[CASUAL] January Movie Challenge

[Malkon05]

14) American Dad Season 14

This was 20 episodes at approximately 20-30 minutes per episode. This was a MUCH better season than 13 and actually had a coherent theme through the whole thing! Stuff that happens at the beginning of the season comes back around full circle by the final episode which leads to a satisfying godzilla meets ET style of finale that felt like a nice bookend to how the season started. Highlights of this season for me were "Eight Fires" which involved Francine trying to find her inner cook, "No Weddings and a Funeral" which is a hypothetical episode that happens 15 years in the future from the series, "Mom Sauce" where Steve's plan to get back at his buddy Snot fails and accidentally puts him into foster care and sends his mom to jail, "Lost Boys" where Roger gets Steve and his friends to turn on each other and Jeff believes he can get into real estate, and the crown jewel "Rabbit Ears" which is a film noir tv show that Stan gets sucked into, really quality episode that I have to recommend more than anything else this season. Overall I'm very pleased, but I noticed that Haley sort of faded into the background as most of the episodes involved her as part of someone else's plot and not really someone who got a full episode that focused on anything that developed her character. Aside from this I'm very pleased. 4.6/5

[xofelf]

9) Sharp Objects(2019) Episodes 3-8
Um holy shit?? Like I thought this was going to go one way, and it uh does not do that. This is several levels of fucked, and I was not expecting it to end like it did. Well worth the build up, and it's definitely one of those after you've seen the end, you will want to rewatch it because there are minor details that are everywhere throughout that make the final ending completely worth it and how did I not see that coming? This is exactly the kind of story that limited series are made for. Shorting this story down to a single 2-3 hour movie would not have given nearly enough. A+ work from everyone. Patricia Clarkson is terrifyingly good at the role she plays. There's a lot of content warnings you'll want with this one, but man, well worth the watch.

[Porkens]

I watched Wasteland a Spanish movie about…I’m not sure what it’s about but I liked the actors.

[Haschel Cedricson]

28) Designated Survivor, Season 2 (22 episodes)

Not entirely sure how to judge this one. It's an entertaining show, sure. At times it's not quite sure which direction it wants to take, though. I'm reminded of House of Cards, season 3. Part of the fun of watching House of Cards was seeing how Underwood was going to scheme his way into becoming the president. Once he was president, though, the show struggled because watching somebody attempt to get power is a lot more fun than just watching somebody with power. So too does Designated Survivor suffer from the passage of time - at this point the nation has recovered from the Capitol bombing so now the show dabbles a bit too close to being a West Wing clone.

That's not to say it's all bad; the midseason finale was great as are the following episodes following the emotional ramifications on the president. It's no Two Cathedrals (what is?) but it's still a fascinating portrait of the stress that comes with being commander-in-chief, without the ability to ever truly take time off.

[Malkon05]

Designated Survivor had a great first season. I think I agree with your review Hasch

[Malkon05]

15) Resident Evil (2002)

Honestly this film has held up REALLY well since 2002. 20 years later I decided to do a little reunion marathon of the series. I have to say I loved rewatching it. Michelle Rodriguez, Milla Jovovich, Martin Crewes, Eric Mabius, and James Purefoy were all pretty terrific actors. A catatonic woman wakes up in a mansion unsure what the heck is going on. From there things only go downhill. For movies that are based on video games, this was the first time I felt like one actually succeeded. It was really well done and I thought the storytelling of the original idea of the Hive and the Red Queen and Alice and really so many elements of this movie worked. Even though this was cheesy early 2000s especially with the "espionage show the building via heat sensor" aesthetics which are dated, there's still an undeniably good story here with terrific characters that were deep and complex, united by a will to survive. 4.4/5

Pretty sure the rest of these are not going to be as good.

[Malkon05]

16) Resident Evil: Apocalypse

Yeah I knew this wouldn't last long. There are so many issues with the characters and their motivations it's insane. This is the decline of the series, but it's a trainwreck I can't help but love. Milla Jovovich continues to prove that she's a titan in the action heroine genre, but she alone can't carry the movie. Two big names in RE, Jill Valentine and Carlos Oliveira are the other two characters introduced and the actors are...actually okay. The big issue is with the dialog and the bad writing of the movie. Like at one point Jill actually hands someone a gun and says "let's split up to search for shit". Like I get it, she's a capable cop who can handle herself, but the two people she is with are barely able to lift a gun or really care for themselves at any point. And what happens? One dies and it was a completely avoidable death. Then again a special ops cop refuses help from Jill and says "Ive got this" and what happens? He dies immediately after. Like there is very little rational thinking from any character that isn't Milla Jovovich and it's infuriating. But the whole movie has good action, good effects, and it's kind of a pretty epic final fight. It also had the potential to have a decent ending, but I know what's coming in the next movie sooooooo..... 3/5

[Malkon05]

17) Resident Evil: Extinction

Yeah. It's just going downhill even more. This was the least interesting and least coherent of the Resident Evil films so far. Alice is going to Alaska and she's bringing Ali Larter as Claire Redfield with her. We meet a couple familiar faces, but they all die. The new characters that are introduced are mostly flat and uninteresting and most of them die. Plus there's a bunch of uninteresting scenes such as the dogs and the weird people in the beginning and the almost pointless gas station scenes. It's just a very confusing narrative and very incoherent. Like there are so many things about this movie that just straight up aren't fun. If you are watching this you are watching this because you are doing a marathon watch of all the movies. I will say the jewel of this movie was Ali Larter who might be the best choice for Claire Redfield ever. She's kind of incredible and I would have loved to see a RE2 remake starring her because that might have been quite interesting. 2.1/5

[Malkon05]

18) Resident Evil: Afterlife

Really this plot just gets worse with every film. Basically it feels disjointed at the beginning to sort of force a plot throughout the rest of the movie and all of the new characters are flat and 1 dimensional. Ali Larter and Milla Jovovich continue to be the stars of the movie, with Wentworth Miller making an appearance as Chris Redfield. Really it's just a little sad at this point. I don't even really know what the plot is anymore. It's just "get to thing, do thing, zombies" over and over. The only interesting thing was they introduced the uruboros which is a concept from RE5 and so that was good I guess. Really though I was super bored and even as someone who "likes to continue the story" this drug on. 1.4/5.

[Nero Cain]

Coherence-2013-1hr 29 mins

This was a bit of a roller coaster for me. In the beginning, it felt pretty good then about halfway through I was at "eh..." and then I was "this isn't bad" Its a sci-fi/drama movie that

deals with multiple realities.

It has mostly positive scores, 7.2 on IMDB/81% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.Some of the more negative reviews knocked it for a lack of originality but with sci-fi (and I guess the movie business as a whole) you are going to run similar themes and ideas so I'm not really upset about it. For myself, I got a little lost at times but I think this was a decent watch and prob alot better than some higher-budget films.

5

[Malkon05]

19) Resident Evil: Retribution

Okay so like, I didn't hate this sequel, but once again it was a disjointed mess. I did love the return of Michelle Rodriguez and the gal who played Jill Valentine, that was a nice addition. In addition they introduced Leon and the Los Plagas virus. Like there are very obvious ties to the games, however I think this particular series is long past it's expiration date and I'm thrilled that I'm about to be done with this. I'm just sad because the first movie in this series was really well done and everything after has been less than great. The best part about this movie though was the set up which was actually mildly interesting in comparison to the last couple of movies. Like Alice is still the focus, but unlike before she's part of these simulated underground worlds created by the Red Queen. In addition we've introduced some improvements to the enemies and all in all it's a lot of fun in terms of action. The story is a mess though and I'm not sure how this series got 6 movies made. It's quite baffling. 3.4/5

[Nero Cain]

The Alchemist Cookbook-2016-1hr 22mins

boring as shit! I was ready to turn it off after 13 minutes but I powered through in the hopes that it would get better. nope. It's possible that the intent was a social statement about addiction or mental illness and that was my first thought. Not really sure how anyone gave this over four stars though, RT's 35% audience score is prob a more realistic take than IMDB's 5.2

2

[Malkon05]

20) Resident Evil: The Final Chapter

This movie ALLLLLLLLMOST brings the series around full circle and makes everything seem like it had a point. I was also very pleased with the return of Ali Larter and Iain Glen. Really this was a better movie than it had any right to be. It was very much Rogue One esque though but with a slight twist to the formula at the end. If you liked this series, and you like Rogue One, I recommend it. Interesting. The series comes around full circle when Wesker betrays (wow pikachu shock face) all of the survivors. Everyone from the last movie super fucking dead except Alice (wow pikachu shock face). So when Alice gets a transmission from Red Queen that it's her job to stop the end of all of humanity, she's obviously skeptical. But in 48 hours she knows the remaining 4800 or so humans left alive are dead anyways, so what does she have left to lose? There were actually some interesting twists in this movie! I don't think it was perfect and I have so many questions about what happened to people from the prior movies, but really they did about as good a job as one would hope given how bungled this story was. It ended similarly to how it started, it brought everything back full circle, and it did actually attempt to make sense of some of the terrible plots from the last few movies. I'm a lot more satisfied with this than I thought I would be. 4/5

[Malkon05]

21) Resident Evil: Degeneration

Okay time for the animated movies now haha. We start off with the reunion of the century, Claire and Leon reunite for the first time since Resident Evil 2 and it's just fantastic. This movie is so well done and paced and was written by someone who has a deep love of the series. I also loved the introduction of Angela (Laura Bailey, a favorite of mine). She was such an awesome character and tied in so well to the overall plot. Wow. It's a huge mega bummer disappointment though because I know we never see her again in the series and I would love to see her featured as a protagonist again. There's a lot of political intrigue and a lot of interwovenness in the characters. The one thing I hated about this was the kiss towards the end. That's not a way to save someone if they are drowing and even if it was more romantic, she and Leon don't show any romantic notions to each other otherwise. So it was weird and like forced for tv purposes? A really good chapter in the RE series though. 4.8/5

[Malkon05]

22) Resident Evil: Damnation

So so good. Honestly this is the best Resident Evil Movie so far. Leon gets pulled off vacation to deal with something, then they tell him to pull out and he's like "Fuck that noise" and decides to get himself entangled in the civil war of a small country. It's a wild ride and I loved it from start to finish. I have one minor gripe but it's so small it's not worth talking about. Really this was peak Resident Evil for me. Ada Wong, Leon, a couple new faces I'll probably never see again, but really the coolest part of the whole movie was the bit about the hive and I don't want to spoil it for you. 5/5 easy recommendation.

[GeorgeBailey]

the 2002 resident evil was awesome from what I remember.

Probably one of the best video game adaptation movies.

[Malkon05]

the 2002 resident evil was awesome from what I remember.

Probably one of the best video game adaptation movies.

So good my god. They really did an incredible job with it. Resident Evil Damnation and Degeneration were both a lot of fun though! You'd probably enjoy them.

[Malkon05]

23) Resident Evil: Vendetta

Okay so like I had pretty high expectations admittedly after Damnation and Degeneration and this wasn't a complete bomb. Like there were fight sequences that were absolutely mind blowing. Chris and Leon both were a dream team and some of the animations in this were truly spectacular. However this was Rebecca's first full length anything back into the series and...she basically becomes a watered down damsel in distress and it made me so unbelievably mad because I always wanted to see the badass medic get to be the hero and once again Chris has to come rescue her and I just sighed mostly. It took me awhile to get past that. I liked the villain, the motivations, and the set up. Really this was a good chapter in the RE series, I just hated how Rebecca is basically once again almost pointless to the plot she is in, and she really deserved better. 4.4/5

[Malkon05]

24) Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness

And with that I have concluded everything that I have available to me at this time. The only movie missing for me is the one that just came out. I'll have to watch that later. All in all this was an okay miniseries. It was 4-25 minute episodes for a total of 100 minutes...I'm actually unsure why this wasn't just a movie. Overall, I think it tried a little too hard to be something it wasn't. I was a tad confused about the point of the plot and where it was going. Plus the one character that could have been interesting ultimately died so that felt anti climactic. It was nice seeing Ashley Graham's father, but overall this felt a little lackluster. It was okay though! A solid 3.5/5. It kept me entertained, but it wasn't like groundbreaking or anything.

[xofelf]

10) Santa Claus: MST3K version. Season 5 or something
Idk what year or when it was, but I've done this movie before and it's good every time. also also wine is very goooood. 11/10

[Malkon05]

25) Final Fantasy XV: Kingsglaive

So this was a movie. Unless you plan to play the video game, this is very much NOT worth watching. It's literally only for people who enjoy FFXV. The music, graphics and action was absolutely phenomenal. There's literally nothing else interesting about this movie, it's basically the rogue one story of Final Fantasy. Kind of want those 2 hours of my life back. 1.5/5

[GeorgeBailey]

5. The Seventh Seal (1957)

Spoiler:

This movie was so interesting. It focuses on a chess battle between the MC and Death, while showing us the lives of a nihilist priest and a couple of entertainers.



I didn't look into what the movie meant cause i'm lazy and wanna watch Solaris next, but I

think

Death is supposed to represent the black plague, and Chess is symbolism for him fighting it? Death looks kinda funny though so sometimes it was hard to take it seriously.



It's a pretty... er, atheist film? The crusader came back from a shitty failed crusade and is questioning why any of this is happening. On top of a black death that is killing literally everyone. A lot of the dialogue surrounding death and faith is fantastic.



I went overboard getting frames for this one, but there's so many gorgeous scenes. I like the choice of filming in 1957, the black and white works very nice.



My favourite part was when the guy danced like a bear, it was a very nice bear and he looked scary.

The worst part of this film is the sound mixing ( I have no idea what the standards were for 57' so this might be a shit take), and the incel shit the priest pulled on the girl he saved.



There was a scene of like, marching flagellating people with the plague? It felt so over the top that I had to laugh, it got cheesy at times. Very solid movie.

[Ythan]

There was a scene of like, marching flagellating people with the plague? It felt so over the top that I had to laugh, it got cheesy at times.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flagellant
Completely real. Catholics are super metal.

[Nero Cain]

I'm not sure how this series got 6 movies made.

$$$ and possibly how much pull Paul Anderson and/or whoever produced the films has.

Like I'm sure you already knew that but I'm bored so I looked up how much each film made.

Resident Evil-$102,984,862

Apocalypse-$129,342,769

Extinction-$147,717,833

Afterlife-$300,228,084

Retribution-$240,159,255

The Final Chapter-$312,242,626

If you are making this kind of bank I think most ppl are gonna ride that cash cow. I mean maybe they aren't that good but $$$ mostly rules Hollywood.

The following is from the trivia section off of IMDB about Extinction and I find it hilarious.

The film was not screened for critics, most likely due to the overwhelmingly-negative reviews from critics for the first two films.

[Malkon05]

26) Will & Grace Season 2 (the reboot)

Honestly this season was pretty good. There were a lot of good episodes with fun banter including Karen trying to figure out who she is and having to announce she's straight, Grace and Will navigating their relationships to figure out if they are compatible with their current partners, and it has Jack coming to terms with the fact that he's in love and wanting to move on with his life rather than let old flames get in the way of what he has. A lot of character growth in this season except for Karen, but she's still delightful so yeah. I think the funniest part was Jack creating "Gaybraham Lincoln" because the banter between him and Megan Mullalay was side splittingly hilarious. This show is doing a terrific job so far and I'm having a blast. Can't wait for season 3! 18 episodes at an approximate 20 minutes each. 4.5/5