Picking a great movie?

[Paprika]

I'm been to the movies over 200 times in the last few years, and gradually I'm becoming better at picking out a great movie from the new releases that suit my taste, and after a lot of trial and errors, these are the rules I follow:

1. Avoid woke garbage: every week there seems to be a few.
2. See who the filmmaker is: I avoid movies by Jordan Peele, Wes Anderson etc.
3. Do not trust the critics especially Rotten Tomatoes: I hate snobs
4. Avoid any movie if trailer has anything that makes you uncomfortable
5. Avoid any movie if trailer tells everything: it's called a condenser
6. Avoid all Disney movies: too woke for me
7. Avoid all superhero movies except Harley Quinn & Suicide Squad: getting tired of it.
8. Avoid shitty remakes: eg Eli Roth's remake of Death Wish, Steven Spielberg's remake of West Side Story
9. Avoid reimagined classic: eg Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey, a horror movie based on classic cartoon characters.
10. Avoid movies about movies: eg The Fabelmans, anything that's considered a "love letter to the cinema".
11. Avoid corporate movies: eg Blackberry, Dumb Money, reenactment of recent events.
12. Avoid movies about Nazis: simply too many of them...even in classics like Notorious.

Even with all these rules, the first new movie I picked this year called Night Swim was a crashing bore.

What went wrong?

1. I'm a big fan of James Wan's Saw series, but his Conjuring movies have become very boring, but he also produced M3GAN, which was one of the best movies in 2023, so I took a chance.
2. There is a hot chick swimming in bikini, guess sex sells. but other than her cute butt cheeks there's nothing else.
3. It's Bryce McGuire's debut movie, and originally it was a 4 minute video. I should have known a haunted swimming pool doesn't make a good horror movie.
4. I didn't check the imdb ratings at all.

So to sum it up: I saw hot chick in the trailer and some familiar names and got fooled into thinking it's a great movie. I don't really regret seeing it, but it seems there's no way I could have avoided the mistake.

What rules do you guys use to weed out bad/average movies?

 

[shack]

I'm been to the movies over 200 times in the last few years, and gradually I'm becoming better at picking out a great movie from the new releases that suit my taste, and after a lot of trial and errors, these are the rules I follow:

1. Avoid woke garbage: every week there seems to be a few.
2. See who the filmmaker is: I avoid movies by Jordan Peele, Wes Anderson etc.
3. Do not trust the critics especially Rotten Tomatoes: I hate snobs
4. Avoid any movie if trailer has anything that makes you uncomfortable
5. Avoid any movie if trailer tells everything: it's called a condenser
6. Avoid all Disney movies: too woke for me
7. Avoid all superhero movies except Harley Quinn & Suicide Squad: getting tired of it.
8. Avoid shitty remakes: eg Eli Roth's remake of Death Wish, Steven Spielberg's remake of West Side Story
9. Avoid reimagined classic: eg Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey, a horror movie based on classic cartoon characters.
10. Avoid movies about movies: eg The Fabelmans, anything that's considered a "love letter to the cinema".
11. Avoid corporate movies: eg Blackberry, Dumb Money, reenactment of recent events.
12. Avoid movies about Nazis: simply too many of them...even in classics like Notorious.

Even with all these rules, the first new movie I picked this year called Night Swim was a crashing bore.

What went wrong?

1. I'm a big fan of James Wan's Saw series, but his Conjuring movies have become very boring, but he also produced M3GAN, which was one of the best movies in 2023, so I took a chance.
2. There is a hot chick swimming in bikini, guess sex sells. but other than her cute butt cheeks there's nothing else.
3. It's Bryce McGuire's debut movie, and originally it was a 4 minute video. I should have known a haunted swimming pool doesn't make a good horror movie.
4. I didn't check the imdb ratings at all.

So to sum it up: I saw hot chick in the trailer and some familiar names and got fooled into thinking it's a great movie. I don't really regret seeing it, but it seems there's no way I could have avoided the mistake.

What rules do you guys use to weed out bad/average movies?

Let's make it simpler.

Pick some movies that you think may be good. Watch them and form your own independent opinions.

Then go back and read some reviews. Whichever reviewer's opinions align with yours most frequently, then those are the ones whose opinions you will trust. It's not that tough.

I remember when Pulp Fiction came out. Peter Howell wrote, and I quote: "Pulp Fiction is not one of the 10 best movies of the year. It is THE 10 best movies of the year."

Find critics whose opinion you trust. They watch more movies and see them earlier than any of us possibly can.

No thanks necessary. You're all welcome.

 

[canada-man]

Watch the trailer first

 

[niks9009]

I'm been to the movies over 200 times in the last few years, and gradually I'm becoming better at picking out a great movie from the new releases that suit my taste, and after a lot of trial and errors, these are the rules I follow:

1. Avoid woke garbage: every week there seems to be a few.
2. See who the filmmaker is: I avoid movies by Jordan Peele, Wes Anderson etc.
3. Do not trust the critics especially Rotten Tomatoes: I hate snobs
4. Avoid any movie if trailer has anything that makes you uncomfortable
5. Avoid any movie if trailer tells everything: it's called a condenser
6. Avoid all Disney movies: too woke for me
7. Avoid all superhero movies except Harley Quinn & Suicide Squad: getting tired of it.
8. Avoid shitty remakes: eg Eli Roth's remake of Death Wish, Steven Spielberg's remake of West Side Story
9. Avoid reimagined classic: eg Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey, a horror movie based on classic cartoon characters.
10. Avoid movies about movies: eg The Fabelmans, anything that's considered a "love letter to the cinema".
11. Avoid corporate movies: eg Blackberry, Dumb Money, reenactment of recent events.
12. Avoid movies about Nazis: simply too many of them...even in classics like Notorious.

Even with all these rules, the first new movie I picked this year called Night Swim was a crashing bore.

What went wrong?

1. I'm a big fan of James Wan's Saw series, but his Conjuring movies have become very boring, but he also produced M3GAN, which was one of the best movies in 2023, so I took a chance.
2. There is a hot chick swimming in bikini, guess sex sells. but other than her cute butt cheeks there's nothing else.
3. It's Bryce McGuire's debut movie, and originally it was a 4 minute video. I should have known a haunted swimming pool doesn't make a good horror movie.
4. I didn't check the imdb ratings at all.

So to sum it up: I saw hot chick in the trailer and some familiar names and got fooled into thinking it's a great movie. I don't really regret seeing it, but it seems there's no way I could have avoided the mistake.

What rules do you guys use to weed out bad/average movies?

So out of curiosity. What were your top 3 or 5 movies from last year?

 

[Paprika]

So out of curiosity. What were your top 3 or 5 movies from last year?

M3gan, Infinity Pool, Cocaine Bear, Evil Dead Rise, Beau Is Afraid, Barbie, Dream Scenario, I’m mostly into horror.

 

[Nickelodeon]

I don't trust any reviewers, especially Globe and Star, where diversity is the first criteria for assessing a movie. The rest tend to be no better than your average twitter user...so I go to IMDB and get a collection of views to see if the movie might be of interest to me.

But let me vent a minute:
- I moderately enjoyed Succession but I never felt that any of the leading actors (except maybe Brian Cox) weren't do anything but acting out their roles. Nobody owned their characters like DeNiro, Pacino, Gandolfina, Hopkins, etc. But the critics fell all over themselves on the acting in the episode where a main character unexpectedly dies.
- White Lotus? I've only got so many hours on this planet...none for this crap.
- Saltburn - derivative
- Mission Impossible - OK to the stunts, but Cruise can't act, he can smirk
- Oppenheimer - great story about science and morals.

 

[Paprika]

I don't trust any reviewers, especially Globe and Star, where diversity is the first criteria for assessing a movie. The rest tend to be no better than your average twitter user...so I go to IMDB and get a collection of views to see if the movie might be of interest to me.

But let me vent a minute:
- I moderately enjoyed Succession but I never felt that any of the leading actors (except maybe Brian Cox) weren't do anything but acting out their roles. Nobody owned their characters like DeNiro, Pacino, Gandolfina, Hopkins, etc. But the critics fell all over themselves on the acting in the episode where a main character unexpectedly dies.
- White Lotus? I've only got so many hours on this planet...none for this crap.
- Saltburn - derivative
- Mission Impossible - OK to the stunts, but Cruise can't act, he can smirk
- Oppenheimer - great story about science and morals.

At least with Tom Cruise you know what you are getting, like that new movie with Jason Statham.

I thought Oppenheimer and napoleon are both about perversion.

 

[The Oracle]

So the new Joker sequel is going to be a musical I just read...

 

[explorerzip]

7. Avoid all superhero movies except Harley Quinn & Suicide Squad: getting tired of it.

Suicide Squad (the Will Smith one) was trash. The Suicide Squad with Idris Elba and John Cena was better as was Peacemaker on HBO. Joker with Joaquin Phoneix was very good and with "super-hero ness" in it. I thought he did an amazing job considering the bar was set very high by Heath Ledger.

I just download movies that I'm interested, which is free.

 

[onomatopoeia]

... Joker with Joaquin Phoneix was very good and with "super-hero ness" in it. ...

 

[xmontrealer]

Just came back from watching the new version of Mean Girls. I lasted 30 minutes, just enough time to finish the popcorn.

I enjoyed the original. The new one is a musical with zero edge, and unwatchable for me. Got sucked in by an ok trailer...

 

[Paprika]

Suicide Squad (the Will Smith one) was trash. The Suicide Squad with Idris Elba and John Cena was better as was Peacemaker on HBO. Joker with Joaquin Phoneix was very good and with "super-hero ness" in it. I thought he did an amazing job considering the bar was set very high by Heath Ledger.

I just download movies that I'm interested, which is free.

The second Suicide Squad movie is a lot of fun, but I mainly watch it for Margot Robbie. I'm also a big fan of the animated show Harley Quinn.

I have a pretty big screen at home, but still it cannot replace the cinema experience.

 

[ptp]

If there is nudity , its worth watching .

 

[explorerzip]

The second Suicide Squad movie is a lot of fun, but I mainly watch it for Margot Robbie. I'm also a big fan of the animated show Harley Quinn.

I have a pretty big screen at home, but still it cannot replace the cinema experience.

I didn't know there was an animated Harley series. Must be a recent one. Does it have Mark Hamill as Joker?

 

[jeff2]

Watch the trailer first

Or read the reviews.
The problem I have is the older I get, the more fiction challenged I become.

 

[NotADcotor]

Just came back from watching the new version of Mean Girls. I lasted 30 minutes, just enough time to finish the popcorn.

I enjoyed the original. The new one is a musical with zero edge, and unwatchable for me. Got sucked in by an ok trailer...

Holly Wally on a trolley.
I was thinking of seeing Wonka but the guy at the theater told me is was a musical. Never would have guessed. I guess same for Mean Girls, however the trailers for that film gave me no desire to watch it. It seemed the exact same movie but without the eye candy [except Tina Fey who seems to be heading towards Marisa Tomei enteral hottie territory.

 

[NotADcotor]

If there is nudity , its worth watching .

Shhh. Come over here, come over, I got something to tell you. Shhh,
The internet is filled with free porn, you can watch naked chicks... and they are doing all the freaky deaky shit.
You're Welcome.

 

[bazokajoe]

I enjoyed the movie Ferrari. But if you aren't a F1 fan or like the history of Ferrari you probably won't like it.
Adam Driver and Penelope Cruz were very good.
A little slow at first but got better as it went along.

 

[NotADcotor]

I usually avoid historical movies. I love history but they so often don't even bother to try to remotely follow history. Yeah yeah fiction and all that, but not when it gets to alien space bat territory or even more mundane alt history stuff. I can take a few liberties like say in the movie Glory, it was a good movie but basically accurate from what I understand but on the other end you got 300 with the Persion army having orcs and zombies. Now I love me them orcs, and I am down for a good zombie movie but not in this context.
If I don't know a period very well at all, I'd like to avoid filling my head with bullshit, if I do know the era well, it often just bothers me partly because I know many people don't know the era well and will get their information from the movie.

Also I get emotional during movies, oh man when that Leonardo Dicaprio died towards the end of that movie I was in tears, I couldn't finish watch Django Unchained.
--- Oddly enough, not Jimmy Carr for once, it was some cute chick whose name I don't know.

Also Bollywood. It is hard to tell if a Bwood movie is any good or not. I have a few go to actors that usually but not always are promising but the descriptions are often very bad and even off putting in a way I can't describe in words. Trailers don't help much. So I am almost going in blind. Word of mouth doesn't help much, one movie I saw, everyone was jerking off over themselves over it, people I know in Upper Canada and apparently people in India. Half an hour in, I took a shit and couldn't be bothered to go back in.
Oddly enough I've become VERY good and being able to tell if I will enjoy a Kdrama or not. Descriptions work well, I've also learned that a love story is fine, but if it's the central story line it will fade half way through before it picks up 3/4 in. Also as much as I would love to enjoy historical stuff, usually after 4 or 5 episodes max I usually give up, unless it's a time travel thing.

I hear they are going to remake the Jackie Robinson movie which I enjoyed, I like sports movies even though I don't like sports, also going to remake more Equalizer and Blade movies but with a new guy. Really looking forward to the new 42, Equalizer and Blade.

I am sure it will be <lisp> fabulous </lisp>


Actually Scott Thompson, I could watch him camp up almost anything as long as it doesn't take itself seriously. Him as say Patton, that's comedy.

Also Kate Micucci. I am OK if you cast her as anything. As Patton, As the Shark from Jaws, as the Cathedral from the Hunchback. Doesn't matter. Much like how prime time nudity is OK on TV according to the FCC as long as it's Alyson Hannigan.

 

[niks9009]

I usually avoid historical movies. I love history but they so often don't even bother to try to remotely follow history. Yeah yeah fiction and all that, but not when it gets to alien space bat territory or even more mundane alt history stuff. I can take a few liberties like say in the movie Glory, it was a good movie but basically accurate from what I understand but on the other end you got 300 with the Persion army having orcs and zombies. Now I love me them orcs, and I am down for a good zombie movie but not in this context.
If I don't know a period very well at all, I'd like to avoid filling my head with bullshit, if I do know the era well, it often just bothers me partly because I know many people don't know the era well and will get their information from the movie.

Also I get emotional during movies, oh man when that Leonardo Dicaprio died towards the end of that movie I was in tears, I couldn't finish watch Django Unchained.
--- Oddly enough, not Jimmy Carr for once, it was some cute chick whose name I don't know.

Also Bollywood. It is hard to tell if a Bwood movie is any good or not. I have a few go to actors that usually but not always are promising but the descriptions are often very bad and even off putting in a way I can't describe in words. Trailers don't help much. So I am almost going in blind. Word of mouth doesn't help much, one movie I saw, everyone was jerking off over themselves over it, people I know in Upper Canada and apparently people in India. Half an hour in, I took a shit and couldn't be bothered to go back in.
Oddly enough I've become VERY good and being able to tell if I will enjoy a Kdrama or not. Descriptions work well, I've also learned that a love story is fine, but if it's the central story line it will fade half way through before it picks up 3/4 in. Also as much as I would love to enjoy historical stuff, usually after 4 or 5 episodes max I usually give up, unless it's a time travel thing.

I hear they are going to remake the Jackie Robinson movie which I enjoyed, I like sports movies even though I don't like sports, also going to remake more Equalizer and Blade movies but with a new guy. Really looking forward to the new 42, Equalizer and Blade.

I am sure it will be <lisp> fabulous </lisp>


Actually Scott Thompson, I could watch him camp up almost anything as long as it doesn't take itself seriously. Him as say Patton, that's comedy.

Also Kate Micucci. I am OK if you cast her as anything. As Patton, As the Shark from Jaws, as the Cathedral from the Hunchback. Doesn't matter. Much like how prime time nudity is OK on TV according to the FCC as long as it's Alyson Hannigan.

Was that one movie everyone told you about RRR? lol

Name some Bwood movies you liked, and I can suggest others similar to it.