What have you watched lately?

[Ran]

I knew there was a Zorro sequel, but never saw it.

Since anarky mentioned it, I checked to see if Zorro, The Gay Blade was even available. Walmart has the DVD for $8.68. The google search also showed a paperback novelization on some used book website.

[jjreason]

Dune. 4.5 big sandworms out of 5. Really beautifully done & my only gripe is stupid - I found too many of the faces too familiar. I am going to alienate chux by saying I do not need to see Poe Dameron (and Zendaya, and Aquaman) in every fucking movie & tv show I watch. Mix it up, Hollywood. Rebecca Ferguson was a perfect choice honestly - I don't know her face & she did an amazing job. I'm not sick of Chalumet yet either, but I am fearful that the day is coming soon.

I found the political aspects to be easy to follow. I have heard the gripe that it's convoluted - not at all. Those complaints must come from the same people that didn't understand the Matrix.

[Diabolical]

While well done overall, I thought the first 30 of so minutes of Dune were incredibly boring.

[jjreason]

It's going to be about 5.5 - 6hrs of movie, I think 30 minutes to establish things is going to turn out to be ok in the grand scheme. The music & scenery were beautiful to experience for me. Color palette & look/feel not too far off what we saw in Bladerunner 2049.

[anarky]

I just watched The Pink Panther. I tell you this so that you don't make the same mistake.

I've always heard it was this classic of slapstick comedy. It was painfully unfunny and quite dull. Clouseau is the only character who's not a completely unlikable shit, and for the first roughly 80-90 minutes, he's barely in it and his clumsy shtick is just too forced to be amusing.

I will admit that the writers apparently died or terminal athlete's foot or something with about a half hour to go before the end, and Clouseau became mildly funny. But too little, too late, and an ending where all the loathsome shitfuckers essentially win fucks the whole movie right up the asshole.

I have heard the sequels are much better, and may someday work up the guts to test that claim.

[Tom Foolery]

The first sequel, A Shot In the Dark, is much funnier. Clouseau was a minor supporting character in the first film, and director Blake Edwards and Sellers realized the gem they had with Clouseau and tailored the subsequent films to showcase him. They are a product of their time and borderline cringe watching them today, but I unapologetically love them. After Sellers died, they milked the franchise for like three more films using cut footage from the previous films. One of them had a young Roberto Begnini as Clouseau’s bumbling son. You can skip those. There was also an Inspector Clouseau movie starring Alan Arkin. Also skip-able.

A Shot in the Dark
Return of the Pink Panther
Pink Panther Strikes Again
Revenge of the Pink Panther

At the very least give Shot in the Dark a watch. If you’re feeling the same after, the franchise probably isn’t your cup of tea.

[jjreason]

No Time to Die. Inarguably the worst of the Daniel Craig Bond films & arguably the worst of the entire 25 movie franchise. I wish I had stopped at Spectre.

[Tom Foolery]

tick, tick…Boom. The story of the guy that created the hit Broadway show RENT, but died the day before it had it’s first public showing. Starred Andrew Garfield(who is getting some Oscar buzz) and directed by Lin Manuel Miranda, who has written every song you’ve heard in the last five years.

[Ran]

Free Guy. Good, but couldn't help feel like I was watching The Lego Movie.

R.I.P.D. Didn't have any interest in it when it came out, but happened to see it this weekend on TV. It wasn't bad.

Bill and Ted Excellent Adventure. Has anyone ever done a mash-up of Bill and Ted sneaking through the police station with Neo sneaking through the office in The Matrix?

[Ran]

The Green Knight. I read the plot summary. Watched it, and I'm still exactly not sure what happened. I had trouble hearing a bunch of dialog at the beginning because they were whispering.

[jjreason]

I've been meaning to start that one too. It looks bloody amazing visually, but I've heard a couple of people say the story didn't match the visuals for quality.

[Tom Foolery]

Uncharted. If you can get past the bullshit physics of every single action sequence, from the beginning airplane fight, to the Sikorsky copters carrying full on pirate ships laden with gold, you’ve got a mildly entertaining adventure movie.

Bloodshot. The Valiant comic comes to life thanks to not-quite-but-almost-doughy Vin Diesel running around shooting things and blowing up stuff. I had low expectations, and they were satisfactorily met I guess. I read some middle east investor group paid a shit ton of money for the Valiant comics movie rights and wanted to start a “universe” of films, but this movie tanked super hard in the middle of the pandemic.

Rambo:Last Blood. Stallone’s last Rambo movie. After his adopted daughter gets kidnapped by Mexican sex traffickers, Rambo goes to rescue her. Sounds like Taken, right? Wrong. She doesn't make it. Rambo spends the last forty minutes of the film graphically getting revenge. Like holy shit over the top brutality. Then he gets on a horse and rides off into the sunset. Not joking.

The French Dispatch. Wes Anderson delivers another quirky film stuffed with Oscar Winners. Wes Anderson has a very distinct filmmaking style. If you like his movies, you like them. If you aren’t into them, I can’t think of any in between where you’re like ‘well, I liked Rushmore and Moonrise Kingdom, but not The Grand Budapest Hotel or the Royal Tenenbaums…” so this is more of the same. But honestly, I’m impressed he can get A-list actresses to do full frontal. Like Natalie Portman in Hotel Chevalier. This time, it’s Lea Seydoux, and briefly Tilda Swinton.

Chip’N’Dale Rescue Rangers. My daughter started watching this, and I went to bed about twenty minutes in because I was super exhausted. But the twenty minutes I saw had a ton of hilarious cameos. Everyone from Blaster from the Transformers, to Ugly Sonic, to Batman vs E.T., to Meryll Streep as Mr. Doubtfire, so I will definitely be finishing it at some point.

[anarky]

Chip 'n' Dale is, no shit, the funniest movie I've seen in a while. Definitely finish watching it.

[Tom Foolery]

Lightyear. It’s a movie about two women kissing, which leads to several generations of children traumatized and the eventual downfall of civilization.

A Quiet Place II. Not as scary as the first one, once you know how to kill the creatures, but still pretty good. The creature design is badass.

Prometheus. My god, the scientists are all stupid and everyone got what they deserved. Except the pilot guys.

No Time To Die. As it turns out, there WAS time to die.

[jjreason]

Really disappointed with the ending of James Bond. It started off like the best movie ever & wound up frustrating me to no end.