Gendo's 2017 list of movies

Post by **Gendo** » Mon Apr 17, 2017 1:31 pm

27. The English Patient - Beautifully done, but it dragged on and wasn't all that interesting throughout.

28. My Fair Lady - Great music, and Hepburn was fantastic. Also dragged on though; the second act was largely unnecessary.

Raxivace · Post by **Raxivace** » Mon Apr 17, 2017 11:20 pm

Oh hey, it's you. The other person that watched The English Patient.

Yeah it does drag a bit, though I was into the romantic parts.

Post by **Gendo** » Tue Apr 18, 2017 3:24 am

Yeah, I was surprisingly impressed by the romance, given that I'm pretty against movies making adultery into a romantic/positive thing.

Post by **Gendo** » Mon Apr 24, 2017 3:08 am

29. Smiley - Not great. But still mostly entertaining. The ending, while not very unpredictable, was also only one of several possibilities that I was considering.

30. The Flight of the Phoenix (1965) - Great. Better than the remake, and I'm a fan of the remake. James Stewart was excellent. And this version actually makes it seem like they've been out in the desert.

31. El Mariachi - Excellent. I didn't know it was going to be in Spanish, given that the sequels weren't. Can't be often that a sequel to a movie (made by the same director no less) is in a different language. Anyway, the whole thing was just great.

32. Desperado - Not as good as the first, but still ok. Kind of like he was trying to go over-the-top, but failed to go to Machete levels of over-the-top awesomeness.

33. Once Upon a Time in Mexico - Not as good as either of the first two. Still not bad though. Johnny Depp was a lot of fun. The story itself was actually interesting, though a bit overly complex.

Raxivace · Post by **Raxivace** » Mon Apr 24, 2017 3:43 am

I've been meaning to get to the Mariachi trilogy for quite a while. I know that film was done on a famously low budget- it's good to hear that it actually is an enjoyable watch on top of that.

Post by **Gendo** » Wed Apr 26, 2017 1:15 am

34. The Hateful Eight - Definitely fair to say I'm a Tarantino fan. The suspense and dialog is just so well done, as I've come to expect with him. The story itself was a little boring, but still wonderfully executed.

35. 9 - Incredible. Such beautiful animation. The action was thrilling; even scary in the right ways. The world was something you just want to explore. The only downside was how short it was; I would have loved to seen up to another half hour, devoted mainly to character building. I also watched the short film of the same title that he did before this one.

Post by **Gendo** » Mon May 08, 2017 4:13 am

36. Sabrina (1995) - Not bad. I saw the original a couple years ago and didn't remember too much of it. Ford did a good job. The character arcs were more believable than they usually are in a romantic comedy.

37. Shopgirl - Surprisingly good. I never knew Steve Martin was a writer also. The movie was slow; but did a great job at telling its story. The score was hauntingly beautiful; done by some guy I haven't heard of that pretty much only does TV movies.

Post by **Gendo** » Wed May 24, 2017 1:30 pm

I watched a movie finally!

38. Cars 2 - Better than I expected (I wasn't expecting much). But it lacked everything that made Cars one of my favorite Pixar movies; the heart, emotion, and historical context. Way too much Mater. He works fine as a side character, but he has far more screen time than Lightning here. But the story itself was still interesting.

Raxivace · Post by **Raxivace** » Wed May 24, 2017 2:04 pm

I never saw Cars 2 or the original. Cars 1 was when I started getting inconsistent with catching up on Pixar releases.

Post by **Gendo** » Mon Jun 05, 2017 1:25 pm

Actually saw a bunch this weekend. Not enough to catch up with Raxi, though.

39. The Resurrection of Gavin Stone - This was a surprise. From the description, I was expecting a somewhat raunchy comedy that pokes fun at organized religion. But turns out it's actually a family, Christian movie. Overall it was pretty clichéd and unremarkable, but it wasn't bad. It managed to be a faith-based movie without a lot of the typical things that make many Christian movies pretty bad.

40. Teen Titans: The Judas Contract - Good. I went in without knowing anything at all about the Teen Titans. The story was complex and dark, and the animation was nice.

41. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 - Really good. Better than the first, I think. The action, comedy, and drama were all well done. The story itself was much deeper than the first one.

42. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales - As forgettable as the last one, which I saw in theaters and couldn't tell you about a single scene in it anymore. Geoffrey Rush is always a win, at least.

43. Split - A good Shyamalan movie! The suspence was well done. McAvoy did great, and looked like he was having a lot of fun in the role(s). And I'm all for the random Unbreakable connection.

Raxivace · Post by **Raxivace** » Mon Jun 05, 2017 3:54 pm

Gendo wrote:Actually saw a bunch this weekend. Not enough to catch up with Raxi, though.

You still very much could catch up, since I haven't been watching as many movies as I normally do this year.

That is, unless I achieve Hyper Cinema Mode and start plowing through films again...

Gendo wrote: 43. Split - A good Shyamalan movie! The suspence was well done. McAvoy did great, and looked like he was having a lot of fun in the role(s). And I'm all for the random Unbreakable connection.

I've been hearing good things about this and am looking forward to seeing it at some point. Shyamalan seemed to have a lot of potential back in the late-90's/early 2000''s- I dunno what happened to him for like a decade there.

BruceSmith78 · Post by **BruceSmith78** » Tue Jun 06, 2017 3:18 am

@Gendo's 43, it's not exactly random, although it felt like it in the context of the movie. It's setting up this movie, which I'm kind of looking forward to. That's something I've never said about a Shyamalan flick.

Post by **Gendo** » Tue Jun 06, 2017 4:45 pm

BruceSmith78 wrote:@Gendo's 43, it's not exactly random, although it felt like it in the context of the movie. It's setting up this movie, which I'm kind of looking forward to. That's something I've never said about a Shyamalan flick.

Yeah I just meant within the context of the movie, when it first showed up. I read that Shyamalan had actually written McAvoy's character for that other movie originally, but then wasn't able to make it work with everything else in the movie, so he took the character out.

Cassius Clay · Post by **Cassius Clay** » Wed Jun 07, 2017 1:54 pm

BruceSmith78 wrote:@Gendo's 43, it's not exactly random, although it felt like it in the context of the movie. It's setting up this movie, which I'm kind of looking forward to. That's something I've never said about a Shyamalan flick.

It's because of the kids!

Post by **Gendo** » Thu Jun 22, 2017 2:17 pm

44. The Ultimate Gift - Surprisingly good. I mean, it very cliched, nothing amazing about the filmmaking or anything. But a pretty good cast. Abigail Breslin was amazing like always. So it's also a very sad (though in an uplifting rather than depressing) way. So yeah, the young girl dies. And given the events with my nephew last year, it was a bit too much for me. Compounded by the fact that it actually takes place in Charlotte, NC, the city where Daniel died. So yeah, not easy to watch. But, a good movie.

Most people probably also haven't seen Around the Bend, but it's basically the same plot, or at least the same overall driving point of the plot.

Post by **Gendo** » Mon Jun 26, 2017 2:41 pm

A couple classics I finally saw:

45. The Maltese Falcon (1941) - Great stuff. A bit hard to follow due to not knowing what's going on and all the twists and such.

46. North By Northwest - So that's why they call Hitchcock the master of suspense. Great score, great everything. Although, I thought it would have been even better had it ended 20 minutes before it did. And I don't mean edited to be 20 minutes shorter. I mean, that 20 minutes before the end, I thought I was watching the ending, and it seemed like a great ending to a great film. Then, suddenly there's another 20 minutes of action that I just don't think added anything.

Raxivace · Post by **Raxivace** » Mon Jun 26, 2017 3:27 pm

The Maltese Falcon (The 1941 adaptation at least- I talked about the 1931 version a bit somewhere in my thread) always seemed too stagey to me, though the cast is strong at least. I kind of prefer the novel since its a bit racier.

NBNW's ending is great because it leads to the most hilariously unsubtle sexual imagery Hitchcock ever used- the cut from Cary Grant pulling Eva Marie Saint onto the bed to the train entering the tunnel.

Post by **Gendo** » Mon Jun 26, 2017 4:12 pm

Yeah, meant 1941.

And yes, the train symbolism was great; that's a scene I've seen before in clips as an example of great editing.

Eva Yojimbo · Post by **Eva Yojimbo** » Mon Jun 26, 2017 6:40 pm

My feelings on TMF are similar to Rax's. It's never been a favorite of mine, despite being one of the first and prototypical noirs.

I've never quite gotten the hype for NBNW, and I'm a pretty big Hitchcock nerd (he's not only my favorite director but I consider him one of the 4-5 greatest artists in any medium of the 20th century). It's very much a slick, streamlined, and condensed version of many of his past action/suspense films. The sexual tension mixed with vulnerability of the Grant/Saint relationship is very much culled from the (quite superior, IMO) Notorius. The action set-pieces are reminiscent of a variety of films: the Mt. Rushmore bit, eg, was basically a remake of the Statue of Liberty scene in Saboteur. The humor and whole "spy/chase" element is out of The 39 Steps. The one thing NBNW has going for it is that it may be Hitch's most kinetic film, and for the time it was an extremely modernistic take on the genre that hugely inspired future films, including The James Bond franchise (From Russia With Love basically steals the Cropduster scene).

So if you liked NBNW I'd definitely recommend checking out Hitch's other films in that mode. A short list from best to least would be: Notorious, To Catch a Thief, Foreign Correspondent, The 39 Steps, Saboteur, and Young & Innocent.

Post by **Gendo** » Mon Jun 26, 2017 10:18 pm

Eva Yojimbo wrote:So if you liked NBNW I'd definitely recommend checking out Hitch's other films in that mode. A short list from best to least would be: Notorious, To Catch a Thief, Foreign Correspondent, The 39 Steps, Saboteur, and Young & Innocent.

Of those, I own The 39 Steps and Young and Innocent in a set. Also Sabotage, which turns out to be a completely different Hitchcock movie than Saboteur.

Eva Yojimbo · Post by **Eva Yojimbo** » Mon Jun 26, 2017 11:27 pm

Gendo wrote:
Eva Yojimbo wrote:So if you liked NBNW I'd definitely recommend checking out Hitch's other films in that mode. A short list from best to least would be: Notorious, To Catch a Thief, Foreign Correspondent, The 39 Steps, Saboteur, and Young & Innocent.
Of those, I own The 39 Steps and Young and Innocent in a set. Also Sabotage, which turns out to be a completely different Hitchcock movie than Saboteur.

What set? The 39 Steps is on Criterion now, so that would be the best way to see it if possible. 39 Steps was really Hitch's first film and that style, and though he refined his approach over time I do think 39 Steps holds up extremely well, with its own set of quirks and charms that Hitch kinda abandoned later on. Young and Innocent is pretty good (and has an awesome and quite infamous long tracking shot late in the film), but not among top-tier Hitch.

Sabotage would actually get my vote for Hitch's most underrated film. I think it's a masterpiece and probably his best British film. At the time it was a flop that received a lot of negative backlash for a particular bomb/bus sequence. Hitch went to his grave thinking he made a grave mistake with that scene, but in retrospect his "mistake" actually makes it remarkably different from any other he did.

Post by **Gendo** » Tue Jun 27, 2017 12:05 am

I have 2 Hitchock sets. One is "the legend begins", which has 20 of his earlier works. Nothing past 1938; and most which I've never even heard of.

The other has probably his 5 best known: Birds, NBNW, Psycho, Vertigo, and Rear Window.

So what makes a Criterion edition worth it anyway? I think I'm my entire collection I don't actually have any Criterion Collection films. They're just so darn expensive. For the movies I want, I can get the same movie for far less in a different edition or set.

Eva Yojimbo · Post by **Eva Yojimbo** » Tue Jun 27, 2017 1:23 am

Gendo wrote:So what makes a Criterion edition worth it anyway?

The first thing is that they put a lot of time/money/effort into getting the best source material available and restoring it so it can look as good as possible. This is especially valuable for older films, and especially those from countries like Japan or India that had horrid film preservation practices. It's often a night-and-day difference. I saw several of Hitch's early films via cheaper sets before getting the Criterions, and in some cases it was almost like watching a completely different film.

The second thing is that they tend to come with lots of extras that's like crack to film buffs: interviews, commentaries, booklet essays, making-ofs, sometimes short films and/or documentaries. 39 Steps, eg, comes with these extras:

-Audio commentary by Alfred Hitchcock scholar Marian Keane
-Hitchcock: The Early Years (2000), a British documentary
-Original footage from broadcaster Mike Scott's 1966 TV interview with Hitchcock
-Complete broadcast of the 1937 Lux Radio Theatre adaptation
-Visual essay by Hitchcock scholar Leonard Leff
-Excerpts from Francois Truffaut's 1962 audio interview with Hitchcock
-Original production design drawings
-PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic David Cairns

Whether or not you find the extras and superior visual quality worth the extra money is a judgment call. What I've done for years is wait until Criterion have their bi-annual "flash sales" (in February and October) and then buy a lot of them at half-price (typically $20 for a single film), and if you buy directly from Criterion they also have a kind of "loyalty" program where for every $500 spent you get a $50 gift certificate. A much cheaper way to see Criterion titles would be via Netflix, or maybe via their new Filmstruck service.

(BTW, according to my "My Criterion" page I own 207 Criterion titles!)

Raxivace · Post by **Raxivace** » Tue Jun 27, 2017 1:26 am

Little known fact: If you gather a copy of every Criterion movie you will actually achieve immortality and become immune to all forms of physical harm. Not even disease will be able to take you out.

Raxivace · Post by **Raxivace** » Tue Jun 27, 2017 1:44 am

Gendo wrote:I have 2 Hitchock sets. One is "the legend begins", which has 20 of his earlier works. Nothing past 1938; and most which I've never even heard of.

I have that set. From that I think Blackmail, Young & Innocent, Sabotage, The Lodger, The Lady Vanishes, The 39 Steps, The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), Number 17, and Secret Agent are worth a watch but the quality varies hugely between the releases on them. Secret Agent is practically inaudible for example, and Number 17 isn't much better in that regard. Of those The Lodger, Lady Vanishes, 39 Steps, and Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) have Criterions anyways and you're better off finding a copy of those.

I don't really recommend the other movies in that set unless you're a completion like Jimbo and I. Like most of Hitchcock's silent films are just straight up bad, with The Lodger being the only one really worth a look. You're not really missing anything essential if you skip The Farmer's Wife. You will however be cool if you watch all 50+ of Hitchcock's movies.

Post by **Gendo** » Wed Jul 05, 2017 3:53 pm

47. Prisoners - Wow. Best movie I've seen this year I'm pretty sure. The suspense and mystery were so well done. The atmosphere reminded me of Silence of the Lambs. One of those movies that has me thinking a lot about it the night of and next day.

Post by **Gendo** » Tue Jul 11, 2017 2:41 pm

48. Places in the Heart - It was fine for what it was. Not sure if it was really trying to say something other than "the great depression sucked, and racism sucks".

Raxivace · Post by **Raxivace** » Wed Jul 12, 2017 12:31 am

I thought Prisoners was pretty good. Same director as Arrival and the upcoming Blade Runer 2049, so I'm looking forward to what he does with that.

Can't say I'd heard of Places in the Heart before.

Post by **Gendo** » Wed Jul 12, 2017 3:37 pm

Raxivace wrote: Can't say I'd heard of Places in the Heart before.

Yeah I hadn't either; until my mom recommended it and then bought it for me. Though it did win an academy award (Best Actress, Sally Field. It's apparently where the famous "You like me" speech comes from).

Post by **Gendo** » Tue Jul 25, 2017 2:16 pm

Just because I only watch about 2 movies a month currently doesn't mean I'm not a huge movie fan. Shut up.

49. Dunkirk - 70mm, not IMAX. Intense sums it up nicely. Like, really, really intense. Actually stressful to watch, in a good way. The only thing I can think of like it in terms of action-oriented storytelling would be Fury Road. Except this had way less dialog than even Fury Road.

It was a little hard to follow at times... not because of the non-chronological storytelling, but because in the heat of battle, it's to pick out specific characters and follow who's who. At least for me. So sometimes I'd be watching a group of soldiers getting shot at on a sinking boat, and not be clear on which soldiers those were or where that boat was.

Overall, very well done. The sound was probably the most impressive part. The score was hauntingly stressful in the way it was supposed to be. I wonder though if there was too much reliance on the score to create tension... sometimes I just wanted it to stop so I could get a feel for the world without the background noise.

I don't think I'll be making the trek to go see it in IMAX 70mm. As good as it was, it's not one of those movies that you "enjoy" watching. I don't feel like I need to see it again so soon.

Post by **Gendo** » Sun Aug 06, 2017 5:45 pm

50. Bernie - Another great Linkater movie. A true story that's also partially a documentary, about a funeral director in a small town. Staring a great performance by Jack Black.

Post by **Gendo** » Tue Nov 07, 2017 5:22 pm

Well this has been a sad year for movie watching. Not gonna come close to last years total. I blame Trimps and laziness.

Anyway, I did actually watch something!

51. The Lady Vanishes - Another good Hitchcock mystery thing. I guess Flight Plan, The Forgotten, and "Remember Me" from TNG are all sort of remakes of this, or at least start off with the same concept.

Raxivace · Post by **Raxivace** » Tue Nov 07, 2017 6:14 pm

Lady Vanishes is super dope.

There's actually kind of a weird little Lady Vanishes cinematic universe featuring two other movies (Though neither were directed by Hitchcock)- Crook's Tour which features the lead characters from Lady Vanishes (Though I've never actually seen it), and also Night Train to Munich which was directed by the great Carol Reed and written by the writer of Lady Vanishes, which features an extended subplot about the Caldicott and Charters characters from Lady Vanishes.

I can't speak for Crook's Tour though I thought Night Train to Munich was good.

EDIT: This actually made me sit down and watch Crook's Tour today. It turns out I was misinformed- Caldicott and Charters are just straight up the leads in that film.

Post by **Gendo** » Tue Nov 28, 2017 3:08 pm

Although it's clear that I won't get close to last years total, let alone Raxi's 2017 count, I'm trying to catch up on a bunch before the end of the year.

52. No Time for Sergeants - Hilarious. Andy Griffith has the best stupid grid that he keeps up throughout.

53. Get Out - As good as everyone said. Creepy though not downright scary. I was expecting some major twist at the end, but it was more of a subtle twist. What was happening was a variant of what they make you think is happening, as opposed to a completely different thing than they make you think.

54. The Master - Not sure about this. Amazing performances by PSH and Joaquin. As always, I like PT Anderson's style. But it felt like the story wasn't going anywhere. I was hoping for more.

55. Spiderman: Homecoming - Great. Keaton was probably the best part. Also, best post-credits scene ever.

Raxivace · Post by **Raxivace** » Tue Nov 28, 2017 3:16 pm

Get Out was super good and I liked Homecoming well enough.

I thought The Master was alright and often looked visually good, but it had the problem I think most PT Anderson movies do in that his characters just are not very interesting and thematically I don't think the film has much going on. I'd go as far as saying Anderson's own Hard Eight does the tragic bromance between an older and younger man thing better than The Master does.

I hope Phantom Thread is good but that Anderson not so subtly named the movie after himself doesn't give me a lot of confidence.

Post by **Gendo** » Tue Nov 28, 2017 6:12 pm

Didn't know about Phantom Thread or Hard Eight. I actually thought the characters in The Master were very interesting; I just didn't like the lack of actual plot / story elements. Even if it's seen as a "character development" movie; I'm not sure the characters really changed by the end.

maz89 · Post by **maz89** » Tue Nov 28, 2017 7:41 pm

I actually liked The Master quite a bit (although I need to give it another watch before I can say the L word). You're right that there isn't much happening in terms of plot but the film is hypnotic, thanks to PTA's direction and PSH's performance as the elusive Master. Does he genuinely believe in his 'processing' power, or is he simply looking to make a profit? Is he aware of his own hypocrisy (calling Freddie an 'animal' while reacting like a madman to any criticism of himself)? Has he convinced himself that everything he spews is actual "fact"? Does he believe in those mind-torturing experiments of his, the ones he enthusiastically conducts on Freddie in order to enlighten him, to make him see live his "past" forms, to get rid of his demons and achieve transcendence? The answer veers towards a 'yes', and in the end, Freddie sees through the bullshit but remains as lost as the Master himself. The tragedy is that they gave each other immense hope in a friendship that was doomed from the start - Freddie was never going to heal and The Master, for all his good and noble intentions, never possessed any real power to heal. The film is an interesting (and bleak) take on religion where the messiah is shown to be as fucked up as the patient who need saving (in this case, an emotionally crippled war veteran). And all of this under PTA's expert direction works well. I think it says something about the film's visuals that I can still remember Freddie driving on a motorbike across the desert until he disappears into nothingness, liberated from the twisted grip of his mentor.

I can't remember much about Hard Eight even though I remember enjoying it. There are shades of PTA's other works in here too, I think: the mentally perturbed older male protagonist from There WIll Be Blood as well as the unhealthy "family" vibe from Boogie Nights.

Post by **Gendo** » Tue Nov 28, 2017 9:56 pm

maz89 wrote:I actually liked The Master quite a bit (although I need to give it another watch before I can say the L word). You're right that there isn't much happening in terms of plot but the film is hypnotic, thanks to PTA's direction and PSH's performance as the elusive Master. Does he genuinely believe in his 'processing' power, or is he simply looking to make a profit? Is he aware of his own hypocrisy (calling Freddie an 'animal' while reacting like a madman to any criticism of himself)? Has he convinced himself that everything he spews is actual "fact"? Does he believe in those mind-torturing experiments of his, the ones he enthusiastically conducts on Freddie in order to enlighten him, to make him see live his "past" forms, to get rid of his demons and achieve transcendence? The answer veers towards a 'yes', and in the end, Freddie sees through the bullshit but remains as lost as the Master himself. The tragedy is that they gave each other immense hope in a friendship that was doomed from the start - Freddie was never going to heal and The Master, for all his good and noble intentions, never possessed any real power to heal. The film is an interesting (and bleak) take on religion where the messiah is shown to be as fucked up as the patient who need saving (in this case, an emotionally crippled war veteran). And all of this under PTA's expert direction works well. I think it says something about the film's visuals that I can still remember Freddie driving on a motorbike across the desert until he disappears into nothingness, liberated from the twisted grip of his mentor.

Thanks for that, it's actually helpful!

Post by **Gendo** » Wed Nov 29, 2017 4:45 am

56. Thor: Ragnarok - Excellent. Pure entertainment from start to finish. Only 2 minor complains, and one isn't the movie itself. I wish the previews hadn't shown the scene with Hulk. That moment could have been a great surprise, but it was in all the previews. The other thing was that one scene near the end when Thor almost dies, and goes and talks to Odin about how he's not strong enough, and Odin (or his subconscious, whatever), gives him the strength to return and fight on. That scene was so cliché and overdone. Harry Potter comes to mind, but it certainly wasn't the first or last to have almost that exact same scene.

Aside from that though... great movie.

maz89 · Post by **maz89** » Wed Nov 29, 2017 11:06 am

Gendo wrote: Thanks for that, it's actually helpful!

Post by **Gendo** » Mon Dec 04, 2017 4:28 pm

57. Independence Day: Resurgence - Better than I expected. Not that it needed to exist... but if you like Emmerich's silly style, it fits. Brent Spiner and Bill Pullman were a lot of fun to watch. Still, filled with a bit too many clichés.

58. Idiocracy - Not quite as good as I expected. I'd heard stuff about how eerily it predicted our current culture; and I don't find that held true all that much. Aside from having a stupid reality star be elected president, anyway. The first 10 minutes with the explanation of how humanity became stupid was the best part.

59. A Christmas Carol: Scrooge's Ghostly Tale (2006) - Of the 10 or so versions of A Christmas Carol that I have in my collection, this is definitely one of the worst. Terrible animation; confusing direction; strange changes to the story itself. It was entertainingly bad, though.

Post by **Gendo** » Sun Dec 10, 2017 10:57 pm

60. You've Got Mail - It was ok. At least it didn't follow the completely predictable formula that I thought it would. But it felt a bit disjointed with the last 30 minutes being quite different from the rest; where that part of the story may have fit better spread throughout the rest of it. Although then it would have been more predictable.

61. The Belko Experiment - Excellent! Somewhat like Cube. Good suspense; good cast.

62. Central Intelligence - Pretty good. Somewhat typical buddy cop comedy; but Dwayne Johnson was excellent. His character was just so much fun.

63. Sully - Good in that it was an interesting story that I didn't know much about before. If it weren't based on a true story, I would have found it somewhat boring though.

Post by **Gendo** » Tue Dec 19, 2017 5:28 am

64. Pitch Perfect 2 - Had some good music; and the music was the only thing I expected to get out of it in the first place. Not as good as part 1, and it wasn't exactly a high bar to reach. The constant racist and sexist jokes seem to have crossed the line from making fun of the character for being racist and sexist to just actually being racist and sexist.

65. Despicable Me - Great. I would have liked to have seen more world building; the idea of a world where super-villain is basically just like any other career a person might have is interesting. Still, funny and well done.

Post by **Gendo** » Thu Dec 21, 2017 2:14 am

66. The Cult of Chucky - I only just found out that this movie even existed. I guess it was about as good as The Curse of Chucky, which isn't saying much. It had a couple neat things in it, but a terrible ending. And not scary at all.

Raxivace · Post by **Raxivace** » Thu Dec 21, 2017 4:14 am

I've only seen the first Child's Play but based on trailers and stuff that I've seen over the years I thought the franchise basically descended into parody. Are they actually trying to be scary again now and just failing?

Post by **Gendo** » Thu Dec 21, 2017 4:58 pm

Raxivace wrote:I've only seen the first Child's Play but based on trailers and stuff that I've seen over the years I thought the franchise basically descended into parody. Are they actually trying to be scary again now and just failing?

It's hard to say what the intent is... it's true that it has seemingly fallen into parody the same way Nightmare on Elm Street did, but I think it just failed a lot in comparison. It has a few enjoyably over the top campy moments; but not consistently at all.

Post by **Gendo** » Sat Dec 23, 2017 3:15 am

67. Jeepers Creepers - Not bad for the first half. It was better before they showed the bad guy.

68. Don't Breath - Great suspense. Would recommend.

Eva Yojimbo · Post by **Eva Yojimbo** » Sat Dec 23, 2017 10:29 am

Gendo wrote:68. Don't Breath - Great suspense. Would recommend.

Really liked that one:

Don't Breathe (Fede Alvarez) - 8/10

In the excellent suspense thriller Wait Until Dark, Audrey Hepburn played a young blind woman held captive in her home when two violent criminals break in to find drugs. Imagine if instead of Audrey Hepburn, the blind “victim" turned out to be a murderous, psychotic ex-marine and the “criminals" were a group of bumbling teenagers. Therein lies the premise of this film.

Director Fede Alvarez has captured here the sense of freewheeling, cinematic excitement that he had failed to when remaking Sam Raimi's Evil Dead. Raimi himself was a model for how creative exuberance could overcome a lack of budget when it came to genre films, and Fede's Evil Dead was just too reverent; Don't Breathe works precisely because of how irreverent it is, playing with genre conventions at every turn—making the criminals the protagonists and the victim the antagonist—and making even cliches—the “trapped in a car with psycho dog" of Cujo—seem fresh and exciting. There's also plenty of genuine shocks along the way.

Don't Breathe is perfectly titled as once the break in occurs, there's nary a moment that isn't full of high-stakes tension, one in which sound becomes the all-important tell-tale sign of where the intruders are that will alert the blind madman with no compunction about murdering them. One can't help but think of Hitchcock in how the tension is sustained through extended scenes of silence, where dialogue simply can't be uttered because of the demands of the plot and everything is expressed visually.

It's also a surprisingly beautiful film to look at. While not shot with any degree of realism, Alvarez has opted instead for a heightened visual sensibility with a bold, expressive color palette that pops within the otherwise hermetically sealed home.

The only flaws reside in the film's last 3rd where the formula wears a bit thin and the film becomes talkative with some stinker lines like “A man who doesn't believe in God is capable of anything." Still, this hardly sinks the film, especially given the cache of excellence it's built up along the way, laying claim to being the best suspense thrillers of the young century.

Post by **Gendo** » Sun Dec 24, 2017 2:40 am

I have to say that reading your review, and then reading my "review"; I'm quite amused at the difference. Not that I couldn't have written more than a short sentence about the film; but I do somewhat envy the film knowledge that you (and Max and Raxi) possess.

Eva Yojimbo · Post by **Eva Yojimbo** » Sun Dec 24, 2017 4:21 am

Gendo wrote: I do somewhat envy the film knowledge that you (and Max and Raxi) possess.

It's the result of almost two decades of ascetic hermitry combined with the disease of cinephilia cultivated solely to impress random people online. I'm pleased your post rightfully acknowledged my life of WIN.

(in all seriousness, I almost see "reviews" like that as cheating; stuff like THIS requires some real effort.)