Film Geek. Film maker Richard Shepherd made a documentary about his life, movies, and his father. Very interestingly done with a narration voiced over a series of movie clips and Super8 movies he made as a kid. Sometimes he’s describing the movies in the clips because they’re ones that he loved and influenced him, but a lot of times they’re just used as illustrations of what he’s saying. It really worked for me, and I liked it a lot.
Sinners - from the escort of minors perspective. Granddaughter and two girl friends enlisted me to be the adult with the parents permission (aged 14). Not a big deal for an ‘R’ rating. Swearing, violence, smoking, haints. The sex scenes showed no flesh, the gals were still dressed (lifted skirts), guys were clothed. Evangelicals will be aghast as the three positions shown did not include missionary 
. As reviewed, slow start but a bang up finish. The girls thought it was great. We had a discussion about haints vs. vampires. They and I learned something new. Top film of the year for me. Don’t hesitate to bring teenagers. Too intense for younger and first part will put them to sleep anyway.
I got 10 minutes into Skinamarink and then started losing patience. Started fast forwarding, but nothing ever seemed to happen so I bailed. It’s a frequently discussed title on horror subreddits, consistently described as polarizing and not everyone’s cup of tea. The people who like it love it, though, so I figured I’d give it a try. Turned out to not be my cup of tea. At least not for the mood I was in at the time I tried it. (Last year.)
I really liked Drive-Away Dolls, but have to concede the previous poster who criticized Margaret Qualley’s accent has a point. It was distractingly bad. But I’m a huge Geraldine Viswanathan fan and am predisposed to like anything she does. (Also a big Margaret Qualley fan, normally, but that accent!) Plus I miss raunchy comedies, which appear to be either dead or on life support, so I’m happy for any kind of raunchy comedy, even if they’re bad. TLDR: I liked it but graded it on a curve.
Final Destination 4. Oof. Just don’t. We quit 20 minutes in, the dialogue and CGI were so bad. Gah.
But we’ll watch FD5, you bet.
Yeah. We may have lasted a little longer, but same result.
I happened to have watched a Final Destination marathon last month. Assuming you are talking about Final Destination 4 – officially titled “The Final Destination” – with the racetrack disaster, yes, that was pretty bad.
Final Destination 5 already exists; that’s the one with the bridge disaster. It’s not much better than FD4 so I’m wondering if that’s the one you meant.
The new one will essentially be FD6, though right now on IMDb it is officially titled “Final Destination: Bloodlines.”
FD1: plane
FD2: highway
FD3: roller coaster
FD4: race track
FD5: bridge
FD6: ???
Yeah, those are the ones. I was hoping the 5th would be much better…
I had the same feeling. It’s like that scene in Austin Powers: Goldmember where Goldmember announces “I’m Dutch! Isn’t that weird?”. The whole vibe here is “We’re lesbians! Isn’t that weird?”. Um, okay. Why are you making it weird?
The Bubble on Netflix. This is very much a “the film industry making fun of the film industry” film, with lots of famous faces doing really goofy shit. There is technically a plot but it is unimportant. And stupid. Think “Tropic Thunder” but set in a British country estate during COVID.
I went into this completely cold and so spent the beginning of the film going “Hey it’s that person” over and over. There were a lot of amusing moments and as long as you set your expectations suitably low you might enjoy it too.
Been out a few years. I remember having a few laughs but deciding I hated it. 4.7 user review on IMDB. 20% rotten tomatoes.
Just saw a trailer for The Smashing Machine which is a biopic of a real UFC fighter starting Dwayne Johnson. Looks like he’s trying to do drama with full face prosthetics to look like the real guy (Mark Kerr). The problem is Kerr was in his 20s for at least part of what is covered in the movie. They might be able to make The Rock look like Kerr but they can’t make him look 29.
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014)
I watched and enjoyed the first Sin City movie almost 20 years ago but for some reason never got around to watching the sequel. I decided to give it a go after watching Episode 4 of Andor.
It is a short (1:42) movie that is almost as visually striking as the original. Unfortunately, the dialog, wooden delivery from good actors, and second tier stories make for a bit of a let down. It is pretty clear that they used Frank Miller’s best storylines for the first film. However, it kept my attention and wasn’t boring. I think that the 6.5 rating on IMDB is appropriate.
Twisters on Prime. An updated sorta sequel to the original “Twister” that starred Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton. These were unknown actors to me and the plot was pretty tired and predictable, although the special effects were pretty good. It killed a couple of hours, but I certainly wouldn’t watch it again.
My only memory of that film is something involving a pair of eyeballs and laughing hysterically at it when I saw it at the cinema.
FWIW, at RT Twisters is (critics/audience) 75%/90%. Twister is 67%/58%. I am virtually stunned by those numbers, esp. the last one.
I am one who always thought Twister was considered quite bad. I don’t mean that I think that(I do, though), I thought it was almost widely viewed as a bad movie. I think there are others who have said as such before.
I guess it had enough love to make a sequel for some reason?
Nope, it generally was regarded as a bad movie but a good audio for demonstrating subwoofer and surround sound technology which was just catching on about then. But compared to the other tech demo, Godzilla, it was a gem.
There are a lot of bad movies that get this retrospective love because the ten year olds who loved it are now adults who are oblivious of the zeitgeist of the time. They all list these ordinary action movies or romcoms, like Last Action Hero or Miss Congeniality, as being beloved gems, when they really weren’t. Nostalgia is a powerful force.
It’s a ridiculous popcorn movie. Ridiculous popcorn movies can be fun.
I remember feeling Twister was the cringiest of the cringe when I saw it back in the day, though I would have used different words back then.
Something about the group being both overly excited and full of unearned swagger just made it painful to watch.
(The cow line was great, though.)
We still do that whole sequence.
Cow.
Another cow.
Actually, i think that’s the same one.
I gotta go. We’ve got cows!
Them’s fightin’ words… Last Action Hero is a good film!