Rate The Last Movie You Saw

THE ELECTRIC STATE


A film with no reason to exist. I think someone saw some paintings by Simon Stålenhag and said, "Let's make a movie" and handed the script off to ChatGPT. Visually it's interesting enough (that's thanks to Stålenhag), but it's not mind-blowing. Turns out uou can't bring paintings to life by just dipping them in shallow tropes.

The tropes are the same old thing. Robots are good. People are bad. Robots are allegorical stand ins for the oppressed and vulnerable. This stuff basically writes itself. This is great value A.I. (2001, Spielberg) with Chris Pratt and that girl from Stranger Things who looks ambiguously like Natalie Portman. Additional messages include the importance of interacting with people in the real world and "billionaire tech guys are bad." Really heady stuff.

Star Wars would soft-peddle violence by putting all the storm troopers white "kill me" costumes. This film makes a similar move in showing a robot war largely fought between bots and humans in bot-suits (presumably, seeing Mr. Peanut tear a human body limb-from-limb would be too much).

2 out of 5 Virtuous Robots Awarded

If somebody else sees this, let me know if you see some glaring plot holes and discontinuities. I kept having that feeling, but I'd have to see it again to verify that it was that and not just my eyes glazing over and this one is not a do-over for me.

I like Jack Quaid and seeing the trailer before Nosferatu put this one on my radar but it’s a bummer to hear you didn’t like it so much. I’ll definitely give it a watch when it hits streaming and hopefully I’ll find stuff to enjoy.

To me, it seems like a carefree, senseless movie but lots of fun.

I plan on watching it. Maybe this Tuesday.

2nd Rewatch...Predictable but fun comedy about the owner of a print company (Bryan Cranston) who goes to California with his wife and son to spend Christmas with his duaghter who's in college and upon arrrival, learn that his daughter is practically engaged to a tech billionaire (James Franco). Franco appears to be having a ball here and works well with Cranston and Megan Mullally as his wife. Keegan Michael Key also steals every scene he's in as Franco's assistant.

Umpteenth Rewatch...There's no way this movie would get greenlighted in the world we live in today, but it is still one of the funniest movies ever made. A bawdy western satire with something to offend everyone and pretty much demolishes the fourth fall.

1st Rewatch...Goerge Clooney really stepped out of his comfort stone as an actor here, earning a Best Actor nomination, with a strong assist from director and co-screenwriter Alexander Payne (Sideways, Election) in this comedy drama that is directly in Payne's comfort zone, earning him an Oscar for the screenplay. Clooney plays a businessman who lives in Hawaii and is in the middle of negotiating an important land deal for his family when he suddenly has to deal with the death of wife in a baoting accident, stepping up to care for his two daughters, and the revelation that his wife was having an affair. After years of playing womanizing studs, Clooney is surprisingly appealing as a businessman and father. The film also features gorgeous Hawaiian scenery and music.

Untamed Heart (1993)

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[ J ] - [ S ] - [ F ]

I'm just not a fan of Sean Baker's, Red Rocket was good, so I thought maybe it might be the start of something, but nope. I didn't care for the music montage thing it leaned on at the start, disliked the chaos that passed as humor in the mid-section, the final act was good, that felt honest, it got away from the noise and latched onto the humanity of these people. Wish there would have been more of that.

2024 has seriously been an underwhelming film year for me as a whole. The last of the majors I need to see is "I'm Still Here", and I hope it doesn't let me down (either in small or major ways, as so many have)

Promising Young Woman (2020)


Rewatch, and my rating remains the same. Loved all of it, except the instances where she executes her ploy to get men to take her home. She lets them off too easy, and it seems like those payoffs should have been more gratifying.

LOVED this movie

I'm pretty close to agreement with you except that I thought her letting them off easy after just scaring the shit out of them keeps the movie grounded, her sanity still in check, and her still relatable. I think if the movie goes to a darker place with that aspect she becomes a bit too obvious and unsympathetic and then the rest doesn't work as well.

Good movie.

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I’m here only on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. That’s why I’m here now.

Set thousands of years in the future, Dune follows Paul as he journeys with his family, House Atreides, to take control of the desert planet of Arrakis. This puts them in the middle of a fight between their enemies, House Harkonnen and the native inhabitants of the planet, the Fremen. However, they will soon discover that there are far more treacherous purposes behind them being sent there.

Having seen it back-to-back with Part Two over the course of two nights, the line between one and the other is a bit blurrier. Still, I found the technical aspects to be top-notch, the setup to be very compelling, and the performances to be very good. Chalamet is a very interesting actor in that you don't really notice him stretching his range too much beyond his sleepy-eyed, laid-back exterior, but he still oozes a certain intensity and fire inside that is somewhat magnetic and also fits well with his character's journey and the above quote.

Grade:


Full review on my Movie Loot

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Bring It On (2000)

I have Descendants sitting waiting to be watched. Need to get to that one. Promising Young Woman was too outlandish...seeing how far her plan goes really killed it all for me.

The Handmaiden (2016)


South Korean movie by Park Chan-wook aka "the guy who did Oldboy." I'm not the biggest on Oldboy but I love Park's style...reminds me a lot of Christopher Nolan with the fast-paced story and dramatic music carrying multiple scenes at time. It's a period piece about a con to marry a rich woman and get her fortune with multiple players involved which gets more complicated and intriguing as it goes. The movie is beautiful, the acting is great, and the film moved really well despite the 150min length and never dragged. And there's some great sex scenes too which is something I have to shout-out these days since we get so few.

Edmond (2005)

Killing Ground (2016)

Heart Eyes (2025)

The infamous campfire scene broke new ground (and wind) in filmmaking...Yes, it's juvenile toilet humor, but in the larger context of Brooks' genius and his vision for this brilliant parody, it is cinematic gold..