Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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Re: Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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Corsage 3/10

Great poster, dull movie. The life of Empress Sissi I'm sure was interesting so why adapt her life into a fictionalized historical drama that decides to go the post-modern route in hopes of being the Austrian version of Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette? What begins as pseudo-Bergman turns largely into an unintentional parody as more and more anachronisms appear and the action gets more boring. The film has solid production design and Vicky Krieps does well but that's really all it has going for it. Otherwise, you're just left with an unnecessary copy of Derek Jarman.
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Re: Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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Father of the Bride 3/10

Unnecessary second remake of the 1950 Spencer Tracy/Elizabeth Taylor film that feels like a two-hour sitcom, shot and directed flatly and with a script that is more interested in making age gap jokes than showing warmth. The idea of casting Andy Garcia as the titular character is a good one but he just plays the role as Andy Garcia, displaying none of the appeal of Tracy or Steve Martin. The idea of also adding an impending divorce is good but it ultimately amount to little. So what are we left with? A very synthetic comedy that would only impress the head of Warner Bros. Discovery. It's like watching something Chuck Lorre would come up with on a Monday and have shot on a Friday. And I haven't gotten to the awful performance of the actor playing the wedding planner. Martin Short, she is not.

All in all, very forgettable.
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Re: Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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Saint Omer 8/10

A departure from the average courtroom drama, this one is rather unconventional by focusing more on the on-screen case instead of Hollywoodizing the proceedings by throwing multiple wrenches into the plot and revealing that everything was a conspiracy in some convoluted way. By making the centerpiece the hearing of a murder case, director Alice Diop uses long takes and testimony from both sides to create a modern version of Medea and makes for a compelling drama about what leads a mother to kill their child. The framing device of a professor and author observing the case as research for her next book while also having a connection also works. It might be too wordy for some but it's well made and unprententious, with the two-hour run time flying by.
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Re: Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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Skinamarink 1/10

I don't think I've ever seen a more pointless horror film that was released theatrically. Just about any semblance of plot, characterization, or things happening is thrown out in favor of padding and tedium. Running at a mind-numbing 100 minutes, there's maybe at most five minutes of set-up. The rest is just badly shot footage that wouldn't even pass for some random person's home movies. And the gimmick that you're watching a lost 90's horror film doesn't work either as things from the 90's never looked like that. The trailer's claim of 1973 makes far more sense but nothing in this film makes any sense.

If you saw the trailer, you saw the movie already. And if you were one of those people who got scared by the TikTok meme surrounding this movie, you probably get scared by Mister Rogers. This might be the most unscary and boring horror film in a long time.
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Re: Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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Broker 9/10

Who would have expected a film about black market adoption to be so charming and feel good? Hirokazu Kore-eda's latest once again mixes the themes of family and crime to create a colorful vision of people helping desperate couples become parents while hoping to be one step ahead of the law. While watching, I wondered why the American film industry isn't making films like this (oh, right, it's because someone will yell "misery porn" and we'll see the next big budget product that glorifies the super rich, the military, or Evangelicals instead). The cast is one of 2022's best, the mix of stories combines the Kore-eda themes with Korean cinema extremely well, and Kore-eda doesn't dumb down things to increase his audience. This is high quality storytelling and you don't need multiverses or eye candy to be entertained.
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Re: Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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EO 9/10

This Polish film about a donkey on a journey to find the girl who loves and cares for him continues the recent trend of adult-aimed films about the day-and-day life of animals and manages to be a new cinematic odyssey that could be described as Babe meets Koyaanisqatsi. Famed director Jerzy Skolimowski starts with what you would expect a film like this to be but gradually turns things on their head to create something that would make a filmmaker like Gaspar Noe or Lars von Trier jealous. It's also another example of how you don't need big stars or nine digit budgets to make something that fills emotions or moves the viewer. But it's best to go into this one knowing little. It's not your typical movie about animals.
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Re: Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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Missing 6/10

It's not quite as good as Searching and the last third gets rather ridiculous but for the most part, this sequel isn't too bad. If you're able to suspend disbelief towards some of the twists in the story, you will get hooked for much of the run time and wonder what happens next. Storm Reid is a likeable lead while Joaquim de Almeida steals every scene he's in as the messenger tasked by the protagonist to search for clues as to the girl's missing mother. Not the greatest thriller but a decent way to kill two hours.
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Re: Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers 3/10

Remember those Geico ads with the cartoon characters selling insurance? This feels like a feature-length version of those, with more references than plot, jokes that don't land, and a storyline that has no idea of who it's aimed towards: children or people who remember the original show (but it's probably just adults on YouTube who complain about modern cartoons while failing to realize that they are not the intended viewers). There is just about nothing original about the film, with the premise cannibalizing various other films (Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Zootopia, The Happytime Murders, and several others) and the many cameos taking up the thin plot solely as a way to say, "Hey, remember this movie/TV show/ad mascot?" The end result is simply an empty and forgettable reboot of something that probably didn't need to be rebooted, especially as a obnoxiously self-referential attempt at making a kid-friendly version of the 21 Jump Street movies.
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Re: Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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Pinocchio 3/10

Proof that not every Disney classic needs a live-action remake. Featuring none of the ambition or artistry of del Toro's adaptation or the excellent makeup effects or technical marvel of Matteo Garrone's adaptation, this soulless exercise in corporate branding might serve the nadir of Robert Zemeckis's once stellar career. There is nothing new in this remake of the 1940 version of the story, with dull new songs from frequent Zemeckis collaborators Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard, CGI that looks largely cheap and ugly, and perhaps the worst performance of Joseph Gordon-Levitt's career. Zemeckis seems to also have a weird obsession with trying to Shrek-ify the proceedings with various anachronisms, but with a lot of them oddly not intended for comedic effect.

In the end, you're just left questioning why this version exists and why you aren't watching any of the other adaptations I just mentioned.
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Re: Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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Polar Bear 7/10

The weakest of the Disneynature titles to date but that doesn't mean that there aren't any positives. While the general defeatist tone of the documentary makes it kind of a difficult watch when compared to previous entries, as well as feeling like a lesser version of 2014's Bears, the beautiful cinematography and the simple experience of watching polar bears make for a decent watch. Just don't go in expecting a film that celebrates nature.
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Re: Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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Infinity Pool 2/10

Brandon Cronenberg looks to be nothing more than a flash-in-the-pan filmmaker riding on the coattails of his more talented dad. This attempt at combining Groundhog Day, Old, and The Strangers is a dull attempt at social satire that amounts to nothing more than "bored rich people kill other bored rich people out of spite as they can't take responsibility for their own actions". The film is also very xenophobic and the orgy scene that initially got it an NC-17 rating is more boring than sexy. In addition, Mia Goth's performance in this is very Razzie-worthy, being built entirely around scenery chewing and overprojecting an awful English accent (no way that can be her real voice).

Just watch Papa Cronenberg's superior and more ambitious Crimes of the Future or Brandon's previous film Possessor instead of this mess.
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Re: Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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Buscemi2 wrote:
January 30th, 2023, 4:35 pm
Infinity Pool 2/10

Brandon Cronenberg looks to be nothing more than a flash-in-the-pan filmmaker riding on the coattails of his more talented dad. This attempt at combining Groundhog Day, Old, and The Strangers is a dull attempt at social satire that amounts to nothing more than "bored, rich people kill other bored, rich people out of spite as they can't take responsibility for their own actions". The film is also very xenophobic and the orgy scene that initially got it an NC-17 rating is more boring than sexy. In addition, Mia Goth's performance in this is very Razzie-worthy, being built entirely around scenery chewing and overprojecting an awful English accent (no way that can be her real voice).

Just watch Papa Cronenberg's superior and more ambitious Crimes of the Future or Brandon's previous film Possessor instead of this mess.
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Re: Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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All Quiet on the Western Front 10/10

This might be the best narrative war film in years. The first adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque's story in the original German, director Edward Berger does not shy away from showing the brutality of war and the way that it destroys the human psyche, turning the young and ambitious into hollow shells of themselves, all for a few hundred feet of land. Berger refuses to glamorize war or the military, with its 147 minutes being pure and total tension. It does not left up as the situations become more dire and the race to survive become more and more bleak. It's an anti-war film you won't see a major Hollywood studio making today and one should congratulate Netflix for believing in it (speaking of Netflix, this needs to be seen in a theatre with the best possible sound system and the biggest screen possible).

Of the Best Picture nominees, this is the film that deserves to win but with the Academy's anti-Netflix bias and there only being one previous winner that wasn't in English, the odds are highly stacked against it. It puts most mainstream American films to shame.
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Re: Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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Fire of Love 5/10

Finally saw this after it was nominated for an Oscar (of which is probably wins as it's not political and therefore will be chosen by all of the conservative-leaning voters) and it wasn't that great. While the footage filmed by the subjects is quite good, an dated approach to the story and some awful narration by Miranda July (who also recorded an intro for this one-night-only showing, which sounded unrehearsed and unfocused) brings down the end result. We never really get a feel for the subjects and the whole thing feels rather scattershot, as the subjects have long passed on and there isn't anyone there to reflect on how they were as people. They are just there, being directed along by the perpetually bored narrator. This approach might have worked in 2002 but in 2022, it feels very old hat.

After the movie, there was a Q&A with the director that was done for a screening hosted by Variety and she is in full Oscar lobbying mode. She says what the press and Academy want to hear and the whole thing felt saccharine. I'm sure it's the same technique that got the octopus lover movie an Oscar.
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Re: Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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Adopting Audrey 4/10

Weird mix of 2000's manic dream pixie girl comedy and road movies such as Wendy & Lucy and Nomadland that manages to be a step above bad for Jena Malone's performance. It's too bad she couldn't get a script that truly allows her to shine, having to play a character whose backstory and need for the love of a family is largely left vague. The end result is basically a series of vignettes strung together to make a loose plot we've seen before. Meanwhile, it feels like Malone hasn't been in a good movie since The Neon Demon. She deserves better projects than the ones she's been getting.
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