I found myself in the open ocean, sailing by the light of the stars, and I realized that I can't think of a single movie off the top of my head from the last several years that stood out as memorable or good, and I think I only watched maybe a handful that even seemed interesting. I'm curious if there are any lesser known gems that I might have missed.
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Godzilla minus one was pretty good.
Literally the first one off the top of my head, I scroll down to the comments and it is the first comment I see.
Top Gun Maverick was alright especially if you liked the original.
It was literally the most predictable action movie I have ever seen, as I was watching it with my brother I could predict everything that was going to happen 10-30 seconds prior to it happening. It's not just that it was too tropey it's the fact that the story is almost identical to the original and they simply rehashed many of the scenes.
You don't watch Top Gun for the plot.
You watch if for the manly volleyball scenes!
Literally what about all the action scenes that were ripped off from the OG? Did you just conveniently forget that?
Who cares? I got to see more of what I wanted from the old movie? Top Gun is almost 30 years old, it's ok to toss in some member berries.
Get this guy a Certificate of Media Literacy.
10-30 seconds? You mean when they said the enemy "had some old F-14s" you didn't know what was going to happen in the third act?
It was still fun, but definitely brain-off fun.
I saw Godzilla minus 1 and Dune 2. The last movie I saw in theatres prior to dune 2 was infinity wars final. Movies are dead.
I skipped the Dune movies because Resting Bitch Face was in them.
The lore changes in Villeneuve's Dune movies are catastrophic, and do irreparable damage to the characters, peoples, and all future storylines. I watched Dune part 1, and mostly enjoyed it, as the lore changes are relatively minor in PT 1, until I realized I was watching Hollywood subversion, because they made all the bad guys White, or even Albino White, and made all the good guys non-white. I refused to watch part 2, and everything I've heard about it has been horrible.
If you want a faithful Dune adaptation, the closest is the SciFi miniseries.
No. They're absolutely not. Not including the spacing guild breaks the stories very foundation. The other changes are also not minor. They may be not as egregious as making Chani a stereotypical girlboss cunt but they also break innumerable aspects of the story.
Absolutely. But even Dune 1984 (especially the fan cut) is miles better than Villeneuve's rape of the Dune source material.
What were the big lore breaking changes in part 1? It's not that I don't believe you, but I don't remember there being lore or character shattering changes in part 1 (relatively speaking), other than the insertion of diversity propaganda, which I mentioned in the above comment. They also changed Liet Kynes to a black woman, when that character was supposed to be a stand in for the author, a White guy. Leaving out the spacing guild in part 1 is fine, as I don't recall them making an appearance in the first book until the latter half, which I attribute as another lore breaking of the part 2 movie.
Not including the spacing guild was the biggest story breaking change. By far. It fucks up literally the entire plot as spice is now basically just irrelevant space cocaine and Paul is incapable of forcing the emperor to abdicate. They could've fixed that in the second movie but they didn't.
Changing Liet Kynes to a black woman and her not even being the mother of Chani is actually quite a significant change.
Then we had lasguns being used indiscriminately although that's not a lore change but just a massive fuckup on Villeneuves part.
They pretty much completely fucked up Pitr de Vries not only by making him a irrelevant side character but also by sending him to Salusa Secunda which doesn't make any sense as that planet is supposed to be the Emperors big secret but for some reason he gives the mentat of the Baron access to it.
Then there's a lot of other fuck ups and details they simply didn't bother to include or important characters that got far too little screen time. But honestly it's been quite a while since I've seen the movie so I can't remember everything anymore.
But Dune 2 is indeed significantly worse as that movie made the entire series completely unsalvageable.
Dune is a story that lives from its world building, the small details, political intrigues and that Villeneuve fucked up entirely. In both movies. Not just the story aspects but visually as well and I will fucking fight anyone over that statement. Dunc has one of the most boring, uninspired, shitty ass generic brutalist sci-fi visual designs I've ever seen. A ten millenia old feudal society and everything is grey and everyone dresses like they live in some communist hellhole? Fuck that french cunt.
Yes, I hate Dunc with passion.
I absolutely agree, but that's a problem for the second movie.
Agreed. It's not explicitly mentioned in the book, but it seems obvious that Paul and Chani bonded, in part, because both of their fathers were murdered by the Harkonnen and the Emperor.
I consider this a relatively minor change, as the first movie portrays it, the scene shows the harsh conditions of the planet, introduces the strength of the Sardaukar, and moves the plot along between the Baron and the Emperor. But you're right, that this scene isn't explicitly in the book. But, it's not lore shattering, as Piter is killed by the poisoned tooth by the Duke shortly after the Harkonnen retake Arrakis.
That's definitely a criticism I have of the Villeneuve movies, too. If you add together the total runtime of parts 1 and 2, and compare it to the total runtime of the SciFi miniseries, they're almost identical, but the SciFi miniseries included almost all the content from the books, and Villeneuve's movies left a ton out, which destroyed the lore and story. It was purely to stroke Villeneuve's ego, too, as he loves his long establishing shots.
This has been my argument. While Dune part 1 could've at least been salvageable by a much better implementation of part 2, the part 2 we did get was lore shattering. I'll post another comment I made below:
This movie is absolute subversive garbage to the author and his works. Every single time film makers "adapt" a work and think they know better than the author, they ruin it.
Chani was one of Paul's most ardent supporters. Paul and Chani's love is integral to all of the following Dune books, through their children. Herbert explicitly stated, multiple times, that the Fremen are extremely zealous and pragmatic, such that if any of them suspected Paul was using them for his own ends, they'd end him on the spot, take his water, and sleep well that night. For Chani, of all the characters, to be the one that doubts Paul, is subversion and ruination of the character, the Fremen, their ethos, the story of the first book, and all subsequent books. It's a spit in the face of Frank Herbert.
And for what? To insert the overt messaging of subsequent books, in the first book? For "empowering" female characters that were already empowered in the books? This directly contradicts the plan Frank Herbert laid out and what he wrote. Villeneuve tried to claim Herbert was unhappy with how his fans received the first book, not realizing his warning against blindly following leaders, which is false. Herbert laid out the plans for the first few books before the first was even published. He intended for the first book to mostly be a classic hero's journey, for the reader to be duped just as much as the Fremen, because Paul was entirely justified in his actions. The warnings against hero worship in the first book were extremely minor, and told from a post hoc perspective. To try to lay all blame on Paul, before he's done anything wrong, is attempting to moralize pre-crime, which other scifi rightfully points out to be repugnant.
And, through Paul's last words in the ending scene of the movie (part 2), it attempts to lay all blame for the galactic war at his feet, when the book directly contradicts that assertion. Paul, for a long time, had seen multiple paths forward, all leading to that galactic war, even if he died. He only manipulated events so that he, his mother and sister, and Chani could live, so they could have children, and a have semblance of happiness, and so he could gain revenge against the people who murdered his father and people. The Fremen were going to wage their holy war regardless of what happened. And on top of this, the movie tries to moralize to the audience that the Fremen are blameless, that they were entirely manipulated by Paul, trying to assuage all guilt they hold for their own enaction of that galactic war. This removal of guilt from the Fremen is even more subversive because Villeneuve, the producers, and casting directors hired exclusively non-white actors to play the Fremen (who weren't described as such in the books), which plays into the current political climate that non-whites are oppressed by evil Whitey (all the bad guys in the movies are White or Albino White) and blameless for all of their actions. Herbert was a nuanced author, and he never laid full blame on that galactic war at the feet of Paul. In fact, multiple times, Herbert said the galactic was was inevitable. Herbert let the reader think things through for themselves, to let the words and works speak for themselves.
I can't believe any Dune fan could forgive this garbage, much less enjoy it, simply because it has a shiny veneer.
Even worse. The miniseries is almost an entire hour shorter.
They made all the good guys black for a reason.
Godzilla Minus One (but that's Japanese)
The Passenger (2023) (absolutely loved this movie)
Mars Express (2023) (this was surprisingly far better than it had any right to be)
The Roundup (2022) (the entire series of The Roundup is excellent and worth a watch)
Project Wolf Hunting (2022) (ultra gory and violent, but the premise is wild and cool. Basically a mutant Frankenstein Terminator vs psycho murderous criminals vs hardened violent cops)
Corner Office (2022) (this is one of those weird, ironic, dystopian comedies. I love movies like this -- kind of like a cross between Primer + Office Space + Brazil, but your mileage may vary)
Hunt (2022) (superb espionage thriller with tons of twists and turns)
The Killer (2022) (hard-boiled, masculine, no-nonsense action-thriller)
The Pig, The Snake, And The Pigeon (2023) (this one is a trip; no spoilers here; easy 9/10 film. One of the best films I've seen in the last decade. )
One more for Mars Express, was excellent.
none of them sound familiar, small budget/indie?
Corner Office and The Passenger are indie/small budget, but The Passenger doesn't really feel small budget -- it definitely has this kind of horror, unpredictable vibe to it where you're not really sure what's going to happen next. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. I would liken it to movies like the first Rampage (from Uwe Boll, which is actually a really good movie), Weapons (with Paul Dano) or a bit of Hell or High Water.
As for the rest? Definitely not low budget, but I suppose if you're in the U.S., then they would be considered foreign.
Mars Express is French, but it's a really cool film, definitely not low budget. Sci-fi detective film with some twists you will never see coming.
Hunt is pretty big budget but is South Korean, along with The Killer, and The Roundup Series.
Can't remember which country Project Wolf Hunting was from, either South Korea or Indonesia, definitely doesn't feel low budget but then again they know how to stretch a dollar in their films.
I think The Pig, The Snake, and The Pigeon is an indie film? The director usually makes low-budget but very good movies out of southeast Asia. But it doesn't feel like it's low-budget at all, because there's quite a bit of travelling involved. It feels big and expansive; it's a very contemplative film despite some extreme violence. Easily the one that kind of took me by surprise the most out of the list (that and Mars Express).
Didn't see it but Deadpool & Wolverine was considered good, I'm just not in to superheroes anymore.
it was good for what it was, felt very true to the character, but i don't blame you if you're burnt on out superhero flicks.
Nah it was real bad imo
Nostalgia bait crap with none of the humour the first one had. I chuckled once. I'm burnt out on cape shit, marvel humour, 4th wall breaking 'we know its bad that's the joke, wink' humour, multiple universes/timetravel, 'r-rated aren't we so edgy' humour, crossovers... and it was all of that.
But I could forgive all of that if it were funny. It wasn't.
+1. All the humor is "I can't believe a blockbuster Hollywood movie is allowing this!", but I have no problem believing it. I've seen it dozens of times now. So the jokes just don't have punchlines for me.
The northman was half decent but just barely
Just stick to old movies, all the nes ones are goyslop-tier
Nobody is a decent movie. Only big point that gets me is that the main character's "brother" is an adopted black kid, but it's implied that he's the orphan of the dad's service buddy.
Honestly I got such a kick out of that film. It both satiates and spurs masculine combat energy.
I think the strongest feature of that movie was its ability to simultaneously have solid storytelling without trying to be clever. I also found it quite funny at times.
The Super Mario Bros movie was really good to even amazing, depending on how you rate Bowser's original song "Peaches."
Dune and Dune 2 were solid movies. Fell short of generational impact imo, but a lot of great points to both of them.
I'll add my recommendation of Godzilla Minus One.
John Wick Chapter 4 was a pretty good movie in my eyes. At least someone here hates it, but I thought it had a lot to give.
TV wise, The Terminal List was a really good action series. Not without its flaws of course.
House of the Dragon in season 1 was a fantastically crafted story. I would go so far as to say it's better than peak Game of Thrones in some aspects. Again, not without its flaws. If you want a thrill ride it's not going to deliver. The writing staff are feminist without a doubt, but not so ideological that they can't portray both perspectives fairly.
Season 2 had a lot of great stuff as well, but the pacing was horrible in the second half.
Another vote for Top Gun: Maverick.
The Sonic the Hedgehog movies (3 of them now) are actually pretty good in terms of inoffensive kid's action movies. Sonic's speed on the big screen is cool to watch. The third one with Shadow moved like molasses in the climax, but it was OK. The human couple is another racial propaganda effort with the whitest white guy paired with the blackest black girl you've ever seen, which is going to stop a lot of people here from watching, but their actual relationship is fine.
Sonic is one of those (largely) apolitical kid's franchises that were common in the 2000s and before. To me it's a breath of fresh air.
This thread has made me realize I haven't watched a contemporary movie in the last 3 years.
It shows me the last time I went to a movie theater was for Joker.
Everything Everywhere All at Once is probably my favorite over the past few years. It's depressing to see the state of not only movies/shows but gaming.
I liked Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.
I'll add "The Boy and the Heron" to the list of good movies, if you don't mind animated stuff. Speaking of which, I've heard a lot of good things about Flow but haven't watched that one myself.
I do like animation, but I do not like that kind of animation. I heard it was really good though.
Solo Levelling the film was pretty awesome. The latest Godzilla films were okay. I liked and wanted the Horizon western flick to do good but it bombed and now we are still stuck with the same stupid superhero films over and over again.
Here are all movies I saw in theaters the last few years. They all merited at least a 5/10. The problem is that they were all enjoyable....but I don't think a single one was "memorable":
Dune Pt2
Late Night With the Devil
Nosferatu
Longlegs
The Pope's Exorcist
The Last Voyage of Demeter
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
Dishonorable Mention:
John Wick Chapter 4. I fucking loathe that movie.
Late Night with the Devil was good.
ctrl + f top gun. Okay, someone mentioned Maverick. That was a good one.
ctrl + f Godzilla. Okay, minus one has also been suggested. Also pretty good.
ctrl +f The Killer. Okay, good. Excellent choice and great taste in movies.
That's pretty much it. I've been stuck in overwork mode so I haven't been able to do much movie watching.
And while I haven't seen it yet, Sonic 3 is getting good reviews on this very page, so it has to be at least somewhat good. I'll probably catch that on the weekend.
Super Mario Bros Sonic series Cuphead TV show was good until last season.
Elvis movie was pretty good but I’m biased since I’m an Elvis super fan and love his music
Suzume - But I'm probably biased, because I'm an absolute sucker for (the newer) Makoto Shinkai movies. It's an anime though.
A Haunting in Venice - The third of those new Poirot movies by Kenneth Branagh. This one is considered to be a lot better than the others. I personally enjoyed all three.
Fall Guy - Really fun action movie. Has nothing to do with the 80's show that it's borrowing characters from. The woman can be a bit annoying at times though.
Heretic - Hugh Grand gives an excellent performance as a crazy psycho, tormenting two mormon girls.
Nosferatu - Everybody's gushing about that one and deservedly so. If you like gothic horror, would recommend.
If you are willing to watch foreign movies you can try the Korean Emergency Declaration
Eh, Emergency Declaration was okay...
Nothing particularly special about it. It was at least paced decently, and showed how Korean men are always willing to sacrifice for the greater good at their own detriment.
Deadpool 3 was good at what it tried to accomplish.
If you have kids The Wild Robot was good.
"As a mother of 6-"
child screams
"5 kids"
"and I think I only watched maybe a handful that even seemed interesting."
So how much are you actually trying?
Yeah, like the others were saying, Godzilla Minus One is a/the obvious first choice for 2022-2024.
I dont watch much but i liked scifi Vesper, its rated poorly but I disagree. Also liked scifi Prospect, also undeservedly rated low.
There is The Gorge. Has a girl sniper in it, but its more like an anime in that regard. The woke characters are only on screen for a couple minutes and don't detract from the story which was a well designed plot twist.
Nah all movies suck now. not enough time to character develop, story build and so on. often it's ADHD porn trying to jam too much into an hour or 2. TV shows are better, anime is better. 4+ hours each season. which is enough time to build immersion with the characters and story.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was a 10/10 movie.
YouTube ran a lot of ads for horror movies that looked interesting. Can't remove most of the titles offhand though.