Which movie did you watch today and how would you rate it?

[Jimmy Higgins]

1. Django Unchained. If haven't seen this by now, see it.

Leonardo DiCaprio was fantastic in it. The scene at the dinner table where he cuts his hand on the broken glass was real. It was unintended and he was actually bleeding quite a lot. But he never missed a beat in the filming of the scene.

For some reason his acting is often given short shrift.

Is it? People have liked the guy forever. For me, Dicaprio was in What's Eating Gilbert Grape (which is celebrated) and was then wooden and awful in several following films. Then some time after Titanic, a switch was flipped. I saw him in Blood Diamond and was like, "Where the heck was this for the last 15 years?"

But overall, people like Dicaprio and his acting.

 

[Wiploc]

Until The Quick and the Dead, I didn't know why people hated him.

That's probably a tribute to his acting: He played an objectionable person so well that I thereafter objected to the actor.

Then came Catch Me If You Can, which made me reverse my opinion: If Leo wants to be in movies, that's okay with me.

 

[Playball40]

The Substance

I don't think I've ever seen anything like it and I really wouldn't know where to begin So I will just quote the review from Rotten Tomatoes.

Certified fresh score 89%

Critics Consensus:
Audaciously gross, wickedly clever, and possibly Demi Moore's finest hour, The Substance is a gasp-inducing feat from writer-director Coralie Fargeat.

You've really gotta see this for yourself. I think this will become a horror cult classic.

Could not get through it.

 

[pood]

Watched Godfather III, the 2020 recut version, which Coppola said was what he and Puzo intended. There were some powerful scenes but the plot strikes me as convoluted and there are two many characters. The real problem was that for some strange reason the movie had subtitles for the English bits but no subtitles for Italian conversations, which dominated the second part of the movie set in Sicily. Thus the movie became nearly impossible to follow toward the end.

 

[ZiprHead]

The Substance

I don't think I've ever seen anything like it and I really wouldn't know where to begin So I will just quote the review from Rotten Tomatoes.

Certified fresh score 89%

Critics Consensus:
Audaciously gross, wickedly clever, and possibly Demi Moore's finest hour, The Substance is a gasp-inducing feat from writer-director Coralie Fargeat.

You've really gotta see this for yourself. I think this will become a horror cult classic.

Could not get through it.

Due to the graphic gore or... ?

I've looked at other reviews and it generally gets glowing praise.

 

[pood]

Until The Quick and the Dead, I didn't know why people hated him.

That's probably a tribute to his acting: He played an objectionable person so well that I thereafter objected to the actor.

Then came Catch Me If You Can, which made me reverse my opinion: If Leo wants to be in movies, that's okay with me.

Well, he is in One Battle After Another, currently streaming and receiving glowing praise. I have not seen it yet. Has anyone else? If so please evaluate but no spoilers, please.

 

[Colonel Sanders]

The Substance

I don't think I've ever seen anything like it and I really wouldn't know where to begin So I will just quote the review from Rotten Tomatoes.

Certified fresh score 89%

Critics Consensus:
Audaciously gross, wickedly clever, and possibly Demi Moore's finest hour, The Substance is a gasp-inducing feat from writer-director Coralie Fargeat.

You've really gotta see this for yourself. I think this will become a horror cult classic.

Could not get through it.

As in, "This is too disturbing," or "God, this movies sucks"?

 

[Colonel Sanders]

1. Keeper: 6.5/10. Woman knows she's a husband's side piece, but she sincerely believes he's in love with her so she tolerates it. Husband is quite convincing in his professions of love for her. They go to an idyllic cabin in the woods, things start to get weird.

I liked this movie for several reasons. It's well shot, acted, written and delivers feminist themes that don't bash you over the head. I think that even if a viewer doesn't get that these themes are present, it's still enjoyable. I'd like to discuss this more, but if anyone reading this wants to watch it, I don't want to provide spoilers. Suffice it to say that when horror delivers a message well, it can be powerful. This movie is what Men (2022) wishes it was.

The problem is that the third act feels rushed, gets muddied, and fails to stick the landing. It feels like it was edited differently and less competently than the first two acts. It's a tight 95 minutes, but this was one that could've likely been better with an extra 5-10 minutes.

2. The Brady Bunch Movie. This one gets an 8/10 for the nostalgia factor. But if a person who wasn't alive during the 70s saw it, they'd be justified in thinking it absolutely sucked. During the time it was released it was talked about a lot, but the attempt to contrast Brady values with 1995's cynicism is flat out godawful. There's only one thing way in which this was done well: the girl with the crush on Marcia and Marcia's bubblehead lack of awareness is super charming, but that's pretty much it.

I have the sequel set to watch later because I remember it being better than the first.

Overall it's a 5/10 and that's probably too generous.

 

[TV and credit cards]

One Battle After Another 8/10
I almost turned it off as soon as it began. Settling in for two and a half hours of Sean Penn and Leonardo DiCaprio with a side of Benicio Del Toro, I was expecting some serious action and drama. What I got was what looked to me like political social media come to life in Southern California. I don't want to preface this movie too much but it is well worth watching.
One thing I will comment on is Sean Penn's portrayal of Colonel Lockjaw. I hate to say he overshadowed Leonardo DiCaprio but he did. Granted his is that kind of character but still, Sean Penn just nailed it.

 

[thebeave]

2. The Brady Bunch Movie. This one gets an 8/10 for the nostalgia factor. But if a person who wasn't alive during the 70s saw it, they'd be justified in thinking it absolutely sucked. During the time it was released it was talked about a lot, but the attempt to contrast Brady values with 1995's cynicism is flat out godawful. There's only one thing way in which this was done well: the girl with the crush on Marcia and Marcia's bubblehead lack of awareness is super charming, but that's pretty much it.

I have the sequel set to watch later because I remember it being better than the first.

Overall it's a 5/10 and that's probably too generous.

 

[pood]

2. The Brady Bunch Movie. This one gets an 8/10 for the nostalgia factor. But if a person who wasn't alive during the 70s saw it, they'd be justified in thinking it absolutely sucked. During the time it was released it was talked about a lot, but the attempt to contrast Brady values with 1995's cynicism is flat out godawful. There's only one thing way in which this was done well: the girl with the crush on Marcia and Marcia's bubblehead lack of awareness is super charming, but that's pretty much it.

I have the sequel set to watch later because I remember it being better than the first.

Overall it's a 5/10 and that's probably too generous.

Sure, Jan.

 

[pood]

One Battle After Another 8/10
I almost turned it off as soon as it began. Settling in for two and a half hours of Sean Penn and Leonardo DiCaprio with a side of Benicio Del Toro, I was expecting some serious action and drama. What I got was what looked to me like political social media come to life in Southern California. I don't want to preface this movie too much but it is well worth watching.
One thing I will comment on is Sean Penn's portrayal of Colonel Lockjaw. I hate to say he overshadowed Leonardo DiCaprio but he did. Granted his is that kind of character but still, Sean Penn just nailed it.

Thanks. Look forward to seeing this. Any movie with a character named Colonel Lockjaw probably already justifies itself.

 

[Playball40]

The Substance

I don't think I've ever seen anything like it and I really wouldn't know where to begin So I will just quote the review from Rotten Tomatoes.

Certified fresh score 89%

Critics Consensus:
Audaciously gross, wickedly clever, and possibly Demi Moore's finest hour, The Substance is a gasp-inducing feat from writer-director Coralie Fargeat.

You've really gotta see this for yourself. I think this will become a horror cult classic.

Could not get through it.

Due to the graphic gore or... ?

I've looked at other reviews and it generally gets glowing praise.

Yes, pretty much.

 

[WAB]

2. The Brady Bunch Movie. This one gets an 8/10 for the nostalgia factor. But if a person who wasn't alive during the 70s saw it, they'd be justified in thinking it absolutely sucked. During the time it was released it was talked about a lot, but the attempt to contrast Brady values with 1995's cynicism is flat out godawful. There's only one thing way in which this was done well: the girl with the crush on Marcia and Marcia's bubblehead lack of awareness is super charming, but that's pretty much it.

I have the sequel set to watch later because I remember it being better than the first.

Overall it's a 5/10 and that's probably too generous.

The ultimate revenge was that plain Jane middle child Jan grew up to be far better looking that Marcia, Marcia, Marcia.

In my plain, middle-class child opinion.

Original series, that is...

 

[thebeave]

2. The Brady Bunch Movie. This one gets an 8/10 for the nostalgia factor. But if a person who wasn't alive during the 70s saw it, they'd be justified in thinking it absolutely sucked. During the time it was released it was talked about a lot, but the attempt to contrast Brady values with 1995's cynicism is flat out godawful. There's only one thing way in which this was done well: the girl with the crush on Marcia and Marcia's bubblehead lack of awareness is super charming, but that's pretty much it.

I have the sequel set to watch later because I remember it being better than the first.

Overall it's a 5/10 and that's probably too generous.

The ultimate revenge was that plain Jane middle child Jan grew up to be far better looking that Marcia, Marcia, Marcia.

In my plain, middle-class child opinion.

Original series, that is...

Not sure about that. Both were lookers back in the day. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as they say. But IRL, for sure Jan (Eve Plumb) was the more level headed one as an adult. Maureen McCormick ended up with a long term drug addiction, depression, and resorted to prostitution to pay for her drug habit.

 

[pood]

Saw One Battle After Another, which is loosely based on Thomas Pynchon’s novel Vineland, which I read in the early 90s after it came out. The novel covers a 15-year period from the apex of the Flower Power people and leftist revolutionaries of the late 60s to 1984 and Reagan’s reelection (“Mourning in America.”).

The movie is very good and DiCaprio and Penn are magnificent, the latter as the iconic Colonel Lockjaw (what a name!) but I felt it was a bit overlong and could have benefited from some pruning. It’s also a bit off, IMO, in that it appears to cover a 15-year period from around 2010 to the present, and I don’t think there were very many leftist revolutionaries running around in 2010. In fact that year was the rise of the Tea Party, presaging the MAGGOTs.

I would have preferred to see the movie temporally situated in the era Pynchon depicts. Despite these cavils, I would rank this movie 8/10.

 

[Swammerdami]

He was also outstanding in The Gangs of New York, which unfortunately we cannot seem to get on streaming.

It's on Netflix here in Thailand. (But Netflix's offerings seem to differ country by country.)