It’s been a while and I’m sure someone else can confirm if true but I remember it exactly as Risky described with part 2 basically being the same movie but better. I also didn’t love part 2. Ash vs Evil Dead series was pretty damn cool though
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This is corret. @LKJ if you were a fan of the directorial style, Id 100% give ED2 a shot. Its better in almost every way while telling a similar story.
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Plus it perfectly sets up the GOAT Army of Darkness. Even though the opening of that movie retcons the setup lol
Joker 2 at 33% approval rate. Wtf?
Seems high hey. 
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WHAAAAAAT? I thought the FF4 movie was still in a vault? Gotta watch this ASAP.
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Knocked out a couple of old timers recently:
The Third Man (1949): I went into this with minimal expectations, other than knowing that many people view this as a masterpiece. It was… fine? I didn’t struggle to watch it, but I do not expect to revisit it. I thought the plot was pretty thin, and the performances were [trying to think of some word that is slightly more complimentary than satisfactory/competent]. I feel like this is a movie more likely to appeal to people who value cinema history and style. Like, Ebert gave it 4 stars and pointed out things that didn’t resonate with me at all:
Reed and his Academy Award-winning cinematographer, Robert Krasker, also devised a reckless, unforgettable visual style. More shots, I suspect, are tilted than are held straight; they suggest a world out of joint. There are fantastic oblique angles. Wide-angle lenses distort faces and locations. And the bizarre lighting makes the city into an expressionist nightmare. (During a stakeout for Lime, a little balloon man wanders onto the scene, and his shadow is a monster three stories high). Vienna in “The Third Man” is a more particular and unmistakable place than almost any other location in the history of the movies; the action fits the city like a hand slipping on a glove.
I saw it first on a rainy day in a tiny, smoke-filled cinema on the Left Bank in Paris. It told a story of existential loss and betrayal. It was weary and knowing, and its glorious style was an act of defiance against the corrupt world it pictured.
Just not for me. Also, I was overwhelmed by the constant zither. I never want to hear that instrument again, and I can’t understand how the theme was apparently Billboard #1 for 11 weeks. Was there some collective psychosis going on?
Overall, I thought this was a good movie on an age-adjusted basis, but well below classic movies that are simply timelessly good (e.g., Casablanca, 12 Angry Men, Singin’ in the Rain).
The Killing (1956): Stanley Kubrick’s first “mature” film. I think @Trolly was the one who brought this to my attention, and it’s been on my to-watch list for a while. This was a strong movie, especially at a tight 85 minutes. And it’s a little strange for me to say that, considering that the acting is not very good and many points in the story are laughable (e.g., the fight scene in the middle of the heist). But it’s a well-told story that is interestingly structured, and it’s easy to see how it influenced Reservoir Dogs - I think the pair would be a nice double feature.
I did have some skepticism about Sterling Hayden as the lead, and he wasn’t great, but he didn’t bring down the movie. It was funny, though, to think of him putting on the clown mask to rob the money room, considering he’s talking to the men inside in the world’s most distinctive Captain McCluskey voice. This is a guy whose voice could be picked out of a million-person aural lineup, so I’m not sure the clown mask is going to be all that helpful. Nitpicking because this is an overall very good film (not age adjusted), and definitely worth a watch if you’re into heist films.
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My vote for the worst recent (2020s) one would be Shazam 2.
The one with Sinbad?
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No, Shaq.
A person I know who is in general very grounded and normal liked Joker 2. He said that it dragged and was boring at times and they could have lost the Lady Gaga musical stuff but otherwise he said it was good.
I think the Third Man is a great movie, but your comments are totally reasonable. It came out in 1949, when the portrayal of war torn Vienna would have resonated a lot more to people than it does today. None of us have lived experiences that would make the physically and politically shattered Vienna mean anything to us personally, but in 1949 the audience would include people who really suffered personally in WWII. In addition to the top notch atmosphere and style of the movie, when I first saw it 20+ years ago I thought it really added some gritty realism to WWII compare to the kind of portrayals of WWII I had seen before.
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Mark Kermode thought it was better than the first and he’s the only mainstream film critic I pay any attention to. I like that he is a horror fan and appreciates the squishy stuff that is normally dismissed or misunderstood by his colleagues (most notably his co-host Simon Mayo which is a humorous bit of irony).
I don’t hate the first one but I am irritated by it. I’m not concerned about the nihilistic incelishness of it all. It was all the lifting from Scorsese. Taxi Driver somewhat, sure, but man, The King of Comedy… it goes well beyond homage into theft. Scorcese deserves a story credit. Throw in some Fincher filters and lighting and there is Joker.
Take a look at Todd Phillips IMDb page. He’s impressively unimpressive as a director, for my tastes anyway. I know some people really like Old School so I’ll give him that one bit otherwise he is the definition of meh.
I’ll catch J2 at home sometime down the road but I’m not in any rush.
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I saw the first Joker in the theater and thought it had some interesting elements (although most of them were rip offs of Scorsese). Based on what I’ve heard about Joker 2, I don’t have any plans to see it.
My all time favorite theater experience was seeing army of darkness on release night. I went with some friends, it was opening night and packed, I had no idea what evil dead or sam raimi was, it was amazing. I was 16.
Well it was either that or South Park: Bigger Longer and Uncut with my mom while sitting behind a single mother of 3 pre-teens. One of those two.
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My dad took my brother and I (I was 14, he was 11) to Total Recall at a predominantly Black theater in Milwaukee. It was awesome.
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Took my son to an opening midnight show of Independence Day when he was 12.
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Alright, I’m going to fire up Dawn of the Dead shortly.
@CanadaMatt3004 realizing you did previously offer the laughable trade of watching The Godfather if I watched The Room, this is probably the non-laughable option for trading classic movie watches.
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Yes. It was like that kid rock song 15 years ago that blended two classic rock hits into one song. Yeah i liked it, because i love those two songs.