Last movie you watched

[erilaz]

The Punk Singer (2013) — An excellent documentary about Kathleen Hanna (Bikini Kill, Le Tigre, The Julie Ruin): feminist, activist, and a driving force of the Riot Grrrl movement.

[esm]

Roma - I watched it on Netflix, and I've seen a lot of reviews about how it's really better in theaters. I liked it a lot anyway because it's really beautiful, and it reminded me of my own childhood growing up in a household with maids, one of which was like a nanny to my sister and me while we were kids.

Coco - I used to be more of a Pixar fan, so it's weird I only saw this recently. I liked it, but mostly because of the last 40 minutes or so. It seemed kind of generic until them (and I also thought, wow this kid is a brat), although I think that made the last bit more effective.

[Zunu]

I also got around to seeing Coco fairly recently, maybe three or four months ago. I can't say it made that much of an impression on me. I mean it was good but not Incredibly good.

Thanks for the recommendation on Roma. I was going to see it in the theater a few weeks back but it was sold out so we wound up settling for a mediocre fake-Japanese restaurant nearby and calling it a day.

[Nayoko-Kihara]

After two movie channel preview weekends and one Redbox run during my sister's visit, I have watched a lot of mediocre movies. I don't have much to say about most of them.

Rebel in The Rye ★★★
It was fine.

The Space Between Us ★★
Boring.

Victoria & Abdul ★★★
Fine, dragged a little.

Stake Land ★
Couldn't finish it.

Amelia ★
I literally had to look this up just now to remember what it was about.

Jupiter Ascending ★★
Boring. Too long. Bad cast.

Thoroughbreds ★★★
Too long, but interesting enough.

Game Night ★★★
Stupid comedy is what I wanted and that's what I got.

The Cured ★★★
It was fine.

Pitch Perfect 3 ★★
This was garbage. Gets a second star because I really like some of the cast.

Red Sparrow ★
Couldn't finish it.

The Shape of Water ★★★
It was nice enough. Didn't live up to the mountains of praise, but if someone wanted to watch it with me again I wouldn't mind.

The Post ★★★
One of these stars is just for Tom Hanks, but the movie as a whole was alright.

Love, Simon ★★★
Enjoyable. Would watch again with another person, but not on my own. Would watch a sequel.

The Greatest Showman ★★★★
I'm a sucker for Hugh Jackman, period pieces, and musicals. The soundtrack was interesting, memorable; an odd number of songs felt like they had a country twinge to them, which was unexpected.

The BFG ★★★
This is my second favorite Roald Dahl book. It wasn't as good as the book, but it was a damn good effort. Wouldn't be interested in watching it again, but I'm not mad I did once.

The Meg ★★★
It was entertaining for what it was.

Doctor Strange ★★★
Not as boring as I expected, but I don't want to see it again. I still don't like Cumberbatch.

Guardians of The Galaxy 2 ★★★★
I didn't expect to love this, but I loved this.

Black Panther ★★★
It was alright. I don't really want to watch this again either, but I'm down for a sequel.

Avengers: Infinity War ★★★
The only Avengers movie that isn't boring.

Oceans 8 ★★★
Not really fair to score it, but I liked the parts I caught. I fell asleep (not because of the movie) through a chunk so I want to re-watch it.

Isle of Dogs ★★★★
This was great. It reminded me a lot of "Fantastic Mr. Fox" in both comedy and animation. I haven't looked up any of the production companies or staff, but I won't be surprised if it's the same people.

Please cast Scarlett Johansson in fewer movies.

Blockers ★
Not even stupid funny.

Life of The Party ★★
Meh. Melissa McCarthy can and should do better.

Romeo & Juliet (2013) ★★
Not my favorite adaptation. Skipped around quite a bit. Love Hailee Steinfeld though.

[esm]

I saw Bird Box. I felt like it was a waste of time because there wasn't any depth to it, and so much was so implausible. The ending wasn't even a twist for me because I did think about that general idea early on.

Spoiler: show

And for the mentally ill people to want to make the others "see" is one thing, but how did they just end up wanting to just straight up kill the normal people?

By the way, Trevante Rhodes is 26 years younger than Sandra Bullock, but it never occurred to me that there was a huge age gap there even though I knew she had to be like 50 something, considering I've seen her in movies ever since I could remember... like in the mid 90s.

[erilaz]

Julien Temple's 1986 musical, Absolute Beginners, which I last saw about 30 years ago. It's the story of a teenage photographer (Eddie O'Connell) in 1950s London, culminating in the Notting Hill race riots. Mostly a lot of style but not a lot of substance, although the "racist fascists are bad" message can never be reiterated enough. Musical numbers by Patsy Kensit, Tenpole Tudor, Ray Davies, and David Bowie, as well as Sade's performance of "Killer Blow," which was the one scene I remembered best and was most looking forward to seeing again. Coolness incarnate.

[rikkikow]

Uplifting foreign film: “The Fencer” (2015)
Movie is based on true events which I didn’t know until the ending notations.

[Zunu]

Just got back from seeing Alita: Battle Angel.

I've never seen the original anime or read the manga so I don't have a frame of comparison. Regardless, I loved it. It got panned by critics for [reasons] that are 100% true. I mean, if one wanted to find fault with any particular aspect of it, one could. But none of that mattered to me. It was big, exciting, full of heart, had Christoph Waltz, the CG was incredible, and Rosa Salazar played the titular character to perfection. If you don't like Robert Rodriguez's movies or anime in general you'll want to skip it, of course.

It was the first movie I've seen probably since Star Wars TFA that made me instantly feel I would pay to see it again in the movie theaters. That includes all the Marvel blockbusters since then and even the awesome Spiderman: Into The Spiderverse.

---

^^^ Got around to Bird Box last night, because it kept coming up in my YT feed and I figured I'd better watch it before I got exposed to spoilers. And...it was okay. It's impossible for me to look at Sandra Bullock without seeing the facial mannerisms of Ayumin. That aside, there were some beats that were a bit too predictable, too telegraphed and

Spoiler: show

the whole central concept of running around blindfolded in the woods was just insanity to me. There was a pivotal scene where she was literally running, in the woods, hand in hand with the children. That is not a possible thing to happen, especially after 5 years experience. Tripping on a log could mean a compound fracture. Stepping into a hole could mean a badly twisted ankle. Simply not having your hands free means you have nothing to break a sudden fall; you could split your head open on a rock. Plus, overgrown woods don't have clear trails for you to go running around in, there's branches at eye level, the ground is uneven, sorry it's just not believable. And we're supposed to believe that Sandra Bullock's character is so shitty that she wouldn't even give the kids names until she had a sudden epiphany that yes she actually did love them. Also, blind people being immune, was a bit obvious. Would they be better adapted overall to this particular apocalypse? That I'm not so sure about. In the absence of sighted people, any one of those crazies could stroll into their compound and wreak mass slaughter.

[esm]

I watched A Star is Born last week.

I love Lady Gaga and thought she's perfect for the role because at least the stardom part is really her story and her own personal story basically helps to fill in the gap for what's lacking in the movie, which is just more of her story in general in the second half of the movie rather than the story of Bradley Cooper's character's downfall. I read some reviews saying the movie dragged on forever, but I thought there was so much to pack into the movie and in the end there was not enough time to focus on both characters. Like there was no real indication of how fast her popularity was growing and how she's really reacting to it. Also Bradley Cooper mumbles a lot and sometimes I'd have no idea what he's saying.

[Zunu]

Also Bradley Cooper mumbles a lot and sometimes I'd have no idea what he's saying.

In various interviews it's been mentioned that Cooper was deliberately trying to imitate the vocal cadences of Sam Elliott (who played his older brother in the film).