What was the last movie you've seen?

[marurun]

My wife and I decided to wrap up the evening with Bill & Ted Face the Music. It is a rather sweet film which should not be taken seriously. The original Bill & Ted films were not high budget or high concept. They were about having fun and having a heart. And they were kind of dumb and knew it so they just rolled with it.

Face the Music is exactly that. It wears its heart on the sleeves of its simple, lovable pastiche characters. The people who made this film seemed to know quite well exactly what an appropriate wrap-up to the series needed to be and didn’t try to elevate the series to something that has to live up to its nostalgia-inflated image. There were moments where I thought, slightly uncomfortably, “Yeah, the originals did that sort of thing too, didn’t they.” And I actually appreciated that. It’s a kind of honesty the film is willing to embrace. But also, this is perhaps the most varied acting work Keanu Reeves has ever done in a single film.

Is it a perfect film? Not by a long shot. Is it a perfect finale for the Bill & Ted series? Hell yes (in more ways than one if you know what I mean). If you have any nostalgia for the originals and can be honest with yourself about what the originals were, this film is a must-see. I’d you wonder all these years later why people give a flip about Bill & Ted, this film will not change your mind in the slightest, nor should it.

Party on.

[Raging Justice]

My wife and I decided to wrap up the evening with Bill & Ted Face the Music. It is a rather sweet film which should not be taken seriously. The original Bill & Ted films were not high budget or high concept. They were about having fun and having a heart. And they were kind of dumb and knew it so they just rolled with it.

Face the Music is exactly that. It wears its heart on the sleeves of its simple, lovable pastiche characters. The people who made this film seemed to know quite well exactly what an appropriate wrap-up to the series needed to be and didn’t try to elevate the series to something that has to live up to its nostalgia-inflated image. There were moments where I thought, slightly uncomfortably, “Yeah, the originals did that sort of thing too, didn’t they.” And I actually appreciated that. It’s a kind of honesty the film is willing to embrace. But also, this is perhaps the most varied acting work Keanu Reeves has ever done in a single film.

Is it a perfect film? Not by a long shot. Is it a perfect finale for the Bill & Ted series? Hell yes (in more ways than one if you know what I mean). If you have any nostalgia for the originals and can be honest with yourself about what the originals were, this film is a must-see. I’d you wonder all these years later why people give a flip about Bill & Ted, this film will not change your mind in the slightest, nor should it.

Party on.

Nice review

I feel the Bill & Ted movies were always meant to be feel good movies that don't take themselves too seriously. Face the Music follows that same formula. They are almost like watching old, 80s, cartoons honestly, but in live action. Much like Top Gun Maverick, Face the Music is not overly ambitious. It knows what the fans of the franchise want and gives it to them. I think the funniest scene was the one with prison Bill & Ted.

Another great nostalgia focused movie I watched recently is Transformers: Bumblebee, which is why I'm posting again in this thread.



The movie is steeped in the 80s (it literally takes place in the 80s) and unlike the Bay movies, this applies to the Transformers themselves as well. We see transformers sporting G1 designs in this movie (referring to the original 80s cartoons and comics), and they look phenomenal. Two of the movie's best scenes would not have felt out of place in the original cartoon. So much so that a youtuber redubbed them with sound effects and voices from the old cartoon:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5I-ABSEetM

What's cool though, is that these feel like updated G1 designs. They don't look exactly like the old cartoon, but close enough that once you see someone you will immediately recognize them. It's like the director asked himself, what if we took these old designs and modernized them? I feel like this is what people always wanted from Bay but never got. I actually avoided all of the Bay movies other than the original 2007 one (which I thought was fun for its time). Bumblebee still looks very Michael Bay though unfortunately, but the movie does plenty to make you love him regardless. Most of the film revolves around him developing a relationship with a human girl and it's fairly well down.



The action scenes are really well done and easy to follow. They even use the transformations in cool ways.

The movie gives us two really cool deceptions, and they are triple changers!

There's a few nods to the 1986 Transformers animated movie, which seems mandatory with anything involving Transformers these days, as a fan of said movie I approve.

The movie has a good sense of humor with the some funny moments, a few are a little cringeworthy though, but I guess that's normal in a movie that is partly meant to appeal to kids

Oh, and John Cena is in this, not as impressive a performance as we've seen from him recently in DC related stuff, but good enough. He's basically a big, dumb, soldier stereotype, a bit like his WWE persona.




The movie overall is solid, but the best parts of the movie by far, are the scenes that take place on Cybertron. It's a bit frustrating that we couldn't have gotten an entire movie set on Cybertron, especially since those scenes are where we see the majority of the Transformers (with their cool, updated, G1 designs), the rest of the movie mostly revolves around Bumblebee, the human girl, and the aforementioned two decepticons. This movie feels like a tease for something that could have been way more awesome. Even if you don't watch the movie, it's worth checking out the Cybertron scenes on youtube, or watching the redubbed versions I linked to above.

So yeah, cool movie. I would say that this is the second best Transformers movie after the 1986 animated one, but I am a biased G1 fan after all. Hopefully, Rise of the Beasts will be great as well based on the cool looking trailer that just dropped. It seems to be a fusion of G1 Transformers and Beast Wars, something to bring two camps of Transformers fans together. I never had much interest in the Beast Wars cartoon from the mid 90s, but started watching it recently to prepare myself for the upcoming movie.

[RCBH928]

Serenity

I still do not see the big deal or the high ratings. Feels like a longer 90s drama tv episode. It does not even put a tie to the story.

[Limewater]

Serenity

I still do not see the big deal or the high ratings. Feels like a longer 90s drama tv episode. It does not even put a tie to the story.

I also found Serenity underwhelming. It's the worst episode of Firefly.

[marurun]

If Serenity is the vision Whedon had for Firefly all along, I’m glad it ended before it got there.

[RCBH928]

If Serenity is the vision Whedon had for Firefly all along, I’m glad it ended before it got there.

I do not have a problem with it, I have problem with the high ratings and the dedicated fanbase. I had high expectations. I'd say is very average wild west outlaws in space story. Back in the 90s with no internet and lack of access to media could be exciting to watch but holds no ground today next to much better shows old and new. Same goes for Buffy. Monster of the week fight. I can see how it might be exciting to young teenage girls back then, but from a critical POV is very bland.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Glad you liked Bumblebee. @RJ! I also thought it was really solid and certainly wouldn’t mind a follow up.

……

I’ve seen two good movies, and one AMAZING movie, recently.

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022) is a beautiful, terrifying, and heartbreaking retelling of Carlo Collodi’s classic children’s story. The stop motion animation is superb, and it features some glorious creature designs (exactly what you’d expect from a collaboration between Guillermo del Toro and the Henson Studio). The setting, Mussolini’s Italy during the Italian Civil War, is frequently terrifying, and the movie’s message regarding the virtue’s of disobedience and questioning of authority contrasts starkly with the story’s message. The film is funny and deeply sad in equal measure, and only the musical bit fall a bit flat. Streaming on Netflix and very highly recommended.

Emily the Criminal (2022) presents a modern take on a classic film noir theme: societal injustice drives a person to crime. In this version, Aubrey Plaza plays the titular Emily, who struggles to service $70K in student loans while working as an “independent contractor” delivering food. Despite her student loan debt and abilities, Emily never received her degree, and despite her independent contractor status, Emily’s employer requires her to work a regular schedule (with the option, of course, to cut or extend her hours without cause or warning). Emily also has a DUI and an assault conviction on her record, effectively locking her out of more stable employment. When she’s offered the opportunity to participate in a dummy buyer credit card fraud ring, Emily jumps at the chance to make money fast. Like the best noir, this film points its finger squarely back at our dystopian society, asking us whether Emily’s turn to criminality is justified. Aubrey Plaza turns in a stupendous performance, and at a lean 96 minutes, the movie doesn’t waste any time ratcheting up the stakes. Also streaming on Netflix and also very highly recommended.

Hope and Joy (2020) - This one’s for you, @Pretentious Hipster! Hope and Joy is a disastrous Christmas rom-com about a young woman who refuses to leave her family’s ranch/bed and breakfast after witnessing her aunt and mother die in a fiery car crash (while on the way to visit her grandmother in the hospital…I think? Who also died? Maybe?). The plot is barely coherent, and the characters’ motivations are nonsensical. The production values are so low, you have to break apart your basement slab to get to them, and the soundtrack is like something you’d hear in a shovelware Nintendo DS hidden object game. I’d say that the whole thing was filmed in a single day on an iPhone, but the unnatural pauses after each line of stilted dialogue probably pushed production into two days and the whole thing looks terrible. The sets, with wrapping paper covering potentially copyrighted images and an IKEA shelf full of Christmas Nick-knacks conspicuously covering one half of a window, look like they were designed by a poorly-trained AI. In short, I loved almost everything about this movie, and it’s easily the best terrible Christmas rom-com I’ve seen since A Christmas in Princely Fashion. It’s streaming on Prime Video, and I can’t recommend it highly enough (to Pretentious Hipster).

[marurun]

OK, I hated the Bay Transformers movies, which of them I saw. I also hated the overly complicated and visually messy Transformers designs. But Bumblebee looks like it might actually help a little at that. I may have to add that to my list.

[REPO Man]

I've only seen the first two Bay Transformers films. Saw both in theaters and rented the first one when it hit DVD.

God, 2007 was a good year for going to the movies. Probably because I had a job and could afford to go.

Go where?

On the SIDE OF THE ROAD, ROSE!

[marurun]

Why would you rent the first Bay Transformers movie? It was pretty bad. I mean, it wasn't nearly as bad as the 4th one. That one was utter shit, but still, it wasn't a good movie.