Movies You’ve Only Just Watched

Off-Topic
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Matilda: The Musical on netflix is something you need to watch as soon as possible!

It’s an amazing adaptation of the stage musical, that faithfully recreates iconic musical numbers, uses a MASSIVE ensemble cast and MAGNIFICENT choreography to make a seriously impressive cinematic musical experience

Alisha Weir is an adorable, perfect casting for Matilda, as she stands up for those around her, and tells passionate stories of excitement and heartbreak.
Emma Thompson is unrecognizable as Headmistress Trunchbull, an over-bearing, evil, evil, cruel, ugly woman who rules the miserable school Matilda is put in. She also has a fantastic musical number in the second half. She slays it.
And Lashana Lynch is Miss Honey, the extremely nice, caring teacher of Matilda and the other children, who has a great emotional scene later on.

This is such a well-made production. The music is fantastic as it is on-stage (Tim Minchin creates a wordy, rhyming, hurricane of words that fits perfectly with this story about the love of learning and books. Its super clever.) And the choreography of the children… whoa!!! There’s a massive, almost Marvel-CGI-Production-Size cast of children (and adults in the opening number) performing impressive feats of parkour, dance, and synchronicity in the many musical numbers. There’s a lot that can happen on-screen and it’s super cool.

The story itself – while exaggeratedly silly with how cruel it can get – gets a real edge of ‘realism’ when presented in this cinematic style. Matilda’s upbringing is probbaly as bad if not worse than Harry Potter’s! This movie, her parents’ and Trunchbull’s cruelty towards her and other children, was honestly shocking. Made my parents cry twice in this film.

Anyway, this is an amazing, very accessible version of the stage musical you can watch right now, about the power of standing up for yourself, of knowledge, and justice, and I HIGHLY RECCOMEND IT.
I love this musical and this film version from Sony/Netflix is everything I wanted from it and more. My jaw has dropped, again.

(School Song (the Alphabet Rhyme) is the best, coolest use of british lyrics, ever, IMO.)

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996

The action-comedy film Bullet Train. Something a lot of people here might be interested in, given that it features assassins, a lot of them, stuck on a train together and inadvertently clashing over various overlapping jobs.

It was a really fun film, with lots of style (smash-cuts, silly flashbacks, character title cards), great music, funny performances and character dynamics, and awesome action! The ending went on a bit too long IMO but the whole movie was enjoyable from start to finish.

It’s really fun to see how the movie unfolds and how each character eventually overlaps with another’s plans, and you find out why and how they all connect in a puzzle.
The characters are also a very fun part, being eccentric and unique in their own ways.

  • There’s the main guy ‘Ladybug’ who wants to turn over a pacifist leaf, much to the chagrin of his handler
  • There’s ‘Tangerine’ and ‘Lemon’, two “twins” who often bicker, one being negative, and one being positive - thanks to Thomas the tank engine… yes really
  • There’s also Yuichi (The Father) intent on seeking revenge against someone who harmed his son.
  • And a young woman called ‘The Prince’, but don’t be fooled by her looks. She’s very deadly.

There’s plenty more, but their surprises are fun to see unfold. One of them is especially devious, getting away with so much, but thankfully experience true karma by the end.

It’s also a very bloody affair, with many deaths. Some quick, some much later, but it’s a stacked cast and they’re all pretty good.
Highly reccomend. Fast-paced too. They pack a lot into two hours, and it’s great!

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997

They had an Indiana Jones marathon on television this weekend and I just want to single out one of them. The Temple of Doom is like a car crash or train wreck or dumpster fire or any other thing you WANT to look away from but just kind of can’t; just about everything about it is absolutely awful. Before anyone asks about the rest of the marathon, I didn’t want to mention Raiders or Crusade because I’ve seen them far more recently and more often and they are both far superior films (and I’m not sure Crystal Skull was played). TL;DR I’m reminded of the review that keeps me from seeking out Temple: “It’s the least entertaining and certainly the most racist in the series”.

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Anyway, I also wanted to talk about a good movie, as a bit of a palette cleanser; I invite you to experience my review of The Menu. A Chef invites a small group to his remote island restaurant for a grand dinner experience but things don’t go to plan. And that WAS an experience. Relatively simple story with exquisite execution and wonderful performances. Chef and Margot were relatable (if take to the extreme, especially his burnout), I love how petty he was for choosing some of his victims and remain convinced that he would have killed Tyler’s girlfriend simply because she lowered herself by putting up with his douchbaggery (but she wised up and dumped him) and the relationship those two characters formed over the course of the film (more on that later). I enjoyed how tense the atmosphere was and how cultish chef’s restaurant was; I kind of want another film exploring how that transpired but that would probably ruin the mystique of this one so I’ll take it just the way it is.

Back to Chef and Margot, I just really enjoy how her presence throws that little wrench into his grand scheme and how that forces him to confront her (and himself, in a way) on the fly before the night is out and dinner is done. I especially liked how it all paid off with her offering him one last moment of joy and self fulfillment and him letting her go because she didn’t wrong him. And, I guess to sort of answer my question from earlier, the cult aspect comes back where the other diners accept and even welcome their deaths and praise Chef at the very end (man, I really want to know how he does that shit!). Anyhoo, fantastic little standalone feature, apologies for all the top secret government redaction (it IS still a very recent movie) and I’ll leave everyone with this:

If I had two three nickels for every movie I’ve seen in the last six months that ended with self-immolation and/or a fancy building on a private island exploding, I’d have two three nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice thrice. (Smile and Glass Onion, again (sorry again) redacted for recency)

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998

I like Temple of Doom, it’s a fun movie. Crusade is my favorite tho.

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999

It’s fun enough in its way but its so clearly inferior to the rest of the original trilogy in nearly every way it makes it all seem worse when watched back-to-back-to-back.

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1000

I think Raiders is the weakest, but that’s probably because I’ve seen it so many times before. IJ Trilogy is just like the original Star Wars Trilogy the films go from very good original to the amazing sequel to the perfect Conclusion…and than they fuck it all up with terrible movies nobody asked for :joy:

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1001

you chose… wisely

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1002

I have same issues with several games also that I still wouldn’t call bad :grin:

Dunno, I watched ToD for the first time when I was ~8 and it was captivating and it’s still a fun time even nowadays even though it’s inferior to Raiders and Crusade :slight_smile:

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1003

i will forever stand behind the club obi-wan opening. beautiful bit of cinema; one of my favourite opening scenes in a big ol’ blockbuster.

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1004

Did you expect something different from me?

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1005

Well I expected Raiders to have been your favourite, the historical trend is you liking the first film of a beloved series.

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1006

Beloved Film Series i think the first one was the best:

Godzilla
Terminator
Predator
Alien

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1007

Do I really hate your T1>T2 opinion that much? Also of course Predator is the best Predator before Prey came out it was the only good film in the series.

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1008

So… much… wrong… must… resist… commenting…!

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1009

I don’t think T2 is bad, i just like T1 better. I really like the ending with the Robot Skeleton chasing Sarah Connor through the hydraulic press and shit, it gives the movie this little bit of horror film flair.

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1010

I didn’t say that was your opinion, > just means greater than or more than. T1 is really good I just had more of a connection to the characters in T2.

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1011

predator 2 is a fox news fever dream of a movie and i love it for that. my favourite of the bunch (though ive not seen prey).

i did it for the memes!

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1012

The Northman. I rented it for my birthday. It was…I’m not sure. I get it’s a version of Hamlet, but boy did most of it feel like a fever dream. I have been thinking about it off and on for the last few days, so i guess that means it was good.

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1013

Saw A Man Called Otto, an American remake of Swedish novel and film A Man Called Ove. I haven’t read or seen the original, so can’t compare. As for the American version, well, I ended up crying like 6 times. Is it overly sentimental? Probably, I imagine if you don’t like that kindof thing the film won’t work for you. For me, I thought it worked very well, nice to see Tom Hanks play something very different from his more usual everyman persona.

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1014

Did you see him in Elvis? He was excellent in that as well.

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