Last movie you saw?

[chknptpie]

Wonderwoman. It was pretty moving. I just kept trying to think when is the last time I saw an army of women take on an army of men? Or better, one woman take on an army of men. I could only think of Xena - which obviously drew heavily on Wonderwoman for inspiration. Say what you will - but representation does matter.

[ChuckSteak]

I think Hollywood has run out of ideas a long time ago. That's why the number of reboots, remakes, sequels and spin-offs keeps growing. It is also the public's fault. If a shitty movie sells well, making millions in revenue and profits, why would they make something new? If the public likes shit, they will continue to make shit. It is so rare to find a good movie coming out of Hollywood nowadays.

"There are, right now, 43 sequels, reboots, and remakes on Hollywood schedule for 2017.":

https://uproxx.com/movies/2017-sequels/

[BlobVanDam]

I think Hollywood has run out of ideas a long time ago. That's why the number of reboots, remakes, sequels and spin-offs keeps growing. It is also the public's fault. If a shitty movie sells well, making millions in revenue and profits, why would they make something new? If the public likes shit, they will continue to make shit. It is so rare to find a good movie coming out of Hollywood nowadays.

I think a lot of the problem is that Hollywood has painted themselves into a corner with bigger and bigger budget movies, and they have to make a lot of money to turn a profit, so they rely on guaranteed name recognition to get people to see a movie instead of risking something new and different (and unproven). They don't care if a movie is good or bad, they just care that you go and see it. Which comes back to your point that it's also the audience's fault to a degree. This is why the big Hollywood movies are all basically the same these days, same tone, same creatively bankrupt look, same lowest common denominator appeal with nothing challenging or controversial to appeal to a wider PG-13 family audience, plus pandering to the global market in the wrong way.
I'm sure there are plenty of original ideas around if they wanted them, but it's not a guarantee. Even a lot of the original movies are based on books that have already proven to be popular.

My favourite recent movies tend to be the relatively cheaper ones (~$50m and under), where they'll occasionally risk something a bit different and more niche. I'd love to see Hollywood focus more on that kind of movie instead of the empty 2 hour explosion fest they can merchandise.

[ozzy554]

I think Hollywood has run out of ideas a long time ago. That's why the number of reboots, remakes, sequels and spin-offs keeps growing. It is also the public's fault. If a shitty movie sells well, making millions in revenue and profits, why would they make something new? If the public likes shit, they will continue to make shit. It is so rare to find a good movie coming out of Hollywood nowadays.

"There are, right now, 43 sequels, reboots, and remakes on Hollywood schedule for 2017.":

https://uproxx.com/movies/2017-sequels/

I don't think hollywood has run out of ideas. They just don't want to give the funding for them lol

[MirrorMask]

I think we're in a situation right now where you can find the most interesting things on TV, rather than  at the cinema.

[Orbert]

That's true in some ways.  With the serialized format of television, you have time to explore the characters and get into more interesting situations with them.  In a movie, you only have so much time to get the viewers invested, present the problem, and solve it, and there's rarely enough time to do all of those things in a way which satisfies most people.  So they go for the "quick hit" of spectacle and special effects which you can't really do on TV due to budget.

That's one of the few arguments for sequels, IMO.  You already know the characters and the world they live in, you can get right into the issues.  The opportunity is there.  It's not always what they're shooting for, but it's there.

[MirrorMask]

Last movie seen: The Lego Batman Movie.

That was glorious. All the wonderful absurdity of the Lego movie comes back in full force, there's a good mix of the whacky humour you can afford with the Lego thing, the over the top plot and effect you can have since it's all animated anyway, and some actually good action stuff and serious themes that were barely touched in other Batman movies.

A must see!

[Grappler]

Hunger Games - Mockingjay Part 1.   

I saw the first two in the theater, but the wife and I just didn't get around to seeing this one, or the final film.  Found an on-demand airing on TNT of all places.  It's been a handful of years since I read the book, but since this was one split into two movies, it stayed more faithful to the book from what I remember.  Not much to complain about - it was a nice way to kill an hour and 45 minutes.

[faizoff]

I still haven't seen Mockingjay part 2. Saw the rest in the theater and the 2nd one is still my favorite one and the first one being my least favorite.

[Accelerando]

Just watched Independence Day: Resurgence on HBO Now. Im so glad I did not waste a penny on this at the movies. Dear lord, what a horrible movie.

[Phoenix87x]

Beware the slenderman (HBO documentary)



It was pretty sweet. It went over the whole thing where the two 6th grade girls tried to murder/stab ritual sacrifice their friend as tribute to Lord Slender. The psychology is very interesting through out the documentary.

[NoseofNicko]

^Watched that recently too. It was good.

Been obsessed with crime/murder documentaries lately.

[ozzy554]

Mulholland Drive. I can see why a lot of people say this is Lynch's best movie. I loved it.

[Adami]

It's a Wonderful Life.

Really great movie, but you know, as uplifting as the last 10 or so minutes of this movie are, the rest is actually super depressing.

[Prog Snob]

It's exceedingly depressing. I think Steven Wilson should remake it and go around to all of his friends and see what their lives would be like if he didn't make prog music.

[BlackInk]

Saw the new Power Rangers movie yesterday. Cheesy, but honestly pretty fun too. Wasn't too fond of the villain though. I liked her sometimes, but she was a bit too silly at times. Didn't love the zords either.

[Sacul]

Spirited Away: Lovely film, excellent soundtrack and story. Probably a bit too cheesy or childish for me, but it was very nice. 4/5

Birdman (or the unexpected virtue of ignorance): Now this was excellent, amazingly filmed and acted, specially by Edward Norton and Naomi Watts. Great story and use of jazz drum as most of the background sound. 4.5/5

[ReaperKK]

Guardians of the Galaxy vol 2. It was a fun movie, fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

[Orbert]

Spy

Melissa McCarthy as an overweight, behind-the-scenes spy who finally gets her chance to prove herself as a field agent.  From the trailers, it looked horrible, but there was always the chance that it somehow had enough redeeming qualities to make it worthwhile.  I'd actually heard it was funny, and my wife wanted to watch it, so okay.

It was exactly what I thought it would be.  Lots of jokes about her loser appearance, apparently supposed to be funny; nothing specifically about her weight because you're not allowed to call women "fat" anymore (even if they are) but every possible variation instead, plus a handful of related jokes you can make about female that don't work for males.  So that was horrible.

Yet there were enough genuinely funny moments to keep me watching.  Jason Statham as a caricature of Jason Statham characters from Jason Statham movies helped a lot.  ("I've driven a car off a building while on fire. Not the car, me!"  "I've used defibrillators... on myself!")  Jude Law as Jude Law from every Jude Law movie.  ("I'm handsome and suave and women love me" -- okay, he didn't actually say that, but that was the idea.)

Somehow I watched the whole thing and laughed a lot.  Probably helped that I wasn't sober.  Still a horrible movie, but I laughed, so there you go.

[ReaperKK]

I thought Soy was a really funny movie, mainly because Jason Strathem had some great scenes.

[Orbert]

It was funny, but in between the funny scenes were many cringeworthy moments.  Stuff that was obviously supposed to be funny, but just wasn't.  The universal poison antidote disguised as stool softener; funny because toilet humor.  The French agent who thinks she hot and can't keep his hands off of her; funny because she's fat and "obviously" he couldn't actually think she's attractive.  Alison Janney always giving her demeaning cover identities; funny because they're so demeaning, ha ha, everybody make fun of the loser.  Not everything has to be over-the-top.  There is such thing as subtlety, even in comedy.

The "average funniness level" was positive; the funny outweighed the cringeworthy, but I generally prefer a much higher ratio.  It was like Will Ferrell or Adam Sandler level funny.  A good five or six jokes per minute, and if even half of them land, you end up laughing a lot, and forget about the other half that were really just kinda bad.

Statham did have the best scenes and, as I mentioned, pretty much saved the movie for me.

[King Postwhore]

I had nothing to do with this.

[lonestar]

Just got back from Transformers. Cheesy as hell, shit tons of overblown giant robot action, and humans saving the day in absolutely impossible ways.



Fucking loved it, good times.

[Adami]

I think...beyond all of the countless complaints about how awful the TF movies are, one of my main problems with the movies is how they treated Prime.

First movie.....sure, close enough to the actual character.

But I think it was the 2nd or 3rd movie that he leads a god damn execution squad? Just hunting down decepticons and murdering them? Dude!

Then he just cold murders a defeated Spockbot before murdering Megatron. DUDE!

Now I see this trailer and he says something about having to destroy Earth to save Cybertron? THIS IS NOT OPTIMUS PRIME.

Just not a fan of any of it. I grew up on transformers and actually like them a lot, despite "it's just a big toy commercial LOL!". So when they clearly just get all of the characters so clearly wrong and use them as an excuse for really bad looking explosions, I don't like it.

[BlackInk]

No way in hell am I paying money to see this new Transformers movie after the cinematic cancer that was 'Age of Extinction'.

[soupytwist]

No way in hell am I paying money to see this new Transformers movie after the cinematic cancer that was 'Age of Extinction'.

You'll be pleased to know this one is actually worse.   Not only shitting on the Transformers, but also taking a massive dump on Arthurian legend.  All the while having some of the worst quick cut editing I've had the misfortune to endure, even on a 1 to 1 conversation we can't stay with one camera for more than half a second.   Seriously this film is like what Alex had to endure in A Clockwork Orange - thankfully I could at least close my eyes.

They might as well have called Anthony Hopkins character - Mr. Exposition.

Even after all that I'm still not sure if this is worse than the second movie or not.

[BlobVanDam]

No way in hell am I paying money to see this new Transformers movie after the cinematic cancer that was 'Age of Extinction'.

Yeah, that was breaking point to me. And that's after somehow coming back after ROTF and DOTM. I don't think I even watched the trailer for this one.

I'm hanging out for Planet of the Apes. So excited for that one. The only other new movie I can think of that I'll be seeing this year is Star Wars.

[BlackInk]

There are a few left I'd like to see in the theater this year, and year, 'War of the Planet of the Apes' is definetely among the most hyped for me.

[BlobVanDam]

I almost forgot about the Lego Ninjago Movie. The last two Lego movies were excellent.

[BlackInk]

Haven't seen the Lego Batman movie yet. Maybe I should, because I thought the first one was really good.

[BlobVanDam]

Haven't seen the Lego Batman movie yet. Maybe I should, because I thought the first one was really good.

It was every bit as good as The Lego Movie imo, maybe even better. I don't know why it didn't do so great compared to the first one.

[ozzy554]

Haven't seen the Lego Batman movie yet. Maybe I should, because I thought the first one was really good.

It was every bit as good as The Lego Movie imo, maybe even better. I don't know why it didn't do so great compared to the first one.

I enjoyed it but I thought the first one was better

[BlobVanDam]

Haven't seen the Lego Batman movie yet. Maybe I should, because I thought the first one was really good.

It was every bit as good as The Lego Movie imo, maybe even better. I don't know why it didn't do so great compared to the first one.

I enjoyed it but I thought the first one was better

But we can agree they're both great, right? Right?


Oh, and your avatar reminded me, I watched Death Note : Light Up The New World the other day, along with the three TV episodes before it. It was ok, but not that good. The things I expected to be interesting from the trailer amounted to nothing in the movie, and it was kind of convoluted and lacked what made the original story so good.

[NoseofNicko]

Man Vs. (2015):

I hate when a horror movie is really good for most of it, but then has a terrible ending. Unfortunately happens a lot.

[BlackInk]

^ Speaking of that, I watched 'A Cure For Wellness' the other day. I wouldn't say it was a terrible ending, but it wasn't as good as the entire movie leading up to it. It felt like it went off the rails a bit.