Some movies watched in 2020

CaptainWacky

I want to smell dark matter
Dunkirk (2017) - I don't watch many war movies but I liked it. It drops you into the real events (I expect it was pretty historically accurate but I don't know enough about the actual evacuation of Dunkirk, sorry) and is a bit confusing at first but I found it gripping as it went on. It's more about giving you the feeling of the whole experience than the characters so I'm sure there were "NO CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT" complaints from people who don't understand movies. There were a lot of young men with dark hair in it and I honestly have no idea which one was Harry Styles and don't care to find out. Extremely well made.
 

whisky

Boobie inspector
Saw Joker, it was OK, didn't really grab me, could have done with being a bit shorter.
 

whisky

Boobie inspector
I saw alita battle angel, somehow it looks less realistic than the manga it was based on.
 

Mirah

I love you
I watched the Rain Man Twins. It was good. (Documentary)
Also I just watched "A Good Ol Fashioned Orgy" That was also good.
 

CaptainWacky

I want to smell dark matter
The Day Shall Come (2019) - Chris Morris tragicomedy about FBI agents trying to entrap a harmless mentally ill man. It's hard not to just compare it right away to the excellent Four Lions, Morris' previous movie. So I'll just get it out of the way: it isn't really close to being as good as Four Lions. It's not as funny and it doesn't pack quite as big a punch. It's still good though, the performances are great particularly from Marchant Davis and Anna Kendrick (Danielle Brookes is good but disappears for a lot of the movie.) There's a lot of funny lines though nothing on the level of "fuck Mini Babybels!" from Four Lions (oops I compared them again.) Some of the FBI stuff feels too much like an episode of Veep. Tthere's definitely moments of affecting pathos and it's all quite disturbing thinking about the FBI doing this kind of thing. So it's good but I think could have been better. OKAY.
 
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CaptainWacky

I want to smell dark matter
Knives Out (2019 - It's a lot of fun with a great story that pays off in a very satisfying way. Ana de Armas is great as the lead (even though she's third billed she's the lead okay) and there's Daniel Craig doing a silly (fun) accent. It's a very strong cast in all really with Chris Evans also very good and it's nice to see Christopher Plummer's still alive. I think I remember the trailer making it look a lot zanier than it is though? I mean, apart from Craig's accent.

Angela Lansbury really has to be in the sequel.
 
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Mentalist

Administrator
Staff member
Knives Out was good, the cast is really fantastic and now I get to say that I like something that Rian Johnson has done. I personally feel that the reveal was a little anti-climactic but otherwise very fun and yes, Ana is well cast for many reasons!
 

Mentalist

Administrator
Staff member
I had no clue! Rian is obviously a very talented filmmaker he just didn't hit with TLJ. I know what he was going for but with the weak sauce B plot and subverting expectations for the sake of it it just didn't work for me at all. It's technically a very competent film though.
 

CaptainWacky

I want to smell dark matter
Ready Or Not (219) - More evil rich people in a big house, this time a comedy horror carried by a strong lead performance from Samara Weaving. It's good fun, there's some very funny parts, but it doesn't really offer much commentary other than "rich people are fucked up!" That's fine since for what it was I enjoyed it and Weaving is great. Just don't expect to be thinking about it much after. But I liked it!
 

CaptainWacky

I want to smell dark matter
Birds of Prey (2020) - I'm not using the subtitle. It's good but kind a mixed bag. At the start it really feels like they just wanted to make a Harley Quinn solo movie but weren't allowed to for whatever reason. There's lots of voiceover from her (way too much) and they do a non-linear storytelling thing for the first 45 minutes that's really just annoying. Harley is constantly explaining who the other characters are and it's like maybe they should have just told the story in a conventional way instead of jumping around having Harley telling the story? It does get better as it goes on and the voiceover lessens severely. There's some very fun fight scenes (I still wonder why Harley got so good at fighting but whatever!) and the third act is by far the best part with its great extended action scene. I wish the whole movie had been of that quality. Margot Robbie is good but her accent is a bit fake. Ewan McGregor is...interesting as the villain? Like he starts out playing it super gay then turns all toxic masculinity later and I'm not sure how those two things line up. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is really good WHEN SHE'S IN IT and gets the funniest moments, unfortuantely she's only in it for like fifteen minutes and her character has no connection to anyone else other than happening to be in the same place as them for the final fight scene. Really they didn't do the team-up aspect strongly enough and again I'll say they maybe should have just made a Harley solo movie. If you can get by the first forty five minutes (which could be hard!) you'll probably end up liking it like I did.
 
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CaptainWacky

I want to smell dark matter
Jojo Rabbit (2019) - A thing that happens to me sometimes is that I see the full reaction to a movie long before I actually see the movie. This one seemed to be getting positive reactions at first then got a pretty big negative backlash that I witnessed mostly on Twitter. I try not to let these things colour my opinion but it can be hard! I know a lot of people had legit reasons to dislike the movie, ranging from just not thinking any comedy during WW2 is appropriate, to thinking the way it handled racism was overly simplistic and that the movie didn't actually say anything, or just thinking the whole thing was a shit or whatever. Again, I'm fine with that! I'm not brining up the criticism to argue with it, just to note that I was aware of it and that awareness makes me feel like I should address it in some way. Knowing a lot of people didn't like it makes made me like like if I enjoyed the movie (and I did) I should try to defend it and write an essay justifying my opinion. But, really, I shoudn't have to and I don't want to. I shouldn't worry about what other people thinkg (there's nothing wrong with reading different opinions though, like I said I'm sure many of the negative opinions are justified and some came from people I resepct.) And yeah maybe it didn't deserve the Oscar, maybe it didn't really say anything new and maybe I pewdwews previous Taika movies. I found it funny, I thought most of the more serious parts worked really well, the boy playing Jojo did a very good job, the actress playing the Jewish girl was strong, Scarlett Johansson and Sam Rockwell were predictably excellent. So yeah this is a really long-winded way of saying I enjoyed watching the movie and I shouldn't worry that smart people on Twitter might think I'm dumb if they knew I did.
 
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CaptainWacky

I want to smell dark matter
A hard drive plugged into my blu ray player.
 

Mentalist

Administrator
Staff member
I thought Jojo Rabbit was good. I didn't go into it expecting some deep and earth-shattering social commentary or epic satire though. Nazi's are evil but it took more than just being in Germany and being conscripted to be a Nazi (a point made well a long time ago far more succinctly in one of my favourite films of all time, Das Boot) to actually be a Nazi during the war. That's a simple enough message. It doesn't have to be more complicated than that.

Sam Rockwell is amazing in literally everything I've ever seen him in and the rest of the cast is stellar as well. I think a lot of people went in expecting this masterpiece and when it doesn't live up to the hype of being this stunningly biting, hilarious and clever satire on par with The Producers (which it definitely isn't) that some expected it to be, critics baulk. It was fine. Not great. But fine.
 

CaptainWacky

I want to smell dark matter
I think it generally got good reviews anyway, I just saw a pretty big backlash on Twitter and it gets in my brain because I can't stop thinking of things because I have a condition named autism don't know if I've mentioned that before!
 

CaptainWacky

I want to smell dark matter
BlacKkKlansman (2018) - Spike Lee film based on a true story about a black cop who infiltrated the KKK in the seventis (using a white proxy.) I enjoyed it a lot, great lead performances from John David Washington and Adam Driver, excellent direction. Very funny at times despite the heavy subject matter, ties it all in to modern day events at the end to annoy (racist) white people. Highly recommended, the two hours and 15 minutes flew by.
 

whisky

Boobie inspector
I saw Stuber, for a comedy it made me laugh a lot, which for me is the minimum requirement.
 

whisky

Boobie inspector
I watched manaquinne from 1987, James Sanders character looked and sounded like Jacob Rees Mogg, it was uncanny.
 
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