Recent theatrical viewings

[M.10rda]

In the interests of druidic balance, though...

BACKROOMS (2026):
5/5     Beautiful film. No notes. I want more.

[Rev. Powell]

BACKROOMS > OBSESSION for sure, even if the IMDb numbers say different.

[M.10rda]

It occurs to me upon surfing this site this AM that BACKROOMS (among its other qualities) is an eerily precise representation of our "What Was That Film?" Board.       Describing a dog, just naaaaaht that clearly.

[chainsaw midget]

I saw Masters of the Universe. 

I think this is about as god a movie as you could possibly hope for with He-man. It pokes fun at itself a few times, but never seems to mock what it's based on. The classic cartoon was the type that wanted to teach you a lesson and I enjoyed they they actually worked that into He-man's character here (and the first end credit scene).

I actually didn't know there were going to be any others so I missed the other two and didn't find out about them until reading another forum's conversation about the movie.

The costumes, setting, gadgets, characters, there was never a moment this DIDN'T feel like a He-man movie, or felt like another movie trying to pass itself off as He-man. This was pure 100% Masters of the Universe. It had just about anything you could ask for in a Masters of the Universe movie, including Dolph Lundgren.

[Jim H]

Saw The Furious.  If you like martial arts action films, this is a must see, some of the most intricate and well performed fight scenes ever made.  The story and character work, not so much.  This is actually an issue I've had with a number of really well choreographed martial arts films coming from Southeast Asia and Japan lately.  They'll try to be serious and grim with the story or just really thin and it ends up working worse than if they'd just focused on the basics of storytelling.  I don't need GREAT storytelling it just needs basic competence, not be boring, and not annoy me. 

Like, for an easy comparison, watch Drunken Master II.  Jackie Chan is affable, likable, has moments of melodrama, and has a simple but clear arc and the characters have a clear goal you want them to get to but it's not TOO serious for something so goofy.  Where are any of the characters in the Furious going as characters?  I guess the mute lead has a tiny bit going on, but not much.  The villains motivation is cartoonishly evil and vile, in fact it's too much for something they don't have the skills or interest to fully weigh on the audience.  The villains are paper thin and the main one has all his dialogue in English and it's all awful, and he doesn't even meet the leads until the last 20 minutes.  The film also has a significant slow patch that should have been trimmed about the time of the rescue and before the jail sequence.

One exception is Brian Le's dimwitted thug, who is genuinely one of my favorite second tier bad guys in any martial arts films.  Incredible performance physically (he says the character is partially modeled on Donkey Kong, and I believe him), and just a highly entertaining character. 

I probably sound pretty negative, but that's because the fight scenes are so stellar and intricate it's hard to even discuss them the next day.  I'd have to rewatch them to really discuss them much.  Just, they're so damn good the film is well worth watching anyway.  Overall 8/10.

[Dr. Whom]

Truly Naked (2026)

This is a highly contrived movie. The basic conceit is that the activist/feminist girl in class falls in love with the most diffident boy, who turns out to moonlight as the cameraman/editor for his dad's homegrown porn movie business.

You get the feeling that, once they had the basic premise, they then thought of a number of scenes that would follow and made a script to fit them in. The movie doesn't have a natural dynamic where the characters actions take you from a to b, but rather a lot of stuff happens in order to have these set pieces.
On the plus side, all the characters are very grounded and you get good performances all around, from a mostly inexperienced cast. It is also a very delicate examination of young love.
A bit gimmicky, but I liked it.