VHS and Betamax You Have Recently Rented

[BrodyGraham]

2 hours ago, SuperBacon said:

The Matrix Resurrections

A stupid amount of fun, and veers in a direction that is genuinely inventive (I'd avoided all spoilers, reviews, trailers etc and had no idea). I really enjoyed it, and am glad it exists. Some of it is a little on the nose, but it still works.

Also, it will annoy all the right people and that can only be a good thing. It does sag a little in the middle, but that's OK, and it drives the story forward. Yes, it's stupid, makes little sense, but who cares. A million times better than Reloaded and Revolutions, but I walked out of the latter after 30 minutes and have never been back, so I dunno.

Jessica Henwick is fantastic, as is Keanu (but what do you expect) and it was genuinely thrilling to see him in this role again.

Popped big time for 

  Reveal hidden contents

"My name is Trinity" and the end when Neo and Trinity are talking about changing the code to 'rainbow filled' skies. 

Top work all round. The only sour note was being confonted by BIG SCREEN Chris Whitty and his massive face in the adverts. Was a bit disconcerting if I'm being honest.

 

Went to see it opening night and feel largely the same way. I'd hesitate to objectively recommend it, it's far too meta for it's own good, the new cast members all appear to be having much more fun than the old ones and I'd struggle to say it makes a lick of sense, but despite all that I smiled pretty much the whole way through.

 

[air_raid]

On 12/18/2021 at 8:30 AM, LaGoosh said:

Truly terrible and a perfect example of the low budget made by algorithm shite that most of Netflix's original content is. 

With that in mind I was forced to watch Holidate the other night.

Even accounting for the premise (which I found risible, but maybe that’s a generation gap and young people really WOULD entertain this behaviour rather than just tell all and sundry to piss off) - this was a slog. There were a few humorous moments although none were memorable enough to recall now and it featured all my most hated standbys of modern Yank film-making - people talking to family members in ways real people just don’t do, people talking to total strangers in ways real people just don’t do (both in terms of over the top vulgarity which doesn’t happen in real life but the writers assume is funny), children behaving or speaking in ways children really don’t, usually with insight/wisdom that you just don’t have at five or whatever, and the third act conflict which feels unnecessarily forced to try and suggest the happy and inevitable ending won’t happen, which of course it does.

Avoid unless your mrs loves (beige) paint-by-numbers romcoms. Or try and steer her in the direction of Isnt It Romantic instead and say you’re sick of Christmas films.

[The Gaffer]

18 hours ago, SuperBacon said:

The Matrix Resurrections

A stupid amount of fun, and veers in a direction that is genuinely inventive (I'd avoided all spoilers, reviews, trailers etc and had no idea). I really enjoyed it, and am glad it exists. Some of it is a little on the nose, but it still works.

Also, it will annoy all the right people and that can only be a good thing. It does sag a little in the middle, but that's OK, and it drives the story forward. Yes, it's stupid, makes little sense, but who cares. A million times better than Reloaded and Revolutions, but I walked out of the latter after 30 minutes and have never been back, so I dunno.

Jessica Henwick is fantastic, as is Keanu (but what do you expect) and it was genuinely thrilling to see him in this role again.

Popped big time for 

  Reveal hidden contents

"My name is Trinity" and the end when Neo and Trinity are talking about changing the code to 'rainbow filled' skies. 

Top work all round. The only sour note was being confonted by BIG SCREEN Chris Whitty and his massive face in the adverts. Was a bit disconcerting if I'm being honest.

 

That's pretty much how I felt about it. The set up is genuinely clever and everything is done with such Wachowski sincerity that it's still a good laugh when it wildly oscillates into being Joel Schumacher levels of batshit. Really it's closest to T2:Trainspotting in how it weaponises the whole "We know we're not as good as we once were" into a plot device. 

It's objectively awful in parts, of course. But I walked out thanking the heavens that in amongst all the Marvel stuff out there this exists. 

[CleetusVanDamme]

Aside from some cool set design, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City was crap. Probably even worse than all the Paul Anderson ones, at least those managed to achieve what they set out to do: make Milla Jovovich look sexy and cool (mostly sexy, imho). I hated everyone in this except Jill and Birkin (Neal McDonough is always money and nearly always in something terrible). Leon should be a noob at this point only in terms of being new on the job, instead they've made him Police Cops Homer Simpson v2. Wesker , what were they doing? At least I didn't need to go through the trauma of seeing them ruin Barry Burton.

The amount of obscure references they crammed in in awful ways vs the amount of iconic shit left out was crazy. If you're going to cram so much into one film why waste 40-odd minutes until business picks up? What a mess. Save us, Alice.

Spoiler

LOL at all the Lisa Trevor bits.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 25, 2021 by CleetusVanDamme

[Devon Malcolm]

@CleetusVanDamme have you seen Monster Hunter? It's surprisingly enjoyable and you get the required Jovovich quotient.

[CleetusVanDamme]

Not yet but that's all the selling I need. In!

[Devon Malcolm]

15 minutes ago, CleetusVanDamme said:

Not yet but that's all the selling I need. In!

Yeah, it's Anderson's best film since the first Resident Evil, which is a fucking low bar but I still enjoyed it!

[DEF]

17 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

Yeah, it's Anderson's best film since the first Resident Evil, which is a fucking low bar but I still enjoyed it!

Death Race is far better than Resident Evil because the Stathe and Lovejoy. But I'm convinced that with a different music score Resident Evil would be far more watchable film. As it is other than maybe the first five minutes the astonishingly heavy handed awful industrial just destroys any sense of suspense or action.

[Merzbow]

Was the production of the new Matrix a real troubled stop/start deal or something? There are times where it looks like a legit AAA Hollywood blockbuster and others where it's filmed like a cheap Netflix show, a big fight scene around the middle felt like it was real sub-Daredevil level when it should have been one of the best looking bits of the film.

Edited December 25, 2021 by Merzbow

[Hannibal Scorch]

1 hour ago, Merzbow said:

Was the production of the new Matrix a real troubled stop/start deal or something? There are times where it looks like a legit AAA Hollywood blockbuster and others where it's filmed like a cheap Netflix show, a big fight scene around the middle felt like it was real sub-Daredevil level when it should have been one of the best looking bits of the film.

I know it started filming pre pandemic and had to shut down for a good 5 months or so last year.

[Keith Houchen]

Don’t Look Up. I enjoyed it, but Adam McKay seriously needs an editor. Plus it seems to have pissed off a lot of Covid deniers so that’s a bonus. 
 

The Guilty. Wish I’d have watched the original first, not that I’m knocking the remake, suitability tense for a bit before drifting off. 

[Hannibal Scorch]

Don’t Look Up (Netflix) Great cast, some funny moments for a serious premise. About 20 minutes too long, but still better paced then an Apatow (mid and end credit scene as well).

Encanto (D+) Beautifully animated, great seeing a really diverse cast of characters and the storyline is pretty good. But I thought the songs were all pretty crap after the opening number.

[Chest Rockwell]

15 minutes ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

Encanto (D+) Beautifully animated, great seeing a really diverse cast of characters and the storyline is pretty good. But I thought the songs were all pretty crap after the opening number.

I watched this, Moana, and Frozen in the last few days, having got a Disney subscription for a month to watch some movies with my daughter over the Xmas holiday.

Lin Manuel Miranda is not very good at writing catchy Disney musical numbers on the whole. Frozen had so many more memorable tunes, even though I preferred the story in both the other films.

[Hannibal Scorch]

1 hour ago, Chest Rockwell said:

I watched this, Moana, and Frozen in the last few days, having got a Disney subscription for a month to watch some movies with my daughter over the Xmas holiday.

Lin Manuel Miranda is not very good at writing catchy Disney musical numbers on the whole. Frozen had so many more memorable tunes, even though I preferred the story in both the other films.

See, I thought Moana has some corkers in it. But nothing in Encanto has stuck in my head. He had an animated film on Netflix earlier this year (Vivo I think) and that was the point I thought his career in songwriting has reached its peek and now it’s diminishing returns. Encanto also looks like it will be a financial bomb, but I blame that on Disney’s stupid decision to announce its release for free on Disney+ a month later. 
 

If your looking for more recent and decent animated films on there, Coco, Big Hero 6, Soul, Wreck it Ralph and Ron’s gone wrong are all really good, and I think Raya and the Last Dragon and Frozen 2 are good.

[SuperBacon]

7 hours ago, Keith Houchen said:

Don’t Look Up. I enjoyed it, but Adam McKay seriously needs an editor. Plus it seems to have pissed off a lot of Covid deniers so that’s a bonus. 

Quite enjoyed it (it starts with a 'punk' Jennifer Lawrence rapping to Wu Tang, of course I did) but the 'Steve Jobs'-y character reminded me so much of bloody Goldmember, it really distracted me at times. 

I half expected him to come out with "I love gooooooold" at one point.