Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

[Geezer]

The Lion King: A faithful, nostalgic, chills inducing remake of the most beloved Disney film of all time that is also the most beautifully stunning film I have ever seen in my life.

[Brockster]

The Lion King: A faithful, nostalgic, chills inducing remake of the most beloved Disney film of all time that is also the most beautifully stunning film I have ever seen in my life.

So you didn't like it?

[numbersix]

Geez has become part of the BORG-like Disney machine. All subsequent posts will be not so subtle ads for Disney Plus content and how he thinks every animated Disney film should be remade into a live-action film over and over again.

[Buscemi2]

The world does not need a remake of Home on the Range.

The Art of Self-Defense 8/10

Part Office Space, part In the Company of Men, part Repo Man, this 90's-tinged dark comedy features some of the best work ever done by Eisenberg, Nivola, and Poots. The film's strengths lay in how the director manages to create its own little world why still having quite a bit of relevancy with modern-day male culture. Some of the content is bound to put off people (or some may misinterpret the film) but it's more interesting than most of this year's comedies. And not just "where is the movie and why is it?" kinds of interesting.

[Buscemi2]

The Lion King 4/10

Excellent visual effects (watch this win the Best Visual Effects Oscar come February) alone cannot make a movie. What Jon Favreau was able to pull off with his remake of The Jungle Book was unsuccessful here as he was too close to the source material. The element of surprise does not exist with this film (and whatever was added or changed from the original doesn't work) and if you've seen the 1994 version, you've more or less already seen this one. By the end, I was fighting sleep.

Meanwhile, The Lion King might be the perfect film to experience D-Box motion seats with. This was my first experience with D-Box and I wasn't disappointed. The film is at its best during the first half and the stampede is like a thrill ride but with a cheaper admission fee and no lines.

[BanksIsDaFuture]

Watching Midsommar and The Art of Self Defense back-to-back is almost enough to make me stop going to the movies

While the latter is a tad more enjoyable thanks to some dark laughs, they're both extremely mean-spirited films where it's hard to like anyone. Even the villians are only villianous because they're slightly bigger assholes than the protagonists.

Midsommar is a remake of The Green Inferno, disguised by long takes and one incredible performance (Pugh).
The Art of Self Defense seems like Riley Stearn's cry for help or his catharsis for what happened with his wife, but it's ugly, both figuratively and literally. Not only is every action of every character reprehensible (I get that that's kinda the point but still), but it's got the flattest, drabbest color palette I've ever seen.

Not to mention any movie where a dog is beat to death (offscreen) isn't going to get a recommend from me.

[Buscemi2]

Actually, The Art of Self-Defense was written before the collapse of Stearns' marriage. Winstead was going to play Anne originally.

And when you think about it, something similar happened with James Gunn's Super. He wrote the film before his divorce and almost didn't make it as he didn't want parallels drawn between himself and The Crimson Belt. Interestingly, it was his ex-wife, Jenna Fischer, that got him to get the film off the ground.

[Screen203]

Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood

Best movie of the year, by far. Quentin Tarantino's 9th film takes audiences back to the blood-soaked streets of L.A. that have been exploited by his other films like Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs with the intertwining real events used in other films of his like Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained. Leonardo DiCaprio turns in another great performance as the insecure, never-sober actor Rick Dalton who is going through a crisis of sorts about his popularity, joined by Brad Pitt as his stunt-double who carries most of the weight in both his films and his errands of sorts. The film really is more about them (with many of the cast members only being in the movie for one or two scenes) than the Manson Family, even though Tarantino repeats Inglourious Basterds's ending.

10 out of 10

It's arguably closer in tone to Pulp Fiction, including the soundtrack and the fifties/sixties aesthetic (obviously),The Hateful Eight, which will likely help it commercially.

[numbersix]

The Lodge: 6/10
Despite the rather far-fetched premise, this is an effective psychological thriller by the team behind the superior Goodnight Mommy. Here, two kids stay with their father's girlfriend despite not knowing each other very well, and the kids start to fear for their safety as they learn more about the girlfriend's past in a cult. It's heavy on atmosphere, and the twists aren't the core of the film, making it better than most horrors.

Midsommar: 6/10
Almost a great film. Visuals, sound, etc are great, and the theme of how those dealing with trauma and ignored by friends can lead them down strange paths is a very strong one. But I can't justify the 140min length which was just indulgent, particularly when the secondary characters are soo thinly drawn.

Extra Ordinary 5/10
Irish comedy horror about a psychic who has given up her calling to becoming a driving instructor, only to be drawn back into the world when a widower is being haunted by the ghost of his abusive wife. It's a fun film but lapses into silliness too much, especially Will Forte's ridiculous villain character.

Monos: 7/10
A rather odd film about child/teen soldiers in the middle of a mysterious war in an unknown South American war. The tenuous balance the team have is slowly dissolved through a series of shocking incidents, from the accidental killing of a cow to suicide, imprisonment, etc. The film plays around with who the protagonist is, and feels almost like Werner Herzog's version of Lord of the Flies. It's ambitious, crazy, but also humane at times.

Fast Colour: 5/10
A good idea, playing like a very subdued superhero film. A young woman returns home as she tries to deal with seizures which cause earthquakes. She finds her mother who is taking care of a child with other powers, and the three try to bond and accept themselves. The subdued nature gives the film a gentle power which feels refreshing. But the dialogue is at timme awful, as is lead Gugu Mbutha-Raw's unconvincing performance, which goes over-the-top far too much.

The Souvenir: 7/10
A film that could almost be self-indulgent, as it's essentially the story of film-maker Joanna Hogg's formative years in film-school. But the film instead chooses to focus on the main character's relationship with her posh boyfriend, who has some pretty major secrets that she's too naive to be able to deal with. It's a quiet drama, with bursts of intensity, and a very direct confrontation with one's self.

Bros: After the Screaming Stops: 6/10
Even if you don't know the 80s pop band, its' worth watching as this doc about their reunion is essentially a real-life Spinal Tap. At every opportunity they try to say something profound that in reality is utter nonsense.

[Buscemi2]

I can't recall how many times the Fast Color trailer was shown before movies I saw only to never arrive. The thing just looked like a pale imitation of Midnight Special (which failed to find an audience after a long stay on the shelf) so I'm not surprised it flopped.

[numbersix]

Definitely has a Midnight Special vibe but the performances in Fast Color are much weaker.

[Buscemi2]

And Amazon has now announced plans for a Fast Color series. Remember when it was NBC that would greenlight pilots to movies hardly anyone saw?

[Buscemi2]

Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood 10/10

It seems like every time Quentin Tarantino makes a new movie, I become convinced I won't like it...and proceed to totally love it. It might be the most subtle $100 million film in some time, as Tarantino once again relies on dialogue and a leisurely (often in real time) pace to tell his story. Despite running 161 minutes, it feels much, much shorter. The standouts include the film's production design, the recreation of February 9th that takes up one-third of the run time (never has someone watching a movie felt more compelling), and Brad Pitt's performance. I'm convinced Pitt might win an Oscar or at least get nominated again.

I feel that a lot of people were disappointed by the lack of Manson elements but it's not his story. And the film is much better when it's not about the Manson cult. It's an old-fashioned buddy picture about remnants of a dying Hollywood and one of the best films about old friends in a long time.

[Screen203]

Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark

This film was likely always going to work for me because horror movies/books were always a focal point of interest for me ever since I was a tween - some of the only good memories I recall from middle school were watching/discussing J-Horror remakes and M. Night Shyamalan's earlier films. I have always been a fan of Del Toro's work, and I have found memories of "reading" (skimming through the illustrations) of the source material. The highlight of that experience was somehow getting a shitty 500 word story I wrote into my middle school's scary stories competition - then losing the only copy of the book not much longer after...

But anyway, it's going to be hard to write an unbiased review of this, but I'll attempt to.

This movie is (almost) everything I wanted from it since it was announced. It definitely could be considered a "gateway" horror film, like the books that inspired it, but I was suprised by the intensity of the story at times - especially some of the backstory, which is kind of stereotypical, but is done well. The acting isn't outstanding, but it does the job. The highlight of the movie, however, are definitely the creature designs. They look exactly as unsettling as they were in the books. The sort-of anthology angle works well, which is somewhat surprising considering that they could have just have coasted on the scares. The thing that surprised me the most was how film feels very much like Shamaylan's earlier films in tone (even though the twists are pretty obvious), but it builds on the influences of other creations (as well as the source material) in the somewhat subversive way the story is told, compared to the anthology feel of the books. I also appreciated that the film was somewhat thoughtful, and the message of the film is suprisingly resonant.

Overall, I would highly recommend this if you were a fan of the books growing up, it definitely captures the feel of the stories.

9 out of 10

[Buscemi2]

The Kitchen 3/10

The dullest and flattest gangster film since Public Enemies. I'm not sure if the supposed longer version tells a different story but the version released theatrically is more lethargic than when I eat a lot of carbs. Scenes that could have easily been part of a montage go on too long, scenes that could have been longer are reduced to mere seconds, and the music choices are right up there with Gotti in terms of inappropriateness (example: a Fleetwood Mac song is used during the death of one of the film's main antagonists). In addition, many plot twists and elements seem to happen with no build-up and just exist.

Warner Bros. deserves their share of blame for condensing a short-run comic book series into 105 minutes (also making DC a bit of a scapegoat, as they often get blame for things they don't have much of a say in due to the lack of a Kevin Feige-type there) but the choice of a first-time director to handle a big project such as this one is also a fault. A project like this one needed a Kathryn Bigelow-type who can direct action and tension. Instead, they got the co-writer of World Trade Center and the end result is boring.