Two movies I absolutely hated. But this looks good.
The Witch was definitely a good horror...The Lighthouse was a little more abstract, but I thought the tone of the movie was great. The ending missed its mark a little for me!
Film The Redcafe Movie review thread
- Thread starter golden_blunder
- Start date
The Witch was definitely a good horror...The Lighthouse was a little more abstract, but I thought the tone of the movie was great. The ending missed its mark a little for me!
I really feel the movie glossed over such character development due to the fact that Kyle was quite the deplorable cnut. There wasn’t much to glorify other than the fact that he killed other people rather well.Yeah, I read your comment.I read the critical reception bit on Wikipedia, and I was amazed how posive many people were, including what are supposed to be high-ranking film critics. This is the positive section (there is some criticism, too,, actually):
Most of this I just don't get at all. Where is the character study? Where does this display the negative side of the US's experience of the Iraq War? (let alone any aspect of the Iraqi experience) How is this devestating, or showing any (lasting) alienation, misery, or vulenarability on Kyle's part? Where is the compassion? (I have no idea how someone could think of that word in this context!) I guessit's no surprise that these are all Americans, and I figured it's 100% telling that the New York Post reviewer (final comment of the first paragraph) saw this as a great film and a case for the noble side of war.
In any case, that made me look up what others had said about the movie, and here on the forum the overall opinion was a lot more negative.
Well, that's one way to put it.
I feel there could have been an interesting series in this if they would have done the usual thing and created an amalgamated character that's actualy interesting for a meaningful movie - like , a combination of various veterans, including people that actually wrestled with the moral implications of their work and had real PTSD. But this...
Wild Wild West. A 1999 steampunk action comedy set in the wild west, featuring Will Smith and Kevin Kline. This was completely murdered by reviewers and ran a loss for the film company (also because it was a very expensive film for the time), but I don't see the problem. Yes it's silly, yes some of the jokes are puerile (and now a little offensive), yes the special effects are a little transparent, yes it lacks women with agency (all women in the film, including Salma Hayek, are there only for 'decorative' purposes) - but it's just a fun popcorn romp that keeps up the pace and doesn't last too long (well under 2h). It's not a brilliant addition to the genre, but if that's what you expect, it works.
The TV series was far better.
Never seen it, but I read that's what everyone said, and that one of the series's main guys picked up the razzies that the film won just to show how much he hated it. (And delivered them to the people involved in the film!)
This is vintage Lynch. Homage to the Mulholland Drive/Lost Highway insanity. His Dune sucked, though.i'm so lost
is this a deepfake. what is going on
So I watched Eternals last night.
There is nothing bad I can say about this movie...that hasnt already been said...a lot. If youre considering watching it, just punch yourself in the dick instead. It will be more enjoyable and less painful.
This would probably have been a lot better served being one of the Disney+ shows. Theres too much going on, and any themes that might have been interesting are given no time to get into. The acting is very hit and miss, which is understandable considering the characters are fleshed out in any way to give the actors something to work with. Its also predicable as feck. This trend in "subverting expectations" is doing nothing but ruining movies. Because in order to subvert the expectations of the audience, you have to do something dumb as all feck to get it to subvert those expectations. But considering the political climate, its not hard to see some things coming either.
And I have to give a special shout out to the deaf eternal. Not mind numblingly stupid at all to make an all powerful being deaf and know American sign language SEVEN THOUSAND YEARS before America is a thing. Like there wasnt anywhere in the last 14 years of the MCU to have a deaf superhero and have it make contextual sense. No, lets shoe horn one in here so we can tick a box... Just silly.
There is nothing bad I can say about this movie...that hasnt already been said...a lot. If youre considering watching it, just punch yourself in the dick instead. It will be more enjoyable and less painful.
This would probably have been a lot better served being one of the Disney+ shows. Theres too much going on, and any themes that might have been interesting are given no time to get into. The acting is very hit and miss, which is understandable considering the characters are fleshed out in any way to give the actors something to work with. Its also predicable as feck. This trend in "subverting expectations" is doing nothing but ruining movies. Because in order to subvert the expectations of the audience, you have to do something dumb as all feck to get it to subvert those expectations. But considering the political climate, its not hard to see some things coming either.
And I have to give a special shout out to the deaf eternal. Not mind numblingly stupid at all to make an all powerful being deaf and know American sign language SEVEN THOUSAND YEARS before America is a thing. Like there wasnt anywhere in the last 14 years of the MCU to have a deaf superhero and have it make contextual sense. No, lets shoe horn one in here so we can tick a box... Just silly.
I vaguely remember it as borderline unmatchable but 99 was a long time ago.
It’s not a brilliant addition to the genre, eh? What would be your top five steampunk action comedy westerns?!
Brazil
Treasure Planet
Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Howl's Moving Castle
Hellboy
City of Lost Chiildren
6 rather than 5 steampunk (not steampunk comedy western's which is a very specific genre) off the top of my head and I'm sure there are more
Last edited:
Eternals
My wife and I, on the other hand, really enjoyed the movie.
She's not really into superhero movies, but I think the reason why she liked it, is because of the storytelling and the interaction between the main characters, in particular the love story of Sersi and Ikaris.
A big chuck of the movie is dedicated to their introductions and fleshing out the characters. In my opinion the director, Chloe Zhao, did a fantastic job of making that aspect of the movie feel more "real" and "human". I can imagine it must have been tough to give all Eternals proper screentime and introduction.
A few things felt unneccessary, like Thena's Mahd Wy'ry and the evolved Deviant, but those were minor things and I wasn't bothered by it.
The movie is beautifully shot, as you can expect from Zhao, but I wasn't too impressed with the CGI, it looks like a PS4-game. Blame the Marvel CGI-department.
Hopefully Eternals and especially Sersi will return in other Marvel productions. Gemma Chan was fantastic.
Score: 9
P.S. I was wondering, if the Avengers were in this movie instead of the Eternals, how would they save the world?
Don't Look Up
(Already put it in the separate Don't Look Up thread, paste it here as well..)
Wow, just wow. Really impressive movie and I wish the movie was a bit longer.
The opinions were a bit split when it first came out, people were complaining about the acting for example, so the movie wasn't on my to-watch list. However, even news sites were publishing articles regarding the movie, so I had to watch it.
You really feel for the scientists as I too started to get disillusioned, angry and powerless by the ignorance of people in the movie.
I understand why Leonardo DiCaprio, Meryl Streep and Jennifer Lawrence wanted to join the cast, because the movie raises so many ethical and social issues, that, even though it is a disaster movie like Deep Impact and Armageddon, it's on a totally different level.
The only thing I didn't like was the minimal involvement of other countries like Russia, China, Japan, India, EU countries during the whole movie. For example, I think China would never leave it so late to try and deflect the comet and trust America to solve this global disaster. And they for sure won't trust an eccentric president like Orlean.
The movie makes it clear that Russia, India and China also wanted to be part of the US mining-deal, but again, why trust the United States as dispicted in the movie? Were those countries also blinded by greed and totally clueless about the imminent disaster? (Maybe I just answered my own question).
Score: 9
Last edited:
The genre I meant was rather 'fun popcorn romps' (which I mentioned just before).
I know that's not really a genre, but it's a kind of film you can feel like sometimes, and to my mind, on those evenings, it doesn't matter too much if it's sci-fi, western, steampunk, superheroes, or whatever. So again, I know Wild Wild West was widely disliked, but I thought it fitted this bill OK.I remember Sky Captain as another fun steampunk film btw. Not a western of course, and I can't actually remember anything other than that I think I enjoyed it...
The genre I meant was rather 'fun popcorn romps' (which I mentioned just before).
I remember Sky Captain as another fun steampunk film btw. Not a western of course, and I can't actually remember anything other than that I think I enjoyed it...
I’m only joshing. Was funny to hear you talk about the genre when it’s probably the only steampunk western ever made!
I guess that's why I didn't mean it that way.
It's funny actually, it seems to me like a really good setting for steampunk, but you're right, I can't think of any other steampunk western, and a quick search produces nothing either. I might say there's potential there, but I guess Wild Wild West rather convinced the film industry that there isn't!
I guess that's why I didn't mean it that way.
It's funny actually, it seems to me like a really good setting for steampunk, but you're right, I can't think of any other steampunk western, and a quick search produces nothing either. I might say there's potential there, but I guess Wild Wild West rather convinced the film industry that there isn't!
Speaking of Steampunk, it’s not a movie but Arcane (Netflix) is top drawer. Definitely my favourite of that particular niche genre.
It is probable your post led me to that discovery.
I see we have it too, I'll check it out!
Second this, superb.
Manhattan Murder Mystery. I thought I had not seen any Woody Allen films before, but now I have looked it up, I realize I did see Mighty Aphrodite and Match Point. I suppose this one is more typical Woody Allen, with himself in a key role and almost all scenes basically being New Yorkers endlessly chatting away. (Or was Might Aphrodite also like that? It's been very long...) So I guess I could say I finally saw a 'proper' Woody Allen film, of the type he is most famous for?
In any case, I thought it would be interesting to finally see one of those, and it was. It's impressive how everything seems improvised and off the cuff (i.e., natural), while if I understand things correctly, a lot of it is actually written out. Ultimately though, the chattiness and neuroticness (I feel I had to see that word) of it all got on my nerves, and I was craving something a bit more focused. That's also when the story took off a bit more, which was good timing. (In short: Allen's character's wife (Diane Keaton) is convinced a neighbour's death was murder, and starts looking into its mystery.) It's still not really my thing stylistically, but it's a funny film (in parts, anyway), and I can appreciate the timing and art of it all.
Two things that I thought were off though: the ending is basically a hommage to Orson Welles, but to me, Allen's and Welles's styles are so far apart that this makes little sense. And then it was odd that, at the very end, one character summarizes the entire mystery to another - just as she had done half an hour earlier when she hypothesized (as it turned out, entirely correctly) at a midnight dinner what had happened. But anyway.
In any case, I thought it would be interesting to finally see one of those, and it was. It's impressive how everything seems improvised and off the cuff (i.e., natural), while if I understand things correctly, a lot of it is actually written out. Ultimately though, the chattiness and neuroticness (I feel I had to see that word) of it all got on my nerves, and I was craving something a bit more focused. That's also when the story took off a bit more, which was good timing. (In short: Allen's character's wife (Diane Keaton) is convinced a neighbour's death was murder, and starts looking into its mystery.) It's still not really my thing stylistically, but it's a funny film (in parts, anyway), and I can appreciate the timing and art of it all.
Two things that I thought were off though: the ending is basically a hommage to Orson Welles, but to me, Allen's and Welles's styles are so far apart that this makes little sense. And then it was odd that, at the very end, one character summarizes the entire mystery to another - just as she had done half an hour earlier when she hypothesized (as it turned out, entirely correctly) at a midnight dinner what had happened. But anyway.
Odeon tickets on sale today for Jackass Forever (Friday 4th February) got mine booked
Can't wait for thisOdeon tickets on sale today for Jackass Forever (Friday 4th February) got mine booked
Can't wait for this
I went to see The 355 last Friday and the 2 minute Jackass trailer was better than the main event!
I loved the third one and the giant hand sketch still makes me howl even after watching it so many times.
I think they've actually done something similar in the new one.
I watched Eternals last night.
I thought it was pretty crap on the whole. It tried to do something, and missed the mark. Also, it has a 2 hour 25 mins run time, which is painful (I had to watch it over two days).
I felt the acting was quite hammy for the most part (particularly Phatos), and the main woman (Sersi) doesn't have much range. The movie could have had much more potential. I mean, what they did with Ikaris was interesting, and I think it should have been the main plot of the movie. The tie ins of other movies weren't great either (Thanos and the snap is a bit tired), or even of real world events (Phatos at Hiroshima didn't work for me).
The guy that played Druig was good. There's some semblance of a good movie in here somewhere, but it didn't work.
And yes the cinematography is nice, but it's all just CGI and green screen, so it's like complimenting the screen saver on your laptop.
One thing I really LOVED was that they had Nebudchanezzar II's fort (Ishtar gate) authentically shown, and what ancient Babylonia would have looked like. That was my fave bit actually!
I thought it was pretty crap on the whole. It tried to do something, and missed the mark. Also, it has a 2 hour 25 mins run time, which is painful (I had to watch it over two days).
I felt the acting was quite hammy for the most part (particularly Phatos), and the main woman (Sersi) doesn't have much range. The movie could have had much more potential. I mean, what they did with Ikaris was interesting, and I think it should have been the main plot of the movie. The tie ins of other movies weren't great either (Thanos and the snap is a bit tired), or even of real world events (Phatos at Hiroshima didn't work for me).
The guy that played Druig was good. There's some semblance of a good movie in here somewhere, but it didn't work.
And yes the cinematography is nice, but it's all just CGI and green screen, so it's like complimenting the screen saver on your laptop.
One thing I really LOVED was that they had Nebudchanezzar II's fort (Ishtar gate) authentically shown, and what ancient Babylonia would have looked like. That was my fave bit actually!
Where can I see it just for that?
Oh wait, YouTube of course!
If only archaeologists had Marvel's budget for these reconstructions... Just a pity that the river seems to have been placed the wrong way, as to my knowledge it ran right through the city. But at least the Akkadian they speak is supposed to be correct! (link)
Last edited:
Where can I see it just for that?
Oh wait, YouTube of course!
If only archaeologists had Marvel's budget for these reconstructions... Just a pity that the river seems to have placed the wrong way, as to my knowledge it ran right through the city. But at least the Akkadian they speak is supposed to be correct! (link)
Good spot on the river!
And that’s pretty interesting on the language expert.
There’s also a clip in the movie where they show the hanging gardens in more detail which was pretty cool.
This used to be my work (well, not Babylon, not archaeology in and of itself - but close enough), so the placement of the river compared to the monuments was the first thing I looked for.
And so I also had to look up the language bit.I have no desire at all to see the movie, but I hope someone will put a compilation of the shots of Babylon on YouTube before too long.
I quite enjoyed the Eternals.
I cant say its a good movie, its not. Its too scattered, too slow, badly paced, too much thrown in with no depth. It just had enough interesting moments, ideas and references to keep me interested. As a standalone movie its pretty poor overall but marvel nerds should enjoy it regardless. Just has some interesting world building.
I cant say its a good movie, its not. Its too scattered, too slow, badly paced, too much thrown in with no depth. It just had enough interesting moments, ideas and references to keep me interested. As a standalone movie its pretty poor overall but marvel nerds should enjoy it regardless. Just has some interesting world building.
Sounds like one of those episodes in a series that's kinda boring but makes you curious about what happens next. I can't see I'm more eager to see the film now.
Yeah thats a good description. Its very skippable.Sounds like one of those episodes in a series that's kinda boring but makes you curious about what happens next. I can't see I'm more eager to see the film now.
I'm saying that because Spiderman: Far From Home felt totally like an episode in a series to me. I know it's very focused and hence nothing like Eternals (at least from what I'm reading about that one here), but it was just such a thin, low-stakes film to me - no better than just another episode in one of those hyper-expensive, CGI-dominated series we have these days. So that angle comes up quickly for me now with the Marvel films.
(I suppose that comment on series makes me sound very old. I actually don't care much for or know that much about series in general, but it seems to me that series costs and scale have exploded in the past decade or so. I might be completely off, but anyway, that's where that Sipderman film fits in for me.)
Haven't seen the new Spiderman. Yeah i can see the episode in series angle with the Marvel movies. In eternals case its like a mid season, throw away episode where nothing particularly big happens. Even with marvel loving referencing movies everywhere i cant see anything in this that will be important elsewhere. Its kind of interesting if you care about made up universes i guess.
Its a strange movie to be honest, some odd decisions, not especially bad decisions just odd. Dont think i can go into it without spoiling huge chunks of the film
Just to clarify that I meant the second Spiderman film, the Euro Trip one. I haven't seen the new one either.
Ah right. I think being released just after endgame they were trying to keep it a bit more chilled and bring the stakes down. Reset things a bit.
This film isn't lacking in stakes, its lacking focus and attachment. Introducing 10 new superhero's with some fairly unique powers and 5000 years of history just takes a long ass time to get through and theres a lot of other stuff they threw in on top of that so it just takes forever to get going and set the scene.
Last edited:
Watched the Sisters Brothers yday (its on bbc iplayer). Was very pleasantly surprised, brilliantly acted and had a nice balance of light and dark moments.
The Lost Daughter Zźzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Zzzzz/10
Getting terrible audience reviews.
It’s a bit shit.