Rate The Last Movie You Watched

[WraithApe]

 
Terror Train - 4/10
 
Sleazy sub-par stalk and slash movie, whose main gimmick is that the entirety of the action takes place on a train. That and David Copperfield. Besides a young Jamie Lee Curtis and a decent last act, where it picks up the pace, this movie has got very little to recommend it. It often drags and the acting is pretty bad across the board. The identity of the killer is no great mystery and in the meantime, you have to spend most of the film in dimly lit train carriages in the company of a bunch of annoying frat students, most of whom have it coming anyway.

 

[SHAMuuu]

The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) 7.5/10

 

[tdockweiler]

Tremors - 7.5/10
 
Entertaining and sometimes sort of funny. Haven't seen this since I was a kid.
It's free on Amazon prime.

 

[Hutnicks]

 
 
Terror Train - 4/10
 
Sleazy sub-par stalk and slash movie, whose main gimmick is that the entirety of the action takes place on a train. That and David Copperfield. Besides a young Jamie Lee Curtis and a decent last act, where it picks up the pace, this movie has got very little to recommend it. It often drags and the acting is pretty bad across the board. The identity of the killer is no great mystery and in the meantime, you have to spend most of the film in dimly lit train carriages in the company of a bunch of annoying frat students, most of whom have it coming anyway.

 
Notable for being Spottswode's directorial debut and a Canadian production hoping to cash in on the unexpected success of Black Christmas. Vanity's screen debut film as well although under a different name. It is one of those films that made the Canadian Film business at the time the butt of jokes internationally.

 

[WraithApe]

  Tremors - 7.5/10
 
Entertaining and sometimes sort of funny. Haven't seen this since I was a kid.
It's free on Amazon prime.

 
Yeah, holds up pretty well I reckon. I'm probably due a re-watch too.

 

[WraithApe]

 

 
Notable for being Spottswode's directorial debut and a Canadian production hoping to cash in on the unexpected success of Black Christmas. Vanity's screen debut film as well although under a different name. It is one of those films that made the Canadian Film business at the time the butt of jokes internationally.

 
Never seen Black Christmas, though heard of it obviously. BFI's yuletide offering this year is Christmas Evil (AKA You Better Watch Out), so I've got my ticket for that at the end of December! I don't hold out particularly high hopes though, given they're screening it as a double bill with the risible Silent Night, Deadly Night!

 

[Hutnicks]

   
Never seen Black Christmas, though heard of it obviously. BFI's yuletide offering this year is Christmas Evil (AKA You Better Watch Out), so I've got my ticket for that at the end of December! I don't hold out particularly high hopes though, given they're screening it as a double bill with the risible Silent Night, Deadly Night!

I cannot believe you have not seen that. Sort of a prototype for all following films. Carpenter himself stated that Halloween was made as an unauthorized sequel. It shows it's age now but is still very much worth the watch.
 
Hope they run Christams Evil first so you can escape before Deadly Night rolls.

 

[vwinter]

Zero Days [maybe 7/10]

Sold on the story of Stuxnet, the first real offensive cyber-weapon (that we know about), where real world physical damage originated in the digital domain.

The reality of this documentary however is that it dealt more with related high level policy concerns, decision making and global implications. How things got started received a lot of time. They also spent a lot of time showing people saying they can't talk about it. The actual attack was explained but with the enthusiasm of filling out a tax return. Someone just felt a responsibility and put it in. Don't get me wrong, they used 3D simulations and blah blah, but you can tell they didn't think it was exciting. The implications! Now that's exciting... it seems was the thought. Maybe they're right. But I think the discovery and race to understand what it was is much more interesting.

That angle was fortunately covered incredibly here by Kim Zetter, 5 years ago:

How Digital Detectives Deciphered Stuxnet

The movie fills out the timeline around the discovery pretty well however. It also give good insight about the feelings from people on the various sides of what happened.

I'm not a frequent documentary viewer but thought the editing could have put the sections in a better order and it could have been more engaging for what I feel is an amazing story.

 

[WraithApe]

That angle was fortunately covered incredibly here by Kim Zetter, 5 years ago:

How Digital Detectives Deciphered Stuxnet

The movie fills out the timeline around the discovery pretty well however. It also give good insight about the feelings from people on the various sides of what happened.

I'm not a frequent documentary viewer but thought the editing could have put the sections in a better order and it could have been more engaging for what I feel is an amazing story.

 
This article's a great read, thanks! For me, the most interesting part lies in the details of the malware and how it operates (stuff like the virtual dll is ingenious!) It is an amazing story, I think you're right, and it could work as a documentary but only if it had the balls to risk limiting its potential audience by getting into serious technical detail; because it's the kind of story that needs that. It's the same with dramatizations of events - glossing over the tech in favour of the human angle might make for an easier sell at the box office, but it can be to the film's detriment. I felt this was the case with the recent Imitation Game, where the star of the show should have been the code breaking apparatus.

 

[mutabor]

Arrival ( 2016) 8/10
 

The Chomsky-esque notions that language shapes our thinking even more than our thinking shapes language is conveyed in the film's own structure as well as its dialog. 

 
It was the main trick of the movie ( Chomsky's linguistic theory and similar philosophical-linguistic theories). I don't buy into Chomsky's theory at all but in the movie it was developed even further.
 

 Takes its focus away from the invaders - for the most part - and shines it directly on human character and the questions of what might happen if we actually tried to communicate and solve the puzzle of our differences with brains, rather than brawn.

 
Another main theme of the movie. It sounds good in the movie but too abstract to take it seriously.
 
I liked the movie ( mostly I liked cinematography and sound effects) but I wasn't really engaged in main themes of it ( they didn't resonate to me personally).

 

[Hutnicks]

  Arrival ( 2016) 8/10
 
 
It was the main trick of the movie ( Chomsky's linguistic theory and similar philosophical-linguistic theories). I don't buy into Chomsky's theory at all but in the movie it was developed even further.
 
 
Another main theme of the movie. It sounds good in the movie but too abstract to take it seriously.
 
I liked the movie ( mostly I liked cinematography and sound effects) but I wasn't really engaged in main themes of it ( they didn't resonate to me personally).

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOh. I would so like to take this one on as language as reflection and impetus to any given society is a warm heart moment for me. We need a new thread. Chomsky was a currrent reflection of ancient ideals. Much in the way nonesense like "The Secret" repacages thoughts of greek. german, and roman philosophy, or Tony Robbins makes a living out of repackaged classical literature. The basis is quite sound as any parent of a current teenager can attest to

 

[vwinter]

This article's a great read, thanks! For me, the most interesting part lies in the details of the malware and how it operates (stuff like the virtual dll is ingenious!) It is an amazing story, I think you're right, and it could work as a documentary but only if it had the balls to risk limiting its potential audience by getting into serious technical detail; because it's the kind of story that needs that. It's the same with dramatizations of events - glossing over the tech in favour of the human angle might make for an easier sell at the box office, but it can be to the film's detriment. I felt this was the case with the recent Imitation Game, where the star of the show should have been the code breaking apparatus.

100% there with you on imitation game. I think that was actually the crux of my review lol.

Yea i get the box office concerns. I guess in my mind, this being a documentary rather than a blockbuster faux techno thriller, I would have thought that they didn't have to sell the human angle as much if at all. But I guess you always have to sell the human angle haha. To be fair to the movie though, it's more a policy angle than a human angle in the film. I'd say editing is one of the bigger offenders.

OH! Forgot to mention this! Absolutely awful sound. Oh man, I was turning it up down up down.

 

[SHAMuuu]

   

niceone
 
The Most Dangerous Game (1932)

 

[WraithApe]

 
Green Street - 5/10
 
One of those films that if I'm flipping through channels and come across it, I always seem to end up watching - as was the case again last night. I really struggle to put my finger on its appeal though. Elijah Wood is unconvincing as the token yank who becomes the unlikely hero of a hardcore firm (the Green Street Elite, clearly based on the real-life Inter City Firm), there's too much exposition - presumably as a kind of primer for an imagined US audience, the dialogue is clunky and laid on thick, the representation of a British sub-culture is laughably cliched and yet...
 
I guess there's the kernel of a good story in there and the characters, for all their lack of depth, are quite compelling. It reminds me of an ultra violent feature length episode of Grange Hill in the 80s (that reference may be lost on non-Brits!). Unrealistic, unsubtle but strangely absorbing. Junk food for the eyes basically.

 

[SHAMuuu]

Man on the Moon 7.5/10