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Post by Hurdy Gurdy Man on Jun 19, 2022 17:26:27 GMT
Hello, good folks of FG. The weekly film discussion thread is back. The topic under discussion is made clear in the title. Made-for-TV, direct-to-video, streaming, TV series/episodes, documentaries, short films can also be listed. The minimum requirement is that a numerical rating out of 5 or 10 be provided - whichever the poster wishes to choose - and it'll be even more helpful if he/she also writes a few thoughts regarding his/her experience with the feature/documentary/short/TV series' season. This will help in starting discussions, which is one of the main intentions of this thread. I also request all those who reply here to go through the whole thread once and see if you can see some common topic to discuss with other posters. I spent the last week watching some silly ass flicks. None of them turned out to be good. All first viewings:
In 1980, a double feature of Xanadu and Can't Stop the Music was attended by John J.B. Wilson and this bad experience inspired him to start the Golden Raspbery Awards. While I don't think it is as bad as some of the worst films that won the Razzie, it isn't particularly good either. It has an excellent soundtrack, some gorgeous sets and Gene Kelly's final performance is a delight to behold. But the story is paper-thin, the screenplay is haphazardly constructed, Newton-John isn't much of an actress and Michael Beck is a block of wood.
5/10
A buddy cop feature which pairs Whoopi Goldberg with a dinosaur. Not the usual kind of dinosaur, either - this is some strange, genetically engineered breed of roughly human-sized dinosaur who can also walk, talk and otherwise behave like average humans.
It is widely considered a dumpster fire and I agree with that consensus. Whoopi Goldberg was forced to do this due to a verbal agreement and it plainly shows every second the camera is on her. The dinosaur - voiced by George Newbern - does not fncking shut up even for a second.
However, the film is also so bizarre that some thought was obviously put into its making. I am thinking whether there were ways to salvage such an idea. To begin with, I think that they should have made the title character an actual dinosaur. Someone who is as intelligent as an average human but is also an animal, who cannot talk and has to communicate with body language. The concept could also be presented as a satire on how minorities are treated in society. Think about it: the film constantly discriminates against dinosaurs and even Whoopi Goldberg's character is teased and taunted because she is a cyborg.
3/10
This is the first Chris Farley film I have seen. I can say this: he is certainly no John Candy. Candy made Who's Harry Crumb? which is also a stupid slapstick vehicle but he made it worth a watch. Farley did not have enough juice to sustain as a leading man - he was strictly sidekick material. I thought the only funny parts of the film were, in fact, Robin Shou's disguises. At one point he dresses up as a woman and I had no idea for a long time who it was supposed to be despite the camera being on his face several times.
3/10
I will give it this: it has got that southern small-town atmosphere down all right. Some of the images of thousands of worms covering large areas are very memorable and obviously took a lot of effort to pull off. Unfortunately, the concept of killer worms quickly assembling and overwhelming several adult humans is too silly for me to take seriously. Arachnophobia presented a similar story much better.
4/10
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Post by FridayOnElmStreet on Jun 19, 2022 21:35:36 GMT
Xanadu - 5/10
Theodore Rex - 3/10
Beverly Hills Ninja - 7/10
Squirm - 3/10
Mine:
Hellbound: Hellraiser 2 (1988) - 9/10
Nasty, gory and stylishly bizarre sequel to Hellraiser is a fun ride.
Ambulance (2022) - 8/10
A nice surprise here. A very exciting, fast and entertaining action film.
Censor (2021) - 3/10
High hopes for this film. Very disappointed. Starts out well enough. Gets boring.
Warlock 3 The End of Innocence (1999) - 3/10
Some clever ideas put to waste in this very slow horror sequel.
New World Order: The End Has Come (2013) - 1/10
Awful poorly made end of the world film.
All the King's Horses (1977) - 0/10
I heard about this film on the GAM (God Awful Movies) podcast. They said it was the worst film they ever seen. I had to see this for myself. Its on Youtube. Holy crap! This takes awful to a whole new level. Its a film of domestic abuse that actually says the abused woman should stay and be submissive to he abusive husband. No joke. It a film that celebrates spouse abuse. The most disturbing and disgusting piece of shit I could imagine.
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Post by politicidal on Jun 19, 2022 22:24:33 GMT
First Viewings:
Fatal Beauty (1987) 4/10
Lust for Gold (1949) 6/10
What's the Matter with Helen? (1971) 5/10
The Marksman (2021) 4/10
Flight from Glory (1937) 6/10
China Passage (1937) 4/10
Repeat Viewings:
The Time Machine (1960) 7/10
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Post by James on Jun 20, 2022 0:05:57 GMT
Not seen any of yours.
Two first viewings for me.
Salem’s Lot (1979, Tobe Hooper) – 7.5/10
Leaving Las Vegas (1995, Mike Figgis) – 8/10
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Post by brandomarlon2003 on Jun 20, 2022 0:13:13 GMT
Tootsie (7.5/10)
Jurassic World Dominion (6.5/10)
Lightyear (6.5/10)
Ambulance (8/10)
The Northman (6/10)
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Post by theravenking on Jun 20, 2022 11:07:10 GMT
First Time Viewing
Minions (2015; Kyle Balda, Pierre Coffin) - Sure this spin-off from the animated surprise hit Despicable Me is very daft and mostly relying on silly slaptsick, but I found it to be likeable enough nonsense.
6.5/10
Mirror Mirror (2012; Tarsem Singh) - Innocent family movie with a charming cast. It's entirely predictable and fails to utilise its few original ideas in a more creative way, but it's still a decent enough film to watch with children.
6/10
The Pendragon Legend (1974; György Révész) - Dated and dull Hungarian mystery-comedy, based on a classic book featuring some of the countries most prominent actors of the time who are badly served by the cheap sets and unfocused direction. This might only be of interest for fans of the source material, but even those will most likely be dissapointed.
4.5/10
Riders Of Justice (2020; Anders Thomas Jensen) - Being a fan of the director's previous movie Adam's Apples I was let down by this uneven crime comedy. Mads Mikkelsen plays an army veteran who is informed by some math nerds that according to the theory of chance his wife's death in a train crash couldn't have been an accident and decides to take revenge on the criminals he sees responsible for killing her. The movie can't decide what it wants to be: comedy, dramedy or straight drama. There is too little humour and even a late surprise twist failed to energise this plodding affair. Mikkelsen is good as usual but most of the supporting characters are just weird for the sake of being weird acting in bizzarre ways the reason for which is never satisfyingly explained.
5.5/10
Repeat Viewing
Delusions Of Grandeur (1971; Gérard Oury) - If like me you grew up watching French comedies with Louis De Funés, you'll always retain a sense of nostalgia for these films. Most of them are hardly great art and De Funés schtick can get a bit tiresome at times, although the same could be said about most physical comedians, but they are still entertaining and sometimes even subversive to watch. This parody of a classic play by Victor Hugo was one of the popular comedian's more ambitious projects and mostly succeeds thanks to the interplay between De Funés and Yves Montand, the latter although cast against type and reportedly a bit of a jerk in real life is fun to watch here.
7/10
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Post by theravenking on Jun 20, 2022 11:58:23 GMT
Hello, good folks of FG. The weekly film discussion thread is back. The topic under discussion is made clear in the title. Made-for-TV, direct-to-video, streaming, TV series/episodes, documentaries, short films can also be listed. The minimum requirement is that a numerical rating out of 5 or 10 be provided - whichever the poster wishes to choose - and it'll be even more helpful if he/she also writes a few thoughts regarding his/her experience with the feature/documentary/short/TV series' season. This will help in starting discussions, which is one of the main intentions of this thread. I also request all those who reply here to go through the whole thread once and see if you can see some common topic to discuss with other posters. I spent the last week watching some silly ass flicks. None of them turned out to be good. All first viewings:
In 1980, a double feature of Xanadu and Can't Stop the Music was attended by John J.B. Wilson and this bad experience inspired him to start the Golden Raspbery Awards. While I don't think it is as bad as some of the worst films that won the Razzie, it isn't particularly good either. It has an excellent soundtrack, some gorgeous sets and Gene Kelly's final performance is a delight to behold. But the story is paper-thin, the screenplay is haphazardly constructed, Newton-John isn't much of an actress and Michael Beck is a block of wood.
5/10
A buddy cop feature which pairs Whoopi Goldberg with a dinosaur. Not the usual kind of dinosaur, either - this is some strange, genetically engineered breed of roughly human-sized dinosaur who can also walk, talk and otherwise behave like average humans.
It is widely considered a dumpster fire and I agree with that consensus. Whoopi Goldberg was forced to do this due to a verbal agreement and it plainly shows every second the camera is on her. The dinosaur - voiced by George Newbern - does not fncking shut up even for a second.
However, the film is also so bizarre that some thought was obviously put into its making. I am thinking whether there were ways to salvage such an idea. To begin with, I think that they should have made the title character an actual dinosaur. Someone who is as intelligent as an average human but is also an animal, who cannot talk and has to communicate with body language. The concept could also be presented as a satire on how minorities are treated in society. Think about it: the film constantly discriminates against dinosaurs and even Whoopi Goldberg's character is teased and taunted because she is a cyborg.
3/10
This is the first Chris Farley film I have seen. I can say this: he is certainly no John Candy. Candy made Who's Harry Crumb? which is also a stupid slapstick vehicle but he made it worth a watch. Farley did not have enough juice to sustain as a leading man - he was strictly sidekick material. I thought the only funny parts of the film were, in fact, Robin Shou's disguises. At one point he dresses up as a woman and I had no idea for a long time who it was supposed to be despite the camera being on his face several times.
3/10
I will give it this: it has got that southern small-town atmosphere down all right. Some of the images of thousands of worms covering large areas are very memorable and obviously took a lot of effort to pull off. Unfortunately, the concept of killer worms quickly assembling and overwhelming several adult humans is too silly for me to take seriously. Arachnophobia presented a similar story much better.
4/10
Haven't seen any of yours this week.
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Post by Hurdy Gurdy Man on Jun 26, 2022 7:49:24 GMT
Xanadu - 5/10 Theodore Rex - 3/10 Beverly Hills Ninja - 7/10 Squirm - 3/10 Mine: Hellbound: Hellraiser 2 (1988) - 9/10
Nasty, gory and stylishly bizarre sequel to Hellraiser is a fun ride. Ambulance (2022) - 8/10
A nice surprise here. A very exciting, fast and entertaining action film. Censor (2021) - 3/10
High hopes for this film. Very disappointed. Starts out well enough. Gets boring. Warlock 3 The End of Innocence (1999) - 3/10
Some clever ideas put to waste in this very slow horror sequel. New World Order: The End Has Come (2013) - 1/10
Awful poorly made end of the world film. All the King's Horses (1977) - 0/10I heard about this film on the GAM (God Awful Movies) podcast. They said it was the worst film they ever seen. I had to see this for myself. Its on Youtube. Holy crap! This takes awful to a whole new level. Its a film of domestic abuse that actually says the abused woman should stay and be submissive to he abusive husband. No joke. It a film that celebrates spouse abuse. The most disturbing and disgusting piece of shit I could imagine. I have seen Hellraiser 2; I remember not being impressed much.
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Post by Hurdy Gurdy Man on Jun 26, 2022 7:51:00 GMT
First Viewings: Fatal Beauty (1987) 4/10 Lust for Gold (1949) 6/10 What's the Matter with Helen? (1971) 5/10 The Marksman (2021) 4/10 Flight from Glory (1937) 6/10 China Passage (1937) 4/10 Repeat Viewings: The Time Machine (1960) 7/10 is a good film. It suffers from not being as socially conscious and thought-provoking as the novel. But it does provide a worthy explanation for why the narrator travels untold millions of years in the future.
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Post by Hurdy Gurdy Man on Jun 26, 2022 7:54:51 GMT
Not seen any of yours. Two first viewings for me. Salem’s Lot (1979, Tobe Hooper) – 7.5/10Leaving Las Vegas (1995, Mike Figgis) – 8/10 is and amazing novel and one of King's best. Hooper's two-part TV movie is watchable but has too many dead patches and shots of driving around. I felt James Mason's casting did not work as he was not threatening enough.
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Post by Hurdy Gurdy Man on Jun 26, 2022 7:55:46 GMT
Tootsie (7.5/10) Jurassic World Dominion (6.5/10) Lightyear (6.5/10) Ambulance (8/10) The Northman (6/10) Been too long since I watched Tootsie: I loved it, though.
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Post by Hurdy Gurdy Man on Jun 26, 2022 7:58:17 GMT
First Time Viewing
Minions (2015; Kyle Balda, Pierre Coffin) - Sure this spin-off from the animated surprise hit Despicable Me is very daft and mostly relying on silly slaptsick, but I found it to be likeable enough nonsense. 6.5/10 Mirror Mirror (2012; Tarsem Singh) - Innocent family movie with a charming cast. It's entirely predictable and fails to utilise its few original ideas in a more creative way, but it's still a decent enough film to watch with children. 6/10
The Pendragon Legend (1974; György Révész) - Dated and dull Hungarian mystery-comedy, based on a classic book featuring some of the countries most prominent actors of the time who are badly served by the cheap sets and unfocused direction. This might only be of interest for fans of the source material, but even those will most likely be dissapointed. 4.5/10
Riders Of Justice (2020; Anders Thomas Jensen) - Being a fan of the director's previous movie Adam's Apples I was let down by this uneven crime comedy. Mads Mikkelsen plays an army veteran who is informed by some math nerds that according to the theory of chance his wife's death in a train crash couldn't have been an accident and decides to take revenge on the criminals he sees responsible for killing her. The movie can't decide what it wants to be: comedy, dramedy or straight drama. There is too little humour and even a late surprise twist failed to energise this plodding affair. Mikkelsen is good as usual but most of the supporting characters are just weird for the sake of being weird acting in bizzarre ways the reason for which is never satisfyingly explained. 5.5/10 Repeat Viewing Delusions Of Grandeur (1971; Gérard Oury) - If like me you grew up watching French comedies with Louis De Funés, you'll always retain a sense of nostalgia for these films. Most of them are hardly great art and De Funés schtick can get a bit tiresome at times, although the same could be said about most physical comedians, but they are still entertaining and sometimes even subversive to watch. This parody of a classic play by Victor Hugo was one of the popular comedian's more ambitious projects and mostly succeeds thanks to the interplay between De Funés and Yves Montand, the latter although cast against type and reportedly a bit of a jerk in real life is fun to watch here. 7/10 I have seen Mirror Mirror but the only thing I remember is when Julia Roberts uses those puppet voodoo dolls (or something).
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Post by politicidal on Jun 26, 2022 14:32:44 GMT
First Viewings:
The Guns of Fort Petticoat (1957) 7/10
Licorice Pizza (2021) 6/10
Spiderhead (2022) 5/10
Westward the Women (1951) 6/10
Jurassic World: Dominion (2022) 7/10
Repeat Viewings:
Another Thin Man (1939) 5/10
The Thin Man Goes Home (1944) 6/10
...from your list I only saw Squirm. Gruesome makeup effects aside, not much else to recommend.
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Post by Hurdy Gurdy Man on Jun 26, 2022 14:48:56 GMT
First Viewings:
The Guns of Fort Petticoat (1957) 7/10 Licorice Pizza (2021) 6/10 Spiderhead (2022) 5/10 Westward the Women (1951) 6/10 Jurassic World: Dominion (2022) 7/10 Repeat Viewings:
Another Thin Man (1939) 5/10 The Thin Man Goes Home (1944) 6/10 ...from your list I only saw Squirm. Gruesome makeup effects aside, not much else to recommend. I haven't seen any of those titles yet. The Thin Man and its sequels are in my watchlist since long. I had never read about Westward the Women before, looks like a potentially entertaining watch.
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Post by mikef6 on Jun 26, 2022 15:19:19 GMT
Your’s
I haven’t seen “Can’t Stop the Music” (or any of the others) but remember well a contemporary review (one of my all time favorites) that was headlined “Stop The Music.” That critic was not impressed.
Mine
THX 1138 / George Lucas (1971). This first effort of Lucas at writing and directing a feature film was received with less than stellar reviews and revenues (I tried to help the movie out by going to see it in 1971). After “Star Wars” (1977), however, “THX” was revisited and revised upward, becoming a cult favorite.
Silent Movie / Mel Brooks (1976). Knockabout comedy with no dialog and silent movie era intertitles. But the rest of the movie is never silent. There is wacky music for an underscore and a loud soundtrack of punching all the action with crashes, bangs, pows, and booms. Slight plot. Essentially a series of blackout sketches. Very funny.
Ladyhawke / Richard Donner (1985). Medieval knight Etienne of Navarre (Rutger Hauer) and his One True Love Isabeau of Anjou (Michelle Pfeiffer) have been placed under a curse; the coolest, cleverest, and cruelest hex ever. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you what it is because it is not revealed in full until the movie is half over.
Los Cronocrímenes (Timecrimes) / Nacho Vigalondo (2007). “Timecrimes” doesn’t start out seeming like a twisted mind bender but sure turns into one.
The Conductor (2022). PBS documentary from the series Great Performances (Season 49, Episode 11). The title conductor is Marin Alsop who from the age of 9 had wanted to be an orchestral conductor and who eventually became the first female to be the lead conductor of a major U.S. city orchestra, Baltimore being the city.
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