Recently Seen in 2019

[Mano]

Thanks, you just saved me $50.

$50??

And once again roped in by Rambo.

My god man, why??

 

[nwhoopfan]

I was aware of it, but hadn't seen "Denial" yet. Excellent film. Good performances all around.

 

[zymurg]

I'm not the only one who is "Dazed and Confused."

 

[Dove]

Peppermint

Jennifer Garner goes all vigilante on a drug cartel with revenge as her motive. And she's pretty damned good!!

I recommend if you need a lot of kills in your life.

 

[nwhoopfan]

"Above the Shadows" was a bit of an odd film, have to suspend disbelief right from the beginning, but I enjoyed it. About a girl who "disappears" when she's 12, nobody can see or hear her anymore, although she is still alive. As an adult her unique situation is perfect for her chosen profession as a free lancer photographer who gets lots of compromising photos for the tabloids. Then one day a bouncer in a club actually sees her, changing everything. She tries to help him get his MMA fighting career back on track and maybe he can help her be an actual person again...or maybe not. I mainly watched it because I'm a big fan of Olivia Thirlby, she did not disappoint.

 

[ZooCougar]

Rambo sounds so bad.

 

[Deadrody]

I had low expectations for X-Men: Dark Phoenix, but even then it was disappointing. The first half or more was just plain boring. By the time the action started I just didn't care about any of the characters. The franchise has been so massively mishandled and mismanaged at nearly every step. The time line contrivances and continuity issues are mind boggling. So glad Fox won't be allowed to ruin this property any more beyond this point.

Just watched this last night. I figured these films, with the younger cast, were a "reboot / origin story" that still acknowledged that the previous iterations existed. I stand corrected.

You just can't have the same characters with a different storyline and ending to the same characters. Incoherent story telling.

Granted the first movie was nearly 20 years ago, but the two iterations are actually only separated by 5 years. The last of the original cast was in 2006 and the first of the new cast was 2011.

 

[dbmill]

Personal Shopper - Ghostly story starring Kristen Stewart, who has her mental antennae tuned up and geared for looking for signs that her recently dead twin brother may be trying to contact her from the great beyond. A not great but solid film that definitely keeps your attention. Stewart is quite good in this, which is fortunate since she is pretty much the whole story in this one. However, anyone who is inclined to need a definitive conclusion to this film is likely to be a bit disappointed.

 

[nwhoopfan]

However, anyone who is inclined to need a definitive conclusion to this film is likely to be a bit disappointed.

Hollywood doesn't really do definitive conclusions anymore it seems.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Finally saw "Yesterday." Entertaining, I enjoyed it. Not quite as lighthearted or whimsical as I thought it would be based on the previews. I believe this was the debut for the lead, Himish Patel. I liked him. Lily James...what can I say? I always like her, so charming, so adorable. Kate McKinnon is hit and miss for me but I found her quite funny in her limited screen time. Lamorne Morris (from New Girl) was only in one scene, I like that guy, I hope he finds some success in movies. Ana de Armas unfortunately hit the cutting room floor (she was in the previews; I hate it when they do that) but she's in the deleted scenes.

Anyway worth a watch I thought. I'm not a huge Beatles fan but I definitely enjoyed the music.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Netflix is screwing with me again, won't send me movies even when I send them back, then everything that was available goes onto a waiting list. I've been close to cancelling their service before, one of these days I will. So off to Redbox I went. Finally saw "Spiderman Far From Home." Meh. I can't get into either of these latest versions with Tom Holland. He's okay but the movies themselves were too goofy and I find many of the characters irritating. I haven't watched them in a while, but at least in my memory the Sam Raimi Spidey flicks (at least 1 and 2) were far, far better. Angourie Rice is being wasted as a bit character, I'd much rather see her as MJ than Zendaya. Flash is lame, Peter's best friend is a goofball, the 2 teachers/chaperones on the Euro trip were like the 3 Stooges, except there were only 2 of them. Some seriously juvenile writing with this movie. Not quite like Shazam but not that far off. Interesting take bringing back J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson, same as in the Raimi films. He's perfect in that role. The post credit scene w/ Samuel L. Jackson/Fury...what the heck was that for? This movie leaves me a bit nervous about the post End Game direction Marvel will be going.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Also saw "Anna." Not exactly original, but I thought it was entertaining. It does a lot of time line jumping, I know that frustrates some people. Fairly convoluted plot with lots of twists.

I thought that was the screen debut of model Sasha Luss as the lead. Looking it up now she had a small part in Besson's previous film "Valerian..." I felt she held her own with several well established actors in the cast.

 

[intlzncster]

Netflix is screwing with me again, won't send me movies even when I send them back, then everything that was available goes onto a waiting list. I've been close to cancelling their service before, one of these days I will. So off to Redbox I went. Finally saw "Spiderman Far From Home." Meh. I can't get into either of these latest versions with Tom Holland. He's okay but the movies themselves were too goofy and I find many of the characters irritating. I haven't watched them in a while, but at least in my memory the Sam Raimi Spidey flicks (at least 1 and 2) were far, far better. Angourie Rice is being wasted as a bit character, I'd much rather see her as MJ than Zendaya. Flash is lame, Peter's best friend is a goofball, the 2 teachers/chaperones on the Euro trip were like the 3 Stooges, except there were only 2 of them. Some seriously juvenile writing with this movie. Not quite like Shazam but not that far off. Interesting take bringing back J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson, same as in the Raimi films. He's perfect in that role. The post credit scene w/ Samuel L. Jackson/Fury...what the heck was that for? This movie leaves me a bit nervous about the post End Game direction Marvel will be going.

I didn't even know Netflix sent dvds. Thought it was just stream. Learn something new every day. lol

I haven't seen a DVD player in years.

 

[nwhoopfan]

I didn't even know Netflix sent dvds. Thought it was just stream. Learn something new every day. lol

I haven't seen a DVD player in years.

Not sure if serious or not. In a long distant time, before streaming services existed, that was how Netflix got started. You're making me feel old, thanks a lot!

 

[intlzncster]

Not sure if serious or not. In a long distant time, before streaming services existed, that was how Netflix got started. You're making me feel old, thanks a lot!

hahaha. I was serious. But it's probably because it slipped my mind. I was never into the disc sending thing myself.

I just assumed Netflix moved on from that model.

 

[nwhoopfan]

I just assumed Netflix moved on from that model.

I think they want to, but they still have a significant number of subscribers. Their service has gotten sub par. They killed off their competition, now Redbox is the only alternative.

 

[8893]

hahaha. I was serious. But it's probably because it slipped my mind. I was never into the disc sending thing myself.

I just assumed Netflix moved on from that model.

We did the disc sending thing when they first started. I hated it. It got to be a chore when the disc was staring at you in the envelope and you had make it a point to schedule a time to watch it. Once it took us a month and then I canceled the membership.

 

[dbmill]

Netflix is screwing with me again, won't send me movies even when I send them back, then everything that was available goes onto a waiting list. I've been close to cancelling their service before, one of these days I will. So off to Redbox I went. Finally saw "Spiderman Far From Home." Meh. I can't get into either of these latest versions with Tom Holland. He's okay but the movies themselves were too goofy and I find many of the characters irritating. I haven't watched them in a while, but at least in my memory the Sam Raimi Spidey flicks (at least 1 and 2) were far, far better. Angourie Rice is being wasted as a bit character, I'd much rather see her as MJ than Zendaya. Flash is lame, Peter's best friend is a goofball, the 2 teachers/chaperones on the Euro trip were like the 3 Stooges, except there were only 2 of them. Some seriously juvenile writing with this movie. Not quite like Shazam but not that far off. Interesting take bringing back J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson, same as in the Raimi films. He's perfect in that role. The post credit scene w/ Samuel L. Jackson/Fury...what the heck was that for? This movie leaves me a bit nervous about the post End Game direction Marvel will be going.

I also use the Netflix DVD service. I haven’t had the problems described above in getting Netflix to send me movies and such. Generally, the movies I get from Netflix are not the recently released big budget stuff, so maybe that makes a difference. The films that I give quick opinions and reviews in this thread usually come from my Netflix subscription, so that will give you an idea of what I have been ordering.

 

[nwhoopfan]

I also use the Netflix DVD service. I haven’t had the problems described above in getting Netflix to send me movies and such. Generally, the movies I get from Netflix are not the recently released big budget stuff, so maybe that makes a difference. The films that I give quick opinions and reviews in this thread usually come from my Netflix subscription, so that will give you an idea of what I have been ordering.

At some point I saw pretty much all the older movies I wanted to watch. I've had Netflix since probably around the early 2000's. I have a fairly small queue and it's almost entirely newer releases (although plenty of indies, not just blockbusters). I can't count how many times I've returned movies, they received them, then there was a 24 hour delay while I had open slots. And often in that time frame movies in my queue changed from available to short wait. So then I just have open slots with nothing being sent to me. It's really frustrating. I don't get the 24 hour delay thing. For years I had it down to where I could always get the newest movies right when they were released, but for a while now I can't count on that working at all. It's why I still do DVD instead of streaming, because new movies take longer to get to streaming.

 

[dbmill]

At some point I saw pretty much all the older movies I wanted to watch. I've had Netflix since probably around the early 2000's. I have a fairly small queue and it's almost entirely newer releases (although plenty of indies, not just blockbusters). I can't count how many times I've returned movies, they received them, then there was a 24 hour delay while I had open slots. And often in that time frame movies in my queue changed from available to short wait. So then I just have open slots with nothing being sent to me. It's really frustrating. I don't get the 24 hour delay thing. For years I had it down to where I could always get the newest movies right when they were released, but for a while now I can't count on that working at all. It's why I still do DVD instead of streaming, because new movies take longer to get to streaming.

I've had Netflix DVD service since December of 2006. Not only do movies take longer to get to streaming, they have a greater tendency to get removed from the streaming service after a certain period of time. DVD's will get removed from the DVD service, but this practice is more prevalent with the streaming services. I also suspect that the stuff I tend to watch tends to be more available on the DVD service, which is also not as subject to the availability whims of streaming as the various media giants make deals on who can stream what.

These days if I put a DVD in the Monday mail, I will usually get a new one on Thursday (it used to be Wednesday). Sometimes I'll stick a "short wait" DVD at the top of the Queue hoping it will get delivered anyway. Sometimes it happens, sometimes not. If it doesn't happen, I just get the next movie in the Queue (it used to be that they would send you an extra movie if your top movie wasn't available, but those days seem to be gone). It is also pretty rare that I go a film that is just getting released that particular week, usually I'm willing to wait a little bit.

 

[nwhoopfan]

It is also pretty rare that I go a film that is just getting released that particular week, usually I'm willing to wait a little bit.

I'm impatient. It seems like if I don't get a new release as soon as it's available, I won't be able to get it for a month or more (I'll also leave it at the top of my list, and it just keeps showing as wait listed and I don't get it sent to me, week after week). If I'm not in a hurry to see it no big deal, but if I've got an itch for it then I'll usually pick it up at Redbox at that point rather than waiting indefinitely.

Like I said I think they want out of the rental business but are stuck for now. They have more demand than supply for new releases. They don't seem to be particularly concerned about the customer's experience or satisfaction at this point. They seem to have a weird model that punishes rather than rewards long time customers.

Streaming has plenty of content but it's still fairly finite compared to DVD catalog, and it's also more geared toward bingeing TV shows rather than movies. I just have a hard time trying to pick my way thru a TV show that has been airing for 5-10 years.

 

[dbmill]

I'm impatient. It seems like if I don't get a new release as soon as it's available, I won't be able to get it for a month or more (I'll also leave it at the top of my list, and it just keeps showing as wait listed and I don't get it sent to me, week after week). If I'm not in a hurry to see it no big deal, but if I've got an itch for it then I'll usually pick it up at Redbox at that point rather than waiting indefinitely.

Like I said I think they want out of the rental business but are stuck for now. They have more demand than supply for new releases. They don't seem to be particularly concerned about the customer's experience or satisfaction at this point. They seem to have a weird model that punishes rather than rewards long time customers.

Streaming has plenty of content but it's still fairly finite compared to DVD catalog, and it's also more geared toward bingeing TV shows rather than movies. I just have a hard time trying to pick my way thru a TV show that has been airing for 5-10 years.

I suspect your right about Netflix and DVD's. It's been fairly apparent ever since they split the DVD business and streaming into two "separate" companies.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Wow. "The Art of Self Defense." The trailers for that give you no clue where the movie is going. Can't say much about it without spoilering it. Very worth checking out. I remain as always impressed with Imogen Poots. Jesse Eisenberg and Alessando Nivola were interesting in their roles as well.

 

[nwhoopfan]

On the other hand, "Anna and the Apocalypse"....oh boy. Waited about a year to see it. It certainly looked weird, but I was looking forward to it. Not so good. I literally have no idea what the creators were trying to accomplish. Started out campy and fun, then just stopped and turned dark and serious. For a straight forward zombie movie, it wasn't any good. Low budget, not even B grade, and not so bad it's good either. They really screwed up with the shift in tone. I'm really not into musicals. The songs were humorous at first because they seemed to be messing with the idea of high school based musicals. But the later songs were just bad and added nothing. Disappointing to say the least. The star, Ella Hunt, is someone to keep an eye on though.

 

[dbmill]

From Beyond the Grave (1974) - This is the type of stuff my wife and I tend to watch as we get into October and Halloween approaches. This is a solidly entertaining horror anthology film. The stories contained in this anthology are linked by Peter Cushing whose character runs a rather odd antique shop where purchased items contain some interesting surprises. Let's just say it is not a good idea for anyone entering this antique shop to try to cheat Cushing's character on the price of an item or to try to steal from him, as the resulting adventure that results from acquiring a certain item can be nasty.