Am I the only one confused about what the f is going on? Maybe I haven't been paying enough attention.
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@the_argentinian I feel like I understand everything, at least so far, but there's plenty we haven't been told yet. Last season ended with humans being freed from control by the AI that was sort of optimizing what happened in society. Becoming aware of this, people in the world began taking part in violent riots. At some point after, this became a "war" between humans and hosts, presumably due to their hatred of the AI - this was within the 7-year period between seasons, and off-screen for us, but referenced by Caleb and Maeve.
We don't know the scope of this war as of now, but we do know Caleb and Maeve at least have seen some action together - it also seems that there are human factions against the hosts, as shown in this episode. Caleb and Maeve assumed the war ended, but hosts were sent to kill them - so they've been brought back into the fold. On the host side, the Charlotte Hale host from S3 is leading the hosts (using the William "Man in Black" host, as well as hundreds of others), and they have some sort of grand plan that involves inviting humans to the park once again, now on US soil. It seems that Hale is hell bent on control.
The hosts can now "reprogram" humans by using the flies, which I think may be an evolved form of last season's tech that altered people's minds. Caleb and Maeve thought they were infiltrating the park and finding out what the hosts were doing, but they were just lured there all along, all to capture/use the flies on Caleb - he's somehow important for their plan, but we haven't been told why yet. (My thinking is since he was involved with the "memory alteration" tech before, maybe there's something about him they need - guess we'll find out. They've also been teasing that Caleb may have forgotten something relating to an injury he sustained during the war.)
Meanwhile, Bernard has been in the Sublime all along (in between seasons) - I kinda forget why he went in in the first place, but think it's to explore ways to "fix" the world itself or at least seek an outcome that would be good for everybody. (If you forget what the Sublime is, it's the technical "dreamscape" where lots of hosts found save haven towards the end of S2 - the bad guy from S3 wanted to get in there, and apparently so does Hale/William hosts, but Dolores had the key to it in her mind, so getting there is a big no-no). While there, Bernard saw countless simulations of the future of the world and seems to have discovered what to do, which he began to do this episode. (Stubbs follows him unquestionably because he was programmed - by Bernard - to do so, in S3, which is ironic.)
The Queen Who Never Was…
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she should have burned them all
Shout by Elliot
VIP6Jeez, the snowflaky reactions of straight white men because not every single episode and narrative centres them - anything deviating from that priority is apparently "woke". Get over yourselves, you egomaniacal bigots.
Anyway, another great episode that nicely expanded Ellie's backstory - bonus points for the Mortal Kombat II appreciation, too :nerd:
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@2ls1t These are the same kind of people who would complain about black people being in movies one century ago. Deep down they know they’re out of touch and behind the curve, but it takes years to realize that. It’s fucking embarrassing, I apologize on the behalf of straight white men.
Why does this feel like I'm watching one of Kamala's Captain Marvel fanfics
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@chelentano For real... Monica even gets stuck in an alternate universe so Kamala and Captain Marvel can be besties without her getting in the way
Review by Acoucalancha
VIP4One man's journey into madness as he battles paranoia, anxiety, major mommy issues, guilt, childhood trauma, fear, mania... Beau Is Afraid is basically 100 symbolisms and metaphors per minute, to the point where I don't believe anyone can really decipher it fully (except for Ari Aster himself). The narrative is dense and goes into the convoluted and abstract territory but it's incredibly ambicious. Too ambicious? I support Aster for not being afraid and doing something unique and different but this was a bit too much for me. It throws A LOT of ridiculous and weird stuff at you but I feel like most of it is there just to be weird, it doesn't have purpose, it just bloats the runtime and confuses the viewer for no apparent reason. It's an endless loop of crazyness and it gets repetitive and frustrating after three hours (felt like five hours). I couldn't wait for it to be over and I came out of the theater exhausted. The final part is also the least interesting. An extremely long movie for such a small statement and it didn't make me feel much at the end. It probably needs a few rewatches for me to get everything but i'm not sure this deserves another three hours of my life.
Beau-tiful cinematography and visuals, pitch black humor, great attention to detail in every frame, some deeply uncomfortable and disturbing moments, loved every set piece and Joaquin Phoenix is the best thing about this. His performance is what makes the weird and ridiculous pass in a lot of the scenes and keeps the viewer interested. Patti LuPone stole the spotlight when she shows up she was amazing.
A hard one to give a rating to, i'm not sure I can do it. I'll think about it but right now, i'm afraid! (Edit: it's a 6/10)
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@acoucalancha "It probably needs a few rewatches for me to get everything but i'm not sure this deserves another three hours of my life."
Couldn't have said it better myself.
Quite funny and I liked the characters. Keanu Reeves' Batman was the standout they should give him a spin-off movie or something. Lulu makes me think of Mew with Jean Grey's powers which is cool. Seeing a pig with a Wonder Woman costume kinda traumatised me. Too much Taylor Swift!
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@acoucalancha >Lulu makes me think of Mew with Jean Grey's powers which is cool.
More like Mewtwo's backstory + The Brain (from Pinky and The Brain).
He's back ! Vader enters the picture and immediately the heat is literally turned up. One shot, one breath of him has more weight as ten minutes from the Third Sister.
I had not imagined that him and Obi-Wan would meet that early. And now we have the question of continuity. There has to be another meeting because that one could not have been what Vader was describing in Ep IV (with Obi-Wan being the Master and he the apprentice). Yes, those things matter to me. But as one-sided as the duel here was it had me on the edge of my seat. The lightsabers in the dark, the musical score, Vaders voice - that was an amazing sequence.How on earth did Reva get past Leia ? There is one tunnel leading to where the pilot was waiting and she had to pass Leia to get there first. Yet she was there waiting, the pilot already dead.
All in all by far the best episode. Obi-Wan talking about Padme and his memories of his own family was another great scene.
Now I'm hyped.
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@finfan yay, we disagree! This show has been nothing but fanservice with a dumbed down Obi-Wan (and plot, in general). They noticed how much success a cute little guy with the main protagonist made in The Mandalorian, and now they're trying to repeat the formula with this one. Except Leia is way more annoying than she is cute. The introduction of Darth Vader in this episode was absolutely great, but then his scene with Obi-Wan looked like it was fan made. I couldn't feel any tension or sense of danger from that "fight", whatsoever. Maybe because we know the fate of those characters. But, still, I think of all the three main new Star Wars series, this one has been the most dull of all.
Clay: "I was bringing her a jar of honey."
Parker: "Who are you, Winnie the Pooh?"Fun, dumb, entertaining and violent. It's essentially a copy of John Wick, even Statham's character gives off John Wich vibes; quiet, impassive, a man of few words... not much of a performance BUT he's great in the physical scenes. It's a shame there's no unique style to it but the action is good nonetheless. The gas station and the final fight were pretty epic.
A simple story of revenge like we're used to, fast-paced and straight to the point. So satisfying watching scammers getting what they bee-serve. The villains are over-the-top and take ridiculous twists and turns. The dialogue is awful but the bee puns really sting, you know it's bad but can't help but chuckle. Bee puns are good for your health, they give you a dose of Vitamin Bee!
Overall not very memorable but I had a good time. I want to know more about the other Beekeepers but I don't think this is worth a sequel. Buzzing off!
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@acoucalancha more bee puns here than the whole movie, unbeelievable
Review by Acoucalancha
VIP4Guess what... more mysteries! I'm fine with new mysteries i'm just worried this show will lose a lot of people if it gets too convoluted. Some answers please, just something!
- What the monsters did to Kelly was clearly intentionnal, they're more intelligent than I thought. I mean you need medical knowledge to know where to put the rod, right? They wanted the day people to find her alive, installing fear and chaos. Did the monsters set the alarm on the phone?
- Where's the boyfriend, he's dead apparently but nobody found him.
- It's confirmed that phones don't go through.
- Sinse they talked about traps this episode, someone please make a trap for one of these creatures. It would have to be metal i'm guessing sinse they reduced the wooden box in season 1 to nothing. Maybe the delivery truck Victor uses as a base?
- The wood sculpture thing Ethan did on the patio and Tabitha saw in the catacombs, I don't think it's any good to leave it there during the night. Is it a beacon for the monsters or something? The deformed weird woman in the catacombs took the sculpture down and that has meaning I think. Sinse she doesn't seem evil to me, maybe she's trying to help Tabitha by telling her to take it down.
- Everything is clearly being controlled by someone/something, there's just too many coincidences. This entity is trying to break these people and it's working really good.
- Elgin being scared of the lake, what's up with that? Is there another kind of monster in there or did he have a vision of people dying in there. If people die in the lake it would have to be in the daytime, right cause who would swim at night? A daytime monster?
- I think that violin was from Victor's mother.
- Somebody please put Victor, Jade, Ethan, Tabitha, Jim, Sara and Boyd in a room to talk. Give them a few hours and every mystery in this show is resolved. Communication guys!!
- It's about to get a whole lot more crazy with Sara returning... maybe she has some answers?!?
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Yeah. It is super convoluted. The show’s about to lose me. Feels like they are making it up as they go along…
Review by Acoucalancha
VIP4The good:
- Love the new setting, it's a breath of fresh air (feels nothing like New York though).
- Peak brutal slasher kills.
- Easter egg gold mine, once again they really fed the fandom.
- Amazing fight scene choreography.
- Entertaining and fun throughout.
- Unexpected opening, it really surprised me.
- Most epic moments were Gale vs. Ghostface and the metro scene.
- The multiple twists in the third act were clever.
The bad:
- People get stabbed and then act like nothing happened more times than I could count.
- Cheesy Riverdale teen drama: Never in a million years did I think I would gag watching a scene with Jenna Ortega in it.
- Melissa Barrera's acting didn't get any better, it's all in the eyes girl you gotta control them. Can't take her seriously.
- Gale and Kirby didn't add much to the story which is sad.
- Awful music choices.
- Mindy got stabbed by Ghostface but is then rescued by the other Ghostface. Why not just leave her there, people were ignoring her she would have died.
- Nobody really died except a few extras, what's up with that?
I thought they would make Sam the official Ghostface at the end, just felt like the perfect origin story. They unfortunately opted to make her a Disney princess for the moment. Seeing her against Sydney in a future installment would be awesome.
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@acoucalancha Spoiler Warning: Yeah I sighed but not in relief when Chad was alive. I did like him in it but he should have died.
He is okay but has nothing on Dewey. Didn’t need to get that obvious ending again.
Shout by Acoucalancha
VIP4Deeeeelicious! Go in blind. Wasn't expecting this from a Tubi original. I was sold with that unpredictable twist in the first act, it's nothing original but so exciting and sets up some interesting character dynamics that had me entertained throughout. Good acting, nice bloody kills, a few surprising practical effects, cheesy in a good way, a bit slow in the second act, poor dialogue but hilarious one-liners, and a satisfying wild third act. Although because that first twist was so unpredictable, I expected something unpredictable in the third act but it's all predictable unfortunately—but hella fun!
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@acoucalancha I absolutely second that, go in blind and it will surprise you.
Shout by Acoucalancha
VIP4When brilliant concept and brillant execution come together, they create something truly magical. A movie about emotions that made me feel all the emotions. One of Pixar's best, instructive for kids and fascinating for adults. There's something so nostalgic about it, the way we see Riley grow up and go through all these emotions and internal conflicts. The emotions constantly fighting, the core islands defining a personality, the stuff they did with the memory archive, imaginary friends, the ideas with the light bulbs... the mechanics of everything is just one of the best concepts ever and it's all fairly easy to understand but still profound. Loved the adventure with Joy and Sadness as they explore this fascinating world, the stakes are high if you care about Riley. Great animation, love the characters, nice score, emotional ending. Funny stuff during the credits, the dog part made me laugh.
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@acoucalancha Spot on! Haven't seen this movie in several years, but I'm eager to watch it again to prepare for the sequel.
Review by Acoucalancha
VIP4–"I got the garlic."
–"Sammy, those are fucking onions."Go in blind without seeing the trailer for this one. The trailer ruined the first and part of the second act for me, it's basically a whodunit mystery in a mansion with the characters being clueless and blaming each other. We've all seen the trailer! That first act is worthless. Why show us the twist it's so frustrating.
Abigail is Ready or Not but with a vampire twist, nothing original and not as good as Ready or Not but it's still a decent fun time. Perfect set, lots of blood, lots of action, and some laugh out loud moments. The tone is completely off though, it's campy most of the time but also tries to be a heartfelt drama at other times—those are polar opposites, it doesn't work! The vampire powers were so interesting, probably my favorite aspect of the movie.
Don't let the title fool you, this movie should be called "Dan Stevens" cause he steals the spotlight as he usually does. The moment when he says "I feel great" and everything after that was peak. As much as I enjoyed him, it's a shame that he steals the spotlight from Abigail (Alisha Weir) because this was supposed to be her movie. She's excellent in the role, always believable, so confident and actually scary. Kathryn Newton was absolutely killer in a certain scene. Melissa Barrera's best performance yet, I wasn't a fan of her acting in Scream VI but she was actually believable here.
As good as the cast is, it tries too hard with the characters. They're not that interesting and the execution for the character buildup could have been better handled. Constantly having to build up those characters in between action scenes slowed down the movie considerably when they should really be dying instead sinse this is a horror movie. It also had no right being this long, a good 20-30 minutes could be cut out. The last twist was laughable and overstayed it's welcome.
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@acoucalancha I disagree about the character development pacing, as I enjoyed that, and the buildup, despite the trailer. But I'm with you on the rest. I do hate when they spoil reveals in the trailers, though.
Review by Acoucalancha
VIP4"Is that a mini Kong?"
Same recipe as Godzilla vs. Kong, it's dumb, it silly, it's full of problems but it's exactly what I want from a Kaiju movie: over-the-top non-stop titan action fun!
It has the same problems as Godzilla vs. Kong, the humans storyline brings the movie down and the story feels like it was made up along the way. Some continuity errors, it demands a suspension of disbelief and A LOT of plot conveniences. The dialogue is so cheap and the constant exposition by the humans is frustrating.
Godzilla is once again a secondary character in his own movie and Kong gets all the spotlight and story arcs. BUT at the same time Kong is better equipped to be the central character as he has more humanity. The dynamics between him and Suko "mini Kong" were the heart of this movie.
The best thing about this is the action, there's so much of it and it's epic. So much CGI it's basically an animated movie. The adventure to Hollow Earth (part 2) was better than the last i'd say, discovering the unexplored parts, seeing new creatures and going in deeper into the lore of the titans was interesting. Dan Stevens was my favorite character, he's funny and entertaining even though his character could be erased from the movie and it wouldn't change much.
I wish that little girl wasn't in the movie, not a fan. Scarking was introduced too late in the movie and he didn't feel like a big enough threat on his own. Epic final battle but the action was a bit hard to follow at times. What was the point of Godzilla being pink?
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@acoucalancha Yo Bruv Great Review.... But... I think there are reasons why they named it G x K and not K x G (eg: Who won the fight on screen in 21 G v K, secondly marketing states that Godzilla is more popular than Kong, I mean there are more movies with Godzilla but Hey... and pink is arguably and you know it, just like the point (which is to have you know that The Big Lizard is Super Charged and Ready to Fire). I would say maybe they could change the color to red I would rejoice but perhaps it's because G has different states and they plan to use a different color later, could be that the color was cannon to some source material they used idk pick your poison.
Review by Acoucalancha
VIP4–"I got the garlic."
–"Sammy, those are fucking onions."Go in blind without seeing the trailer for this one. The trailer ruined the first and part of the second act for me, it's basically a whodunit mystery in a mansion with the characters being clueless and blaming each other. We've all seen the trailer! That first act is worthless. Why show us the twist it's so frustrating.
Abigail is Ready or Not but with a vampire twist, nothing original and not as good as Ready or Not but it's still a decent fun time. Perfect set, lots of blood, lots of action, and some laugh out loud moments. The tone is completely off though, it's campy most of the time but also tries to be a heartfelt drama at other times—those are polar opposites, it doesn't work! The vampire powers were so interesting, probably my favorite aspect of the movie.
Don't let the title fool you, this movie should be called "Dan Stevens" cause he steals the spotlight as he usually does. The moment when he says "I feel great" and everything after that was peak. As much as I enjoyed him, it's a shame that he steals the spotlight from Abigail (Alisha Weir) because this was supposed to be her movie. She's excellent in the role, always believable, so confident and actually scary. Kathryn Newton was absolutely killer in a certain scene. Melissa Barrera's best performance yet, I wasn't a fan of her acting in Scream VI but she was actually believable here.
As good as the cast is, it tries too hard with the characters. They're not that interesting and the execution for the character buildup could have been better handled. Constantly having to build up those characters in between action scenes slowed down the movie considerably when they should really be dying instead sinse this is a horror movie. It also had no right being this long, a good 20-30 minutes could be cut out. The last twist was laughable and overstayed it's welcome.
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@acoucalancha I regret watching the trailer when it came out, they actually spoiled the whole damn movie in the trailer dint they. Gotta wait for the digital release to watch but they gave away a lot of stuff in the trailer.
Review by Acoucalancha
VIP4Snape: "Turn to page 394."
Without a doubt the best in the franchise. The Dementors have affected the tone of this one because it's more serious, mature, dark and even scary at times. I love the storyline with Sirius Black and the Dementor/Werewolf looming threat throughout the movie. Best story yet, best score yet, great cinematography, great acting (kids are better now) and the third act is bonkers. David Thewlis is such a great addition as Professor Lupin. Alan Rickman (Snape) was the standout once again, favorite character. The white neon lighting at night is something I hate in movies and this one has a lot of it, although it makes sense because of the moonlight so fair enough. The time travel is the icing on the cake, amazing use of it. I wish they had kept Cuarón as director for the next few movies.
Magical Creatures Ranked (by favorite):
- Hippogriff (Buckbeak) - who wouldn't want to take a ride on one of those.
- Dementor - a monster that feeds on human happiness and eats your soul. Straight out of a horror movie.
- Werewolf - so cool, so deadly, one of the greatest moments of the franchise. The transformation scene was epic.
- Animagus - not quite a Werewolf but still deadly.
- Boggart - a shapeshifter that takes the shape of your greatest fear. Mine would probably be spiders too.
- Whomping Willow - one hell of a ride.
- The Monster Book of Monsters - reading will kill you.
- Shrunken Talking Head - that was a thing.
- Singing Toad - that was also a thing.
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@acoucalancha you just made me wanna watch the whole franchise all over again
"Scary stories make life less scary."
Haven't watched Murder on the Orient Express yet and thought Death on the Nile was boring but I really enjoyed A Haunting in Venice.
It's very slow but kept me glued to the screen the whole time. Good story and mystery but the characters are what drives this, they're interesting. The interview format got a bit repetitive at some point but it works for the most part and it elevates Hercule Poirot as a character every time. I didn't predict the culprit but the clues were definitely there! A criticism; I'll be vague but the mystery solver felt a bit overpowered and the problem solving unearned.
The supernatural and horror twist is what really elevated the experience for me, we even got a few jumpscares and it's spooky. The palazzo set is perfection and the dark, rainy, stormy atmosphere is always a great choice. The imagery is absolutely stunning, amazing lighting, stylish camerawork and great cast.
Worth watching in a theater but at the same time I would save this for the Halloween season—i'd consider it a Halloween movie. I had no expectations going in but overall this was a good murder mystery!
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@acoucalancha the other two are dull as a rock, but this one genuinely got my attention most of the time. It's definitely the best of the trilogy, though Michelle Pfeiffer's acting from the first one still has a special place in my heart.
"Show some enthusiasm. Thanksgiving is an institution here."
Scream goes on holiday. I'm a sucker for holiday horror and Thanksgiving is everything I wanted from a Thanksgiving themed slasher. It's very standard old fashioned 80s campy. You need to watch this with the intent of having fun cause it's a lot of fun.
Perfect intro with the Black Friday sequence, really well done. The kills are everything you want in a slasher; gory, fun, creative and memorable. Great effects. The oven kill was my favorite but they were all great. The 'sitting at the table' part was peak I had a huge smile on my face and the one-liners were excellent.
The tone is probably my biggest criticism, it's too serious at times when really you want this kind of movie to be silly. The fun parts are too distanced apart, more fun and less teen drama would have been great. The characters are hard to root for and the teen actors are all cringe. I actually predicted who the killer was for once but I think it was pretty obvious.
No leftovers.
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@acoucalancha Those one liners by the killer while he was smashing that guy's head in.. perfection man. It would've been better if the killer was given more mystery. Like the Scream movies they dint mislead the audience enough in my opinion. Wdyt?
"Those are... flamingos."
What in the nonplussed, haunting soliloquy was that?! Went in completely blind and that was the right choice. It felt like watching an M. Night Shyamalan movie. It's essentially a psychological drama comedy with a "mysterious event" happening in the background—a great mix! The characters are interesting, the drama works because of this and some well-placed sharp comedy. It's weird, creepy and the mystery is intriguing.
This was actually my first time seeing Julia Roberts in a movie and she was hilarious. Really good acting from everyone. Myha'la is a newfound favorite. Simple yet effective suspenceful score, artistic visuals, nice camerawork and editing. The back and forth between two suspenceful scenes technique is done really well here. Incredible how many themes this movie tackles, there's always something to disect on-screen.
Some weird nonsensical character decisions that are a bit frustrating at times. Too long of a runtime which would make a rewatch difficult, it was totally possible to trim down. Favorite moments are the boat scene and the Tesla scene—on the edge of my seat! I thought the ending was perfect. There are sooo many clues and hints dropped throughout the movie that there's no way it could feel unresolved at the end.
I've never watched Friends
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@acoucalancha I just now only saw the reply.. sorry for the late response.
Friends isn't the funniest sitcom, but it has one of the most beautifully crafted characters ever, from the romance stuff to the weird jokes. It's a hit or miss, I am assuming you're not that big into sitcom so I cant really say whether you'll like it or not, but try watching it and if you enjoy it I guarantee you wont be able to stop yourself from watching it. I remember binge watching the whole thing in less than 2 months
