what was the last movie you watched?

Not a movie, but just finished the eight-part series of Presumed Innocent on AppleTv, "It tells the story of a horrific murder that upends the Chicago Prosecuting Attorneys' office." Highly recommend if you're into that sort of subject.
I REALLY liked this series. I only learned after watching it that in 1989 they did a film starring Harrison Ford as “Rusty” Sabich by the same title, derived from the same novel. Definitely going to have to watch that now.
 

Warhawk

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I REALLY liked this series. I only learned after watching it that in 1989 they did a film starring Harrison Ford as “Rusty” Sabich by the same title, derived from the same novel. Definitely going to have to watch that now.
It's a good movie. Haven't watched it in forever, but I remember liking it at the time.
 
Deadpool Wolverine was fun. It's a Deadpool movie with Wolverine in it. Works best as a pure fan service movie with typical Deadpool humor and some neat cameos. Don't expect too much from the story or action. This movie is all about having irreverent fun.

Chris Evans and Nicepool with his punchable face were hilarious.

Pro tip: Wait for the end credits at the very end. I'm not talking about the BTS clips during the credits.
 
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Warhawk

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Borderlands. Eh, it’s not that good. Good cast, but one or two characters are a bit over the top or get annoying pretty quick. It just doesn’t “come together” like it should.
 

pdxKingsFan

So Ordinary That It's Truly Quite Extraordinary
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It's wild that a piece of legacy media with nothing but horrid sequels, spinoffs and prequels over the last 30 years seems to be on track again but I'm willing to give it a chance.
 
It's wild that a piece of legacy media with nothing but horrid sequels, spinoffs and prequels over the last 30 years seems to be on track again but I'm willing to give it a chance.
I read an interview with Fede, who was a big fan of all of the sequels and prequels of the storyline, granted some of the movies were not great, but he said he needed to embrace them all. Some good Easter eggs throughout and nods to previous storylines to connect them.
 
As someone who took ‘Alien’ with my first pick in one of the movie drafts on this board, I’m saddened to play the part of naysayer. Love the franchise. Love Fede Álvarez. Was very disappointed in Romulus, and would currently rank it in the bottom half (third?) of Alien films.

Granted, I may have been too hyped to see it, and it was thereby destined to disappoint. Will have to give it some time and additional viewings to see if I come around.

Looked great. Sounded great. Pacing was strong, Tension was sustained.

I wish it had been more self contained. The number and frequency of callouts to past films, from subtle to comical, kept taking me out of the movie and felt unnecessary. It started to feel like a parody of an Alien movie.

With Fede at the helm, I was hoping for the violence and gore to pushed further. He’s great at it. Missed opportunity IMO.

Finally, as much as I enjoy David/Alex, I’m not sure if it’s a great thing that the most compelling characters in three straight sequels are the non-humans, and it’s not even close. I get Ripley is hard to live up to, but I’ve cared about no one but synthetics for a while now. Strange.

This movie was the Weyland-Yutani of the franchise.

Edit: One last nit. Don’t let Neil deGrasse Tyson see this movie. I’m no physicist, but…yikes.
 
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pdxKingsFan

So Ordinary That It's Truly Quite Extraordinary
Staff member
As someone who took ‘Alien’ with my first pick in one of the movie drafts on this board, I’m saddened to play the part of naysayer. Love the franchise. Love Fede Álvarez. Was very disappointed in Romulus, and would currently rank it in the bottom half (third?) of Alien films.
Respect this and yet does not discourage me in the slightest, but I'll bite - Beyond the first two films - which do you rank higher than Romulus (and if controversial, why)?
 
Respect this and yet does not discourage me in the slightest, but I'll bite - Beyond the first two films - which do you rank higher than Romulus (and if controversial, why)?
You definitely shouldn’t be discouraged. It’s an Alien movie! GO NOW!

So, Prometheus is definitely above, and AVP: Requiem is definitely below.

That leaves me with a pack of deeply flawed but still enjoyable movies, whose ranking probably shifts wildly with my mood. After another viewing when it hits streaming I could see Romulus falling anywhere between 4th and 8th.

I wouldn’t expect anyone to agree with my ranking, but…
  1. Alien - Classic
  2. Aliens - Classic
  3. Prometheus - REALLY grew on me
    ===============
  4. Alien Resurrection - Love the characters. Quirky and inventive. Fun action. Tonal issues. Ripley bump. (controversial)
  5. Alien 3 - Really dig the setting and mood. Rough effects. Pacing issues. Curious narrative choices. Ripley bump. (controversial)
  6. Romulus - Getting a bump over AVP because the horror and space elements are really solid.
  7. AVP - Making this PG-13 was malpractice. The human aspect blows. But any time an Alien and Predator are on screen together absolutely slaps.
  8. Alien Covenant - Needed more Crudup. Carried by dual Fassbenders. Wish it were 20 minutes shorter but honestly can’t put my finger on why this fell flat for me. Will likely grow on me. (controversial)
    ===============
  9. AVPR - Nuke it from orbit.
Guess I just really like Sigourney.
 
You definitely shouldn’t be discouraged. It’s an Alien movie! GO NOW!

So, Prometheus is definitely above, and AVP: Requiem is definitely below.

That leaves me with a pack of deeply flawed but still enjoyable movies, whose ranking probably shifts wildly with my mood. After another viewing when it hits streaming I could see Romulus falling anywhere between 4th and 8th.

I wouldn’t expect anyone to agree with my ranking, but…
  1. Alien - Classic
  2. Aliens - Classic
  3. Prometheus - REALLY grew on me
    ===============
  4. Alien Resurrection - Love the characters. Quirky and inventive. Fun action. Tonal issues. Ripley bump. (controversial)
  5. Alien 3 - Really dig the setting and mood. Rough effects. Pacing issues. Curious narrative choices. Ripley bump. (controversial)
  6. Romulus - Getting a bump over AVP because the horror and space elements are really solid.
  7. AVP - Making this PG-13 was malpractice. The human aspect blows. But any time an Alien and Predator are on screen together absolutely slaps.
  8. Alien Covenant - Needed more Crudup. Carried by dual Fassbenders. Wish it were 20 minutes shorter but honestly can’t put my finger on why this fell flat for me. Will likely grow on me. (controversial)
    ===============
  9. AVPR - Nuke it from orbit.
Guess I just really like Sigourney.
Like your list….my personal list probably swaps Romulus with Resurrection and I have Covenant above Alien 3. I move the AVP movies down into a bottom tier. Besides the obvious top choices of the first 2, it’s cool to see the love for Prometheus. Anytime it’s on tv, I tend to watch it. It’s got star power, eye candy visuals, and the story is different from all the others because of the inclusion of the Engineers. This new movie will hold up well but over time, it will fall in with the next tier like Alien 3 and Covenant
 

Warhawk

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Aliens is in a standalone top tier, none of the others come close. One of my favorite flicks of all time. I need to watch it again.

Alien is in the next tier because it is a classic. But I like sci-fi action a lot more than suspense/horror.

I never bothered to rank the rest. Most have some fun parts, some have plots better than others, etc. Whatever. I haven't seen the latest one yet.
 

Warhawk

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Went with my sister to go see Twisters yesterday, and I thought they did a pretty good job with it. Then I find out she never watched Twister, so we caught that this evening.
 
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024) … At the drive-in. Went all the way retro with this one.

Watched the original during Halloween last year, and said at the time “there’s no way this movie gets made today.” Now that the sequel has come out more than 30 years later, I stand by that statement.

This is a pure nostalgia romp that doesn’t bring much new to the universe or narrative, and if not anchored to a resurrected IP from the 80s, would not be greenlit today. As such, it falls right into modern Hollywood’s business model of selling your childhood back to you and building franchises from a foundation of fond memories.

In fact, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice plays as the third part of a trilogy in which the middle movie is conspicuously absent. A ton of major plot points from the intervening years between the two films are little more than brief lines of dialogue that really could have been their own movie had Burton gotten around to making it 10-20 years ago.

That isn’t to say the film is devoid of fun. Keaton is still fantastic as Beetlejuice and his new origin story is exactly what you’d want it to be. Monica Bellucci as his ex-wife from a throw-away gag in the original is excellent if woefully underused. Catherine O’Hara and Willem Dafoe are clearly having a blast in their respective roles. And the way Burton implements the now problematic actor Jeffery Jones in the fairly essential role of Charles Deetz is nothing short of hilariously brilliant.

Still, there are around 4 to 5 individual plot lines occurring at the same time, which are all fun and not particularly hard to follow, but end up diminishing each other as they fight for screen time. Then it becomes too exposition heavy at the beginning, a mess of plot lines in the middle, and a rush to the end as the original’s third act is practically copy-pasted whole cloth.

Overall, equal parts fun and creepy, with good callbacks while building on the world, themes and set pieces of the first one.

But little more than nostalgia brain candy and I’m surprisingly disappointed this didn’t open with Beetlejuice finally getting his number called in the waiting room.
 
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Warhawk

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A friend and I really wanted to go see a movie in the theater today, and, not really knowing much about it, went to check out Megalopolis. Let's just say that it has a big cast and the acting was pretty good (considering what I think they were shooting for), but it wasn't my cup of tea.

It was a sprawling, artsy, abstract, and way too long. It had some points it was trying to make but never seemed to get there without being somewhat heavy-handed at times. The video shots, etc., at times made me think of 80's flicks or TV shows trying to be high-tech. It just wasn't it for me.

My friend said "Honestly, I can't hate it, because you have to understand something before you can hate it."

I'd honestly be interested in @Padrino or @Löwenherz opinion if they've seen it. Maybe I'm just not getting it?