Last movie watched...

[repoman]

Free Guy

Standard Ryan Reynolds by-the-numbers action comedy.  On the plus side it was fun, likeable and visually pleasing.  On the fuck off side I don't need to see another action sequence filmed to a twee pop song.  That gag has been overused.

Works well as the sort of film you can watch once, thoroughly enjoy and then wait until you catch it twenty minutes in on regular TV in about seven years time.  The sort of thing you don't need to own.

Old

Absolutely dismal.  Fucking hell.  I've not got anything against M Night.  Signs was good.  Well, this leads towards the dogshit side of things. 

I'm not sure what I hated more about it.  The pacing was bad.  Like everyone knew about the ageing thing so just get on with it.  But instead it took ages to get to the point.

The acting was dismal.  I mean shockingly bad.  Like 'doesn't feel like a real film' bad.  It had that weird 'people don't actually talk like this' feel that Alien Covenant has. 

The maths in the film felt completely off.  And the ending was hyper shit.

[spoiler]And I was hoping a classic M Night twist would save it but there wasn't one. 

Oh and 'my uncle doesn't like the coral' literally made my eyes roll out of my head and into my cup of tea.[/spoiler]

[milstar]

The Commuter

One of those Liam Neeson's films that seem to be popular now. Middle aged man in action role, getting himself way over his head. In fact, the best description of this film would be a quasi-remake of Non-Stop, but in a train. Liam looks much older here, but still puts a formidable strength, although he receives a decent amount of nasty knuckles in the process. I like how one of the fights is made into one, several minutes long, unbroken shot The story is rather generic and it gets a bit over the top in the third act when the train spirals out of control. Also, Patrick Wilson, friend [spoiler]and later turned villain (whose reveal is obvious from the very beginning)[/spoiler] does another lousy role. Still, it's entertaining piece and I like Liam so I don't mind that I spent my time on this film.

[pictsy]

Free Guy

I struggle to begin with my thoughts on this one.  It's utterly dumb.  Not in any way original.  Insultingly stupid in places.  Entirely clueless.  It almost felt like the script was written by someone watching let's plays of GTA5 or something.  And then re-written by someone who has been locked in a cupboard all their life.  Then re-written by a Disney exec.  Speaking of which, the Marvel and Star Wars references were painful.  They are so bad I'll go as far to say that I am without equivocation entirely of the opinion that both Star Wars and the MCU are lame.  I mean, I've been leaning towards that opinion for a long time anyway, but this film pushed me over the edge.

Am I supposed to know who those cameos are?  Am I supposed to care?  I don't, so I guess the answer to both questions is no.  Maybe someone should tell this movie, because it thinks the answers are yes.  I really don't know who this movie is supposed to be for.  If it is for gamers how can they reconcile all the inaccuracies?  If it's not for gamers how can they reconcile the concept that gaming is a universally popular phenomenon to the extent people watch streaming on TVs?  My guess is this film is for people who like to watch Ryan Reynolds in films.  Hey, that's me.  I like doing that.  No, I don't hate myself.  Why are you thinking that?

So as a person who likes to watch Ryan Reynolds in films, does this film satisfy?  Well.  A little.  I like Ryan Reynolds in this film.  I found him enjoyable to watch and liked his performance as I often do.  This film has some nice moments, especially between Guy and Buddy.  I really liked the part where they were at Buddy's apartment.  It was incredibly sweet.

Other quick thoughts.  The third act was almost unwatchable as to how trite it is (it's where the fucking SW and MCU references are, after all).  Roided Ryan Reynolds isn't funny.  It's a better film than Detective Pikachu, but doesn't have a better concept.  It's a better film than Ready Player One and does have a better concept.  It is a very average film.

It is everything I expected it to be.

[pictsy]

So this is slightly antithesis to the thread being that this is not "Last movie watched".  It's "Next movie I am going to watch".

Earlier this year I watched the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise for the first time and had a blast doing so.  I've been getting my horror on a lot more recently.  As I am in the mood and October is the horror themed month now, I decided that tomorrow I will watch the original Friday the 13th film.  Infact, I'm watching all the Friday the 13th films over the next ten days.  Then I'm going to watch another horror franchise*.  I am going to do a horror marathon for the entirety of October.

This is why I watched Free Guy tonight.  I needed a palette cleanser before going into this.

*I don't know which.  Not Halloween.  Maybe Child's Play and all the Hellraiser.  I haven't decided.

[I, Cosh]

*I don't know which.  Not Halloween.  Maybe Child's Play and all the Hellraiser.  I haven't decided.

Leprechaun.

[pictsy]

Leprechaun.

Seen them already

[Barrington Boots]

Good luck with the Friday the 13th complete watch, I did this a few years back the quality is very variable (ie a lot of them really suck)

Hellraiser would be my suggestion of the next franchise to watch although after the first two they're all awful and even the second one isn't the best. Could you do something like watch all of John Carpenters films?

[repoman]

I'm going to do a 31 days of horror thing this month.  Try to catch up on all these horror films.

Rather than do the usual thing of following set categories (which is how the internet does this), I'm just going to watch 31 horror films I've not seen.

[pictsy]

Good luck with the Friday the 13th complete watch, I did this a few years back the quality is very variable (ie a lot of them really suck)

Hellraiser would be my suggestion of the next franchise to watch although after the first two they're all awful and even the second one isn't the best. Could you do something like watch all of John Carpenters films?

I have some idea of what I'm getting into with Friday the 13th, re quality.  I know 6 is touted as the best, but after my strong disagreement that Dream Warriors is the best Elm Street movie, I'm more sceptical.

I'm thinking maybe Hellraiser.  I loved the first two as a kid and I've seen up to 5.  I actually enjoyed 5 when I watched it nearly 20 years ago.  I'm also thinking Child's Play 1-3.  Should be able to break it up with some other horror films I want to watch.  Nothing (except Friday the 13th) is set in stone, however.

[repoman]

6 and X are certainly my favourites.

If you want to see something highly inspired by Ft13 but with sillier more graphic kills, check out the Hatchet series.  There are four of them, again pretty mixed but if you get the uncut ones they're good fun.

They are over the top and a bit gory but it's all in a sort of silly Bad Taste/Brain Dead kind of way rather than some sort of horrible Hostel type of thing.

[Link Prime]

I am going to do a horror marathon for the entirety of October.

The Saw / Spiral films are brilliant as a horror marathon, largely due to the episodic nature of IV to VII.

I have consistently binged the 'Ghost Stories for Christmas' series of short films over the years, and will often include ancillary titles such as Crooked House and Schalken the Painter in the run.
Horror doesn't get much better than that grouping IMO.

Planning a Wicker Man and Midsommar double bill meself this weekend.

[milstar]

It could be nice idea 30 days of horror movies up until Halloween. But I don't think I have a strong heart for all of that.

Perhaps original (and the best in the series) Texas Chainsaw Massacre followed by The Shining, the first three Aliens, the remake of House on Haunted Hill, Dreamcatcher and some lower budgeted efforts. Hm...Dead and Buried totally freaked me out couple of months ago.

Some mentioned here Hellraiser, but I am completely disgusted by the film so I haven't bothered with the sequels.

[SmallBlueThing(Reborn)]

6 and X are certainly my favourites.

If you want to see something highly inspired by Ft13 but with sillier more graphic kills, check out the Hatchet series.  There are four of them, again pretty mixed but if you get the uncut ones they're good fun.

They are over the top and a bit gory but it's all in a sort of silly Bad Taste/Brain Dead kind of way rather than some sort of horrible Hostel type of thing.

Would heartily back up the calls for the Hatchet series- or at least the first three. I found 'Victor Crawley' (4) to be mostly unwatchable.

But- before those- and if you want to see Friday the 13th "done right", and especially if you are still close to having seen the original films for the first time- watch NEVER HIKE ALONE, NEVER HIKE IN THE SNOW and JASON RISING. All three are on YouTube, an evening watching the three will take up two hours, and the three together will demonstrate just what the F13 franchise *could* be capable of, were it in the hands of people with talent. Especially Jason Rising- which is incredible.

SBT

[pictsy]

Friday the 13th

That was a lot better than I was expecting.  I think I actually liked it.  It was pretty simple.  The murders weren't completely crazy cartoon affairs.  The way the characters are picked off one by one without the other characters knowing was good.  It actually got tense in places because of that.  Betsy Palmer hamming it up is a real juxtaposition to the other performances.  I was actually surprised to be reminded of Psycho rather than Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  The special effects were also surprisingly good.

There are times the pacing fails and it becomes a little tedious and the ending is weird.  I knew the ending was weird going in, but it is a little different experiencing it in context.

It's a decent film.  Nothing stellar, but not even close to how bad I thought it would be.  I was mostly expecting to be bored to tears.

Next up, the Revenge of Sack Head!

[Tiplodocus]

3:10 TO YUMA
A bit of a sausage party (the only women are mothers and whores) but cracking performances from Russell Crowe, Christian Bale (these two doing the opposite of each other) and Ben Foster deliver a pretty satisfying western.

Mangold is doing Indy 5 so after this and Logan, I'm expecting good things.