Name & Rate the Movies/TV You've Watched.

[4815162342]

Started watching The Boys. Just one episode left in season 1. Also recently watched the miniseries Unbelievable on Netflix.

 

 

 

[EarlyDeadlinePredictions]

The Boys Season 2 - 8/10 - Wasn't that hooked at the start like in season 1 but the ending came together well. Homelander is the highlight once again and Stormfront was a good villain. Didn't care for the Deep's plot that much but enjoyed everything else. Looking forward to season 3. 

[junkshop36]

Finished Raised  by Wolves. Good, really interesting show. Looking forward to see where it goes next. 
 

Started The Boys season 2. I’ve watched the first 5 episodes. Not quite as good as S1, but considering I thought S1 was AWESOME, it’s still pretty damn good lol. Don’t care much for the Deep’s side story but everything else is great. 

[Krissykins]

The Boys season 1 and season 2: what a fantastic show. The gore is off the charts. Very clever. Season 1 was stronger though. 4/5 
 

The Haunting of Bly Manor: a huge let down after Hill House. Worst show I’ve seen all year. Slow, pretentious, poorly paced with some of the worst English accents I’ve ever heard. 1/5 

 

Saint Maud (in cinemas): one of the best horror films of the year. An incredible lead performance of a decent into delusional mayhem. 4/5

 

The Addams Family 3/5

The Addams Family Values 4/5

The sequel is superior. Both are entertaining, great casting. But Joan Cusack is a scene stealer and the second film is hilarious. Amazed that first film got a PG rating for that school theatre show sequence lol. 
 

Hubie Halloween

very festive, but very forgettable and a bit lame at times. A few laugh out loud moments. 2/5

[SnokesLegs]

40 minutes ago, Krissykins said:

The Haunting of Bly Manor: a huge let down after Hill House. Worst show I’ve seen all year. Slow, pretentious, poorly paced with some of the worst English accents I’ve ever heard. 1/5 

I loved Hill House and I love all of Mike Flanagan’s work so far, but I completely agree about Bly Manor, I’m on episode 6 and it’s just so dull. None of the characters are particularly likeable or interesting and the whole thing just has an utterly depressing atmosphere to it. I can’t stand the housekeeper and the chef, they’re just the typical stoic, stiff upper lip British caricature that Americans seem to think anybody who lives in the British countryside act like. It feels like a really poor Downton Abbey clone with a few background ghosts thrown in.

 

And speaking of the background ghosts, they felt much more like a gimmick this time compared to Hill House. There never seems to be any point to them being in any particular scene other than for the viewer to play “spot the ghost”. 
 

I’m not against a slow paced show that focuses on characters, and they made it clear that it was more of a gothic romance story this time so I wasn’t expecting a rehash of Hill House, but the story itself feels like it’s been stretched to its breaking point to fill 9 hours. A 3-4 episode mini series may have served it better and cut out a lot of the filler.

Edited October 18, 2020 by SnokesLegs

[lorddemaxus]

For the last two weeks

 

Movies

 

Observe and Report -  Much darker than I expected but has a hard time being both a Rogen comedy and a critique of toxic masculanity. 6/10

 

Hubie Halloween - Pretty wholesome film. Even found Sandler's usual antics funny. 6/10

 

Gaslight - Gregory is one of the most reprehensible movie villains I've seen in a long time. It's pretty clear from the start that Paula (Ingrid Bergman's performance is heartbreaking) is being gaslit but the tension here is whether she'll sucuumb to her husband's deceit or whether she'll be able to get out. I literally had my heart ache by the end of the film because of how tense this movie was. 9/10

 

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan - Absolutely bonkers. 8/10

 

Idiocracy - 7/10

 

Best in Show - The comedy just didn't work for me outside of a couple of ocassions. 5/10

 

David Byrne's American Utopia - I don't think there's gonna be another movie this year that'll make me feel the way this movie did. From the infectious music to the surreal choreography to the crowd reactions (sometimes the camera itself take the perspective of an audience member), you can feel so much joy and energy within the movie. Really powerful plea to create an American utopia, where people are able to truly connect and empathize with each other. It's my favourite Spike Lee film of the year and amongst his best ever. 9/10

 

The Trial of the Chicago 7 - Entertaining and mostly tightly written but also politically misguided. 6/10

 

Time (2020) - Best movie of the year here. More than anything it's a powerful film about love and how people'll will fight as long and hard as they can for the people they loved. And a film about the disgustingly harsh prison system in America and how it can cause pain and trauma across multiple generations. Waterworks all through the final 10 minutes of the film. 9/10

 

TV shows

 

The Haunting of Bly Manor - I loved this. Although Flanagan only directed one episode, it's still has his emotionally driven, kinda melodramatic (this one and the previous series have a lot more than the usual Flanagan movie though), approach to horror that I absolutely love. Quite slow at the start but all necessary setup for a beautiful 2nd half. As a guy who loves gothic romance, this show really worked for me. I can get a lot of the criticism but I don't get how it's pretentious. The english accents are absolutely terrible though. And why did they decide to get Oliver Jackson Cohen to do a shitty Scottish accent too (when he can just do his normal english accent)? Would've been better off if they just set this in America. But it's really a minor criticism. Enjoyed this as much as the first. 9/10

 

Lost Season 2 - A lot more melodramatic moments than I remembered but I'm enjoying all that since it's all pretty earned. And my parents are completely into the show too. 

 

[CoolioD1]

watched the haunting of bly manor as well. it's whatever. waaaay dragged at 9 episodes. should've just been a movie. oh wait it was. much like Hill House its sixties counterpart is much better. 

[Krissykins]

14 hours ago, lorddemaxus said:

And why did they decide to get Oliver Jackson Cohen to do a shitty Scottish accent too (when he can just do his normal english accent)?

 

Haha, as a person with a Scottish accent myself, I thought he did very well with it 😂. The English ones were atrocious, particularly the guy from ET. 
 

I said pretentious because, for example, I thought the uncles episode was some sort of favour from producer to star to have a feature episode, which completely backfired when the accent stole the show. 
 

Maybe self indulgent is a better term. Agreed it should’ve been 3 episodes and had “Haunting” removed from the title. 

[lorddemaxus]

37 minutes ago, Krissykins said:

Haha, as a person with a Scottish accent myself, I thought he did very well with it 😂. The English ones were atrocious, particularly the guy from ET. 
 

I said pretentious because, for example, I thought the uncles episode was some sort of favour from producer to star to have a feature episode, which completely backfired when the accent stole the show. 
 

Maybe self indulgent is a better term. Agreed it should’ve been 3 episodes and had “Haunting” removed from the title. 

Yeah, Henry Thomas's english accent was terrible too. So was Flanagan's wife's. And I think cutting out 6 episodes would've been too much. At worst, I think they should've cut out episode 6 and made the Rebecca and Peter story one episode instead of two.

 

And I mean, what's happening in the show is still a haunting lol.

Edited October 19, 2020 by lorddemaxus

[TwoMisfits]

So, I finally watched a movie again:)...

 

Amazon Prime has had 7500 at my top line screen for months...and it was 90 minutes and I didn't feel like turning on football last night...so I watched it.

 

Now, ignoring the triteness and obviousness of the plot (and the ham-handed choice of villain), I thought the movie was a really good psychological suspense film done in an interesting way.  I have not seen a film with literally a single character perspective in awhile:).  And, the acting was great, especially by Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Omid Memar when the film boils down to them.  The movie doesn't sell if you don't buy the tension and interaction between them, but I do.

 

So, it gets 2.9 stars on Prime (I've never seen so many 5s and 1s on Amazon, but I guess this film is polarizing from the set-up - see my 1st review line).  If you can get past the slowness of the beginning and that set-up (and I did, b/c I was too lazy, lying in bed, to try and spend 20 minutes trying to find a new movie), it can really grab you in the last 30 minutes.  I'd give it a solid B for a "new" character perspective take, the tension, and the acting:)...

 

PS - I always have captions on, so when the film wasn't in English, I was always getting English.  I don't know if you get that without having captions, so if you watch this, you might want to make sure they are on:)...

Edited October 27, 2020 by TwoMisfits

[SnokesLegs]

2 hours ago, TwoMisfits said:

So, I finally watched a movie again:)...

 

Amazon Prime has had 7500 at my top line screen for months...and it was 90 minutes and I didn't feel like turning on football last night...so I watched it.

 

Now, ignoring the triteness and obviousness of the plot (and the ham-handed choice of villain), I thought the movie was a really good psychological suspense film done in an interesting way.  I have not seen a film with literally a single character perspective in awhile:).  And, the acting was great, especially by Joshua Gordon-Levitt and Omid Memar when the film boils down to them.  The movie doesn't sell if you don't buy the tension and interaction between them, but I do.

 

So, it gets 2.9 stars on Prime (I've never seen so many 5s and 1s on Amazon, but I guess this film is polarizing from the set-up - see my 1st review line).  If you can get past the slowness of the beginning and that set-up (and I did, b/c I was too lazy, lying in bed, to try and spend 20 minutes trying to find a new movie), it can really grab you in the last 30 minutes.  I'd give it a solid B for a "new" character perspective take, the tension, and the acting:)...

 

PS - I always have captions on, so when the film wasn't in English, I was always getting English.  I don't know if you get that without having captions, so if you watch this, you might want to make sure they are on:)...

I encountered this exact issue with the subtitles, I was well over half way through the film before I realised that I needed to enable the subtitles, up to that point I assumed it was a stylistic choice to not let us understand the terrorists. You get the general gist of what they’re saying, but particularly towards the end you’d be lost if you didn’t have them enabled.

[Fancyarcher]

On 10/19/2020 at 5:02 PM, TwoMisfits said:

So, I finally watched a movie again:)...

 

Amazon Prime has had 7500 at my top line screen for months...and it was 90 minutes and I didn't feel like turning on football last night...so I watched it.

 

Now, ignoring the triteness and obviousness of the plot (and the ham-handed choice of villain), I thought the movie was a really good psychological suspense film done in an interesting way.  I have not seen a film with literally a single character perspective in awhile:).  And, the acting was great, especially by Joshua Gordon-Levitt and Omid Memar when the film boils down to them.  The movie doesn't sell if you don't buy the tension and interaction between them, but I do.

 

So, it gets 2.9 stars on Prime (I've never seen so many 5s and 1s on Amazon, but I guess this film is polarizing from the set-up - see my 1st review line).  If you can get past the slowness of the beginning and that set-up (and I did, b/c I was too lazy, lying in bed, to try and spend 20 minutes trying to find a new movie), it can really grab you in the last 30 minutes.  I'd give it a solid B for a "new" character perspective take, the tension, and the acting:)...

 

PS - I always have captions on, so when the film wasn't in English, I was always getting English.  I don't know if you get that without having captions, so if you watch this, you might want to make sure they are on:)...

I actually watched that movie several months ago, when it first premiered on Amazon Prime. I guess I can understand why a lot of people didn't like it, it's relatively stagey and the subtitles can be an issue, but I was quite impressed by what I saw. JGL's performance really struck the right balance of calm and collective, and losing his mind in a terrible situation, and the short runtime was certainly an added bonus. By the end it basically felt like it flew by. 

[TwoMisfits]

10 hours ago, Fancyarcher said:

I actually watched that movie several months ago, when it first premiered on Amazon Prime. I guess I can understand why a lot of people didn't like it, it's relatively stagey and the subtitles can be an issue, but I was quite impressed by what I saw. JGL's performance really struck the right balance of calm and collective, and losing his mind in a terrible situation, and the short runtime was certainly an added bonus. By the end it basically felt like it flew by. 

I admit, I actually rewatched it b/c I found his performance so pitch perfect for every moment of the movie...it's like you almost think he went through both pilot training for emergencies and is trying his best to handle himself that way, while also going through the actual full trauma he's experiencing.  And he has moments where he breaks b/c one is too much for the other (I actually found the landing scene stress release so on point, b/c who wouldn't feel that way after talking a hijacker into helping, and not knowing if he really would or could or would again lose it)...

 

I also thought his co-star felt exactly like an 18 year old in over his head, who didn't know what he got himself truly into until it was too late, but then doesn't want to die, but doesn't see any way out.  Is impulsive, emotional, stressed, and at the break point...the roller coaster of emotions is exactly on point...

 

Again, ignoring issues with the movie, the actual execution by those 2 actors is so real...and thus, it got me another watch, where I may have even lifted the grade:)...I can forgive a lot when it's so compelling...and it's a rare movie where one set with 2 people can be so...

 

 

[Fancyarcher]

2 hours ago, TwoMisfits said:

I admit, I actually rewatched it b/c I found his performance so pitch perfect for every moment of the movie...it's like you almost think he went through both pilot training for emergencies and is trying his best to handle himself that way, while also going through the actual full trauma he's experiencing.  And he has moments where he breaks b/c one is too much for the other (I actually found the landing scene stress release so on point, b/c who wouldn't feel that way after talking a hijacker into helping, and not knowing if he really would or could or would again lose it)...

 

I also thought his co-star felt exactly like an 18 year old in over his head, who didn't know what he got himself truly into until it was too late, but then doesn't want to die, but doesn't see any way out.  Is impulsive, emotional, stressed, and at the break point...the roller coaster of emotions is exactly on point...

 

Again, ignoring issues with the movie, the actual execution by those 2 actors is so real...and thus, it got me another watch, where I may have even lifted the grade:)...I can forgive a lot when it's so compelling...and it's a rare movie where one set with 2 people can be so...

 

 

That's a great description of both of the two significant performances, and partially why the movie was so effective for me. The landing scene is actually a great example of high tension in a seemingly lower situation. 

[lorddemaxus]

Just watched American Sniper and don't get how people think it endorses Chris Kyle or is a jingoistic film. I just found this film extremely horrifying to watch.

 

And lol, people made way too much of a big deal about 30 seconds of a baby doll. 

[TwoMisfits]

I'm on a roll - 2 movies in one week (must be b/c I finished The Boys and Umbrella Academy, so now I don't have a new series hanging over my head yet, b/c the British Baking Show doesn't require thought).

 

Anyway, since I gave into Amazon, I now gave in to Netflix and watched their "hyped" movie to me - The Devil All the Time - b/c I love Tom Holland, so I'll watch almost anything he's in.  

 

I actually had no idea Robert Pattison was also in, and one thing I can say - he'll have no problem being Batman/Bruce Wayne.  The man can follow a dialect coach like no other and play with range...so while I didn't love him here, I loved that he was unrecognizable to his Tenet role, and that's what I'd want him in the supers role - someone I recognize as the super, and not themselves:)...

 

Anyway, for the movie - it was so weird a concept.  I felt like I was watching The Wonder Years meets a Horror Mob Drama meets the movie Traffic.  I mean, the ending caused my teen girls to laugh b/c it was so wildly wrong, and yet right (and yet, they couldn't play the music inspired by it).  It wasn't great, but then I couldn't shut it off, either.  Unlike 7500, I didn't find any performance particularly powerful, and yet I found myself watching and getting invested in all of them for the time of the movie.  No one's that likeable, it's all a mess...but it's a watchable mess.

 

So, I guess a movie that passes over 2 hours without me thinking it's long, and gives me a take I hadn't seen before with actors I like...well, let me be generous and give this a B- on 1st (and probably only) watch...

Edited October 24, 2020 by TwoMisfits

[Brainbug]

Trick' Treat 9/10 - Continues to be as fun and entertaining as every year for me.

 

Thirst (2009) - best Vampire film besides From Dusk Till Dawn for me. The 2nd act is kind of slow, but the pay-off makes upt for that. Also Park-Chan-Wook is the god of beautiful shots 8/10

 

Sleepy Hollow - One of the most Tim Burtony-Tim Burton Films and with a Johnny Depp who still gave a shit about acting. Great performances alla-round from the cast and just a very entertaining ride 8/10

 

Akira - FINALLY watched that film, didnt really understand what the hell was happening, then thought about it, came to my own conclusions and want to watch it again immediately. Amazing movie and no wonder it influences anime to this day 10/10.

Edited October 24, 2020 by Brainbug

[Joel M]

17 hours ago, lorddemaxus said:

Just watched American Sniper and don't get how people think it endorses Chris Kyle or is a jingoistic film. I just found this film extremely horrifying to watch.

 

And lol, people made way too much of a big deal about 30 seconds of a baby doll. 

[MOVIEGUY]

Almost as good as Spider-Mannequin

 

[lorddemaxus]

Movies

 

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm - Intermittently hilarious and contains one surprisingly wholesome scene but I feel like the novelty of the first film wore off. Larry Charles's absence is also pretty clear (the line between reality and fictional is much more apparent here) here and I just feel the attempt at creating an emotional core to the movie was unnecessary and didn't offer much more to the movie other than making it longer than it should've been. 6/10

 

American Sniper - For all the controversy this film had, I was kind of disappointed that it was not really the jingoistic, pro-war propaganda that I was told it would be but something actually more heartbreaking. I thought I'd be watching scenes of him making dramatic speeches with inspirational patriotic music once he's done gunning down random foreigners, but no, the movie's filled with quiet and somber scenes like this instead. A really horrifying look into the idealized modern-day American man and the toxicity and dehumanization that comes with it. By the end, Kyle's a guy who's willing to do anything for "the greatest country in the world" even though it's killing himself and everyone around him. I don't understand how people came out with the idea that the film celebrates Chris Kyle since the movie is only filled with his own misery and the misery he and the war have inflicted on others. Also showcases Eastwood's brilliant sense of geography when it comes to the shootout sequences in this. It's really easy to sense where each and every character is, which is more than what can be said for most modern-day action sequences. 10/10

 

On the Rocks - A cozy and entertaining, albeit somewhat forgettable film. There's some deeper exploration about the mistakes of our parents and the fears those mistakes instill in us but, Coppola doesn't want the whole film to be consumed by that and just wants to make a fun, breezy comedy-drama about a father and his daughter and I respect that decision. The 35 mm cinematography in this also provides some striking colors (especially those reds) that I've been missing from any 2020 film I've seen so far. The quiet, lovely film I needed and this delivered. 7/10

 

The Blob - Mostly decent 50s campy horror, ruined by a terrible ending. Some surprisingly well-done visual effects for that time though and I wish mediocre horror films today got back to looking as good as this film does. 5/10

 

TV shows

 

Harley Quinn - Got back to watching this and it's still a pretty hilarious superhero satire, eventhough some of it does feel like "fellow kids" material.

 

The Boys Season 2 - I forgot to talk about this show last week. Finale was enjoyable I guess, but the worst part of a satire is when it unironically indulges in the same tropes it makes fun of, and by the end of this season, I felt that way. It's just another boring piece of superhero media where there's a bunch of superheroes and a supervillain.

 

Lovecraft Country - Works best when it doesn't take itself seriously and goes completely into the more absurd stuff. Sucks that I didn't really care about most of the main characters though and the best characters get sidelined. After a couple of pretty good episodes, this finale didn't do much for me.

Edited October 25, 2020 by lorddemaxus