Latest movie you watched (1-10 scale)

[THE KILL]

May December - 5/10
Should have been interesting, was boring as shit mostly. Despite starring Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore.

[Warpsmasher]

Rikki-Tikki-Tavi - Legendary beyond numbers Probably the most badass 70s cartoon.
Heat (remaster) - 9
Samsara - 8
Silence - 7
The Head Hunter - 6
Bagheera - 5
Tower Heist - 4 (+1 up from a 3 for a rare instance of Eddie Murphy not sucking)
Joker Folie a Deux - 3 (all 3 points for Lady Gaga not sucking too bad either)
The Crow remake - 2 (Nosferatu will make up for this)

[godofdeadlydeath]

Die Hard - 10/10 - I forgot how fucking funny the FBI agents Johnson & Johnson are.

[THE KILL]

Beau is Afraid - 8/10
Man this was unhinged. I can understand how some people find it overindulgent (it's fucking three hours long), but I was still entertained as hell, and there were some parts in the middle that were just wonderful and poetic. I also loved how Ari Aster described the film as a "Jewish Lord of the Rings, but it's just a dude going to his mum's house".

[ghost boner]

Nosferatu (1922) - 7/10. Pretty cool but yeah, I'll take people talking any day over titles. I also forgot I saw Indiana Jones and the last crusade show in 70mm on Saturday (10/10) and there was a nearly 7 foot tall 400 lb man laughing like it was the best comedy ever made. Ruled

[FVBTVS]

gladiator 2 in imax

Last crusade has great humor!

[ghost boner]

No yeah for sure it's comedic moments are great and classic but this one guy in particular was acting as if he was watching Richard Pryor live in front of him. Again, no complaints. It made the experience better

[Necrometer]

hahaha last crusade is great

Misery 7/10

and I guess it's time for another retrospective on MPD scoring a classic:
Misery viewed in 2011 - 6.5/10
Misery viewed in 2013 - 8.0/10
Misery viewed in 2015 - 7.5/10
Misery viewed in 2024 - 7.0/10

Trap 5/10 but wildly entertaining... m night made a movie that is literally product placement for his daughter, who is a singer, and plays a singer. and she's far from the worst part of the movie! between this and OLD, I think I am becoming a superfan of late-career m night

[Hunter]

Shyamalan makes the equivalent of modern Twilight Zone episodes. He knows how to make the most of a low budget, and puts out a memorable and usually entertaining movie.

Alien Romulus ('24 | 119min) - 4/10 - This grasps so hard at the qualities of it's predecessors that it squeezes the life out of itself. Death by nostalgia - modern Ghostbusters syndrome. I'm sure it's fine for people who haven't seen any pre 9/11 Alien movies though.

[Whee of the Dead]

Really liked the concept of Trap so much I was willing to suspend my disbelief enough for the premise to spring through the starting line, but my enthusiasm dissipated quickly when I realized that Hartnett's character was going to skirt by through sheer luck and stupidity of literally everyone around him rather than cool serial killer cunning. Once they left the venue the movie totally tanked.

[Necrometer]

yes, it's a truly stupid movie in many ways. reminded me of Red Eye (especially with the "change of venue" aspect), but with inferior execution.

I realize I never really wrote back to you about The Substance. I thought plenty about your comparison to Liturgy and that might be a good way to explore how you and I see this differently. I do not think this director is being a HHH in that I haven't seen any interviews or anything where she's acting like she's done anything special. I think she unapologetically drew influences from a lot of movies that you and I appreciate/enjoy, and used that raw material to craft a fun-to-watch movie with a blatantly obvious allegory underlying its heartfelt narrative. she didn't put on a B-movie symposium and declare the genre revitalized and rehabilitated. she just made a mid-budget movie that nailed what it was going for. the critics & online fans are playing the part of HHH here, and it really feels like you're ascribing the dumb things they say... to the director. I get that it's probably annoying for people to act like this movie is something truly innovative; I'm just happy anyone is making that type of movie in earnest these days, and not falling on their face in the process. the most "brave" thing about it is getting the money to make a mid-budget genre movie... that isn't backed by blumhouse or whatever

Shyamalan makes the equivalent of modern Twilight Zone episodes. He knows how to make the most of a low budget, and puts out a memorable and usually entertaining movie.

well put. and I think his output shifted slightly - for the better - once he let go of the pressure (induced by sixth sense) to make critically-acclaimed "serious" movies.

[godofdeadlydeath]

Late career M Night is good. I loved Knock at the Cabin.

[THE KILL]

I get that it's probably annoying for people to act like this movie is something truly innovative; I'm just happy anyone is making that type of movie in earnest these days, and not falling on their face in the process. the most "brave" thing about it is getting the money to make a mid-budget genre movie... that isn't backed by blumhouse or whatever

I wonder how brave a film can be if it's not made in an authoritarian system where critics of the system will be silenced; what does "brave" even mean in this context? Some people might be shocked and talk shit about a film online? It's said that when Bunuel showed Un Chien Andalou at the cinema at the end of the 1920s, he had a couple of rocks in his pockets he could defend himself against people attacking him. It's not like anything serious can happen to a film maker nowadays apart from being dropped by a studio when several of his/ her movies tank in a row.
However, I still think making a really brutal or radical film, especially if it uses a famous star, is something that should be applauded. I'll never forget watching Starship Troopers at the cinema in the 90s (I'm too young to have seen anything grindhousy in the 70s and 80s) and all the wonderful bloodshed and the subversive quality of the film, being about fascism and all.

[THE KILL]

Piranha - 6.5/10
It was ok, but I expected more from the guy who made Gremlins.

[MPD]

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice - 6
Butcher Baker Nightmare Maker - 8