What was the last movie you saw...? Part IV

[Charger]

Dungeons & Dragons - Honor Among Thieves

Based on the famous board game the movie sees a two thief friends Edgin and Holga team up with a wizard and a shapeshifter to rescue Edgin's daughter from a friend turned foe and at the same time finding out about a plot by evil sorcerers to slave humans.

Lots of good action and a bunch of light hearted humor is what this is all about. The effects are really good and they bring the world of D&D alive quite well...the puffy dragon pretty much stealing the show.

The cast is really good. And quite surprising even Chris "wood block" Pine is rather good...heck this might very well be his best preformance to date but ofcourse Michelle Rodriguez shines as Holga and is pretty much the center character for me. Justice Smith, Sophia Lillis and Hugh Grant are also all very good as is Daisy Head as the evil Sorceress Sophina.

The humor is what carries this movie. You can't make a movie like this and take it too seriously. That being said the PG13 rating does not allow enough gore...massive sword fights without a drop of blood are bite cringy but it is a minor gripe in the end.

I must say this might very well be the best movie of the year...atleast the most positively surprising one so far.

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[Zzzptm]

I really enjoyed the D&D movie, it was fantastic and made me REALLY want to play BG3!

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Baldur's Gate did get mentioned in the movie as well!

I do hope that there will be a sequel to this at some point.

[Zzzptm]

Last set of movies I watched on the plane...

Dovlatov - Russian film on the Soviet-era dissident writer. It's VERY Russian in that action is minimal and dialogue leaves many areas for the mind to fill in. Overall, an enjoyable film if you want the slowest of slow burns.

The Big Short - About the investors who shorted mortgage bonds in the run up to the 2007-8 financial collapse. Depressing ending because it's based on actual events. As an economist, I enjoyed it. Were I still a teacher, no way would I show it in class due to too many strippers and f-bombs.

Speaking of strippers and f-bombs...

The Wolf of Wall Street - I got about 2/3rds of the way in to it before I had an unrelated comfort issue that made me too nauseous to watch movies (getting stomach gas and bloating at 38,000 feet is awful). Plan to finish it off maybe today. DiCaprio is hilarious in this.

[Vyn]

The Thing With Two Heads.

I remember when this came out, and wanting to see it. I never did. I've just now fixed that problem, to my dismay lol

To be fair though, it's pretty well acted. Some of it is. The premise is asinine and I think if they made a few changes to the script it could have been a pretty good comedy. As it stands, I can't tell if it is trying to be serious or just taking the piss all over the place. So it fails as a comedy and fails as a serious drama/horror film. Its take on race relations is vapid, not really its fault because all of those types of films back then suffered from the same thing.

[Zzzptm]

^ A winner of a Golden Turkey Award for its excellence in being bad.

They guy that did makeup and special effects in the film also played the gorilla. His later work won him an Oscar.

Rosey Grier went on to be a guest star in numerous TV shows and became a skilled needlepoint and macrame artist.

[Thelemech]

I bought a DVD set of the first three Amityville horror movies and the first one was genuinely good but the second one is a work of filth 🙃
It is as if the production writers sat around and tried to one up each other  to see who could come up with the sickest situations 😒
The incest alone is disgusting,  it's just difficult to watch.
I highly recommend the first one but unless you're a psycho avoid the second one at all costs.

[Vyn]

Never did see any of them after the first one, which I thought was pretty good. Sounds like I can continue not seeing the second one!

[Charger]

Was that the one with Ryan Reynolds? I don't think I've seen it...might have to check it out.

I however took this Halloween to revisit the SCREAM movies.

Yesterday was the first one which was about as good as I remembered it.
The cast it brilliant and the story is great. Director legend Wes Craven finds a brilliant balance between scary moments and laugh out loud moments. There's also a whole bunch of refrences to old horror classics not just in the dialogue but in the background as well...inlcuding a janitor wearing Freddy Kruger's outfit and much more.
The deaths are clever and the twist in the end is great.

This was the movie that kickstarted the new horror boom and I have to say I can fully understand why. It is quite excellent...still.


Scream 2 for tonight then.

[Thelemech]

The one with Ryan Reynolds is a reboot

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Holy crap it is.

I just googled it and it seems there are 15 (!!!!) Amityville movies! Wow... I did NOT know that.

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SCREAM 2

The sequel delivers more frights, more laughs and more bodies...like a good sequel should.
The dynamic duo Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson are on top of the game and the cast is again brilliant...alongside Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox and David Arquette we have new faces (soon to be dead faces) in form of Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jerry O'Connell and even the young Timothy "Raylan Givens" Olyphant makes a rather different role and he excells in it!

The story kind of repeats the first one but not really and the end revelation is good and adds another twist.

This too is quite excellent...and has stood the test of time really really well.

[Charger]

SCREAM 3

Another great installment in the series. Good scares, great laughs, good plot twists and bunch of great actors in early roles again supporting the brilliant main cast like Scott Foley, Jenny McCarthy, Emily Mortimer and Parker Posey...also the inclusion of the legend Lance Henriksen was great although his role was criminally small and Carrie Fisher makes a rather funny little cameo as well.


The circle kind of closes with yet another aspect of Sidney's mother being revealed. Eventhough Kevin Williamson didn't write this one it still includes all his trademarks.

Maybe the weakest of the three but still a very enjoyable movie.

Tonight it's Scream 4!

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SCREAM 4

Hadn't seen this one before and I have to say I was extremely positively surprised.
The old cast returns for an anniversary of the first killings only to find the ghostface killer returning once again this time targeting people close to Sidney.
Some great new cast members here include the lovely Hayden Panettiere, Allison Brie, Emma Roberts, Marley Shelton among others.

Once again Kevin Williamson writes and Wes Craven directs a delightful mix of gore and humor....this time the twist at the end is every bit as good as on the first one...if not even better...

I've seen people calling this one the best in the series and I can't blame them. A really enjoyable scream fest and loads of fun. Needless to say the Scream movies are on top of the slasher genre and honestly there aren't too many movies that can even come close to their brilliance.

[Zzzptm]

Saw Barbie and Asteroid City last week.

I've been wanting to see Barbie and it finally turned up on Max. Watched it, loved it from the beginning. There's so much good-natured humor that pokes fun with pop culture, it's a delight for anyone that loves visual puns in movies. As for the plot, again, well thought out and provocative. It's about being able to form a healthy self-image in spite of societal and advertising pressures that try to make us more manageable. It went very well with a book I'm working through, "The Myth of Normal." I get it that it's not for everyone, but it certainly was for me with where I'm at right now.

Asteroid City is a beautifully shot film that is massively confusing. If you want to watch it, knowing it's about grief will help make it make sense as you're going through it. I do plan to watch it again, because I am a Wes Anderson fan and this film has an elusive depth to it that I want to experience again.