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Topic: Movie thread.

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Ralizah

Watched some movies on TV this weekend.

Enough: Jennifer Lopez stars as a battered wife trying desperately to herself and her daughter away from her abusive husband. A classic of the feminist revenge fantasy genre. Like other forms of exploitative cinema, it's designed around building up anger and violence throughout the film until the climax is reached and the woman, finally having enough, brutally kills the man that has been tormenting her throughout. This piling up of humilitations and transgressions is used to narratively justify an act of extreme violence such as murder on the part of the protagonist. Granted, the revenge here is less extreme than Lifetime channel classic "The Burning Bed" where the movie tries to convince us that the wife is morally justified in burning her abusive husband alive in his bed at the end, but it still follows the same format.

Now, certainly, in the context of this particular film, Lopez murdering the father of her child is justified because, like any competent piece of revenge porn, it goes out of its way to make the husband as hideously evil as possible to justify her actions. Lopez's character attempts to escape her husband by going on the run, changing her identity, etc. etc. The husband, a classic movie monster who apparently has the forces of the entire patriarchy at his beck and call, never stops hunting her down, beating her and threatening violence on her friends.

Anyway, it's OK if you can stomach this sort of film.

~ * ~

National Security: A buddy cop movie where a cop with a hair-trigger temper (Steven Zahn) has to team up with the security guard (Martin Lawrence) who had him sent to prison for police brutality to take down a smuggling operation.

I didn't like it, primarily because Lawrence's character is the central focus of the film, and I HATED him with a passion. Hated how incompetent he was. Hated how sexist he was. Hated the miserable, constant racist humor (I know Lawrence was known for this sort of comedy, but he really took it up to 11 here). The writing was also pretty terrible, with no convincing character development and improbable scenarios popping up throughout.

~ * ~

Bug: A William Friedkin-directed film about a mentally unstable gulf war vet and a vulnerable, lonely woman he's introduced to who are both dragged into deep, psychotic madness. It's an interesting film. Its stage origins are fairy evident, as the film is highly dependent on manic, stylized dialogue and intense performances. Moreover, Friedkin's skill at creating a menancing and evocative atmosphere is on full display here (in this sense, it reminds me a lot of his 1973 classic "The Exorcist"), and a sense of paranoia and doom builds up throughout. The pacing is very strange, though: the majority of the movie is a slow-burn and driven by extensive dialogues between characters, but things very rapidly go to hell in its final thirty minutes.

A flawed but unique film that I feel was unfairly panned upon release.

~ * ~

Defending Your Life: A 90's rom-com starring Albert Brooks and Meryl Streep with a twist... the romance starts after both people have died and been sent to a version of purgatory to await judgment! I wanted to like this film, but it was just bad: the leads had no romantic chemistry; the romance in general was poorly written; the judgment scenes were unsatisfactory (we're told the person will go through to heaven if they conquered their "fear," but during much of the film, they just seemed to be judging Brooks' character for honest mistakes he made, so the messaging was VERY confused); the attempts at humor were obnoxious; finally, I felt like the romance aspects and judgment scenes weren't well-integrated... it felt like they had two entirely different film premises and were trying desperately to mash them together.

Edited on by Ralizah

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Ralizah

@Karma-Moment That deadpan reply was a lot funnier than it had any right to be!

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Peek-a-boo

@Ralizah Although we spoke of The Belko Experience a few weeks ago, I just wanted to say OMG! at you watching those films you mentioned in your reply!

I think the worse films in terms of body horror I have seen are the likes of Haute Tension (‘Switchblade Romance’) and À l’intérieur (French film called ‘Inside’), and that was only because I was seeing a French woman a couple of years ago. They both made me feel really queasy, to the point where I just closed my eyes from time to time, and yet apparently they are the slightly more tamer films of the sort...

Brrr.

There're not for me!

I saw Annabelle Creation yesterday evening and it is a vast improvement over the original film, which was instantly forgettable. The director who wrote, produced and directed ‘Lights Out’ last year is behind the helm for this sequel, and all the better for it. I love films that subtly builds up the tension, and doesn’t always show what your overly active mind is potentially thinking about.

Also, without spoiling anything, there is actually a rather original scenario within the confines of the horror film genre in Annabelle Creation. The vast majority of horror films have a predictable-ish template, and yet something happens in this film that really caught me off guard!

I would give it a 6/10 as I still think the likes of The Babadook, It Follows, Under the Shadow (this is an absolutely brilliant film) and The VVitch are more memorable - and stands out - in a rather crowded genre.

Speaking of horror films, IT has received a very positive reception during the critics screening the other night!

Peek-a-boo

Ralizah

@Peek-a-boo You sound like you really know your horror films!

I've wanted to watch À l’intérieur for a while now. I've heard it's particularly brutal, though. Have you seen Martyrs or any of Gaspar Noé's films?

Annabelle Creation seems to be getting a pretty warm reception, considering it's a sequel to a mediocre spinoff to an already mediocre original horror film (sorry, I didn't think The Conjuring was nearly as engaging as a lot of critics did). I didn't know the guy who directed the solid Lights Out was behind it: that's encouraging!

The Babadook is the second best horror film I've seen since the turn of the century (after Kiyoshi Kurosawa's incredible film "Kairo," although people have unfortunately been more exposed to the incredibly inferior Hollywood remake "Pulse"). Absolutely masterful exploration of depression and how it can eat away at one's soul if left untreated.

It Follows... I wanted to like it more than I did. Something about the casting really put me off. I really like the central concept and the absolutely BRILLIANT synthwave soundtrack, though.

I had mixed feelings about The VVitch. It certainly wasn't a bad film, though.

I've actually never seen Under the Shadow, but I'm always looking for good new horror films.

The original IT was okay, but it wasn't a particularly scary movie. Never read the original novel, but Tim Curry's performance was so over the top that I couldn't help but laugh when Pennywise was on the screen. Hopefully the remake is decent.

Have you seen It Comes at Night? It's a wonderfully uncomfortable watch. Almost to the point where I don't know if I can even call it entertainment: it produced nothing but feelings of anxiety and dread in me. It might have done its job too well! Great film, though.

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Fooligan

@Ralizah I was just thinking the other day about asking if you've seen The Babadook. I saw it last year after finding it at the pawn shop I frequent and I enjoyed it. Have you seen Lovely Molly? I'd like to read what you have to say about that movie.

These pretzels are making me thirsty

"See, my damie, Pootie Tang don't wa-da-tah to the shama cow... 'cause thats a cama cama leepa-chaiii, dig?" - Pootie Tang

Ralizah

Joy Ride: Hey, another movie with Steve Zahn as a main character! So, in this film, Fuller (Zahn) and Lewis (Paul Walker, starring in something that isn't a Fast and Furious movie for once!) are driving cross-country to meet up with Lewis' girlfriend (and drop Fuller off in Colorado) when they get bored and use a CB radio to start punking a local trucker that goes by the handle "Rusty Nail" (no warning going off in their heads when they torment "Rusty Nail," nosiree!). Well, the idiots somehow manage to get a local guy killed when they arrange for "Rusty Nail" to enter his hotel room with their idiotic antics (they were catfishing by posing as a female trucker called "Candy Cane") and then, to make matters infinitely worse, they think it's a good idea to get back on the CB after getting out of dodge and admitting everything to the guy they know is a murderer. Zahn's character, the instigator of trouble throughout the film, also sees fit to insult him because, you know, nothing to worry about when you taunt a psychopathic killer in a big truck.

Considering this is a horror film, this all goes about as well as can be expected. Perhaps the biggest surprise here is that, for all of the terror Rusty Nail puts these boys (and Lewis' girlfriend) through, there's surprisingly little actual violence in this film, as it does a good job of building up and relieving tension throughout without resorting to gore (whether Rusty Nail is forcing the boys to engage in embarrassing stunts themselves in order to lure them away from somewhere or chasing them down the road at terrifying speeds in scenes that probably owe a lot to Spielberg's "Duel"). The interesting thing to me is how it functions as a sort of pre-internet (even though this was released in 2001...) warning about the limits of anonymity, personal responsibility (turns out saying "it's just a joke, bro!" doesn't make the consequences of the terrible things you do "for the lulz" go away), and, of course, the eternal stupidity of catfishing.

Rusty Nail is a decent antagonist. The fact that we never clearly see his face (think about Halloween, for example, and how little we actually see Michael Myers: same effect here) allows him to remain mysterious to both the main characters and the viewer. The way he talks and reasons is also disturbingly alien, for the most part, which also helps to make him a source of terror. There's also a nice sense of poetic irony to the structure of events in the film, which I have no doubt was intentional on Rusty Nail's part. The biggest problem I have with the movie is that the main characters have to engage in a series of increasingly stupid behaviors to even get this ball rolling, which was... annoying, to say the least, but I think what resulted was a decent little thriller.

~ * ~

Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead: Why? Why did I watch this? I know horror movie sequels are usually awful. And now we get this: an ugly, stupid, moronic, mean-spirited movie about a group of dumb kids being tortured and horribly killed by Rusty Nail that manages to spoil all of the good will the first film instilled in me.

Sigh.

Well, Rusty Nail is a generic slasher baddy now who seems to get off on randomly murdering people (unlike the first film, where the characters really had to mess him to set him off). He loses any sense of mystery now, and the personality has changed into something like Jigsaw, as he keeps self-righteously implying that driving picks into the kneecaps of teenagers and cutting off their fingers is somehow a just come-uppance for them stealing his car. Actually, he's quite chatty on the CB radio in this film, which kind of ruins the effect in the first place.

It does play out sort of like one of the millions of Saw sequels, except it doesn't even have the decency to try and set up even one half-hearted twist like those films would. Also, no interesting deathtraps like in this movies. Just...pointless, horrific violence.

I guess the one thing you could... kind of give the movie is its attempts at changing up the usual gender dynamics at work in these sorts of films. The main character's boyfriend gets kidnapped near the beginning of the movie, and it's his girlfriend who works throughout the film to rescue him. That's... something, I guess? Instead of a terrified woman being torn apart to get at the male main character, it's a terrified man being torn apart to get at the female main character. Yay equality.

I guess there are worst ways to spend your time than watching this film. It's probably less painful than actually having picks driven into your kneecaps.

@Fooligan I haven't seen that. Would you recommend it?

Edited on by Ralizah

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Fooligan

@Ralizah I wouldn't recommend it personally, i didn't like it, but some people like it. Plus you're already watching and reviewing other terrible movies so why not

These pretzels are making me thirsty

"See, my damie, Pootie Tang don't wa-da-tah to the shama cow... 'cause thats a cama cama leepa-chaiii, dig?" - Pootie Tang

Ralizah

@Fooligan True enough. Dumpster diving can be fun once in a while!

So, my current list of movies to track down and watch:

  • The Raid: Redemption
  • Chakushin Ari
  • Under the Shadow
  • Lovely Molly

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Octane

Don't watch the Netflix adaptation of Death Note.

You're welcome.

Octane

Peek-a-boo

@Ralizah Well, I just have a good friend who likes his horror films, and he often invites me along to see them at the cinema. I highly doubt I would have seen those French films if I had not met the French lady a couple of years ago, for better or worse!

Nope, I haven’t seen Martyrs, and I don’t particularly feel like watching it in all honesty...

As for It Comes At Night, it has not been released here in the UK yet, but I shall definitely go and see it.

You should go ahead and see Under the Shadow. It is a different sort of horror film. The less you know about it, the better. Thought about it for days afterwards.

As for The Raid, it is on par with Dredd in terms of relentless (and very violent) action. Actually, thinking about it, they are both set in a high rise building!

Just had a day of reflection in regards to Annabelle: Creation, and I think I am going to knock it down a peg to a 5/10 because I realised that there is a gaping plot hole that doesn’t make a jot of sense if you have seen both The Conjuring and the original Annabelle film. It kind of bothers me that I didn’t pick it up straight away.

Oh well.

@Octane That bad, hey?

My friend was distraught after seeing it! The original is one of his all time favourite anime’s.

Peek-a-boo

Octane

@Peek-a-boo Yup. I thought Ghost in the Shell was alright, even though it wasn't as good as the anime, but I can't defend this ''adaptation''. There's a reason why the anime spans 40 or so episodes and you cannot squeeze that in under 2 hours. The acting was downright terrible too. I'm not sure what they were thinking with this adaptation, but it isn't good at all.

I'm of the opinion that some anime(/cartoons) work best as animations and shouldn't get the life action treatment. Imagine Full Metal Alchemist as a life action film. No thank you!

Octane

Ralizah

Peek-a-boo wrote:

Well, I just have a good friend who likes his horror films, and he often invites me along to see them at the cinema. I highly doubt I would have seen those French films if I had not met the French lady a couple of years ago, for better or worse!

Sounds like the start of a novel.
"As for those, well, all I can say is that I highly doubt I would have been exposed to them at all had it not been for the French lady I met a couple of years ago."

Peek-a-boo wrote:

As for It Comes At Night, it has not been released here in the UK yet, but I shall definitely go and see it.

Definitely do that. The plot is nothing special, but the way it tackles the material is inspired, I thought. It unfortunately got a pretty chilly reception in the States because of its slow pace and misleading marketing that led people to expect a monster movie or something.

Peek-a-boo wrote:

You should go ahead and see Under the Shadow. It is a different sort of horror film. The less you know about it, the better. Thought about it for days afterwards.

All I know is that it is set in Iran and features djinn.

Peek-a-boo wrote:

As for The Raid, it is on par with Dredd in terms of relentless (and very violent) action. Actually, thinking about it, they are both set in a high rise building!

Judge Dredd?!?! You're breaking my heart!

"You betrayed the law!"
"LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAW!"

Peek-a-boo wrote:

Just had a day of reflection in regards to Annabelle: Creation, and I think I am going to knock it down a peg to a 5/10 because I realised that there is a gaping plot hole that doesn’t make a jot of sense if you have seen both The Conjuring and the original Annabelle film. It kind of bothers me that I didn’t pick it up straight away.

I mean, if it's even creepy at all, I'll be at least somewhat happy with it. A plot hole has to be pretty bad for it to affect my enjoyment of a horror movie (which, let's be honest, has never been a genre that is hugely dependent on intricate plotting )

Edited on by Ralizah

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Peek-a-boo

@Ralizah I’m sure you are joking (or at least I hope so) however, when I mentioned Dredd, I meant this one:

Untitled

A shame we’ll never get a deserved sequel to see Karl Urban reprise his excellent role as Judge Dredd.

As for the plot hole in Annabelle: Creation, it is to do with the wildly inconsistent inconsistency of the age of when the doll comes to life, and it just simply doesn’t fit into the timeline of both the original Annabelle and The Conjuring, but that’s probably just me though. Again, upon reflection, I wasn’t overly enamoured with how the last ‘set piece’ relied on LOUD NOISES rather than what you see (or don’t see).

It’s still worth seeing if you like those kind of films, and is an admirably huge improvement over the original too.

Curious to read your impressions after you have eventually got around to watching Under the Shadow!

Peek-a-boo

Namco

Octane wrote:

Don't watch the Netflix adaptation of Death Note.

You're welcome.

Too late, can someone lend me their mind wipe device?

A piece of the Triforce appeared before you! (>'.')> Touch it now!

3DS Friend Code: 2621-2624-1857 | Nintendo Network ID: Acegamer-62

Ralizah

Annabelle: Creation - OK, David Sandberg is clearly one to keep an eye on. This was a shockingly effective horror movie, even if it doesn't have an original idea in it. Like the director's other film, Lights Out, it knows how to skillfully build up tension through a wonderful mix of skillful editing and good sound design. This seems to be one director who also understands the importance of silence in horror. It begins somewhat slowly, but builds and builds until the memorably chaotic climax, which brought the original Poltergeist to mind.

The film is weakest when it indulges in jump scares or clearly shows us the monster. There was one scene where the director skillfully builds up a sense of anticipation throughout the scene, only to ruin it with a terrible jump scare ("What do you want?" "YOUR SOUL!!!1" People who have seen it should remember that incredibly obvious bit). It's also worth mentioning, again, that there's not a single original idea in this movie. Its a mish-mash of horror cliches that somehow ends up being a surprisingly well-crafted supernatural thriller.

(Am I the only person who found it amusing that the girls still stayed in the house after they found the mutilated corpse of the dollmaker who let them take up residence in the house? Like, how much of a hint do you need to get out of dodge?)

Baywatch - I didn't want to watch it, but someone talked me into it. That person fell asleep, and, 20 minutes or so before the end of the film, I just kind of wandered away and went to bed. I almost never just stop watching a movie, especially if I'm near the end. I think that's all that needs to be said about this.

@Peek-a-boo Partially joking. I know about Dredd, but I've never seen it. Inexplicably, I've seen the 90s one with Rob Schneider probably ten times over the years... for some reason. It's a terrible movie, but it's also weirdly easy to get sucked into.

Edited on by Ralizah

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Ralizah

Demolition - Found this one almost randomly on the DVR after trying (and failing) to watch The Shaggy Dog, a Tim Allen comedy about a man who gets bitten by a... magical dog... and proceeds to start acting like a dog... which allows him to connect with his family, I guess? I don't know; I couldn't watch more than thirty minutes of it. Anyway, I decided to check this film out: what a catch! There are so few films that really try to explore the nuances of how different sorts of humans process grief or subjectively relate to their own lives. In this film, an emotionally (perhaps existentially) distant investment banker played by Jake Gyllenhaal loses his wife in a car accident, and proceeds to come unmoored from his own life as he struggles to comprehend his own numbness in the face of personal tragedy and confronts the clinical neatness and inauthenticity of his life head-on, making a connection with the customer service representative for a small vending machine supplier and her son in the process. The film's exploration of grief, ennui, loneliness, and meaninglessness is subtle but also devastatingly genuine. It's a quiet, weird, often funny character study with a wonderful script that eschews typical drama cliches at every turn. Really happy I watched this one.

Edited on by Ralizah

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Peek-a-boo

@Ralizah Glad you enjoyed Annabelle: Creation, even if it doesn’t do anything new in the grand scheme of things.

I thought that the chair/stair lift scene was pretty original though! I don’t think I have seen that before...

I was like this in the cinema when the chair/stair lift when back up:

Untitled

Once you see the devil, however, as well as the mutilated corpse of the doll maker, I thought things ended up being both absurb (hey girls, there may well be a couple of dead bodies in this house, especially the mother who has had her legs and torso removed then politely hung up onto the wall for good measure, but I am sure we will be fine!) and somewhat predictable in the end, which is a shame given the rather restrained build up in the first two thirds.

As well as Under the Shadow, you NEED to watch Dredd!

Peek-a-boo

Ralizah

@Peek-a-boo This is one of the reasons physically disabled protagonists in horror movies can be so compelling (in terms of their role in the movie, I mean). Their feelings of powerlessness in the face of malice transfer over to the audience beautifully. Same feelings during the wheelchair scene when the girl is terrorized outside: powerlessness in the face of malice. It's frustrating but very engaging.

Have you seen Rear Window? Hitchcock plays on this as well: the climax, where the disabled protagonist realizes the killer knows where he is and what he has been doing and is coming to get him, is one of the most suspenseful sequences in film history.

Anyway, Annabelle: Creation is a good demonstration of how thoroughly good execution can save otherwise mediocre material. This is especially the case for something like a horror film, which is more reliant on craft than substance in general thanks to its focus on affecting the emotional equilibrium of the moviegoer.

OK, I'll add Dredd to the list. I never would have imagined it was actually a good movie!

Edited on by Ralizah

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DiscoDriver44

So anyone seen either Hitman's Body Guard or Close Encounter? I am trying to decide which one to watch tommorrow?

DiscoDriver44

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