Recent viewings

[FatFreddysCat]

"Thunderball" (1965)
James Bond travels to the Bahamas on the trail of two stolen nuclear weapons in his fourth big screen adventure. "Thunderball" isn't quite as over-the-top as the preceding "Goldfinger," but it's still an entertaining spy thriller,  remembered today mainly for its impressive underwater sequences, which were some of the most elaborate ever filmed at the time.
Former Miss France Claudine Auger, who played Bond's love interest "Domino" in this flick, passed away earlier this week. R.I.P. Madame!

[indianasmith]

STAR WARS EPISODE III: REVENGE OF THE SITH

This was my favorite of all the prequels, and witnessing Palpatine's seduction of Anakin Skywalker all over again made me see why: no other film in the series makes the appeal of the Dark Side so tangible and tempting.  Darth Vader is an easy character to hate, but Anakin Skywalker is a truly tragic figure who did all the wrong things for what he thought were the right reasons.  I'm glad I took the time to sit and watch this again.

[Dr. Whom]

Shanghai Fortress (2019)

Continuing my exploration of Chinese blockbusters, I gave this one a go. My advice is: avoid. It has very few redeeming features. There is no plot to speak of, and the love story is undermined by the expressionless acting (I'd say 0.9 on the Keanu scale, with 1 Keanu being Keanu Reeves performance in The Day The Earth Stood Still).

For the rest, you have a big alien Mothership dropping killer robots on Shanghai which has a humongous cannon and swarms of drone fighters to defend itself. There are enough explosions to make Michael Bay jealous. In fact, it is as if the director watched Independence Day and thought to himself, 'what can we do to make this look more like Transformers?'

You have your standard inexplicable military decisions (such as, if you do have weapons that can destroy the alien robots, why do you issue the troops guarding key assets with assault rifles that are useless against these robots?) Also, in a strange way, it reminded me of the slower parts of the old UFO TV series: you have lots of long sequences of hardware being deployed and people staring worriedly at screens quoting map references to each other. But while UFO still conveyed a certain cold war menace, this has nothing.

The quality of the subtitles on Netflix didn't help either. I've seen better fansubs.

[Alex]

STAR WARS EPISODE III: REVENGE OF THE SITH

This was my favorite of all the prequels, and witnessing Palpatine's seduction of Anakin Skywalker all over again made me see why: no other film in the series makes the appeal of the Dark Side so tangible and tempting.  Darth Vader is an easy character to hate, but Anakin Skywalker is a truly tragic figure who did all the wrong things for what he thought were the right reasons.  I'm glad I took the time to sit and watch this again.

There is a special hell reserved for people who like the prequels. 

Just sayin'. 

[Gabriel Knight]

STAR WARS EPISODE III: REVENGE OF THE SITH

This was my favorite of all the prequels, and witnessing Palpatine's seduction of Anakin Skywalker all over again made me see why: no other film in the series makes the appeal of the Dark Side so tangible and tempting.  Darth Vader is an easy character to hate, but Anakin Skywalker is a truly tragic figure who did all the wrong things for what he thought were the right reasons.  I'm glad I took the time to sit and watch this again.

There is a special hell reserved for people who like the prequels. 

Just sayin'. 

I already marked a chair with my name in that place. I hope they show THE PHANTOM MENACE when I get there!

[Alex]

STAR WARS EPISODE III: REVENGE OF THE SITH

This was my favorite of all the prequels, and witnessing Palpatine's seduction of Anakin Skywalker all over again made me see why: no other film in the series makes the appeal of the Dark Side so tangible and tempting.  Darth Vader is an easy character to hate, but Anakin Skywalker is a truly tragic figure who did all the wrong things for what he thought were the right reasons.  I'm glad I took the time to sit and watch this again.

There is a special hell reserved for people who like the prequels. 

Just sayin'. 

I already marked a chair with my name in that place. I hope they show THE PHANTOM MENACE when I get there!

Only if you are very lucky. Personally I suspect you'll be watching Michael Bay movies for eternity lol.

[Gabriel Knight]

STAR WARS EPISODE III: REVENGE OF THE SITH

This was my favorite of all the prequels, and witnessing Palpatine's seduction of Anakin Skywalker all over again made me see why: no other film in the series makes the appeal of the Dark Side so tangible and tempting.  Darth Vader is an easy character to hate, but Anakin Skywalker is a truly tragic figure who did all the wrong things for what he thought were the right reasons.  I'm glad I took the time to sit and watch this again.

There is a special hell reserved for people who like the prequels. 

Just sayin'. 

I already marked a chair with my name in that place. I hope they show THE PHANTOM MENACE when I get there!

Only if you are very lucky. Personally I suspect you'll be watching Michael Bay movies for eternity lol.

Uh, that's a nice idea for a thread, haha.

[indianasmith]

ROBOCOP II
I hadn't seen this since the year it came out, but I watched all but the first ten minutes or so last night - what a steaming heap of B-movie cheese!  The "nice guy" Robocop was hilarious, but so was the idea of having a Boy Scout troop rob an electronics store.  And him reading Miranda rights to a dead guy was just classic!  1/5  on a regular movie scale, but a solid 4/5 on the Bad Movie Meter!

[claws]

Once Upon a Time ...in Hollywood (2019)

"Damn hippies!"

Is it wrong I wanted to see more of Sharon/Margot? 5/5

[Rev. Powell]

ONE CHILD NATION (2019): A Chinese woman living in America returns to China to interview locals about the "one child" policy the Communists enforced from 1979-2015. Since the policy led to forced sterilization and abortion, abandoned babies (especially girl babies), and a black market in adoptions, it proves self-indicting; a good history lesson for those who've never heard of it. 3/5.

[claws]

Don't F**k With Cats (2019)

Netflix documentary about an amateur sleuth Facebook group trying to expose the murderous doings of the attention seeking Canadian Killer Luka Magnotta.
No doubt Magnotta's crimes were sick and disgusting and the docu offers interesting insight (narcissistic Magnotta was living out Basic Instinct and American Psycho fantasies), but the 3+ hour running time gives the viewer plenty of hot air and even red herrings. This could've been easily told in a tight 90 minutes or less.
The two leaders of the Facebook group are obviously entitled social media keyboard warriors, self-applauding their useless Facebook group, whose efforts (out of boredom? attention seeking?) and lack of helpful evidence are mostly ignored by authorities during the investigation.
In the end this overlong docu has its own share of attention seeking (beginning with the title, which is disrespectful to Magnotta's victim Jun Lin), and is nothing more than your typical slice of glossy Netflix exploitation, including dodgy artificial movie-like suspense enhancements. 2.5/5

[claws]

A Wish For Christmas (2016)



A frustraded christmas nerd / web designer named Sara (Lacey Chabert) who has a hard time speaking up is granted a 48-hour wish where she can finally speak up. Sara gives her idea stealing department boss a piece of her mind and accuses her co-worker Molly of taking advantage of her, in a firm but nice way. Her hunky other boss with baby blue eyes is impressed, and takes Sara with him to Seattle to present a lucrative offer to a scroog-y client. Sara works her magic, causes a few gentle christmas miracles and saves the day.

Corny Hallmark production with a silly plot (speaking up? really?), schmaltzy x-mas stuff, unavoidable romance and predictable happy ending. In other words, perfect for making fun of.

[indianasmith]

THE ICE HARVEST - A jaded lawyer in Wichita Falls, Kansas schemes with a bag man for the local mob heavy to steal a bunch of money, but winds up on the run when the mob boss is tipped off to their embezzlement.  Lots of twists and turns along the way as this bleak Christmas eve film noir unfolds. 4/5

[Rev. Powell]

A Wish For Christmas (2016)



A frustraded christmas nerd / web designer named Sara (Lacey Chabert) who has a hard time speaking up is granted a 48-hour wish where she can finally speak up. Sara gives her idea stealing department boss a piece of her mind and accuses her co-worker Molly of taking advantage of her, in a firm but nice way. Her hunky other boss with baby blue eyes is impressed, and takes Sara with him to Seattle to present a lucrative offer to a scroog-y client. Sara works her magic, causes a few gentle christmas miracles and saves the day.

Corny Hallmark production with a silly plot (speaking up? really?), schmaltzy x-mas stuff, unavoidable romance and predictable happy ending. In other words, perfect for making fun of.

Some of those Hallmark Christmas movies must be bad-funny, but I am not the one to dive in and search for them. Do the research and get back to us with the best (worst!)

Meanwhile I am in awards season mode and I need to watch one movie/day to see all my groups nominees. So in the past 2 days I watched

JOKER: A mentally ill clown goes vigilante in crime-ridden Gotham City. The idea to do the Joker's origin story as a gritty standalone psychodrama in the style of Martin Scorsese, circa 1977, was a surprise commercial hit and a reasonable artistic success. Casting Joaquin Phoenix, the best actor working today, helps a lot. 3.5/5.

THE IRISHMAN: An Irish truck driver works his way into the mafia in the 1960s, eventually becoming a confidant of Jimmy Hoffa. Watching Scorsese, De Niro, Pacino and Pesci collaborate on a gangster film for one last time is like watching an aging rock band's farewell tour. Plenty of nostalgia, but the edge just isn't there anymore. 3/5.

[claws]

Some of those Hallmark Christmas movies must be bad-funny, but I am not the one to dive in and search for them. Do the research and get back to us with the best (worst!)

I'll do that, but only once a year. I don't have Netflix but my sister does. I spend the holidays at my sister and it has become a tradition looking up bad christmas movies on Netflix and making fun of them. We had a blast as usual.