Weekly thread - What movies have you watched this week? 23/07/2025
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The movie is definitely better than the first and there are some legitimately great set designs and sequences. I loved every minute with the trolls. The villain was much better too, if way too flippy. The script isn’t great at any point but the movie falls apart whenever “romance” is happening. Del Toro either doesn’t understand love at a basic level or he’s horrible at writing it. The movie also grinds to a halt whenever they are back home.
Basically anytime I wasn’t being awed by the scenery or some set piece, then my brain realizes how little else there was. There isn’t enough time for the mid-movie infatuation and the sister is under written or under directed. The literal prime reason for the movie is so easily resolved at the end of the movie that it’s laughable. I honestly only gave it 3.5 because of how cool 1/3 (not contiguous) of the movie was.
Interesting, I find the romance to be some of the best written romance in a comic book movie. I really enjoyed the script, but yeah it's not out of this world. I really liked the sister. I appreciate there isn't a cliffhanger, but it's likely that that was the original plan
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Fistful of Dollars is better when it was named Yojimbo.
You know, for being a self described movie guy, Kurosawa is a blind spot for me. Probably because 7 Samurai is so much to take in. Maybe I'll give yojimbo a try and see what I prefer
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You know, for being a self described movie guy, Kurosawa is a blind spot for me. Probably because 7 Samurai is so much to take in. Maybe I'll give yojimbo a try and see what I prefer
Yojimbo is probably his most accessible to modern audiences. It’s under 2 hours and it goes at a breakneck pace most of the time with pretty much every conversation being interrupted for some action. Mifune also might be at his coolest here.
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Interesting, I find the romance to be some of the best written romance in a comic book movie. I really enjoyed the script, but yeah it's not out of this world. I really liked the sister. I appreciate there isn't a cliffhanger, but it's likely that that was the original plan
I think the bar needs to be higher than a comic book romance. It’s probably hard to do it with a character in full costume but then again he did it with Shape of Water.
The other thing I forgot to mention that still applies to the romance is that it feels like none of the characters have any agency of their own. They just get whisked along by whatever new plot device has suddenly appeared. There’s no plan at all. That only works if the characters have no time to breathe and plan but that’s precisely what Del Toro does mid movie. The secondary romance between the two “aliens” as Abe puts it doesn’t feel organic. It feels like it’s only there to drive the story along.
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I think the bar needs to be higher than a comic book romance. It’s probably hard to do it with a character in full costume but then again he did it with Shape of Water.
The other thing I forgot to mention that still applies to the romance is that it feels like none of the characters have any agency of their own. They just get whisked along by whatever new plot device has suddenly appeared. There’s no plan at all. That only works if the characters have no time to breathe and plan but that’s precisely what Del Toro does mid movie. The secondary romance between the two “aliens” as Abe puts it doesn’t feel organic. It feels like it’s only there to drive the story along.
Better than most blockbuster romances, I'm aromantic so my standard is probably different than yours.
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Better than most blockbuster romances, I'm aromantic so my standard is probably different than yours.
I read that as aromatic and got very confused.
It’s not a bad movie by any stretch. Its shortcomings just outweigh what’s great about it is all.
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Ghost (1990)
Posthumous love transcends its pottery-wheel kitsch into genre-blending mastery: part romance, part thriller, part cosmic comedy, and all metaphysical yearning. Swayze's unchained melody leads to Goldberg's Oda Mae stealing every scene with perfect levity. Though there, plot issues be damned in the face of love's victory over death! Its zeitgeist grip is earned and is indeed transcendent. Ditto.La Collectionneuse (1967)
Gamine Haydée’s sexually-liberated presence fractures the languid hypocrisy of two "intellectuals" summering in ennui. Gallery-hopeful Adrien narrates in first-person deceit his moral superiority while coveting Haydée and his friend, sculptor and self-proclaimed barbarian Daniel mimics nonchalance with faux-libertine shrugs. Against their pompous barrage, her nightly routine soon evolves, left ambiguous by agency or mirror. Offering no verdict, but a capsule of 60s moral rot under the sun-kissed Riviera.Secret Admirer (1985)
80s teen tropes abound from slack-jawed parents to mistaken love letters but what sets it apart is its search for romance over sex. Its comedic elements are as effective as Reaganomics yet its embrace of young love's naïveté and gawky earnestness disarms. Objectively cliché, irresistibly nostalgic.Topkapi (1964)
A meretricious caper gilded by Istanbul's sun-drenched glamour, buoyed more by location than larcenous genius. Istanbul’s bazaars and palaces shimmer like stolen emeralds, while Turkish wrestling adds cultural heft; both dearly required to divert from languid plotting. It includes the famed wire-dangling theft which birthed a beloved genre trope. This film remains a minor classic, a postcard from heist cinema’s adolescence.Love Hurts (2025)
Anemic Valentine's entry where romance's absence is murderously felt. The action sequences are generic edited schlock, but the mismatched casting prove fatal as Quan’s treacly realtor-ex-hitman flails in a role demanding Jackie Chan charm and suffocates on arrival, overshadowed by DeBose’s femme fatale's negative presence. Their chemistry is even worse, all heart-shaped packaging without a pulse. It exists as a foreclosed property copied from superior blueprints. Mediocrity indeed hurts.
I preferred when the weekly thread was pinned a few days at the top for easy access and viewing.
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Ghost (1990)
Posthumous love transcends its pottery-wheel kitsch into genre-blending mastery: part romance, part thriller, part cosmic comedy, and all metaphysical yearning. Swayze's unchained melody leads to Goldberg's Oda Mae stealing every scene with perfect levity. Though there, plot issues be damned in the face of love's victory over death! Its zeitgeist grip is earned and is indeed transcendent. Ditto.La Collectionneuse (1967)
Gamine Haydée’s sexually-liberated presence fractures the languid hypocrisy of two "intellectuals" summering in ennui. Gallery-hopeful Adrien narrates in first-person deceit his moral superiority while coveting Haydée and his friend, sculptor and self-proclaimed barbarian Daniel mimics nonchalance with faux-libertine shrugs. Against their pompous barrage, her nightly routine soon evolves, left ambiguous by agency or mirror. Offering no verdict, but a capsule of 60s moral rot under the sun-kissed Riviera.Secret Admirer (1985)
80s teen tropes abound from slack-jawed parents to mistaken love letters but what sets it apart is its search for romance over sex. Its comedic elements are as effective as Reaganomics yet its embrace of young love's naïveté and gawky earnestness disarms. Objectively cliché, irresistibly nostalgic.Topkapi (1964)
A meretricious caper gilded by Istanbul's sun-drenched glamour, buoyed more by location than larcenous genius. Istanbul’s bazaars and palaces shimmer like stolen emeralds, while Turkish wrestling adds cultural heft; both dearly required to divert from languid plotting. It includes the famed wire-dangling theft which birthed a beloved genre trope. This film remains a minor classic, a postcard from heist cinema’s adolescence.Love Hurts (2025)
Anemic Valentine's entry where romance's absence is murderously felt. The action sequences are generic edited schlock, but the mismatched casting prove fatal as Quan’s treacly realtor-ex-hitman flails in a role demanding Jackie Chan charm and suffocates on arrival, overshadowed by DeBose’s femme fatale's negative presence. Their chemistry is even worse, all heart-shaped packaging without a pulse. It exists as a foreclosed property copied from superior blueprints. Mediocrity indeed hurts.
I preferred when the weekly thread was pinned a few days at the top for easy access and viewing.
A bunch of movies I’ve never seen. What’s your reasoning on the picks?
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Intersect (1.0/5)
Low budget film tries way too hard to be thought provoking and mysterious. Soooo much exposition and filler that didn't pertain to the story. 2 hour movie could have been a 45 min sci-fi channel show. Don't waste your time.Deadpool And Wolverine (3.0/5)
I mean, it was fine. Had some funny parts, but it's pretty much more of the same Deadpool formula which felt kinda stale this time around. If you absolutely love the other Deadpool movies, you'll like this one. Don't expect anything surprising though.The Terrifier 1 and 2 (3.5/5)
Lived up to the hype about the levels of violence and gore. Had some very dark but funny scenes. Acting, storyline, plot, was awful, but let's be honest - who is watching it for that? It was entertaining to me, but I love a good mindless slasher flick -
A bunch of movies I’ve never seen. What’s your reasoning on the picks?
My - often banal - reasoning for each:
'Ghost' - I love love (when done correctly) and it's been long on my watchlist thanks to its cultural zeitgeist.
'La Collectionneuse' - 'Ma nuit chez Maud' is on my watchlist then I discovered it was part of Rohmer's collection prompting me to watch it in order.
'Secret Admirer' - It's love and I have a tenderness for the 80s making it a simple light choice and watch when browsing.
'Topkapi' - Scrolling through and the name caught my eye as I chose not to enter the palace on a previous trip.
'Love Hurts' - I wanted to view it in theatres but nobody else did so here I am finally streaming it. I'm now relieved no-one wanted to go.
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Ghost (1990)
Posthumous love transcends its pottery-wheel kitsch into genre-blending mastery: part romance, part thriller, part cosmic comedy, and all metaphysical yearning. Swayze's unchained melody leads to Goldberg's Oda Mae stealing every scene with perfect levity. Though there, plot issues be damned in the face of love's victory over death! Its zeitgeist grip is earned and is indeed transcendent. Ditto.La Collectionneuse (1967)
Gamine Haydée’s sexually-liberated presence fractures the languid hypocrisy of two "intellectuals" summering in ennui. Gallery-hopeful Adrien narrates in first-person deceit his moral superiority while coveting Haydée and his friend, sculptor and self-proclaimed barbarian Daniel mimics nonchalance with faux-libertine shrugs. Against their pompous barrage, her nightly routine soon evolves, left ambiguous by agency or mirror. Offering no verdict, but a capsule of 60s moral rot under the sun-kissed Riviera.Secret Admirer (1985)
80s teen tropes abound from slack-jawed parents to mistaken love letters but what sets it apart is its search for romance over sex. Its comedic elements are as effective as Reaganomics yet its embrace of young love's naïveté and gawky earnestness disarms. Objectively cliché, irresistibly nostalgic.Topkapi (1964)
A meretricious caper gilded by Istanbul's sun-drenched glamour, buoyed more by location than larcenous genius. Istanbul’s bazaars and palaces shimmer like stolen emeralds, while Turkish wrestling adds cultural heft; both dearly required to divert from languid plotting. It includes the famed wire-dangling theft which birthed a beloved genre trope. This film remains a minor classic, a postcard from heist cinema’s adolescence.Love Hurts (2025)
Anemic Valentine's entry where romance's absence is murderously felt. The action sequences are generic edited schlock, but the mismatched casting prove fatal as Quan’s treacly realtor-ex-hitman flails in a role demanding Jackie Chan charm and suffocates on arrival, overshadowed by DeBose’s femme fatale's negative presence. Their chemistry is even worse, all heart-shaped packaging without a pulse. It exists as a foreclosed property copied from superior blueprints. Mediocrity indeed hurts.
I preferred when the weekly thread was pinned a few days at the top for easy access and viewing.
I agree that Love Hurts just kinda sucks. I think it commits one of the worst sins in media which is being boring. Things that are good and bad have a lot of interesting topics to discuss, while boring and pretty good are hard to discuss and tend to just not have an impact
Likewise, I'd also like this thread to be pinned over the new movie threads. I find those threads scare away people who haven't seen the movie and don't want spoilers, whereas people who have seen it don't seem to be using them
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I agree that Love Hurts just kinda sucks. I think it commits one of the worst sins in media which is being boring. Things that are good and bad have a lot of interesting topics to discuss, while boring and pretty good are hard to discuss and tend to just not have an impact
Likewise, I'd also like this thread to be pinned over the new movie threads. I find those threads scare away people who haven't seen the movie and don't want spoilers, whereas people who have seen it don't seem to be using them
Agreed. The director played it safe; aspired to be John Wick but is a soulless Nobody - which is already derivative.
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- Sinners (2025) - 1930s southern black community has to deal with all kinds of issues internal and external when a pair of charming hoodlums return home to go straight and open a juke joint, but what to do about honkies trying to get in on the action? Unspoken moral?: White people suck.
- Dead Men Walk (1943) - really bad old horror with stilted acting and dialog.
- Mirror (1975) - Second time I've watched it and I am not smart enough to 'get' this movie. I adore both Stalker and Solaris (Andrei Rublev is interesting but not my favorite Tarkovsky film), and those I believe I 'get', but I feel like I'm missing half of what is communicated in Mirror. Still, it stirs emotions and is engaging to watch. Beautiful imagery.
- Oedipus Rex (1967) - Pasolini tells the ancient tale of a land blighted because of the sins of its ruler, then ties it to post-war Italy. Recommended.
- Medea (1969) - Another from Pasolini, but not as good as Oedipus Rex, but is does have opera singer Maria Callas, so worth a watch.
- Death of a Unicorn (2025) - awful. Inappropriate violence for kids and too mild for adult horror. There isn't even much of a moral to find since none of it bears relation to reality.
- Hyenas (1992) - Now THIS is a movie. Set in a small African village, it is something of a parable on greed. It has funny hits in a dry, awful sort of way, and more approachable humanity than anything else on my list this week.
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- Sinners (2025) - 1930s southern black community has to deal with all kinds of issues internal and external when a pair of charming hoodlums return home to go straight and open a juke joint, but what to do about honkies trying to get in on the action? Unspoken moral?: White people suck.
- Dead Men Walk (1943) - really bad old horror with stilted acting and dialog.
- Mirror (1975) - Second time I've watched it and I am not smart enough to 'get' this movie. I adore both Stalker and Solaris (Andrei Rublev is interesting but not my favorite Tarkovsky film), and those I believe I 'get', but I feel like I'm missing half of what is communicated in Mirror. Still, it stirs emotions and is engaging to watch. Beautiful imagery.
- Oedipus Rex (1967) - Pasolini tells the ancient tale of a land blighted because of the sins of its ruler, then ties it to post-war Italy. Recommended.
- Medea (1969) - Another from Pasolini, but not as good as Oedipus Rex, but is does have opera singer Maria Callas, so worth a watch.
- Death of a Unicorn (2025) - awful. Inappropriate violence for kids and too mild for adult horror. There isn't even much of a moral to find since none of it bears relation to reality.
- Hyenas (1992) - Now THIS is a movie. Set in a small African village, it is something of a parable on greed. It has funny hits in a dry, awful sort of way, and more approachable humanity than anything else on my list this week.
Welcome back Memfree! Your positive review for 'Hyenas' led to it being added to my watchlist.
I'm waiting for one night when everyone's down for 'Sinners' so I can finally watch it. I also have a smattering of Tarkovsky's films on the watchlist, would you have a recommendation on which order?
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Welcome back Memfree! Your positive review for 'Hyenas' led to it being added to my watchlist.
I'm waiting for one night when everyone's down for 'Sinners' so I can finally watch it. I also have a smattering of Tarkovsky's films on the watchlist, would you have a recommendation on which order?
I don't know. I'm usually ready to watch a meandering film with slow pacing, but I know people who won't put up with that, so I might like movies you find unwatchable. In contrast, there's a subset of French slice-of-life movies that I just generally dislike while other people love them. Anyway, I've only seen 4 Tarkovsky films, and they all move more slowly than, say, a superhero blockbuster. Of those 4, I guess the most accessible is Solaris. Some days/weeks later, I'd watch Andrei Rublev as a change of pace, then after another wait try Stalker.
Those should be enough to give you a feel for the director, and then maybe you can try Mirror and tell me what I'm missing. I feel like a bunch of symbolism is going over my head. Are those Maoists shaking little red books? What does that evoke from a Russian perspective?
