel too long. It’s up there with Nolan’s trilogy. Highly recommend.
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Yeah, I was at the bolded part too when I first heard. But with folks saying good things about it I got a ticket to go with a friend on Sunday. Not looking forward to it as much as most other superhero flicks (especially MCU), but I'll go check it out and hopefully be pleasantly surprised.
 
Warhawk said:
Watched Hard Kill with Bruce Willis on Netflix. Not sure what happened to him, but these last couple Netflix flicks with him just aren't good. Pretty B-grade action flick with a sketchy premise, soldiers employing all kinds of stupid assault and gunfight tactics, so-so acting and dialogue, folks using night-vision goggles to see and shoot people when they are in front of a big illuminated window, people hiding from the bad guys keep slamming big metal doors, people being shot at hiding behind cardboard boxes and stacks of empty pallets, etc., etc. Really, don't bother. Parts are just so stupid it's like they aren't even trying.
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I think I saw something today about him doing like 8 movies last year and they were all panned (or at least, not very good). Almost sounds like a cash grab to end a career? Seems strange for such a big star, but you never know.

Ah, it was something like the following article I just googled - he even has his own category at the Razzies this year. :p

Bruce Willis Gets His Own Razzie Category This Year After Starring in 8 Different Films in 2021 (comicbook.com)

Willis' special category, called simply "Worst Performance by Bruce Willis in a 2021 Movie," features 8 nominations for the actor, including every film he made last year. While the reviews for the movies themselves varied, more than one of them snuck onto a lot of "year's worst" lists, and none of them was the kind of movie that would be likely to get a theatrical release even if there wasn't a pandemic changing the face of Hollywood.
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Warhawk said:
Went and caught Eternals tonight with my dad. Pretty "meh" overall. I like some of the actors, etc., but to me this definitely felt like one of the lowest-tier Marvel flicks. I thought the story they were telling wasn't bad, but the execution sure seemed to suffer from the normal quality that I expect. It just felt too long, uneven, and just a tad "off" for some reason. I never felt all that emotionally invested in the characters at all.

Some of the fight scenes were pretty well done, and I think some actors seemed to do better in their roles than others. One problem I think I have with it is I have no idea how this will play into the larger MCU. With Shang-Chi I can see how that gets incorporated. But I feel like I'm still scratching my head over this one....

Edit: Ok, this article with LOTS of spoilers helps explain things:

Eternals post-credits scenes explained, and how they set up the MCU's future (cnet.com)

Edit 2: Watched the Imax version of Shang-Chi last night on Disney+ and liked the format of the film (no letterboxing on the TV, but filled in the widescreen TV nicely). I like this one.
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Just rewatched Eternals and it was a bit better on the second viewing. There are some plot nuances I think I missed the first time trying to follow what was going on. Not saying it rises to the upper echelons of the MCU or anything, but it ticks up a (small?) notch. Still not a "great" movie by any means.
 
Warhawk said:
Yeah, I was at the bolded part too when I first heard. But with folks saying good things about it I got a ticket to go with a friend on Sunday. Not looking forward to it as much as most other superhero flicks (especially MCU), but I'll go check it out and hopefully be pleasantly surprised.
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Saw this (The Batman) today with a friend. I actually thought Pattinson did a decent to fairly good job in this (as well as Kravitz as Catwoman), but the Riddler character was a bit "over the top" whack and the movie was like an hour too long (not that it really dragged all that much, but I did check my watch a couple of times to see how we were progressing - and I never do that for long flicks like Dune or the good MCU flicks, etc.). Definitely not as good as the Christian Bale Batman to me - some unevenness and the excessively overly gloomy/brooding tone bring it down a bit. And my goodness, will people quit filming EVERYTHING in pitch black? What planet to some of these filmmakers live on where there is no daylight (or sometimes, even very little contrast!)? If I tried to watch that at home I'd miss about half of what is on the screen due to some minor window glare even with all the curtains drawn.

It wasn't bad, more "meh" (friend and I both agreed), and for a Batman-type film that's not great.
 
Löwenherz said:
War Dogs

Strong Scorsese-vibes, but ends up less Goodfellas homage, more Wolf of Wall Street rip off.

Legit shocked Todd Phillips directed this given his filmography to that point included Old School, Starsky & Hutch, and The Hangover trilogy. Rather sharp left turn in vision statement there, but considering he'd go on to helm Joker, this would appear a conscious effort at the time to break free of his Frat Pack roots.

In the end, it's interesting and ambitious for sure, but ultimately doesn't work. There is a compelling true story here, that's simply told poorly, with oddly one-dimensional performances.

And that last part really doesn't make sense given the cast of Hill, Teller, de Armis, and Cooper on paper should be an instant knockout. Here they all come across as dreary caricatures.

Hill is supposed to be the smarmy jerk hypnotizing people through sheer magnetic charisma - think Superbad's Seth all grown-up. Instead it's made clear early he has no other friends, is hugely insecure, and telegraphs his backstabbing ways with a megaphone.

Teller channels his Whiplash persona of abused-nerd-cum-stoic-badass efficiently, but it becomes really hard to empathize with some of his more outlandish decisions as we get deeper into the weeds. Plus, his narrative voiceover is "theatrical cut of Blade Runner" bad, telling the audience in a faux-gravely monotone ideas and events that were literally just expressed in a scene moments earlier.

As for de Armis, after powerhouse performances in both BR2049 and Knives Out, she's replaced the conspicuously absent Alicia Vikander on my list of young breakout actors' whose careers I need to track, so I have some unfairly high expectations of her, even if this movie preceded both of her awards-worthy triumphs. Yet here she had me screaming in dumbfounded disbelief at the screen. She reacts to discovering her husband secretly ran guns through Fallujeh the way my wife does when I eat the last fudgesicle. To say I know she is capable of far more range is a gross understatement; she was after all the beating heart breathing emotional life into the center of a cyberpunk movie. Here she's relegated to mere 'complication' 'inconvenience', or 'distraction' for our hero's journey of self-discovery and illegal arms deals.

Ultimately, I'd call the film frustrating. There is a gem under the rough here, and some truly standout moments, but it doesn't come together as a cohesive unit. Blame it on a director cutting his teeth into a new gritty genre.
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I stand by everything I said about the film War Dogs here, with the rather glaring exception of my comments about de Armas (bolded above) of whom I’ve since learned:

A: I spelled her name wrong

B: She did not speak much English at the time and learned and memorized her lines phonetically.

What an absolute badass.

Her character still comes across as grossly wooden and under reactive, but when she quite literally doesn’t understand the words she’s saying, that makes total sense.

At that point it’s the fault of the director for not coaxing a more evocative reaction from his actor. Gotta give better notes dude, and make them in Spanish.
 
Warhawk said:
The Netflix Marvel ones were generally good (except for Iron Fist), with Daredevil, Punisher, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage all being especially good. While these are "lesser" characters that aren't in the movies, their shows were very well done. I think that the Disney+ Marvel shows have been maybe not *quite* as good overall as the Netflix ones, but still want to see how they all play out and work into the larger MCU.
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In case anyone hasn't heard, the Netflix MCU shows are coming to Disney+ soon. Just FYI.
 
dude12 said:
Watched Cry Macho. Didn’t love it, didn’t hate it. I love most of Clint’s stuff and this was not quite at that level for me. You still get Clint being Clint, even at 91 years old I think it is now.
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Just watched this last night with my dad and am kind of in the same boat. The acting was a bit sub-par (wooden, a bit iffy on the dialogue at times, a few strange plot choices), but it was OK.
 
The Adam Project on Netflix with Ryan Reynolds and Zoe Saldana…….it was ok. Not great, not terrible, you get a lot of Reynolds doing his thing.
 
My wife and I went with some friends to see The Lost City - it's a good date-type flick. An action comedy with decent turns by all the leads. Stay for the mid-credit scene.
 
Warhawk said:
Watched Dune again today while donating blood and then finishing it up this evening. This time I tried to step back a bit more from looking at it from a Dune-centric position and watched it more like a typical "film". It holds up and holds up well.

I also found myself catching a few more details here and there - some of the little details, especially in his dreams, came together a bit better this time around.
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Looks like Dune is cleaning up many Academy Awards tonight. I'm not watching (I don't like the awards shows in general), but good to see!

Edit - looks like 6 Oscars - excellent start for the DV vision and interpretation of Dune.
 
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I watched Metal Lords on Netflix over the weekend. It was really a kid's movie but if you were ever an outcast because of your music choices or are old and enjoyed metal in the 80s/90s it's pretty charming.
 
Caught Ambulance. Mixed bag. I know Michael Bay is an acquired taste, but mindless action really hits the spot some times. Mid-tier Bay IMO…not the Bay-naissance I was hoping for.
 
Caught Honest Thief (Prime) today while donating platelets/plasma - decent story but not very complex, you can tell Liam Neeson is getting older but he's still good in this role. A bit of a stretch on the initial premise (he's a bank robber who is trying to return all the money he stole to "go straight" again but is double crossed by FBI agents).
 
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Finally got around to watching The Batman. Three hours is an excessive runtime even by modern blockbuster standards but this was a lean movie without much in terms of subplots or B-plots so I'm not sure what the right course of action was there aside from splitting it up into two movies or doing an old-time intermission or something.

Jeffrey Wright was a good Jim Gordon and I thought Pattinson did his best with what the script asked him to do and I liked the fact that he didn't do the gravelly "I AM BATMAN" voice like some of the more recent portrayals have done. Zoe Kravitz was solid as Selina Kyle in a role that I am sure has already been earmarked for its own spinoff movie somewhere in the recesses of Warner HQ. The clear winner of the actors though was Paul Dano, who remains one of the most underrated actors working in film today.

Overall, it was a really good modern film noir but I'm not sure it'll be in my rewatch queue like a lot of the Marvel movies just on the basis of runtime and subject matter.
 
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