Got The Amateur on tonight and I could tell within minutes it would be insipid, from the camera angles, the setting, the "standardised couple talk" their relationship's entire gimmick being a shared love of coffee (how fun and unique!!!) 🤢🤮
Oh! Remember when action movies and thrillers were made with their own style, flavour and passion? The creators of this clearly don't 😂
Maybe it gets some redeemable qualities in a bit when the revenge events eventually start to unfold, but wow... it is so bland. Grey porridge has more artistic appeal.
Apologies, movie thread, but it is such an offensively bland opening I had to write something about it. Carry on 😁
Loved your passionate write up about Frankenstein by the way, @FuriousMachine it sounds fantastic! Hopefully Del Toro has a Netflix release clause where he can have, at the very least, a limited edition 4k release
(I think pinocchio has a criterion)
Man I forgot to check in with all my halloween watches again. I will do a lightning round.
Stream - made by the Terrifier team, a love letter to slashers and their fans, very low budget but heaps of fun.
Pumpkinhead - A rewatch of a movie I loved in the past, liked it less on a rewatch.
Pumpkinhead 2 - a more traditionally slashery version of Pumpkinhead, but its so much worse as an overall film, I thought this was kinda terrible honestly
R.L. Stine's Pumpkinhead - No relation to the other Pumpkinheads, but an enjoyable close to halloween, autumnal, horror. Really cool looking killer scarecrow that isn't allowed to do much cause this is clearly designed for a younger audience.
Talk to Me - from the Bring Her Back duo. Every negative I have heard for BHB can be applied to this tenfold and I didn't like this much at all.
Slay - an extremely low budget vampire movie, but honestly a kinda shockingly beautiful celebration of all things queer.
@MightyDemon82@Ravix I worry that it won't get a fair shake on streaming, as the first hour can lead people to indulge in device distractions and not fully engaging with it, and it is a movie that truly shines when you're fully invested and engaged. It's much harder to connect with the characters when you're is simultaneously scrolling through social media or other things on your phone, but the temptation is very strong when it's readily available and the movie you're watching slows a bit.
Which is why I love going to the cinema so much - "Frankenstein" was my 36th visit this year - there are (usually) no distractions and I'm fully invested in what's going on. I think it is also the reason I find I typically have a more favourable view of the movies I've seen on the big screen vs. movies I first see at home.
@Metonymy I keep forgetting that a del Toro version of "Pinocchio" exists, but that Netflix deemed to release it on physical is a good sign. Fingers crossed!
@FuriousMachine I love slow movies that repect my time and draw me in, especially if they are steeped in style. (But yes, very much different from the youth of today, so that would be a worry) I think I probably prefer a good slow movie to a good fast paced movie because I want things to develop on a deeper level. And, as confirmed by my thoughts on The Amateur, I dislike movies that just splat things on the screen because they need to add some kind of makeshift driving force for the action part of the movie to exist, so a condensed 10 minute relationship based on "I make coffee for her", and 10 minutes of big bad bully boss straight out of "sh** movie 101" feels like they are not respecting my time, even during a much shorter period. God, that movie annoyed me to my core 😅 all I could think was, "I should be watching The Bourne Identity, because this is like The Bourne No-f***ing-Identity" ... and breathe 😁
You know i'm not big in to regular horror, but anything cerebral, stylish and gothic i'm more in-tune with, so this will be getting a showing, for sure.
You should give Pinocchio a(nother) chance, I remember it being well worth a watch. Mad that it came out the same year as another Pinocchio adaption, which probably helped it stand out as a much better adaption. The stop motion animation is really nice, too
@Ravix I saw "The Amateur" at the cinema and I didn't hate it, but it was definitely a non-entity... Even if pressed, I would struggle to recall anything other than the broadest strokes of the movie. One of those things where it kept me engaged enough not to walk out for its duration and then vanish from my consciousness soon after. Shame, really, as the concept offered the potential for a spy movie with a slightly different angle than we're used to, but this movie is what we got instead, so I understand your anger
@FuriousMachine good concept, poor execution. I'm sticking with my initial feeling, which was that it was insipid. I've watched a bunch of 6/10 spy thrillers *nods in Angelina Jolie's general direction and sometimes it is just what you fancy, and they will at least have some schlocky style or some dumb redeemable quality to them. But this? This I would struggle to watch again, even at gunpoint - it's a 4/10, and i'm being kind at that.
@Ravix Yeah, 4/10 seems about right to me as well. I guess could be persuaded to bump it up to a 5, but I can't imagine anyone having enough enthusiasm for the movie to try
@FuriousMachine that's not an issue for me personally, but I know what you mean. My wife is terrible for that. Glad the movie is great though. Can't wait to hide my wife's phone for a few hours when it appears on netflix 😅 😬
I subscribed to Shudder recently, so far I've watched Oddity, Late night with the Devil & Posseser.
Great films all 3 especially for this time of year.
Have my eye on Monstrum next.
Any recommendations for more would be appreciated.
@FuriousMachine I agree with everything you said about Frankenstein but I'd add 'breathtaking'. I enjoyed it so much that I put in an order for the hardback screenplay.
@MightyDemon82 Hope you both enjoy it when it arrives Shudder is one of those things we Norwegians aren't worthy of. My envy is a mountain. Haven't seen "Oddity" yet, but I hear good things. Enjoyed "Late Night with the Devil", but I'm torn on "Possessor" (assuming it's the one by Brandon Cronenberg). It felt like a good movie, but just didn't resonate with me, for some reason.
@GirlVersusGame "Breathtaking" is indeed a descriptor I can get behind
I'm not big on reading screenplays, otherwise I would probably have done the same.
the George Romero Resident Evil movie documentary isnt what i quite expected.
the beginning of the documentary started off decent, but then the middle of the movie made it look like Romero had second thoughts where he chickened out and ran off
How to Train your Dragon (2025) - not really a kids movie kinda guy but the missus does like a kids movie of a Sunday afternoon and… we both really enjoyed it! Actually considering watching the animated sequels.
@graymamba I'd put this more in the "family movie" camp than "kids". These kinds of movies makes an effort to entertain the adults as well as the kids, something Pixar has excelled at since the very beginning, while pure "kids movies" seem content talking down to the kids and ignoring the suffering adults who accompany them completely.
I enjoyed both the original animated one and the live action, the latter of which I caught on the big screen earlier this year. I haven't seen the animated sequels yet, but I seem to remember reading that they hold up quite well.
Speaking of family oriented animated fare: one I'm really looking forward to is the sequel to "Zootopia" (or "Zootropolis", depending on your region) coming out in the not too distant future. The first movie is one of my favourites of the genre in recent years, beating out many of the recent Pixar fare, IMO.
@FuriousMachine fair enough… and maybe I’m not as grizzled and cynical as I thought as, although I’d totally forgotten about it until your mention, I also really liked Zootopia 😅
@FuriousMachine@graymamba The How to Train Your Dragon trilogy is excellent. Totally agree with the ‘family’ film vs ‘kids’ film distinction, and this trilogy definitely falls into the former. They allow the characters to age and deal with some appropriately heavy themes. The second one is probably my favourite (a rarity for trilogies for me). Highly recommended!
@graymamba hehehe, we old curmudgeons must have something uplifting we can enjoy, even if we don't speak too loudly about them The sloths at the DMV in the original "Zootopia" were priceless and still makes me smile when I think about it.
@Metonymy I need to get on those sequels ASAP then, it seems. Happy to hear they are good!
@FuriousMachine@graymamba I completely agree with everything @Metonymy said. HTYD is a surprisingly good trilogy that manages to remain entertaining and actually progress it's characters across the three films. I have a fondness for the animated medium and consider the trilogy amongst my favourites.
Also yes, Zootopia is great and curious to see what they do with the sequel.
On the topic I think Big Hero 6 is possibly underappreciated and worth a watch if you've not seen it.
@BearsEatBeets 100% agree on "Big Hero 6"; delightful movie and Baymax is really fun character! I can't remember if it's an adaptation of a manga and/or anime or if it's an original movie, but no previous experience is necessary, either way (and the 6 in the title is not a sequel number, for those who are unfamiliar )
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