Official last movie you saw thread

May December (2023)

American drama film. It's about an actress who travels to meet and study the life of the controversial woman she is set to play in a film, a woman infamous for the 23-year-long relationship with her husband which began when he was 13 years old.
Very good acting, but overall not as interesting as it could've been. Still, I can recommend it. I'm also not so sure about it's chances for that Best Original Screenplay Oscar. I think it's good and deserves its nomination, but the competition is too strong for it to win.

American Symphony (2023)

American biographical documentary film. It's about a year in the life of musician Jon Batiste, his music career, and his wife's struggle with leukemia. This documentary isn't, like I first thought, nominated for Best Documentary Feature, but for Best Original Song. And while I have yet to watch Flamin' Hot (2023) (because of course Diane Warren got nominated again for a song from a movie that barely anyone has seen) I have listened to that song a bit and considering American Symphony is all about music I think it has very good chances at winning that Oscar, but the category is strong this year (apart from Diane Warren's pity nomination). The documentary I can definitely recommend, though.

In the Mouth of Madness (1994)

American supernatural horror film. Rewatched this yesterday and it's still great.

Pachyderme (2022)

French animated drama short film. It's about a woman remembering vacations at her grandparents' place where she was sexually abused by her grandfather. The animation is like right out of a children's book, the sound design on the other hand is anxiety-inducing. It's a great animated short with a hard hitting story, but because I've only seen one of the other nominees in this category (Ninety-Five Senses (2023)) I can't really comment on its chances to win the Oscar it's nominated for, but overall I can recommend it.

Strain 100 2020

Now I love zombie movies. And this one is no exception. The dialogue could be better but for the locations used, the budget wasn't bad. And the effects were pretty good. No cheesy half assed looks.

7/10

Star Trek - The Motion Picture (1979)
If I have to tell you what Star Trek is, where did you live?

Groundhog Day: Great flick!

Ferarri(2023)

It's the best Michael Mann film since Collateral but that doesn't say all that much considering how hard he's fallen off since then. It's more interesting than your average biopic I suppose and has more style to it,but it doesn't amount to more than the sum of its parts I'd say.

I just watched "Thanksgiving" And that opening sequence had me laughing so hard tears were in the corners of my eyes. The best thing Eli Roth has done in years.

The Thing (2011) - A totally decent prequel to the original. Altho not really as good as it, overall.

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

American action-adventure film. It's about an archaeologist on a mission to recover the Ark of the Covenant but some Nazis are also looking for it. Well, I know I'm probably the last person on earth to watch this, so I don't need to talk too much about the plot, but all I can say is that it's considered the quintessential action adventure for a reason. And yes, I'm watching this for the Oscars, because the newest Indiana Jones movie is nominated and I haven't watched the other ones yet, so I have some catching up to do. Anyway, I can definitely recommend this one if you haven't seen it yet.

Watched Argylle yesterday. Pretty good spy comedy, I was pleasantly surprised. If you liked Kingsman - I recommend to watch this one too.

Saw a 4K restoration of 'Dawn of the Dead' last Saturday. Pretty damn good, instantly gave it a 10/10. Will probably be a favourite for years to come, it keyed into a lot of things I like.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

American action-adventure film. It's about Indiana Jones searching for a mystical stone and rescuing children from a cult. Hey, this is the one with Short Round. Definitely one I can recommend!

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

American action adventure film. It's about Indiana Jones and his father on the search for the Holy Grail. I actually think this is the best of the bunch and considering I only got the Crystal Skull one and the new one to watch, I don't think that'll change. So yeah, this is just a great movie all around. Highly recommended!

King Kong Lives (1986)

Sequel to the '76 version, this movie is terrible. Even the music is laughable. The drama scenes are laughable, and the humour attempts make you cry. The plot, dialogues, scenes, performances, decorations, and most of all, King Kong and Lady Kong costumes are simply bad. Each of the great apes have different masks for different emotions, but well, those are also bad.

And it's not as bad as "so bad you enjoy it", or "have a laugh while drunk or stoned". It's kind of bad like you'd want to be dead to turn over in your grave. And it's not as bad as the truly bad movies like The Creeping Terror. It's just mediocrily bad. I knew it was bad but I was curious about how Kong would continue, with a female Kong too (whose search takes just a few minutes of the movie, maybe 2-3, literally). Well, sometimes you know what you're entering, but 10 minutes into the film I was really wanting it to end. Even with Linda Hamilton on screen.

I still watch the original 1933 in awe because, despite the ancient special effects (revolutionary for the time), the movie has aged pretty well. The naiveness doesn't spoil the movie at all, and you can see the greatness and magnificence of the eight wonder of the world, King Kong. King Kong Lives is a sequel of a remake, and I didn't expect much, but I expected a lil bit here and there, but the movie is devoid of any redeemable qualities.

So well, just avoid, even for curiosity, unless you're a masochist like me. Now I'm watching a movie based on Lovecraft's "The Colour from out of Space". With Boris Karloff being Boris Karloff.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)

American action adventure film. It's about Indiana Jones and some Soviet KGB agents searching for a telepathic crystal skull located in Peru. It's definitely not as bad as people say it is. It just suffers from being compared to the other Indiana Jones movie, which are, of course, great classics. If it wasn't connected to that franchise people would say it's not that bad. Sure, it's not very good (and kinda silly at points), but it's an entertaining popcorn movie, so yeah... I can recommend it.

Just watched The Matrix Resurrections. It's a movie, I guess.
Like, I knew that yet another sequel couldn't be anything amazing, specially after so many years. It's not bad, it just felt half-baked, like the idea was there but the plot had to be rushed to fit in a single movie. I would have gladly watched a version of this film that was just Neo and Trinity trapped in this weirdly distorted version of the matrix while Neo is deep into the whole meta-narrative of trying to make the Matrix 4 like the first part of the film teases, just a weird psychological movie with the occasionally interspersed action scene that comes out of nowhere and ends just as suddenly, then finishing with both of them jumping off a building and just cutting to the credits without answering a single question. That would have been a great meta as fuck sequel.

The Gentlemen (2019)

Probably one of the most badass crime movies I've watched. I recommend for any crime and action enthusiasts.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)

American action adventure film. It's about Indiana Jones and his estranged goddaughter Helena trying to locate a powerful artifact before a Nazi-turned-NASA scientist gets it who plans to use it to alter the outcome of World War II. Usually I'd say 150+ minutes is too long for an Indiana Jones movie but this does have a long prologue/throwback and it's the final one in the franchise, so I'll let it slide. The de-aging actually works quite well for that first roughly half an hour of the movie that's set in 1944 as opposed to the rest that's set in 1969 and 214 BC, but that's behind a spoiler tag for a reason. The ending of the movie is very heartfelt so overall I can say that this is a good finale for the character and as a movie it's at least better than the Crystal Skull one but nothing can touch those first three. Still, better than expected, so I can actually recommend it.

It's nominated for Best Original Score at the Oscars but I haven't watched American Fiction (2023) yet, so I can't say for sure which one's gonna win but, with all due respect to the massive legend that John Williams is, his score for this movie is probably the weakest out of the nominees this year. (And I rather would've nominated the movie for Best Production Design anyway.)

Day Zero 2022
Filipino zombie action movie about a former spec ops soldier that breaks out of prison to find his family during a zombie apocalypse.

Not too bad, if a little on the dark side due to lighting.

6/10

American Fiction (2023)

American comedy-drama film. It's about a professor/novelist who writes an outlandish satire of stereotypical "black" books, only for it to be taken seriously and selling way better than his normal books. Great cast (Jeffrey Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross, Issa Rae, Sterling K. Brown, John Ortiz, Erika Alexander, Leslie Uggams, Adam Brody, Keith David and more) delivering brilliant performances. The movie is actually really good and I can highly recommend it! (It's also out on VOD since like yesterday, so don't miss out on this one!)
It's also been nominated for 5 Oscars. Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Score, so I'm gonna talk about each nomination a bit. It definitely deserves the Best Picture nomination, but I think the competition is too strong for it to win. Jeffrey Wright absolutely deserves the Best Actor nom for this, too. Not sure he'll win, though, because I think at this point Cillian Murphy is already the frontrunner. Best Supporting Actor is also quite stacked this year, so I don't know about his chances but Sterling K. Brown definitely deserves the nomination. Best Adapted Screenplay is also stacked, but the nom is also deserved. I got Poor Things (2023) as my pick in that category, though. I already touched on Best Original Score yesterday a bit with the new Indy movie. This movie's score is very good but for me it's still between Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), Oppenheimer (2023) and Poor Things (2023).

Flamin' Hot (2023)

American biographical comedy-drama film. It's about the story of the guy who (claimed to have) invented Flamin' Hot Cheetos. And, despite the story behind it potentially being not true, it still makes for a very enjoyable movie. So I can definitely recommend it!
But this was also nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Song, which is why I just watched it. So... the song only plays over the credits and I don't know how I feel about this trend. With all the other nominees in this category their song plays a central part in the movie and is not just tacked on at the end. This is also not Oscar-good. It may be radio good, if not a bit generic, but in no way, shape or form should this song have been nominated for an Oscar. Well, at least this won't win, the competition is too strong. I also wouldn't give it to "I'm Just Ken", but "It Never Went Away" from American Symphony (2023), "What Was I Made For?" from Barbie (2023) and "Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)" from Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) are all very good and would deserve that Oscar, with the KotFM song being my pick.