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Re: Most Recent Movie You've Seen
Abandoned (2022) - After being surprised by Watcher, I wanted to watch another new thriller. I decided to look up one of my favorite young actresses to see if they were in anything up my alley.
Instead of searching for Chloe, Liana, Olivia, etc. I unfortunately picked Emma Roberts.
Yikes. I'm calling it now... Emma's career is going to be either short lived or will become a B movie star within a few years.
She's not going to be able to transition properly into adult roles. She comes across fairly awkward now...she also doesn't look comfortable doing it.
Just like Chloe, she kept her youthful looks to the point she could coast by playing late teens/college girls for years.
That time is over now.
Edit
One more thing about that...
It's funny to see Emma struggle now that she's having to go after more adult roles while someone like Maika Monroe...who I had only ever seen before play second banana to Chloe in two of her films (5th Wave and Greta) be able to carry a film like Watcher.
Impressive.
Death and the Maiden - Amazing....this might be Sigourney's best role. Probably deserved an Oscar.
Saw this since I needed a 70s movie break. Pretty good. I was legit scared at least 3 times during the film (the cinema part, when the main character is waiting for the elevator, and the part where she's waiting for a train at the end). It works psychologically too. You can see her withdraw from the world as she stays home all alone. I think this does a good job of witholding the identity of one of the main characters until the right moment.
The actor they got to play the killer is really good. A seriously creepy dude...the train/subway scene especially....and she keeps staring at the bag. 
I wish we could get more quality films like this.
Edit
Here's an upcoming movie with Winona that looks interesting....
And this....
Re: Most Recent Movie You've Seen
The Strange Thing About The Johnsons - Holy shit this is bat shit crazy...an Ari Aster short film a few years before making it big with Hereditary.
It's about an extremely dysfunctional family. A dad catches his son masturbating...tells him it's ok and everyone does it. When the dad leaves the room, you find out that the picture the boy was jerking off to is a picture of his dad!
Obviously this role reversal (child as abuser) is meant to shock...and it does. The real theme and 'meat' to the story is how all forms of abuse in families plays out in the background with the thin veneer/facade of normalcy.....and everyone wants to close their eyes to what's in front of them.
I hated the last few minutes. I would've preferred a more realistic end to the story.
When you combine this film with Hereditary and even Midsommar, it's obvious that this guy is from a dysfunctional family...a regular person could not nail such environments...such as the black cloud surrounding the Hereditary family and the passive mother in this story.
For anyone who never watched it....
Berlin Syndrome - Woman goes to Germany for a job, meets a guy, has a fling with him, and she is then kept locked up in his apartment.
It's pretty good...and I really like Teresa Palmer in the few movies I've seen her in.
Casualties of War - Anytime I watch this it makes me wonder how Fox's career could have played out in another direction. I might watch Bright Lights, Big City next. I think it's on Tubi.
This is one of Penn's best films.
I had forgot John Leguizamo was in this.
Edge of Darkness - Mel Gibson movie where his daughter gets murdered and he gets revenge...she was mixed up with a conspiracy.
Definitely one of Gibson's better movies.
Watching this made me consider watching one of those Lethal Weapon movies. Haven't watched one of those in 25+ years.... maybe the one with Joe Pesci. Out of all those 80s action movies/franchises, Mel Gibson and Lethal Weapon probably my least favorite.
Re: Most Recent Movie You've Seen
The Sweet Hereafter - A school bus crashes and kills a bunch of kids...and an out of town lawyer comes into this dysfunctional town trying to take advantage.
It doesn't deserve its high rating(98%!!!). It runs in place, takes about an hour to get things moving, and the various subplots... including sexual abuse/incest between the surviving girl and her father...go absolutely nowhere.
The Great Debaters - About an all black college debate team in the 1930s. Another Denzel home run...he also directed this. Also loved Forest Whittaker as the father/preacher.
Re: Most Recent Movie You've Seen
Berlin Syndrome - Woman goes to Germany for a job, meets a guy, has a fling with him, and she is then kept locked up in his apartment.
It's pretty good...and I really like Teresa Palmer in the few movies I've seen her in.
I saw this a while back and thought it was pretty good as well. Whomever played the sociopathic creep who kept her up locked up was pretty good. I was basically rooting for her to escape AND beat the shit out of him.
Edge of Darkness - Mel Gibson movie where his daughter gets murdered and he gets revenge...she was mixed up with a conspiracy.
Definitely one of Gibson's better movies.
Watching this made me consider watching one of those Lethal Weapon movies. Haven't watched one of those in 25+ years.... maybe the one with Joe Pesci. Out of all those 80s action movies/franchises, Mel Gibson and Lethal Weapon probably my least favorite.
I saw this in the theater when it came out. The thing I realized is that I enjoy the darker Gibson movies/roles. Mad Max is OK. I've never really liked the Lethal Weapon series, always found it a little corny. But stuff like Payback, Ransom, and this film? Yeah, it's up my alley. I think this was also the last big budget film that Gibson starred in before he got dumped into DTV hell.
Shaft's Big Score. Not bad. A little over the top but watchable and fun.
Largo Winch. Boring and predictable Bond/Bourne thriller about some dude avenging his father's death. It spends more time on some business takeover plot which was dull. While I was watching this and waiting for this to end, I was wondering why the hell Kristen Scott Thomas agreed to do this film.
Sleepless Night--another french film but this one is actually good. Basic premise is a man on the run who is stuck in a club and trying to rescue his son. He basically spends the time either dodging the cops or the bad guys. Casting note: has the actress from American Horror story season 2 in this.
Re: Most Recent Movie You've Seen
Hatching - A foreign movie(Finland) about this dysfunctional family. The girl is a gymnast with a controlling mother. They kill a bird that flies in to the house...the daughter brings its egg into her room and it eventually hatches.
It gets crazy from that point forward.
I wanted to like it...it looked promising and the area this was filmed is beautiful...but the story is too crazy and they never bother to explain any of it.
In the Bedroom - This was a great movie. While it's a really subtle low key performance, Sissy Spacek is really good here. Her college age son is having a summer fling with Marisa Tomei and he winds up getting murdered and the film is about the aftermath of the tragedy.
The film is a bit long but I think it's appropriate for this story. I've dealt with my dad dying young and my aunt getting murdered by her husband and this film really captures the dreary monotony of life while dealing with such things.
I gotta say something about these characters...
I don't know if it's my age and how I get more pessimistic/cynical as I get older but I have no sympathy for Nick Stahl's character here.
Did he deserve to get murdered? Of course not. Having said that, he's playing with fire here and he knows it. He says this relationship isn't serious. If it's not serious, why are you in her life to the point you're helping with her kids?
He's also aware that her husband is a psycho. Yeah...she's still married to him. Sissy Spacek wants him to end the relationship...she's the only one who knows there's red flags waving around this situation. His dad and friends clearly love the idea his son is banging her... they're checking out her ass at the BBQ.
No one took it seriously and that's how these tragedies develop. He's a college kid...he had no business being in the middle of this imploding marriage and obvious custody issues.
Spacek is the one I felt sorry for...and obviously his dad had huge regrets.
I think as the film winds down before the climax, they should've had Tomei get back with the husband. They missed an opportunity here. It would've been terrible of course but this kind of shit really happens.
When the dad is parked outside the house watching, I thought that is what was about to happen.
Re: Most Recent Movie You've Seen
The Hand - This left much to be desired. It's more about the breakdown of his marriage than it is about his severed hand.
This is another one of those 70s movies that could be improved with a remake.
Gone Baby Gone - This was great. Best Casey Affleck movie...an actor I like but not in very many movies I'm interested in. He has a great voice....should be used to narrate documentaries.
I was shocked to hear the acoustic version of You're Crazy in this. I had no idea that had been in any movie.
Sweet Dreams - The Patsy Cline movie starring Jessica Lange. She does a good job but loses points for lip syncing the songs. Ed Harris is good as her asshole husband.
The film also loses points for retconning Loretta Lynn out of the story. They had become best friends in the last couple years of her life yet this film acts like she didn't even exist. Weird. I also didn't see the point in fictionalizing the plane crash.
Compliance - Based on the true story where a prank caller impersonates a cop accusing a girl working fast food of stealing money and how her co-workers react.
This story is bat shit crazy. Amazing it took them so long to realize it was a scam. This is on Tubi if anyone wants to watch it.
Unhinged - I got sick of Amazon constantly recommending this so I decided to watch it before going to bed. It wasn't bad....Crowe plays a good psycho.
He was a bit too good at avoiding cops though. After the first cop was killed he would've had helicopters on his ass. Instead he's able to drive anywhere he wants without a care in the world.
Re: Most Recent Movie You've Seen
No Tears for the Dead. Korean thriller on amazon. Enjoyable, with some decent action sequences. I really should watch more Korean thrillers, they are really well made, despite plots that sound predictable/not that interesting on paper.
Freeway. I really should have watched this earlier. Basically a modern 90s version of Little Red Riding Hood, with Kiefer Sutherland as the Wolf and Reese Witherspoon (with southern accent as Red). A movie like this would probably never get made today in the USA. Subversively fun. Pretty good cast too with Dan Hedaya, Brittany Murphy, and Brooke Shields (!) in the cast. They got the guy from the 90s TV series , the Pretender in this too. watchable via TUBI.
Re: Most Recent Movie You've Seen
I really should watch more Korean thrillers, they are really well made
Yeah...I was really into foreign films back in the 2000s. Some really good stuff...they definitely pushed the envelope. Much better than the crap Hollywood was doing...mainly remakes and horrible comedy.
I watched hundreds of foreign films yet forgot most of the titles. I'd have to go through ancient posts to find discussions where we're talking about them.
One I'll never forget is Audition...that one blew my mind. I should watch it again...it's on Tubi.
Another one is A Tale of Two Sisters.
Castle in the Ground - I loved this...a very realistic movie about drug use. It stars the teen son from Hereditary. His mom(played by Neve Campbell... yikes she's getting old) dies from cancer and he meets the girl in the next apartment and he gets in way over his head.
Heaven - I only watched this because it had Cate Blanchett and it looked promising. It starts out with a bang and then very little happens from then on. A dud.
The Siege - Pretty good. An all Star cast. It's weird watching a movie like this... terrorist attacks in NYC and the government response to it...made a few years before 9/11 while knowing an even worse attack will happen.
Re: Most Recent Movie You've Seen
Time Out of Mind - This is probably Richard Gere's best role. He plays a homeless guy on the streets of NYC and he wants a relationship with his daughter.
It's a tad too long but they do a great job showing the insane hoops through the bureaucracy the homeless must jump through.
I felt sorry for him...to an extent. He doesn't do enough in his attempt to get back in with his daughter. He won't even apologize for abandoning her when she was 12. She had every reason to hate him.
The story deserved more closure.
Pinprick - This was pretty good...teen girl has an older loser living in her closet...and he starts playing mind games with both her and her mom.
It feels like it starts mid-movie. You never get an explanation on how this weird dynamic begins.
The twist sucked. It just created more questions.
Roman J Israel - Another home run by Denzel. Probably deserved the Oscar. The story itself drags a bit but his performance is amazing.
Argo - This really earned its Best Picture Oscar. Finally... another movie where I can tolerate Ben Affleck.
