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Movie Night (Official Movie Discussion Thread)

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves




Surprisingly not a Drag

PRAISE: I remember loving the Dungeons & Dragons animated show. There were so many board games at the summer camp I used to go to and umong them were Dungeons and Dragons. I know fans of the game will say it's much more than just a board game and I can happily say Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is much more than I expected.
I was really surprised at how this blend of heart,humor and menace really worked. The ensemble cast really worked well together. The movie definitely played with the strengths of Hugh Grant's personality.
The humor and sarcasm throughout the film worked for me. There is a terrific chase scene that is unlike any other I've seen in movies like this. Speaking of standouts a scene featuring the antagonist was done very well with the right amount of SFX. I also enjoyed a surprising cameo in this movie. I had to ask twice is that who I think it is? I did like the fact that they used practical effects in the movie not that the CGI was bad or anything. I definitely got a Guardians of the Galaxy vibe throughout the movie.

PROBLEMS: Several times the movie makes a diversion from its strengths and ends up in areas that stall the movie. Definitely a couple of predictable turns and story threads.

Scale of 1 to 10 a 7½
 
TETRIS




Tribute to Tetris

PRAISE : Based on a true story Henk Rogers discovers Tetris in 1988 .Risking everything by travelling to the Soviet Union, where he joins forces with inventor Alexey Pajitnov to bring the game to the masses.
The cast does a fine job in the movie. The scenes I really enjoyed are the ones in which Roger's expanded on someone else's idea and took it to another level much like Ray Kroc did with the fast food burger idea which eventually became McDonald's.
The movie also brought back a lot of great memories for me of my elementary school days of tooling with the basic computers of the time and endless hours of playing with game consoles and classic hand held systems like the Gameboy.
Some of the back and forth about who really owned the rights to Tetris was interesting . I wanted some of the characters to come out on top and get past the hurdles thrown in front of them and that's what held my interest. I enjoyed the eight bit graphics used in the movie.

PROBLEMS : The movie feels cluttered at times because so much of it is made up to fill two hours. (i encourage everyone to watch documentaries about Tetris) Some of the film is definitely convoluted with tacked on scenes that are supposed to be exciting and intriguing. Some of the board room talk was boring and slowed the pacing of the movie.

Scale of 1 to 10 a 7
 
Goldie said:
Marlon-Wayans-God-Loves-Me-Key-Art-HBO-Max.jpg



The entire special was about the Will Smith/Chris Rock slap. An entire hour :foh5:


The premise was cool trying to tie his relationship with all parties involved but nah bruh. More importantly, he has to learn how to punch and keep it moving. He'll drag a joke that was moderately funny for about 3 mins to where it's a bad joke now.
Click to expand...




Forreal??!

Marlon's shows normally go hard. I'll hit up my download spot to see if they got it.
 
Gangs of Lagos




Gang of greatness

PRAISE: Jáde Osiberu's Gangs of Lagos definitely caught me off guard with its moving and intense story about Obalola, Ify and Gift seeing their adoptive father murdered, they then join a gang. With the start of election campaigns, the three friends are drawn into gang wars that drive them to fulfill their destiny.
Interweaving politics,revenge and gangs this film definitely reminded me of Gangs of New York. It's filled with intense,moving and unflinching performances from:Tobi Bakare, Adesua Etomi-Wellington, Chike Osebuka, Chioma Chukwuka, Olarotimi Fakunle, Chioma Chukwuka, Bimbo Ademoye,and Iyabo Ojo.
The violence and gore are intense and then some. The characters and portrayals are so good I wished this was a series instead of a two hour film because that's how quickly I bonded with the characters and wanted to continue to see what paths they would take.
It gave me this great story of family and friendship and the pain of loss that brought out such great raw emotion.

PROBLEMS: Predictable at times. I wish some things weren't so on the nose that I could definitely tell what was coming next for certain characters and situations.

Scale of 1 to 10 an 8½
 
Anyone now how to watch TVOne movies? They had a tv movie come out back in 2015, I saw it once on tv, but can't find nowhere to download it.

An app or something??
 
Renfield




Crazy Campy Cage

PRAISE: After a century of being in Dracula's "service" Renfield tries to break free of him.
This is the type of movie that puts an immediate smile on my face because of the way its structured and how it plays with its subject matter. Nicolas Cage gives his all in his performance as Dracula channeling the great performances of other actors that have inhabited the legendary character such as Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee. Nicholas Hoult does great as Renfield definitely displaying how he has grown weary and leary of the vampire.
Awkwafina is also very good as a traffic cop named Rebecca who is seeking vengeance.Ben Schwartz gets to dole out several funny one liners. The characters that inhabit the movie have great chemistry.
The violence in the film may be comical but that fact doesn't lessen the gore or intensity.
There are great nods to classic Dracula films.
I'm glad the movie didn't pull back on certain things I thought it would. There are quite a few laugh out loud moments.

PROBLEMS: I know what the movie was going for but some portions of the movie are way over the top and silly. I think the movie needed at least another 15 minutes to flesh out a couple of characters and what they were up to without any real background they were just lacking.

Scale of 1 to 10 a 7½
 
Ghosted






Good Ghosts

It's always interesting for me when writers try to infuse new life into a plot that has already been used several times in TV shows and movies.
This time around in the old hey I've fallen for a someone but they're a spy story Cole falls head over heels for enigmatic Sadie, but then makes the shocking discovery that she's a secret agent.
The two leads Chris Evans and Ana de Armas have good chemistry.
Armas's agent is satisfying enough in this especially if she never gets her much talked about double O movie.
Evans provides his usual charm. Even though the movie is definitely not original I liked the efforts made by the writer and Director. These efforts include making the movie as surprising and fun as possible. There's a pretty good gag they use that made me say ok what's next. Several of the action sequences are really well choreographed and I have to praise the people behind it especially the final sequence. For the most part it's a great looking movie.



PROBLEMS: The movie definitely has some hollow and then some moments. Some things start nicely but aren't maintained. The villain in the film portrayed by Adrien Brody had a promising start due to the characters methods but they don't do much with him. I know the writers were going for cute with the two leads but their banter becomes repetitive.

Scale of 1 to 10 a 7
 
Just seen The Covenant with Jake Gyllenhaal and Dar salim and I really liked it

Was very intense at moments and I was never bored.

A very tight story and it was nice to see the two of them bond as the movie went on. Can’t even think of any gripes with it

One of the better movies taking place in the Middle East since 9/11 imo

I’d give it a 8.5/10
 
Peter Pan & Wendy






For Pan Fans

PRAISE: Peter Pan is in my top 20 of favorite fictional characters. From J.M Barries book,Disney's 1952 animated film, The 1991 movie Hook with the late great Robin Williams and even 2015's Pan film I've enjoyed all versions of Pans story.
This version is well acted by the entire cast who definitely give it their all with enthusiastic performances.
I really liked that the first half of the movie doesn't waste time .It hits the ground running with the key players and all of the facts about the characters weaved into moments of fun,peril and magic. There are some slight changes to the story that I didn't mind.
I was impressed by what was done visually in a number of sequences and praise to everyone behind the set design and CGI work.
All of the legendary things about Pan are in the movie that brought a smile to my face several times.
Now in the second half I didn't mind getting to the core of some characters but....

PROBLEMS: It's as if the movie said ok let's slow things up a bit and put a few of these characters on a psychiatrist's couch and talk about their wounded psyches for about 15 minutes. What happened to the fun and magic?
The CGI is a bit off in some scenes so much so visually some scenes got unintentional laughter out of me.

Scale of 1 to 10 a 7½
 
Sony Montana said:
Just seen The Covenant with Jake Gyllenhaal and Dar salim and I really liked it

Was very intense at moments and I was never bored.

A very tight story and it was nice to see the two of them bond as the movie went on. Can’t even think of any gripes with it

One of the better movies taking place in the Middle East since 9/11 imo

I’d give it a 8.5/10
Click to expand...
Surprised no one made a thread for that film
 
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3






Goodbye Guardians


PRAISE: The final adventure for the Guardians has for the most part an involving story in which a Still reeling from the loss of Gamora, Peter Quill must rally his team to defend the universe and protect one of their own. If the mission is not completely successful, it could possibly lead to the end of the Guardians as we know them.

The story which is a mix of family ties,an origin story,loss, friendship and past trauma all wrapped in a humorous bow worked for me for the most part. it's cool that Director and writer James Gunn gave each of the characters time to shine,while they rebuild families,bonds and friendships.
I was ready for certain characters to be altered from their legendary comic book versions so no real disappointments there. They actually got a lot of laughs out of me.
There are moments that i found moving and harrowing at the same time,that are not for the faint of heart ...especially if you are an animal lover. Im not even sure if this is for small children due to a particularly gruesome visual.
Hats off to everyone behind the SFX and practical effects. They truly came up with some great visuals and interesting looking aliens. I reallly liked how things wrapped up for a couple of characters,if it had gone another way it would have been forced.
I did enjoy the placement of popular music throughout the movie.
If you are a big fan of GOTG i can see you leaving the theatre with a big smile on your face because you basically get the GOTG you've always gotten.


PROBLEMS: The actor portraying the High Evolutionary Chukwudi Iwuji wasnt terrible but at times his performance was a bit over done,i thought he was going to pop a couple of blood vessels.
There's nothing truly suspenseful in the movie or anything really surprising. I could actually see where the writers puled back from certain paths the movie takes. Thats's kind of disappointing especially when this is the final turn for at least this version of the GOTG.The end credit scenes....i guess you can stick around if you are an ultra fan but there's not much to them.

Scale of 1 to 10 a 7
 
The Mother





MERC MOTHER

Jennifer Lopez stars as an FBI agent with no name......(ohhhhh so mysterious!!) and due to her involvement with a couple of bad guys played by Joseph Fiennes and Gael Garcia Bernal she has to go into hiding and though it pains her give her child over to adoptive parents.
Lopez is pretty good in this displaying all the right amounts of physicality, being pissed off and intense. She has good chemistry with Omari Hardwick, Mothers FBI handler.
Joseph Fiennes is good too . His villain is a cross between a Bond villain and the Joker. He is unmoved by anything and shockingly brutal.
Gael Garcia Bernal's villain was fun I enjoyed his time in the movie.
What matters most is Lopez's time with her young co star Lucy Paez as her daughter Zoe since they spend a good portion of them bonding while dodging bullets and explosions. I really enjoyed their banter.
There are some fun action sequences placed in great scenic areas around the world .
There's a lot of playing on maternal instincts throughout the movie which I didn't mind.

PROBLEMS : I was shocked at how underdeveloped a couple of characters were especially due to the fact that they were a big part of the foundation of the movies plot.The arrogance of a couple of characters lead to predictable outcomes.
Some of the moves some of the henchman and villains make are ridiculous. I guess covert wasn't part of their vocabulary.
There are a couple of too convenient moments. A couple of situations and set ups don't make sense.

Scale of 1 to 10 a 6½
 
Watched that infinity pool other night, what a clusterfuck of fucked up.

Whole films just weird as shit, white people doing white people shit to the extreme.

Had a hostel feel but on a whole different level, can’t even explain what it’s about.
 
SISU






Gold & Guns

Even though I saw the shock and awe screencap YouTube reactions to the trailer for Sisu I didn't want to know much about this movie before watching it. I wanted to be surprised and Sisu definitely serves up some shocking moments in its story about the last days of World War II, in which a solitary prospector crosses paths with Nazis on a scorched-earth retreat in northern Finland. When the soldiers decide to steal his gold, they quickly discover they just tangled with no ordinary miner.
I enjoyed watching the characters and their relentless determination even when it seemed they were painted into one bloody corner after another. Characters that should let their prey go but are so determined in their pursuit they are blinded to what is an unstoppable force their prey is.
As each action sequence set itself up I couldn't help but smile because I was anticipating how it would play out and the outcome so praise to Director and writer Jalmari Helander for putting it all together.
I liked the look of the film from its grit to scenic and fiery landscapes.
Some very good and unique kills throughout the film were riveting to watch. Hats off to actor Jorma Tommila as the laser focused Aatami Korpi.

PROBLEMS: There are several over the top and cartoonish moments that briefly took me out of the film. The Road Runner and Coyote have nothing on the characters in this film.
When all is said and done you will either embrace how over the top the movie becomes or write it off as a cartoonish action romp.

Scale of 1 to 10 a 7½




FAST X





Fast & the Fizzle

PRAISE : I know what to expect from this franchise. Extreme and over the top action. Characters surviving situations that should be life ending or at least causing multiple injuries. Comic relief from the same Characters and tech I wish existed in the real world. This movie makes a U Turn back to Fast Five and Jason Momoa’s Dante, the son of bad guy, Hernan Reyes is seeking revenge on Dom for the infamous vault heist.
He is sadistic and then some and Momoa looks like he's having the most fun and yes it was fun to watch him chew up scenery with swagger but I swear in one scene he looked like Aladdin and I bet he picked out the outfit himself. John Cena's complete personality change from the last film was pretty funny. I half expected him to put on his Peacemaker helmet
All of the aforementioned about this franchise is in place but the movie does take a road back briefly to what these movies used to be about which I enjoyed especially when the stakes were raised in a standout scene.
I liked the call backs to previous FF films.
Praise to all that put these action sequences together. I enjoyed a lot of the hand to hand fights.

PROBLEMS: The inclusion of Dom's son Brian in an action sequence was kind of well I will use the abbreviation WTF !?!
I know I should be used to the silly antics in these movies but at times in this one, it felt like time wasting filler.
Some very predictable moments throughout laced with cheesiness.
Some characters time in the film was so brief it was laughable. This movie really wants to be a Marvel film.

Fast X definitely doesn't have the usual FF ending and sets up several things that Fast 11 and possibly 12 are on my watch lists...what can i say im a completest

Scale of 1 to 10 a 6½
 
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