Rate / Review the Last Film you've seen v.3

[Dedalus Diggle]

Little - Painfully bad. It was a struggle to sit through it, it was so bad. There were a few funny moments, but mostly it was just tedious. It just missed on so many levels. 2/10

Us - well made, pretty scary. The metaphorical interpretations I have read do not fit well at all, but that is what others say about it, not the movie itself. There are, however, so many things that make no sense unless it is taken as an attempted metaphor rather than an internally consistent narrative. Still as a horror movie, it did the trick, and you almost always have to suspend a lot of critical thought with most horror movies. 6/10

[Fawkesfan1]

Just saw A Silent Voice recently. It's a very good movie. The animation and cinematography are very well done and the movie is very moving. I give it an 8/10.

Originally Posted by Anhelda

How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World--a beautifully animated, worthy end to an excellent movie series. The voice acting is excellent again, the character development is good, John Powell's score is awesome as usual, and the story, although not breaking any new ground, is well done. The relationship between Hiccup and Toothless, as always the core of the series, continues to show an organic progression, leading to a satisfying, albeit bittersweet conclusion. The whole Dragon series has been fantastic, and I highly recommend the entire trilogy as quality entertainment.

Finally got to see that and liked it pretty well. Might have to give it another watch though sometime. Loved the conclusion and how things turned out for them. It gets a solid 7/10 from me overall.

[Dedalus Diggle]

Stuber - better than the reviews made it sound. We have seen the genre 100 times - overly macho guy gets trapped into going through a bunch of stuff with overly wussy guy, and macho guy learns to be more sensitive and wussy guy learns to be more assertive and/or physical. It plays out well on-screen. The reviews however had to hit it as 'toxic masculinity being tamed' - blah blah blah. Such verbage is poison, but that's not the movie's fault so - 5/10

The Hustle - not good at all, barely tolerable. At least the plot and execution hung together, so that at least puts it ahead of Little (see above). 3/10

[Fawkesfan1]

The Lost Boys

Finally saw it and really liked it. It's a good vampire movie. 8/10

[Anhelda]

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker--so I should mention that I liked the prior two movies in this current trilogy to start, so I'm inclined to like the ongoing story of these characters as well as the conclusion of the characters from the original trilogy. I'll also limit what I say to avoid spoilers as much as possible. Overall, I enjoyed the movie. The return of the Emperor (which is not a spoiler, since the advertising already let that secret out months ago) is, in my opinion, not a fantastic idea, but since they decided to go that route, they do a decent job with it. Some of the pacing is a little rushed, and there's a few things that happen that seem a little extraneous, but nothing that's terrible. I wish we could have seen Leia's story play out as originally planned, but unfortunately, Carrie Fisher's death upset those plans. Having said that, they do a good job incorporating Carrie Fisher's old footage from The Force Awakens into the new film, and the effects work blends well into the new film footage. Rey and Kylo Ren are the heart of the story, so the stories of Poe and Finn are definitely secondary, but it's fun to see the whole new core trio in action together for the first time in the trilogy. Poor Rose, after a fairly prominent role in The Last Jedi, gets barely any screen time in the new movie. There's tons of Easter eggs from all the prior movies in the Skywalker saga, as well as some fun cameos. Elements from the Star Wars TV shows (Clone Wars, Rebels, and The Mandalorian) are all briefly included; if you're not familiar with those shows, it won't ruin the movie, but knowledge of the TV shows will give a richer movie experience. John Williams' score--well, it's a John Williams Star Wars score, so really, what needs to be said? The movie isn't perfect, but I think that overall, it's a good ending of the Skywalker saga. It's fun, well-acted, and well made. I don't love all the story choices they made, but nothing's going to "ruin Star Wars" for me the way some of the more (shall we say) excitable members of the fandom complain. I'm glad I saw it, and I'm sure it will hold up to the repeat viewings that I'll undoubtedly give it in the future.

Frozen II--again, trying to avoid spoilers, so not too much detail, but here we go...this was an epic sequel to the first movie, with a nice expansion of the world-building of the first film. The animation is amazing, and the voice acting is once again perfectly done. I like the new songs, although they seem a little less classic-Broadway and a little more influenced by pop songs and more modern theater shows. I don't think anything is going to rise to the ubiquity of "Let it Go" (which may be a good thing if you're one of the people who thought that song was overplayed to death), but they're all good both on straight musical merit and on advancing the story through the songs. The character development is good, and nothing seems to be significantly incongruous to the earlier film (or the two shorts, Frozen Fever and Olaf's Frozen Adventure). Overall, this is a satisfying continuation of the Frozen story, and I'll definitely be watching this again in the future.

[TWZRD]

Just saw "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood". I'm so glad I didn't miss this one. When I went in, I was wondering how Tom Hanks could ever convince me he was Mr. Rogers. By the end, it was a bit of a jar when they put some footage of the real Fred R in.
The story is great. I had a little trouble with what I assume was a dream sequence - maybe 3/4's through. It just didn't quite match with the rest, but it did advance the story in an efficient way. The constant going back and forth between "real" sets and the "Make Believe" sets I found lots of fun.
Score borrows lots of tunes, some of them FR's original music. (You know he was an accomplished musician, right?) Anyway, lots to like.

[Anhelda]

Shazam--this movie was a lot of fun! Zachary Levi and Asher Angel did a great job playing Billy Batsom, and Jack Dylan Grazer plays Billy's best friend/foster brother Freddy Freeman with a lot of heart and humor. The movie presents what I would imagine is a realistic portrayal of how a teenage boy would react to the sudden acquisition of superpowers, and it's a lot of fun watching the boys discovering the various abilities that Billy has as Shazam. The movie is also a pretty nice portrayal of a foster family, with sympathetic foster parents and foster siblings; it was nice to see a positive portrayal of fostering. Mark Strong does his usual strong work playing the villain with appropriate menace. The connections to the DCEU are pretty loose, so you don't have to have watched the other movies to be able to follow this one. Overall, it was entertaining and well done. I'll be giving it repeat watchings in the future.

[Potter_fan]

Dora and the Lost City of Gold
I honestly started watching it as a joke just to see if how well the continued the format and I will say I was not disappointed. They stayed with the "ask the audience" format, though I did find the first time she did it and her parents were like "who is she talking to? eh it's a faze she'll grow out of it" kinda funny. Not being a fan of Dora in the first place I only watched the first 17 mins before I lost interest in it. I probably will not finish it, but might still be good for kids :/

[Anhelda]

First Man--a surprisingly suspenseful movie (surprising because I know how the story ends, after all!), with lots of drama, excellent effects, a great score, and a fascinating and moving story behind the famous story of the first Moon landing. Ryan Gosling does a great job as Neil Armstrong, and the rest of the cast is strong as well. This movie got a lot of flak before its release because it didn't include a scene of Armstrong and Aldrin planting the American flag on the Moon, but really, there were plenty of reminders in the whole movie that the Moon landings were an American accomplishment--lots of flags and USAs throughout the film, although never in a jingoistic or propagandizing way. I felt that it was full of understated American patriotism, and anyone who didn't see the film because of the flag "controversy" missed an excellent movie that provided a great portrayal of one of the US's most famous accomplishments. I'm glad I saw it, I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I'll be happy to watch it again in the future.

[Dedalus Diggle]

1. Call of the Wild - fine production, basically straightforward. pretty scenery. Good CGI, but not totally seamless. Really not a must-see. 7/10

2. Jumanji: The Next Level - good empty fun, just like the predecessor. Karen Gillan rocks her outfit 8/10

3. Little Women - Good production, interesting choices to quite literally identify Meg with Alcott; never read the book or saw prior versions so I do not know how much it present the original story; a couple of the militant feminist presumptions inserted were clunkers. 8/10

4. Harley Quinn/Birds of Prey - I don't see many comic book movies, but this was quite good. empty diversion with lots of action - 6/10

5. Dolittle - passable, I suppose. I don't know how many elements from the books were used. I find the meme of taking characters and recasting them as slovenly psychological wrecks to be tiresome and dishonest, but that seems to be Robert Downey, Jr.'s shtick. 3/10

6. Knives Out - very good homage to Agatha Christie and other classic murder mystery writers 9/10

7. Downhill - This is NOT a comedy, as the choice of leads would make you expect. It has some funny bits, but they just accentuate the deterioration of the relationships which is the theme of the movie. 6/10

[jordmundt6]

I'd give BoP a 7 or 8. It was foul-mouthed and violent, but not as unrestrained as its animated counterpart. Robbie did a good job and most of the casting worked. However, there were moments where you could tell they must have approached J-Lo 6 times to play Montoya before during and after the shooting of Hustlers. Rosie Perez did a nice job with what they gave her, but they gave her less than they were intending for the character. This is as close to a foundation as DC live action has now.

Call Of The Wild---How they made this into a bloodless, clean, almost stakeless family romp is bewildering. They had twenty minutes of 1890s Beethoven, about 35 to 40 minutes of a Balto shot-for-shot which was way more impressive until I realized walking out of the theater that it was a Balto shot-for-shot. And the balance was not as clearly defined but was definitely not Call of the Wild And giving Ford's Thornton posthumous narrator duty was...odd. The parts were well executed, but they didn't stitch.

[Potter_fan]

Originally Posted by jordmundt6

I'd give BoP a 7 or 8. It was foul-mouthed and violent, but not as unrestrained as its animated counterpart. Robbie did a good job and most of the casting worked. However, there were moments where you could tell they must have approached J-Lo 6 times to play Montoya before during and after the shooting of Hustlers. Rosie Perez did a nice job with what they gave her, but they gave her less than they were intending for the character. This is as close to a foundation as DC live action has now.

It took me a minute to realize you were talking about Birds of Prey.....

[Dedalus Diggle]

Emma - It grows on you. At first, it seemed such a stylized (hints of Wes Anderson) period piece. With a little background reading on the book (which I have not read), I understand it better as a 'coming of age' story, in which Emma has never really grown up past early adolescence when her mother died but has too much sway in the community as the effective head of one of the largest estates and finds that her still-adolescent attitudes about people are harmful and counterproductive. One problem is that George Knightley comes off from the beginning as a love interest, when he is nearly twice her age (not an empediment, particularly in that age) and really begins as far more of a family friend and has stepped into a parenting role to instruct Emma on treating people with better respect. All that takes some time to absorb, and I may see it again, now that i have learned more of the full story. 9/10

[Dedalus Diggle]

1. The Way Back - good enough, kind of grim. At first the previews made it seem like a basketball movie, and then I read reviews that it was an alcohol rehab movie. But it goes back deeper than that, to recovery from other, earlier life issues, although, there is at least one line that suggests that the main character's dad also had severe alcohol problems, so perhaps some of those earlier issues that spawned the alcohol problem go back to the father's alcohol problem. It's complicated, and that's a good thing, for this sort of slice of life movie. These issues are not easy. 7/10

2. Onward - Better than I expected (rainy afternoon - wanted to support local theaters, cause they are getting killed with social isolation). Still a Pixar movie, but a bit watered-down 'Disneyfied.' Still it has a true Pixar-type twist near the end that works. 8.5/10

[Potter_fan]

Pokemon: Detective Pikachu: OMG If you haven't seen this movie you need to! It's been a LONG time since I have seen a movie that legit made me want to buy it (Marvel not included lol) It was well written, the CGI was awesome, and the plot twists: OMG. Ryan Reynolds did an awesome job (like we expected anything less) 10/10 Will DEFINITELY watch again/buy

[Anhelda]

Originally Posted by Dedalus Diggle

Onward - Better than I expected (rainy afternoon - wanted to support local theaters, cause they are getting killed with social isolation). Still a Pixar movie, but a bit watered-down 'Disneyfied.' Still it has a true Pixar-type twist near the end that works. 8.5/10

I agree with this--not one of Pixar's very best (my favorite is still Coco), but Onward is a fun adventure with some good humor, touching moments and a very sweet ending. The voice acting is strong, and the animation lives up to Pixar's high quality standards. It may be more a factor of an original story contrasted with a sequel, but I enjoyed this more than Toy Story 4 (and I generally love the Toy Story movies, even though they do make me cry). This movie is very enjoyable and I'll definitely be watching it again.

[Potter_fan]

Originally Posted by Anhelda

I agree with this--not one of Pixar's very best (my favorite is still Coco), but Onward is a fun adventure with some good humor, touching moments and a very sweet ending. The voice acting is strong, and the animation lives up to Pixar's high quality standards. It may be more a factor of an original story contrasted with a sequel, but I enjoyed this more than Toy Story 4 (and I generally love the Toy Story movies, even though they do make me cry). This movie is very enjoyable and I'll definitely be watching it again.

I added this to my list mainly because it has Tom Holland and Chris Pratt in it lol

[Anhelda]

Mirror, Mirror--looking for some mindless silliness the other evening, I stumbled upon this 2012 film on Netflix, and I would say that it's a solid....meh. Supposed to be a comedy take on the Snow White story, it seems like it's really mostly geared towards kids. When it came out near the same time as Snow White and the Huntsman, I recall that people generally thought it suffered in comparison to the gritty realism of the other film. Now, I'm not one who needs things to be gritty realism to enjoy them, but this was a little too much goofiness for my taste. I suppose I can at least call it harmless, but I doubt I'll even remember watching it in a week. It certainly fit the bill for mindless silliness, anyway.

[Anhelda]

Pride and Prejudice (1940)--this is showing on HBOMax, so I had a chance to watch it for the first time. It's definitely a loose adaptation of the story, and some of the choices they make for the characters take some of the edge off of Austen's original characterizations (especially Lady Catherine de Bourgh, who isn't quite as savage and Mr Wickham, who isn't quite as much of a scoundrel), but it got through most of the main parts of the story decently. The costumes are wildly inauthentic, making the story look like it took place in the mid-1800s instead of the Regency period (I suspect that's the Gone With the Wind influence, as this film came out only one year after that juggernaut of film profitability). Still, the film is pleasant to look at, and the actors do a pretty good job overall, not that I'd expect anything less from Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson. This is not the version of P&P I'd recommend for anyone who really wants to see Austen's story onscreen (the 1995 miniseries with Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth is the gold standard, IMHO, and the 2005 version with Keira Knightley and Matthew MacFadyen hews closer to the original story as well), but it was an enjoyable adaptation nonetheless.

[Anhelda]

My Neighbor Totoro--finally had a chance to see this Studio Ghibli classic (I'm so glad these films are showing up on HBOMax!) It's charming, well-animated, and I would absolutely sell my car if I had the option to take the Cat Bus instead! As with many of Hayao Miyazaki's films, there's no "villian" per se--the conflict is one of learning to grow up and to deal with prosaic life stresses. The English-speaking voice cast does a good job, the music is nice, and the film overall is enjoyable. It's not my favorite Ghibli film (I think that's still Kiki's Delivery Service), but I'm glad I got to see this one.