[CASUAL] January Movie Challenge

[Nero Cain]

Pick of the litter-2018

documentary that follows a litter of puppies as they train to become guide dogs for the blind. I thought it was fine. Might have been worthwhile to explore the hardships (if any) for the people that raise the puppies but other than that it was fine.

7

[Porkens]

Belle - first anime I’ve seen in the theatre in a looooong time. Not bad not mind blowing

[Malkon05]

33) Too Hot To Handle Season 3

With a total of 6.9 hours of episodes (414 minutes over 10 episodes) there was a lot to get through. It's the same story as the first two seasons, 10 or so horny attractive people show up for what they think is all about sex and stuff, however a talking cone known as Lana becomes a pseudo chastity device and threatens them by saying if they do stuff like kiss, or hanky panky, or you know...apparently put up a sheet and kiss through the sheet (yes that actually did happen this season) or you lose money from a prize fund. Now, normally there's like this person who is very strict and says DONT DO THIS OR WE WILL BE SUPER MAD and usually they come out of it with something. But apparently season 3 said "fuck it we don't need $200,000" and literally blew through it all. Gambling on a bet they knew would fail, kissing literally in some of the most bizarre ways possible, and you know unable to like stop from doing some solo stuff. This cast blew through the entire prize fund before the end and only saved any money because probably the producers didn't want to be a big bummer and allowed a "final test" to put $90,000 back in the pot (in spite of someone drinking champagne out of someone else's stomach which...apparently is fine? With pseudo weird rules and like finding ways to get around said rules, this season tried a lot and most of the time didn't get away with it. By the end with basically a pity fund, they finally went to vote and for the first time in the show's history

Lana awarded the prize to a couple rather than an individual.

Really this was just more of the first two seasons, except I felt like the cast was a little more bland than the first two seasons. I barely remember any of the characters except for like the main two couples and one of the women who went through some pretty major growth of doing the right thing after starting off as the floozy of the show. Aside from these people though the producers basically just said screw the rest of the cast and really gave them hardly any screen time except for the ones they booted. It was a weird edit and one of the most unsurprising final 3s of all (aside from the spoiled bit). I'm wondering if they are just having a harder time finding good characters for the show because this was the worst cast so far, although the winner was surprisingly refreshing. Overall, it's more of the same with a couple small changes, and...for some reason I felt like there was way less drama and less to invest in. It left me wanting more. 3/5

[Nero Cain]

The Beach-2000

eh.....it was ok? The first part was fairly entertaining I thought but midway through the film it went downhill for me and I thought the ending was kinda meh but I get it. I think the premise of the is better than the execution.

6

[Kublai Khan]

Marriage Story (Noah Baumbach-2019)

Brutal, sort of. Well, I don't know. I'm still digesting this. It's a story about a couple attempting to end a relationship without acrimony, but failing. Both the husband and wife are not bad people but man, those resentments in a relationship can really built up and explode on you. It gets bitter, lawyers get involved, and while the frustration mounts, the movie does a good job avoiding melodrama. There's something about Baumbach's style that's almost procedural.

I enjoyed this, but I'm not sure I could watch it again. All the Oscar nominations were well-deserved.

[Nero Cain]

Plaza Suite-1971

Hulu has this mislabeled as a comedy, at least IMHO. Like you could maybe argue that the first act is meant to be sardonic and you could say the third act is straight-up comedy/drama but the 2nd isn't comedic at all.

5

[Malkon05]

34) There's Someone Inside Your House

Well this was interesting. A horror movie where the killer knows your deepest, darkest secret and uses it to taunt you in the final moments before your death. It's like every cliche horror movie except I kind of liked this one. It's not perfect, far from it, however it deals with orientation, with race, with gender, and covers a variety of deep issues and overcoming them. It's definitely flawed, yet I found the main character pretty compelling and the situation at least felt somewhat believable. The reveal at the end was...well predictable. I called it about 30 minutes into the movie. But I would say it's worth watching once. I didn't hate it! I didn't particularly love it, but it's not a bad horror netflix movie if you are looking for a good way to spend a night. It certainly was more my speed than We Bought A Zoo, though I don't really thing that's saying much. Very, horror in a small town. The mask thing was kind of interesting too. 3.4/5

[xofelf]

13) The Faculty (1998)
You know, I wasn't sure what to expect with this movie. There was this one tape I own somewhere around here that had a trailer for this movie that I've seen since I was a kid and I have always wondered what this movie was all about and it's been on my watch list forever. What I was not prepared for was how star-studded this cast is. You've got everybody from Elijah Wood, Josh Hartnett, Clea DuVall, Jordana Brewster giving pretty decent acting jobs for the teens they're playing, but then you also have the likes of Robert Patrick, Salma Hayek, Jon Stewart, and Famke Janssen playing various adults here. It's wild.
But the movie itself, it's your basic alien bodysnatching horror really. I've seen a lot of movies kinda like it. Effects aren't bad, there's a couple of lines that just don't hit the way they're supposed to and are kinda funny instead. I don't know if I would call it a fun time, but I still liked it and I appreciate seeing it. It hits all the right notes you'd expect from Robert Rodriguez.

[Malkon05]

35) Don't Look Up

I've joined the bandwagon and finally checked this one off of my list. A dark comedy about a freaking comet that literally no one handles well and the one or two people who try to make things better aren't able to because the people who matter won't listen. Don't look up is fascinating as a political, scientific, and denialism study. It had so many big names too, but really the highlight for me was the Just Look Up song performed by Ariana Grande which was honestly the sort of peak of the movie.

If this movie taught me one thing, it's never trust a cell phone company. 4.7/5 I had a good time with this one, very little to complain about.

[Malkon05]

Don't Look Up (Adam McKay-2021)

I love good satire and this is good satire. There is an impending disaster and this movie satirizes our culture's current inability to focus and deal with the disaster. It was intended to be prescient in describing our reaction to climate change, but instead it's a commentary on our inability to handle a pandemic. Recommended.

Thanks for the recommend, inspired me to watch it!

[xofelf]

14) Sucker Punch(2011)

I've seen this one several times. It's incredibly stylized and beautifully shot. The story isn't the best, but it's at least largely coherent. The fantasy worlds within fantasy worlds is a pretty nice touch tbh. I appreciate how video game esque the furthest one in is. Also the soundtrack slaps.

[xofelf]

15) Lady Bird(2017)
I'm a little disappointed. Like, yeah this was a good movie. But it had been hyped up so much and it just wasn't quite what I expected it to be after all of that. It was well acted, well shot, and well done but idk.. it didn't quite snag my emotions in the way I thought it was going to.
Edit: Okay, I'm being a little harsh. Like... there's really not a bad character. They all have moments and there's all sorts of nuance everywhere. It is really well done. I think some bits hit too close where I didn't feel things I thought I was going to.

[xofelf]

16) Alias Grace(2017) All 6 episodes of the Limited Series
So I had started this a while back when I was on a period drama kick, but I stopped in the middle for some reason and never went back. It's based off of a novel by Margaret Atwood, and it's definitely got all the highlights of such things. I don't know if I'm satisfied with how it ended, but I did rather enjoy the way they went through finding out does Grace actually know how the murders she was convicted of happen, or has she truly forgotten? If period pieces that also deal with murders are your jam, this might be for you. Also it seems there is an actual Grace Marks the novel was based on, so if that appeals also, enjoy.

[Porkens]

Mudbound - I liked it

[Kublai Khan]

The Face of Another (Hiroshi Teshigahara-1966)

A disfigured businessman gets a transplanted new face, but the new face leads to a change in personality.

Didn't really care for this. It's a very 60's art film so it's very slow and has meandering "meaningful" shots that I didn't really connect with. A great deal is made about how the protagonist is going to seduce his wife with his new identity and it's just obviously such a bad idea that it's cringy. Didn't enjoy.

[Nero Cain]

have I won yet?

[Kublai Khan]

The Colony (a/k/a Tides) (Tim Fehlbaum-2021)

A post-apocalyptic world where the super-rich who left the environmentally devastated Earth for Kepler return because they are no longer fertile, only to find that Earth has changed in their absence.

This was dull. The apocalyptic Earth is very foggy and confined to mostly dark featureless rooms. And any action is shaky-cammed up. So this was just dull, uninteresting, and become too convoluted to follow as I just didn't care about anyone.

[Kublai Khan]

have I won yet?

Probably. But technically the contest goes on until the 31st.

I'll get a tally of the points up on Sat.

[VashtaNeurotic]

15) Ocean's Eleven (2001)

I can't believe all these famous actors robbed a Casino and no one noticed. Pretty good heist film, good editing, the heist is cool and the tension is kept up just enough without being overbearing.

[xofelf]

17) Ocean's Eleven(2001)
So I watched Ocean's Eight when it came out and I really enjoyed that one, but I had never seen any of the other Ocean's films in their entirety. So it was about time to fix that. It was like fine? Like it's a heist film, and that's effectively what you get from start to finish. It's not overly flashy, it's just pretty solid. Can't really complain. I get why people like the series, some bits were very slick and clever. I think I just also like people to be more characters than stereotypical roles ya know? Tess deserves better.
But also, it kinda made me appreciate a lot of the nods from Ocean's Eight that I hadn't quite caught as being specific references to story beats here. I may just like that one more cuz at least I understood who everyone was as a character and not just their stereotypical role, where like here a few people felt slightly superfluous and just basically the same cookie-cutter character.

[Malkon05]

36) Scream 5

My first movie in an actual movie theater in 2.5 years. Man I missed this experience. Streaming just isn't the same. Anyways, this was a nice addition to the Scream franchise and might be my favorite since the first quiet honestly (although I am a sucker for 4). Good plot twists, good cliches, decent way to re-introduce some old faces, and a semi-believable plot that made sense. I actually guessed part of the plot pretty early, but it was still rather entertaining all things considered. I recommend it. Always a treat seeing Neve Campbell on my screen <3 A couple fake outs, a couple jumps, and some really grotesque stabbings really were the cherry on top to a great evening with friends. The movie was pretty great too! 4.4/5!

[Nero Cain]

Dora and the Lost City of Gold-2019

Yes, you heard that right. I watched a family movie based on an educational children's show from nickelodeon and it wasn't horrible. Like I'm not saying that it's the next Citizen Kane but it's no Plan 9 either. There was a mix of live action and animation and I wasn't big on that. Like I think you make it as realistic as possible or go animated but you commit either way. Instead of an animated fox, maybe one of the bad guys has a pet fox or something. Or instead of the animated monkey character give her a real monkey or make Dora depressed or something and Boots is just a figment of her imagination. The movie still grossed over 100 mil without my shitty ideas so w/e.


It was more or less a fish out of water story when she

goes to live in the city

. And the full-on Indiana Jones when they get back to the jungle.

6

[Kublai Khan]

Chocolat (Lasse Hallström-2000)

In a stodgy Catholic town, an outsider opens up a chocolate shop and ends up introducing change in the lives of the townsfolk.

I really liked this movie. I loved that religion was such a prominent metaphor for complacency and the chocolatier is unapologetically pagan.

[Kublai Khan]

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (Destin Daniel Cretton-2021)

This felt like a perfectly acceptable standard Marvel movie. It feels reductive to say, but at this point, I think the creative team behind Marvel has a formula and a long-term vision so they aren't taking very many risks or shaking up their style. The one thing that this movie does better than any other is that the martial arts fighting scenes are incredible.

[Malkon05]

37) I Know What You Did Last Summer

It's been years since I saw this movie and I honestly forgot most of the plot of this movie. I even forgot Sarah Michelle Gellar was in this movie. But man was I reminded. I still think Jennifer Love Hewitt is one of the worst leading ladies in a horror movie ever, but the plot is pretty simple. A group of teens is partying and hit a man on the road. They think they've killed hima nd they take the body to the nearby lake to dump it. However, just before dumping it, the guy wakes up, however they still push him into the water when he tries to attack them and the man drowns. A year later they all start getting threats and have to band together to figure out who or what is chasing after them. The plot is about as cheesy as I remember, but with Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Ryan Phillippe & Freddie Prinz, Jr at the helm you know at the very least you are in for some fun. I mostly revisited this because I watched Scream recently and thought it would be fun to revisit my stomping grounds. It was fine. It's not like amazing horror, but it was good for a jumpscare or two. It's worth a watch since it's on netflix, but after that probably not worth your time. There are better horror movies and better lead actresses. 3/5.