Movie Recommendation Thread

Best Selling RPGs - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com
Voros said:
Yes, it was a two part twelve episode series on ITV not the BBC as I said earlier.
Click to expand...
Interesting... and not surprising as it did feel like it could have expanded into a larger tale. I'll have to see if I can track down the original now.
 
I went and saw Aquaman last night. I really enjoyed it. James Wan really knows the character, and Jason Momoa looks like he's having fun most of the time (except when he's trying to be serious). Some cool nods to HP Lovecraft in there, as well as the infamous Aquaman meme

I also recently watched God of War, inspired by the conflict between the Ming Empire and Japanese Pirates. Good movie, but damn if Netflix isn't slacking on the subtitles. This is like the 3rd movie where it's obvious subtitles are missing for some lines, which makes it harder to follow the damn movie. Really good battle sequences, as well as some one on one (the end fight between the Ming General and the leader of the Samurai on a boat was pretty good). The lead, Vincent Zhao, looks like the second coming of Andy Lau. He's been playing Wong Fei Hung in some recent films, and while he's no Jet Li, he's not bad
 
My father wanted to watch a movie with me today. Now, my father and I are almost polar opposites personality wise and taste wise. I like science-fiction, super-hero, and comedy films. I can't tolerate gore nor graphic violence. My father on the other hand likes documentaries and films about wars (The American Revolutionary War on up), documentaries and films about crime, and detective and horror films. War documentaries and films bore me to tears, and are occasionally too gory for me as are most crime films. Horror is just right out. Ain't happening. My father can't stand science-fiction.

Oh, another thing about my father. He doesn't own any films nor television shows as he believes that watching a film or television show more than once is wasteful. He is also a voracious reader but owns only a handful of books. Anyway, he didn't want to watch any of the super-hero movies I own because he's seen them all already, (and in the case of the Superman films many many times as I forced him to as a youth :tongue: ).

So, we couldn't watch any of the movies I own because my father doesn't like science-fiction, and the rest he's already seen. I won't watch anything gory or graphically violent which precludes most of the types of films my father likes to see. So, after about a half hour of arguing back and forth, we eventually decided to check out the comedy section of Amazon Prime Video.

I scrolled through the comedy section of Amazon Prime Video, looking for a highly rated comedy film my father has never seen before. We came across a Swedish film, The Man Called Ove. My father had me play the trailer, and he seemed to like it, so we watched it. Neither of us knew what to expect.

The movie is thankfully subtitled in English as neither of us understand a word of Swedish. It is not, however, a comedy film. It has a few funny scenes, but it's more a drama, and a tear jerker at that. It was a decent film and gave an interesting look at Sweden, so if you like foreign drama films give it a try. Just expect more tear jerking scenes than funny ones. Why it's in the comedy section of Amazon Prime Video, I have no idea.


 
Amazon Prime's genre classification can be amusingly off, such as having the very black satire Election in the Romance classification.
 
Any one else ever notice how the descriptions for each movie on Netflix were a little weird?
 
Giganotosaurus said:
Any one else ever notice how the descriptions for each movie on Netflix were a little weird?
Click to expand...
It's not just Netflix. I assume it's a bit of a xerox effect after decades of copy-pasting-tweaking other people's summaries/reviews, rather than watching/writing them from scratch. Turner Classic Movies will sometimes have very odd descriptions of well known stories.
 
Simlasa said:
It's not just Netflix. I assume it's a bit of a xerox effect after decades of copy-pasting-tweaking other people's summaries/reviews, rather than watching/writing them from scratch. Turner Classic Movies will sometimes have very odd descriptions of well known stories.
Click to expand...
I suppose it's a bit like in retro-clone RPGs when they need to use different wording for a rule that was cleanly and precisely written the first time in order to avoid a copyright violation. It can lead to some strained and awkward language.
 
I've also noticed that I'm getting a odd amount of Bollywood recommendations lately, despite never having seen an actual Bollywood film.
 
Simlasa said:
Can you tell me the name of the one where
at the end, all the heros are trapped in a bull fight arena and gunned down by the villain's militia?

Thanks for any guesses at that.
Click to expand...
Was it Il Mercenario?
 
Giganotosaurus said:
I've also noticed that I'm getting a odd amount of Bollywood recommendations lately, despite never having seen an actual Bollywood film.
Click to expand...

They have some good Bollywood films on there. More than likely some of the suggestions fit into the genres of other films you've seen
 
TheophilusCarter said:
Huh, Annihilation is on Amazon Prime, didn't expect to see that, esp. without a rental charge. Time to fire it up!
Click to expand...
Oooh! I've been waiting on that to show up somewhere I have access!
I missed it when it was in the theaters... assuming it even made it here it was probably on one screen on the other side of town for 1week only.
 
urbwar said:
It's been up for a few months, iirc. Personally, I wasn't that into it.
Click to expand...
Weird, I hadn't noticed it before. Not bad, but not as deep as it wanted to be, I think. Worth streaming, but I'm glad I didn't spend money at the theater.
It did make the think about how to run it as an RPG, though. :smile: I should dust off my Primeval RPG PDFs - that would be a perfect fit.
 
One of my favorite movies of the year. Veered from the book a bit, especially toward the end, but very solid.
 
PolarBlues said:
Which pet died now, his hamster?
Click to expand...
Nah, it's his goldfish this time.
The sad part is that the fish just died of old age and the only way he knows how to cope is to brutally destroy an entire criminal organization.
 
Dumarest said:
Was it Il Mercenario?
Click to expand...


That's the one I was thinking of!

Rewatched Out of the Past for the billionth time. One of my favourite films, first saw this when I was 13 or 14 and fell in love with films because of it. Luckily it never get old for me, terrific dialogue and great performances from Mitchum, Greer and Douglas with one of the darkest endings to any Noir then or now.



 
Voros said:
Rewatched Out of the Past for the billionth time. One of my favourite films, first saw this when I was 13 or 14 and fell in love with films because of it. Luckily it never get old for me, terrific dialogue and great performances from Mitchum, Greer and Douglas with one of the darkest endings to any Noir then or now.



Click to expand...

You're giving away the secret to my portrayal of Rock Hardy in Ronin Ronin's "Men's Adventure Game."
 
I recently had occasion to watch the first and second films from both John Wick and The Equalizer.

They were OK, better than I expected, and I'm not really into action films.

Both John and Robert have similarities. They're both retired killers, one from the Mob and the other from the Agency. Both characters lost their wives recently, which serves as the background catalyst for their killing sprees. Both are played by aging actors I grew up with.

There are some differences though.

John goes on a rampage because some fool stole his car and shot his dog. He's forced into action by outside factors. Robert? Robert initiated the violence because I'm a Gonna Murder Some Fools for Justice. John's focus is the people who are in any way responsible for the taking of his car and the shooting of his dog. Robert is on a crusade to fuck with anybody who's messing with the little guy.

In Equalizer, we see a lot more editing for the fight scenes than we do with Wick. I don't know if stunt people or body doubles were used in such scenes, but I suspect the editing was to deal with a 60 or so year old Denzel doing action sequences compared to the obviously immortal Keanu. The action was simply weaker in Equalizer, IMO, but Equalizer makes up for for it with the power Denzel brings to the screen:

[Warning: NSFW, provocative language]



Jesus Christ, that intensity! I was watching that and I was like, "Yes, sir! I WANT TO DRAW!"

That's just not anywhere to be found in Wick, one or two.

Both John and Robert have their own superpowers. John can take physical damage that would kill or incapacitate a healthy person. By comparison, Robert suffers very little injury. This is in part to Robert's superpower: tactical clairsentience. Robert knows exactly where the bad guys are and what they're doing at all times. He does this in part with a system of hidden cameras, but most of the time, he just knows.

They both have their preferred fighting styles. John likes to take fights to the ground, often for no discernible reason whatsoever. It looks cool tho, and that's what matters. :quiet:

Robert, by comparison, loves to kill folks with power tools, setups, and ambushes. Strangely, this strikes as more realistic for genius pro assassin -- using planning and setting up for the kill -- rather than John's, "I have a gun, whoa," style of chain-of-murders gunfighting.

Both are good, stupid fun. Worth a watch.
 
I'm gonna say, right up front, fuck Bill Cosby. He's a rapist, and he deserves to spend the rest of his life behind bars.

That having been said, 1972's Hickey & Boggs, capably directed by, and starring Robert Culp (as Frank Boggs) and starring his erstwhile I Spy costar Cosby (as Boggs' partner, Al Hickey), is a great movie. An effective slice of early 70s noir.

Written by Walter Hill (The Warriors, 48 Hrs, Southern Comfort), the movie tells the tale of two down-on-their-luck private investigators. The only thing that is failing more miserably than their business is their respective marriages. The men take a job that ticks all of the classic P.I. boxes: missing money, a missing girl, and mobsters. Than it adds a few ingredients that are uniquely early 70s LA: gay porn, a black militant group, rich people who still manage to be total sleazebags, and Dogdger Stadium, to name just a few. The script has plenty of twists and turns, and does a pretty good job of conveying the confusion our protagonists feel as they try to solve the case and make some much-needed cash.

Culp and Cosby had great chemistry in I Spy, and they have it here as well. But the two mens' interactions are less playful than in the TV show that first paired them. And that's as it should be. Hickey & Boggs is very much a product of the end of the Sixties, when idealism.would be replaced by cynicism and greed.

A damn good movie that manages to be far darker and more visceral than you would expect, given its PG rating.

The film has been criticized for its pacing and editing, and while these are valid observations, they do little to diminish the overall quality of the film. Sure, it could be tighter or clearer in certain spots. But for a first-time director, Culp does a fine job.

If you can separate the art from the artist, and want to check out a very good, very 70s, very underappreciated film, you could do far, far worse than Hickey & Boggs.



Also, fuck Bill Cosby.
 
Last edited:
Hickey and Boggs is another 70s gem from a decade of hidden gems.
 
I just got back from seeing Aquaman.
I was bored through most of the movie, except for the parts with Black Manta and the final battle scene with the Crab People and the Kraken.
 
Watched Glass in the theatre this weekend.

Not bad but no where near as good as Unbreakable. I found the villain from Split rather annoying and silly (not Macvoy's fault, it is the writing and direction) and he took way too much screentime away from Jackson and Willis. Sarah Paulson is great as always.

It gets so tied up in its superheroisms and paranoid conspiracy worldview that it fails to build any of the metaphorical reasonance with the real world that gave the original its charge and ends up not having much to say.

Also there is a very poorly sketched teenage character with an very lame 'superpower' who I assume may have meant more if I had seen Split. Also makes the odd decision to try and make us feel sorry for a serial killer who mutilates a bunch of young women (see the ending of Devil's Rejects for this as well).

With a better supervillain this may have just worked.

Worth a watch on Netflix but save your money for something better at the theatre.
 
Rewatched Carl Franklin's excellent adaptation of Walter Mosley's Devil in a Blue Dress on TCM, with a great central performance from Washington and Don Cheadle in a memorable early role as his psychopathic friend Mouse. It is a shame that Franklin isn't getting the opportunity to make more films, his thriller One False Move is one of the best American films of the 90s. This film would be good to watch for anyone interested in setting a CoC investigation in 30s/40s LA, particularly if in the under-explored but historically fascinating black neighbourhoods of the time.

 
Last edited:
Rewatched my favourite Lynch film Mulholland Drive. Naomi Watts is amazing here. Great inspiration for an OtE game.

 
I recently watched Kill List (IMBD page). It's a horror movie about two British military veterans turned hitmen who are contracted to murder a number of targets on a list given to them by their client. It's...interesting.

It starts slow and builds up, setting the stage for what come later, with a few creepy hints of what's really going on thrown at the viewer and a nice bit of foreshadowing. The first one--third of the movie is about Jay's, the main protag, domestic life, which is simply horrible. Jay as PTSD, his wife, also ex-military has PTSD, they're having money problems, and you're left watching them abuse each other while pitying the poor kid who's caught in the middle. This goes on for a while.

Then it turns into a crime drama. Here, it's brutal and unapologetic, while continuing to build tension. More clues are dropped that something funky is going on, and by the end of it, it becomes clear to Jay and Gal, his best mate and fellow killer, that they've been caught in some kind of trap. This also goes on for a while.

The final third or so of the movie is the "Holy crap things just got real," portion of the film. Things don't end well.

I liked it because it caught me off guard several times (I usually find horror films to be predictable), and the ending left a lot of lingering questions for the viewer. I enjoyed thinking about what was really going on, working out my own interpretation, as much as I did actually watching the movie.

Here are some of my mostly spoiler-free thoughts as I watched:

  • Jesus, either get some counseling, get a divorce, or do something. That poor kid.
  • Gal seems to be the only one here who's not batshit insane. I hope he doesn't die.
  • Gal's way-too-hot girlfriend is definitely in on whatever's going on. Isolate and neutralize her immediately.
  • OK, look. Type-A personalty tough-guys with kids, who see what I can only imagine was the worst kind of REDACTED (we never see what's on the video), are going to lose their shit and murder the offending molester. I get it. But still, If I were Jay, I'd pause at the molester's reaction, his happiness at being tortured, his thanking Jay for of his impending death. That, right there, would be sufficient reason for me drop the whole thing, get my family, and go deep, deep underground. Because that's a sharkfin breaking the surface of the water and I'm not going to dive into that.
  • Holy shit they're capping their own people.
  • Kill the client. It's the only move you can make that makes sense.
  • Aaand you're not going to do that. Idiots.
  • These idiots think it's a good idea to conduct an outdoor ritual while carrying lit, flaring torches...torches, mind you...while wearing giant fucking wicker headdresses. All it takes is one mishap and the whole ritual is ruined. Do you have any idea how hard it is to treat a burn victim in the middle of nowhere? Spend some actual cash and get some fire-resist aluminum masks or carry some goddamn artificial light sources. Do you even cultist, bro?!
  • You're both trained marksmen with 5.56 mm combat rifles, are in a solid shooting position, and your targets are well over 50 yards away. End it. No, wait, WHY ARE YOU RUNNING?!
  • Goddamn it! I know the tunnels are scary, but you've got them bottlenecked! Don't panic!
  • Aaand, they panicked.
  • Well, shit.
  • Hol' up.
  • Wait one darn minute.
  • What the hell just happened?
  • No, seriously. WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?
  • I...I...I think I need an adult.
  • After this I'm going to watch Hereditary to help me relax.
 
noman said:
I recently watched Kill List (IMBD page). It's a horror movie about two British military veterans turned hitmen who are contracted to murder a number of targets on a list given to them by their client. It's...interesting.

It starts slow and builds up, setting the stage for what come later, with a few creepy hints of what's really going on thrown at the viewer and a nice bit of foreshadowing. The first one--third of the movie is about Jay's, the main protag, domestic life, which is simply horrible. Jay as PTSD, his wife, also ex-military has PTSD, they're having money problems, and you're left watching them abuse each other while pitying the poor kid who's caught in the middle. This goes on for a while.

Then it turns into a crime drama. Here, it's brutal and unapologetic, while continuing to build tension. More clues are dropped that something funky is going on, and by the end of it, it becomes clear to Jay and Gal, his best mate and fellow killer, that they've been caught in some kind of trap. This also goes on for a while.

The final third or so of the movie is the "Holy crap things just got real," portion of the film. Things don't end well.

I liked it because it caught me off guard several times (I usually find horror films to be predictable), and the ending left a lot of lingering questions for the viewer. I enjoyed thinking about what was really going on, working out my own interpretation, as much as I did actually watching the movie.

Here are some of my mostly spoiler-free thoughts as I watched:

  • Jesus, either get some counseling, get a divorce, or do something. That poor kid.
  • Gal seems to be the only one here who's not batshit insane. I hope he doesn't die.
  • Gal's way-too-hot girlfriend is definitely in on whatever's going on. Isolate and neutralize her immediately.
  • OK, look. Type-A personalty tough-guys with kids, who see what I can only imagine was the worst kind of REDACTED (we never see what's on the video), are going to lose their shit and murder the offending molester. I get it. But still, If I were Jay, I'd pause at the molester's reaction, his happiness at being tortured, his thanking Jay for of his impending death. That, right there, would be sufficient reason for me drop the whole thing, get my family, and go deep, deep underground. Because that's a sharkfin breaking the surface of the water and I'm not going to dive into that.
  • Holy shit they're capping their own people.
  • Kill the client. It's the only move you can make that makes sense.
  • Aaand you're not going to do that. Idiots.
  • These idiots think it's a good idea to conduct an outdoor ritual while carrying lit, flaring torches...torches, mind you...while wearing giant fucking wicker headdresses. All it takes is one mishap and the whole ritual is ruined. Do you have any idea how hard it is to treat a burn victim in the middle of nowhere? Spend some actual cash and get some fire-resist aluminum masks or carry some goddamn artificial light sources. Do you even cultist, bro?!
  • You're both trained marksmen with 5.56 mm combat rifles, are in a solid shooting position, and your targets are well over 50 yards away. End it. No, wait, WHY ARE YOU RUNNING?!
  • Goddamn it! I know the tunnels are scary, but you've got them bottlenecked! Don't panic!
  • Aaand, they panicked.
  • Well, shit.
  • Hol' up.
  • Wait one darn minute.
  • What the hell just happened?
  • No, seriously. WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?
  • I...I...I think I need an adult.
  • After this I'm going to watch Hereditary to help me relax.
Click to expand...

This was a real discovery for me on Netflix, had no idea where it was going.

The director went on to make Sightseers, A Field in England, High Rise and most recently Free Fire with the support of Martin Scorsese.
 
Voros said:
Rewatched my favourite Lynch film Mulholland Drive. Naomi Watts is amazing here. Great inspiration for an OtE game.

Click to expand...

I wish I could somehow still have that movie version yet also be able to see the TV show version it was originally meant to be.
 
Legit surprised that no one has mentioned this. It isn't great by any means, but I sure had fun watching it.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Banner: The best cosmic horror & Cthulhu Mythos @ DriveThruRPG.com
Back
Top