What movies have you seen recently?

I don't recall Keanu Reeves or even Wynona Ryder fitting into this film very well.

Gary Oldman owns the role as Dracula though including many transformations. It's often seemed odd to me that he isn't a more prominent actor. I guess some actors have different priorities or don't give a s***.

It's interesting that both Gary Oldman and Anthony Hopkins were again adversaries in HANNIBAL. Also, again Gary Oldman is barely recognizable as Mason Verger under so much makeup except in a flashback, but I think he's having fun with it. I've heard he's one of the rare dedicated character actors more than willing to submit to long make up sessions if they think it's worth it for the character.

Keanu's attempt at an English accent is pretty rough, but everything else was so good that it didn't bug me too much. Oldman is incredible. It's a shockingly good representation of the book.
 
Hellraiser. Don't think I've ever seen, and if I have it was just bits and pieces on TV. It was ok but no where as good as other horror films of that era.
 
Hellraiser. Don't think I've ever seen, and if I have it was just bits and pieces on TV. It was ok but no where as good as other horror films of that era.




Bits and pieces is an apt description.



I haven't seen Hellraiser in a long time, but it's a film concept I like and I enjoy the style of it.

I could believe that Hellraiser may not age well. It might be the type of film that doesn't hold up to scrutiny of HD video. One of the issues old films or tv shows face in modern HD is props starts to look more like props and it can subtly ruin the atmosphere. I think the animated FX suffer a lot and look really dated.

I think one thing that sets a film like Hellraiser apart is it's half in the Fantasy genre. I think there was an intention to build up a mythology around the Cenobites and the Leviathon which I think was more prominent in Hellraiser 2. Unfortunately, I think the sequel and Dr. Channard were mishandled and the franchise has been abused ever since.



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Bits and pieces is an apt description.



I haven't seen Hellraiser in a long time, but it's a film concept I like and I enjoy the style of it.

I could believe that Hellraiser may not age well. It might be the type of film that doesn't hold up to scrutiny of HD video. One of the issues old films or tv shows face in modern HD is props starts to look more like props and it can subtly ruin the atmosphere. I think the animated FX suffer a lot and look really dated.

I think one thing that sets a film like Hellraiser apart is it's half in the Fantasy genre. I think there was an intention to build up a mythology around the Cenobites and the Leviathon which I think was more prominent in Hellraiser 2. Unfortunately, I think the sequel and Dr. Channard were mishandled and the franchise has been abused ever since.



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The age of it wasn't really my issue. Just the plot itself was boring I guess. I guess I was going into it more like a Child's Play, Halloween, or F13 where there is a killer chasing after people or causing havoc. In Hellraiser, the cool bad guys are barely there. I'm not that familiar with Clive Barker's work outside of Candyman movie, which he didn't direct but still based on his works. Candyman is something I enjoyed though. I like the idea of the Cenobites so maybe sequels would improve and expand on them but if I was to just stick to the first movie as a standalone I would be let down.

Looking into Barker a bit more, I remember his Tortured Souls stuff which I love the design of.
https://mcfarlane.com/toys/series/clive-barkers-tortured-souls/
 
The age of it wasn't really my issue. Just the plot itself was boring I guess. I guess I was going into it more like a Child's Play, Halloween, or F13 where there is a killer chasing after people or causing havoc. In Hellraiser, the cool bad guys are barely there. I'm not that familiar with Clive Barker's work outside of Candyman movie, which he didn't direct but still based on his works. Candyman is something I enjoyed though. I like the idea of the Cenobites so maybe sequels would improve and expand on them but if I was to just stick to the first movie as a standalone I would be let down.

Looking into Barker a bit more, I remember his Tortured Souls stuff which I love the design of.
https://mcfarlane.com/toys/series/clive-barkers-tortured-souls/

I think another thing I liked about Hellraiser is it does not meet expectations of a generic 'Christian' Hell domain.

It also plays with the interchangeability of Pain or Pleasure in a very S&M way that is deeply depraved.


The Hellraiser series is a very weird mixed bag, but maybe seeing Hellraiser 2 puts the first movie a wider context suggesting a deeper lore behind the cenobites. I do think the villain Dr. Channard spewing corny one-liners is annoying, but there is a side story alluding to Pinhead's past as well as seeing more of Hell itself.


If you enjoyed Candyman and are interested in a more aggressive antagonist, it might be worthwhile checking out Clive Barker's: The Midnight Meat Train.


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The Strangers - First time seeing it. It was alright, not nearly as good as I was expecting considering how many people seem to love it.

Green Room - Fantastic. Great cinematography, great characters, great cast, unique setting, unique plot. Patrick Stewart and Anton Yelchin were great. This movie's been on my radar since it came out, really glad I finally saw it
 
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The Strangers - First time seeing it. It was alright, not nearly as good as I was expecting considering how many people seem to love it.

Green Room - Fantastic. Great cinematography, great characters, great cast, unique setting, unique plot. Patrick Stewart and Anton Yelchin were great. This movie's been on my radar since it came out, really glad I finally saw it
Been a while since I saw Green Room but I enjoyed it.
 
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I don't really watch movies, but I saw a documentary a few weeks ago that was good, called The Red Pill. It's about the men's rights movement, if you can call it that. It was done by a feminist, Cassie Jaye. The men in the film aren't the best spokesmen, and in some cases they come off as bitter and angry. But they make plenty of good points, too. It's a side of the issue you rarely hear. I think it's something every man should know about. I knew most of it going in, but it was interesting to see it portrayed in a documentary. Cassie Jaye does a good job of getting both sides. When she'd hear something from the mens' rights side, she'd go and interview some feminists and get their take on it.

It is interesting to watch Cassie move from a standard feminist position to, by the end of the film, something very different. You can see her struggling with what she's learning vs. what she's been taught. She's pretty honest and open about it. She paid a price, lost lots of friends and connections, because of it, got the usual death threats. There were protests in various countries (e.g., Australia), to stop the film from being viewed.

It's been out for a couple years, but it's worth watching if you've got an interest in gender politics.
 
Not at all, Book of Shadows is kind of it's own bizarre thing.
Hulu has Book of Shadows now so I'm more apt to watch it versus renting it. Is it still worth a watch? They added a few other movies I hadn't seen yet so I'll have to check those out as well.
 
Hulu has Book of Shadows now so I'm more apt to watch it versus renting it. Is it still worth a watch? They added a few other movies I hadn't seen yet so I'll have to check those out as well.

It's on Amazon Prime as well. It's very much a mixed bag, but worth seeing at least one time if you're a fan of the original. I suggest checking out some Youtube videos like this after you watch it, the history of the movie is pretty interesting. The studio changed a bunch of things for the worse last minute (in some cases like a week before they sent the film to theaters). A lot of things (the soundtrack for example) seemed to fit the tone MUCH better initially, and were replaced by extremely off-putting choices from the studio. One of those movies that, at least on paper, sounds like it would have been much better in its original intended form.

 
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New Netflix original from the director of Blue Ruin, Green Room, and Murder Party. Continues to have beautiful cinematography like his last few, nasty "real" feeling violence and gore, but not as solid of a plot. Still enjoyable for a Netflix original, I hope this guy gets a chance to make a bigger budget film.
 
Creepshow 2 - First time seeing this. Pretty massive downgrade from the original, but not without its charms. Made me more excited for the upcoming Scream Factory Blu-Ray of the original.

Spirit of Haddenfield - New short Halloween franchise related fan film. Not as good as last year's Never Hike Alone, but still pretty well done. The fall / Halloween season vibe was done better in this than some of the movies. The acting and action, not so much.

Psycho - Hitchcock original. Been years since I've watched it all the way through. It was extremely ahead of it's time, but still always feels massively dated to me. I can think of several Hichcock movies i like more, but this is still an impressive, influential, fun watch.

Night of the Creeps - Not sure how I've never seen this before since I love Tom Atkins. Aliens, zombies, space slugs, exploding heads, etc. The last 15 minutes alone are worth a rental. Lots of fun.
 
Did it even hold up in the 80s?

I always thought it looked silly.
Probably not. I was roughly the age of the kids in the movie when it came out, so I likely wasn't the best judge of what was or wasn't good at the time.

You guys leave Monster Squad alone! "Is she a version?" "The name's Horace!" "Wolfman has nards!"
 
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I've had this movie on my radar for nearly 30 years, first time finally seeing it. It's a very strange and unique movie. A lot of it hasn't aged well, but just knowing how they set up the vibrating chairs in the theater and hired actors to freak out during screenings kinda makes up for it. Vincent Price is great.
 
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Creep (2015)

I liked this so much I immediately started the sequel after finishing it last night (which I'll finish today). Great blend of humor, weirdness, creepiness, and suspense.
 
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Really happy with this sequel. Goes in a different direction while still having the same vibe and adding to the "creep" mythos. 2 fun movies, I should have watched them both a while ago!

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We watched Hereditary last night. I thought it was solid. I feel like these possession / demon type movies do the same thing where it's a bunch of small events to indicate something is going on and then a pointer to the 's*** is about to hit the fan' ending. It always feels like these movies just throw everything at you in the end. I feel like it's hard to explain because that just sounds like general Movie 101 analysis, lol. Still, this movie did some things a bit different to make it stand out.
 
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The Strangers - First time seeing it. It was alright, not nearly as good as I was expecting considering how many people seem to love it.

Green Room - Fantastic. Great cinematography, great characters, great cast, unique setting, unique plot. Patrick Stewart and Anton Yelchin were great. This movie's been on my radar since it came out, really glad I finally saw it
I really liked The Strangers the first time I saw it. It kind of is a shot-for-shot redo of Vacancy, though.
 
The disconnection between movie critics & audience seems to get worse over time. At this point in time, movies by critics can just be ignored.

Just look at the latest film Venom, that got 32% from 'critics' but 89% from audiences.
 
The disconnection between movie critics & audience seems to get worse over time. At this point in time, movies by critics can just be ignored.

Just look at the latest film Venom, that got 32% from 'critics' but 89% from audiences.

Especially movies with any political (left leaning) slant to them.
 
The Blob (1988 ) - First time seeing the '80's version, it's fantastic. Great practical effects, gore, production, homages and call backs to the original, etc. Wish the Blu wasn't so expensive / hard to come by.

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Drag Me To Hell - I haven't seen this since it came out in 2009 (I can't believe it's been so long already). Some of the CGI and sound effects are distracting, but it's still a pretty fun and solid return to horror by Sam Raimi.

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