[Subhakar]

Welcome to the Rileys: 6.5/10

Yet another indie film that speaks volumes and more importantly shows how wonderful an actor Kristen Stewart can be and how wrong it is to judge her acting skills by just looking at that horrific "Twilight" franchise. And, of course, ably aided by the great actor, James Gandolfini (#RIP) and the equally warm and beautiful Melissa Leo.


And that reminds me of the same "Twilight" cross that Robert Pattinson himself carries despite having very good acting chops as showcased in this one below and holding his fort even in the striking presence of Pierce Brosnan in his father's role:

Remember Me: 6.8/10

 

[tdockweiler]

Alien: Covenant - 6/10

This is all they could come up with? Pretty impressed with the first 30 minutes then it just got too stupid and like they ran out of ideas.
At least it was better than "Life" and "Promethius".

Promethius was one of my biggest disappointments of 2012 or whenever it came out.

BTW I found Covenant excessively gory. I guess some of you will love that.

I don't think they'll ever be able to top "Aliens".

 

[kid vic]

Alien: Covenant - 6/10

This is all they could come up with? Pretty impressed with the first 30 minutes then it just got too stupid and like they ran out of ideas.
At least it was better than "Life" and "Promethius".

Promethius was one of my biggest disappointments of 2012 or whenever it came out.

BTW I found Covenant excessively gory. I guess some of you will love that.

I don't think they'll ever be able to top "Aliens".

Alien: Covenant- 5.5/10

Slight disagreement with tdockweiler here, similar score though.

I found "Promethius" superior by a long shot; from start to finish "Covenant" felt like a slight warm up of old ideas. Effects were great but the plot was far to thin and all the characters felt under developed. Ending was predictable as can be but sufficiently entertaining. A previous review stated that the plot twist was fairly obvious and I agree.
Stunning to look at but nothing amazing story wise.

Malcolm X- 9/10

Happy Malcolm X day!!
One of Denzel Washington's best performances and a solid spike lee joint through and through.

 

[tdockweiler]

Malcolm X- 9/10

Happy Malcolm X day!!
One of Denzel Washington's best performances and a solid spike lee joint through and through.

Wow, somehow I never knew this was directed by Spike Lee! Not even sure how this is possible.
I really need to see this, but i've never been a fan of his films.

His documentary "When the Levees Broke" is very underrated though and more people should watch it.
I wonder if he'll ever make another documentary?

 

[Double-A]

1) The Lost City of Z

I would give it a B. I am looking forward to this movie's general release as my brain struggles with processing speech and I would like to rewatch it with subtitles. The way the characters spoke made it hard for me to understand what they were saying. I don't know if it was the accents they spoke in, Robert Pattinson's mumbling (his character seemed like an agreeable man from what little I could decipher of his speech), etc. The main character was probably the easiest to understand because he spoke in a slow, serious manner.

Interesting fact for you fellow Star Wars nerds: the actor for Darth Sidious (Ian McDiarmid) has a small role in this film.

2) Manchester by the Sea

Overhyped, but not a bad movie. I would give it a C.

3) Alien: Covenant

I saw this one yesterday (opening day). A definite improvement over Prometheus (that one I would give a C, if anybody is interested) in my opinion. It still isn't as good as Alien and Aliens like I hoped it would be (but realistically didn't expect), and the ending was predictable, but I would still give this one a B as well.

 

[oqvist]

Now we are two that like Prometheus . Main fault with Covenant is to many characters and not enough time to make us care about them. Essentially to much action and to much of a remake of the first. Prometheus tried to break some new ground at least but maybe offered to little fan service? Life falls a bit in the same trap but there I care a little bit as there is a bit less characters and more development if still to little.

But essentially it´s impossible to make these sequels as they can never have the same impact. You can´t top Alien. Sorry Aliens fans. I think I will like it more the more times I see it though. Had it´s not been a sequel to Alien and people didn´t know what to expect I would rate it higher. I have no idea how you could make an alien movie that feel entirely fresh and unpredictable

 

[kid vic]

Now we are two that like Prometheus . Main fault with Covenant is to many characters and not enough time to make us care about them. Essentially to much action and to much of a remake of the first. Prometheus tried to break some new ground at least but maybe offered to little fan service? Life falls a bit in the same trap but there I care a little bit as there is a bit less characters and more development if still to little.

But essentially it´s impossible to make these sequels as they can never have the same impact. You can´t top Alien. Sorry Aliens fans. I think I will like it more the more times I see it though. Had it´s not been a sequel to Alien and people didn´t know what to expect I would rate it higher. I have no idea how you could make an alien movie that feel entirely fresh and unpredictable

True, a few things felt new in Prometheus not so much in Covenant.

Get Out- 9/10

Solid story, most of the characters made sense and felt real, plot was interesting and enjoyable. A few elements were a little odd but it was neatly tied up in the end.

 

[WraithApe]

1) The Lost City of Z

I would give it a B. I am looking forward to this movie's general release as my brain struggles with processing speech and I would like to rewatch it with subtitles. The way the characters spoke made it hard for me to understand what they were saying. I don't know if it was the accents they spoke in, Robert Pattinson's mumbling (his character seemed like an agreeable man from what little I could decipher of his speech), etc. The main character was probably the easiest to understand because he spoke in a slow, serious manner.

Not sure what your B rating equates to, but I gave this one a 6/10 in the end. I can't say I noticed any issues with the audio - certainly didn't struggle to hear the dialogue at all - just felt they missed a trick by not focusing more on Percy Fawcett's actual expeditions. Far too much time was spent dwelling on his intermittent home life and interactions with the RGS and even then, the more interesting political maneuvering within the RGS was omitted. It all felt a bit big, glossy and lacking in real substance; basically a boy's own adventure without much actual adventure.

 

[vwinter]

Now we are two that like Prometheus . Main fault with Covenant is to many characters and not enough time to make us care about them. Essentially to much action and to much of a remake of the first. Prometheus tried to break some new ground at least but maybe offered to little fan service? Life falls a bit in the same trap but there I care a little bit as there is a bit less characters and more development if still to little.

But essentially it´s impossible to make these sequels as they can never have the same impact. You can´t top Alien. Sorry Aliens fans. I think I will like it more the more times I see it though. Had it´s not been a sequel to Alien and people didn´t know what to expect I would rate it higher. I have no idea how you could make an alien movie that feel entirely fresh and unpredictable

Sounds like I can just replace every instance of "Alien" with "Star Wars" and off we go. Still plan to watch it, probably next weekend.

Makes me similarly cautious about Blade Runner 2049. The trailer is very pretty but just all go go go.


In other news, David Lynch has reportedly retired from feature films.
You will be missed and thank you.

 

[WraithApe]

Makes me similarly cautious about Blade Runner 2049. The trailer is very pretty but just all go go go.

Looks pretty similar to the original trailer to me http://www.imdb.com/list/ls053181649/videoplayer/vi245020953

Sad news about Lynch. It was pretty much a done deal after he had such a bad experience getting Inland Empire made, but there was always the hope before that something might lure him back.

 

[vwinter]

Looks pretty similar to the original trailer to me http://www.imdb.com/list/ls053181649/videoplayer/vi245020953

Sad news about Lynch. It was pretty much a done deal after he had such a bad experience getting Inland Empire made, but there was always the hope before that something might lure him back.

Ha!
Maybe it's just a feeling thing? That intentional grit and texture just isn't there. It's a different vision of the future, a more polished one for lack of better words. Which is fine, I don't need a carbon copy. Like they took the tone and tried to marry it to a summer blockbuster. Like the "same" action sequences are less realistic and more x2.

I'm impressed with the trailer "remake" tho now that I see this lol. Reminds me I still need to see Arrival too...


Maybe he'll pull a Miyazaki =)

 

[Double-A]

I assume this is the "Life" movie that people are referring to in this thread?

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/life_2017

 

[Hutnicks]

That is the film , yes.

I wonder if Lynch restarting Twin Peaks was the final decider there?

As for Blade Runner I am entirely skeptical, but will of course pony up to see it Arrival seems to have impressed me more than others. After SICKaro I was more than relieved to see Villenueve return to creating characters that were actually worth watching and caring about.

Blame! (2017) Anime 6.5/10

So close and yet still a miss in so many areas. Made from a 5 minute short that was done in 2003 it was shopped around until Netflix finally picked it up and made it. One would think in that time they would have hammered out some of the more inane moments in the script. There are not many but they are somewhat jarring given the obvious effort that went into the animation here. It is stunning in a post apocalyptic way. An automated city run amok and a "hero" trying to find a way to shut it down before it kills off all the remaining human parasytes. Nibbles at the definition of being human without ever really getting deep into it. Instead it rather dwells on the interpersonal relations of the characters too much. You still get the full story but come away thinking that opportunities to really make it gel were lost.
A caveat here is that I ran the English dub version so really should go back and try and find a Japanese with subs ver to hear/read the actual script
This one could have been a brilliant anime series.

Kill Switch (2017) 6.5/10

A good 10 bucks and a bag of Fritos budgeted scifier. Falls short in some exposition and science but is entertaining and watchable if taken for what it is. Gets right into it and moves along at a good pace. Enough BSU and decent CGI to exite the bloodthirsty. Some really good moments wrapped around a predictable ending. Fans of the genre will appreciate this over the latest spate of all out dreck that has been polluting the streaming stations of late. Decent enough dialogue and limited cast who do their jobs quite well. keep this one alive all through to the end.

 

[vwinter]

Primer (2004) [6.5/10]
Here's the thing about this one. I thought it would be up my alley. And it kept my attention because of the interesting subject matter. And was impressive for how well thought out it was. Really impressive for either lack of plot holes, or confusing enough to hide them. And therein lies the issue. For once, I'm complaining about the focus being unbalanced toward the mechanical aspect of the story. It felt less like a decision to not hold the audience's hand and more of a decision to purposefully obfuscate or write cryptic dialogue for the sake of making it seem more complicated than it actually really truly is, which is to say still complicated enough. Amazing that this was done on its supposed budget. I think the closest comparison i've seen in this thread was Coherence, which I personally put significantly ahead of this one, and its likely because how how well it balances.

Also, the final version of the box in no way was congruent with what one would expect when looking at the initial device, so much so that it can be folded up. Likely budgetary, but felt like just a budgetary thing, but threw me off.


Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) 7.8/10

This one was a long time coming. This is my first time rewatching it and this was likely the first horror movie I had ever seen. Sort of my own Boogeyman...

And it was nothing like what I remember. What surprised me most was what... hodgepodge of ideas it was. Now I know where John Hughes got his inspiration for the ending of Home Alone. It was kind of... campy, and thus more fun and less frightening than I remember. The theme was a nice surprise. I didn't remember it. But in the end, this was more 80's than I for some reason expected and maybe... better for it.

NANCY
(even, firm)
I take back every bit of
energy I ever gave you.
You're nothing.​

 

[castleofargh]

for Blame! the manga and in general anything made by that mangaka has the exact same style and same story basis too, and of course as a result, same special atmosphere. getting answers is typically not that important and somehow it still works(in the manga). I absolutely love the drawing style so as always in such a situation, any attempt to move to another media feels to me like a massive failure. I'm partial on this, I usually prefer the book to the movie, and the manga to anime/movie.


Get Out 6/10
I'm being a little unfair but I felt like the all racial approach was pretty much both a bait for the trailer, and a filler for the movie. the way vagina becomes the topic of any female stand up comedian when she's short on material. but even while whining, I guess it's a rather nice movie with a style I didn't anticipate.