Every film you've watched in 2020

[dc20willsave]

Monster Party: A film with an interesting premise (A trio of thieves accidentally disrupt a recovering serial killers support group's get together) stops working once it kind of just becomes a slasher, especially with a couple too many characters.

Harry Potter 1-8: They were on tv this weekend, I got bored, so here we are. I appreciate Deathly Hollows Part 2 a bit more now, Azkaban is still the best one, the Chris Columbus films aren't terrible but they try too hard to be whimsical, Goblet is meh, David Yates does a good job of making the last four films seem cohesive if a little mundane at times, and the adult actors, especially Alan Cumming, are almost all to be commended for the work they put in!

Out of curiousity, I checked my Flickchart to see how they rank. In order it appears to be Azkaban, Deathly Hallows Part 2, Order of the Phoenix, Deathly Hallows Part 1, Sorcerer's Stone, Half-Blood Prince, Chamber of Secrets, Goblet of Fire.

Films: 65
Mst3k/Rifftrax/Other Assisted: 12

[dc20willsave]

All About Eve: It was five bucks on Amazon and my DVD vanished years ago so I figured sure. Still one of my favorite films of all time. It's just a delightfully bitchy film filled with terrific performances and some good commentary on theater and Hollywood alike. Bette Davis is absolutely glorious in the film and the fact that she didn't tie with Gloria Swanson for the Oscar that year is a shame (As is, neither of them one because they likely split the vote/Anne Bancroft should have went supporting.)

Clue: Another favorite. Insanely quotable and with tons of good performances and great gags.

Films: 67
Mst3k/Rifftrax/Other Assisted: 12

[teenalphabro]

The House of the Devil: First time viewing. It's a solid movie, with a banger ending. Highly recommended. 

Films Watched: 15

[Dread]

The Mangler/The Mangler 2: Graduation Day/The Mangler Reborn: review forthcoming. Whatever could the theme be?

• Features: 40
• Shorts: 2
• Documentaries: 4
• Rewatches: 1

[teenalphabro]

Brawl in Cell Block 99: I have some quibbles with it, but overall, this was spectacular. 

Films Watched: 16

[Dread]

The Image Revolution: I helped Kickstart this documentary and it's great. This was the extended version which is about 11 minutes longer than the DVD release. I don't really see where the extra footage is, but it's still compelling. I kind of wish there was more with Whilce Portacio. His is a story that deserved more screen time. I don't know the whole story, but right about the time Wetwork was getting traction his sister got really sick or something? Not Sure. That still, all these guys are compelling onscreen. Great doc. Highly recommended. This is one of three IMDB credits I have. The other two are Frankenstein Created Bikers and Space Babes from Outer Space, so I'm kind of a big deal.

• Features: 40
• Shorts: 2
• Documentaries: 5
• Rewatches: 1

[Missy]

He's very much the overlooked Image founder, 'cause Wetworks wasn't released until two years after the other Image launch titles.

[Dread]

15 hours ago, The Master said:

He's very much the overlooked Image founder, 'cause Wetworks wasn't released until two years after the other Image launch titles.

Yeah, I think he was hampered by more than family illness. Not sure the story. He was one of my favourite artists, and I really dug Wetworks.

[Davedevil]

Could be wrong, but I had heard that after his sister died and he went home to the Philippines, he had issues getting back into the US.

[dc20willsave]

The Lego Movie 2: The Second One: It's not as good as the original Lego Movie but it's fairly fun at the same time.

Gremlins 2: The New Batch: Probably one of the best sequels of all time. Joe Dante made a completely different kind of movie from the original film but it works so well because of that. We get satire of both Ted Turner and Donald Trump, we have some great practical effects, and so many fun performances. Christopher Lee alone is worth the price of attendance!

The Wasp Woman: Still not a fan of Cinematic Titanic but they do the most with what they're given. Was mostly just distracted when they went into a sketch in the middle of the movie. The movie itself kept reminding me of Evil Beautycorp from Catwoman. I'm sure there was some halfway decent commentary about gender and aging somewhere in there but it got stuck under the misogyny.

Films: 69
Mst3k/Rifftrax/Other Assisted: 13

[dc20willsave]

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: This thing is a SLOG to get through. There's some cursory attempts at retaining continuity from the previous films, it goes on way too long, and doesn't yet have any of the absurd what the hell were they thinking moments of the Marky Mark films. It all adds up to an intensely boring film, even with all the explosions. As absurdly dumb as this franchise is, this is still somehow the nadir of the entire thing.

Friday the 13th: The Original. Such a good film. Watched it with a friend who hadn't seen it and didn't realize Jason wasn't the killer. Just a ton of good suspense!

Hobgoblins: It's a MST3K classic. The film itself is a Gremlins knock-off that never quite works but whatever.

Films: 69
Mst3k/Rifftrax/Other Assisted: 14

[teenalphabro]

Stir of Echoes: This was really good! Turns out, Kevin Bacon's a good actor, who knew. 

Films Watched: 17

[Missy]

Hell yeah! That movie is great! If you get a chance, try the novel by Richard Matheson.

[Dan]

On 4/16/2020 at 7:16 PM, Dread said:

The Image Revolution: I helped Kickstart this documentary and it's great. This was the extended version which is about 11 minutes longer than the DVD release. I don't really see where the extra footage is, but it's still compelling. I kind of wish there was more with Whilce Portacio. His is a story that deserved more screen time. I don't know the whole story, but right about the time Wetwork was getting traction his sister got really sick or something? Not Sure. That still, all these guys are compelling onscreen. Great doc. Highly recommended. This is one of three IMDB credits I have. The other two are Frankenstein Created Bikers and Space Babes from Outer Space, so I'm kind of a big deal.

• Features: 40
• Shorts: 2
• Documentaries: 5
• Rewatches: 1

Is this the one where Liefeld busts out his Todd McFarland impression?

[Dread]

16 minutes ago, Dan said:

Is this the one where Liefeld busts out his Todd McFarland impression?

It's a pretty great impression...

Hot Rod: Watched this because youngest is a huge Brooklyn Nine-Nine fan. This was alright. Some decent laughs. Probably would have been better had I seen it when it came out.

Zombieland Double Tap: This was not as good as the first film, but, like the first film, it definitely had its moments. Rosario Dawson is a hell of an addition to the cast because she's delightful. The best part of the film is the flashback in the mid-credits sequence.

Beverly Hills Cop:Fuck this movie is good. So funny, so action-packed. It's easy to see why Murphy was one of the biggest stars in the world.

Sam Was Here/Wax Mask: reviews forthcoming

• Features: 45
• Shorts: 2
• Documentaries: 5
• Rewatches: 1

[Missy]

Bloody Birthday: Clearly inspired by Halloween (and with lots of music from Psycho and Jaws), this slasher from 1981 is a lot of fun. Three 10-year-olds start killing people because they can. It might have something to do with their births coinciding with a solar eclipse, but they don't go too deep into that. Curtis steals the show, but Debbie is a little creep in her own believable way. If you've never seen it and have access to Shudder, I highly recommend it.

[Dread]

Incubus/Incident In a Ghostland: reviews forthcoming

• Features: 47
• Shorts: 2
• Documentaries: 5
• Rewatches: 1

[teenalphabro]

Blue Velvet: David Lynch is good, who knew?

Films Watched: 18

[Professor]

Clearing things off the pile of unwatched DVDs.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - The first and the best.  I don't know if this is nostalgia coloring things, but I think the suit still look great and work better than the CG to come.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II - Probably my most watch movie growing up.  It's a downgrade, to be sure, but sill fun.  Knowing that it was pumped out in a less than a year is obvious looking at it now.  And I think I noticed a plot point I never noticed upon the previous 742 viewings. 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III - I never understood why this one in particular was criticized when it is no worse than II.  It tried something different, and I like it for that.  Also, learned that "The Sacred Scroll of Death" was a subtitle used at some point.  Seems a bit much.  And the switch of puppeteer shops is very noticeable.

TMNT - It's fun.  Villains are weak and rather unimportant to the story.  Feels short and more like a pilot 'movie' to a new series than a theatrical movie.  Didn't realize Chris Evans was in this either.  At the very least, the rooftop fight is awesome.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014) - I hate the redesign of the turtles and Shredder .  I dislike the CG, but I get it.  Otherwise, it is an okay movie.  First half is a little boring and I get disinterested in the CG battles, but it had moments.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows - Better of the two.  That still puts it at number 5 overall, so faint praise. Shredder looks much better, but Casey is horrible so even trade.  Nice that it only took six movies for no one to get captured.

Turtle Power: The Definitive History - Documentary that was anything but.  Suffers from something most documentaries I watch do, pacing.  At 95 minutes, it feels like they scratched the surface on, say the comics.  Went pretty in-depth on the toys & the first movie.  But then everything after the first movie is rushed.  The video games, the comics post Eastman & Laird split, the Eastman & Laird split.  And the second wave with the 03 cartoon was never even mentioned.  With something like TMNT there is so much to cover.  If this was a focus on the rise of TMNT ending at the movie, it could have been excellent.  As is, it is a decent rush thru the 30+ years, with some surprising home video footage.

As a side note:  I found it incredible odd that they could show footage of the movie/cartoon, but any audio from the clips was not original.  Most notably was the cartoon theme.  That seems like a weird copyright issue I have never seen before.

[Missy]

3 hours ago, Professor said:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II - Probably my most watch movie growing up.  It's a downgrade, to be sure, but sill fun.  Knowing that it was pumped out in a less than a year is obvious looking at it now.  And I think I noticed a plot point I never noticed upon the previous 742 viewings.

I gotta rewatch Turtles 3. Of the first five, it's the one I've seen the least. Also need to see Out of the Shadows.

What's the plot point from Part 2?

[teenalphabro]

The Loved Ones: Haven't seen this in ages. It still holds up, weirdly. 

Films Watched: 19

[Professor]

6 hours ago, The Master said:

I gotta rewatch Turtles 3. Of the first five, it's the one I've seen the least. Also need to see Out of the Shadows.

What's the plot point from Part 2?

The David Warner professor states when making the anti-ooze that he has no idea if it will work because he deliberately altered the Ooze when making Tokka and Rahzar, thus making them less intelligent.   I always took it as he didn't know the anti-ooze would work because the formation of the ooze was an accident to begin with.  Small thing, but never noticed.

 

I forgot to mention that this is the first time that I watched any of these after I read the original comics (well, Vol. 1 - 4, but mainly the first).  Shocking how much the movie follows a lot of the first 20 or so issues (at least the Foot based story).  And that is also why I like TMNT III.  Yeah, time travel, but they went to space in issue 5.  So time travel isn't so bad.

[S-T]

Lethal Weapon: normally Hollywood has actors playing younger characters but Riggs and Murtaugh are both 10 years older than Gibson and Glover. Murtaugh’s daughter is ten years younger than the actress who plays her though.

The suitcase phone was very amusing given modern technology.

The final boss fight is one of the dumbest I have seen. No way does any police force allow that fight to the death to go on. Lots and lots of camera tricks to hide a very bad looking fight -  nowhere near as good as I remember after watching it 30 years ago.

Films watched: 16

[dc20willsave]

Onward: It's mid-tier Pixar. There's some stuff that works but almost as much that doesn't. It's at least better realized than some other recent Urban Fantasy films.

Crazy Stupid Love: Cute enough film. There were some major elements that did not age well in the last few years. Still, there were a couple of twists I did not see coming and everyone did a pretty decent job. Still, film could have been about ten minutes shorter.

Nekrotronic: Australian Horror Comedy. It was okay but this was 100% Monica Bellucci's film! Everyone else was incidental if she was in a scene. As is, there's plenty of fun events and action scenes.

Films: 72
Mst3k/Rifftrax/Other Assisted: 14

[Professor]

This time I watched movies so I could listen to 5 year old podcasts.  Synergy?

X-Men: First Class - (2nd viewing) - Still seems like an odd grouping of mutants to use.  But they are all disposable beyond the key 4, so what do I know.  Some of the effects are rough.

X-Men: Days of Future Past - (1st viewing) - The best of the McAvoy films.  Nice attempt to tie everything together.  Not sure it works if you think about it hard enough, but don't think that matters.

X-Men: Apocalypse - (2nd viewing) - Always felt I missed things by not seeing DoFP beforehand.  I was wrong.  This is an incredibly boring film.  And overly long.  The entire 20 minutes spent on the military base were pointless filler only serving to provide a cameo.

X-Men: Dark Phoenix - (1st viewing) - Don't think this was as bad as the reviews I heard upon release.  Been forever since I've seen Last Stand, but I think I just watched it here.  Redoing Phoenix I get.  But not when it was written but the same guy who missed the first time.  Also, I thought Jennifer Lawrence looked disinterested in Apocalypse, but it was an entire new level here.
 

My overall feelings on these movies is a big meh.  And I think DoFP is the reason why.  While it is the best of the bunch, it causes more problems then it solved.  Being the direct sequel to First Class is issue one.  Outside of the core 4 (Magneto, Xavier, Mystique & Beast), and a cameo, every single character from First Class is dead.  We, as the viewer, were given no chance to attach to that team.  Just dead.  But we get all the old favorites.  Or some.  But they aren't the main story and generally upstaged by the other future mutants.  Who we dont get attached to and, then, dead.  Moving on to Apocalypse, we focus on some of the original movie team.  Fine enough, but that also removes the characters from all danger.  The ending of DoFP show most alive and well.  So while the events don't follow the timeline we know as X1-X3, we still know in this timeline no one dies.  Thus, my boredom.

Hindsight and all, if the movies were tweaked and the order mixed around (with DoFP as the last film), that would have been a fitting sendoff for the Fox X-Men franchise.  Kinda similar to Endgame, but fitting.  And I some of the reviews I listened to today talk about 'nerds complaining about continuity.  Stupid Nerds.'  While I am, it is only because they started it by trying to tie the Stewart & McAvoy films together. 

 

When Marvel gets around to making X-Men movies, I hope that Magento is nowhere to be seen.  He has been in every single one.  And these 4 all had multiple heel/face turns.  It got old.  "Let's save the day.  No, I'm gonna murderkill everyone.  No, save the day.  Anybody fancy a game of chess?".  Has to be something better.