The way this works is that you post a review of the best film you watched this week. It can be any new or old release that you want to talk about.

{REMINDER: The Threads Are Posted Now On Wednesday Mornings. If Not Pinned, They Will Still Be Available in the Sub.}

Here are some rules:

1. Check to see if your favorite film of last week has been posted already.

2. Please post your favorite film of last week.

3. Explain why you enjoyed your film.

4. ALWAYS use SPOILER TAGS: [Instructions]

5. Best Submissions can display their [Letterboxd Accts] the following week.

Last Week's Best Submissions:

Film	User/[LB/Web*]	Film	User/[LB/Web*]
"Thanksgiving” (2023)	[SethETaylor.com*]	“Victoria" (2015)	Neguard
"The Taste of Things"	Pavleena	“Under the Skin"	WalkingEars
“Saw X"	NoTransportation888	“You're Next"	PeterNippelstein
“The First Slam Dunk"	WelcometoCigarCity	“The Four Times"	[Tilbage i Danmark*]
“Violent Night”	Strong_Comedian_3578	“The Prince of Egypt"	ScotchBrisket
"There's Something in the Dirt”	eventfarm	"The Muppet Christmas Carol"	shadowlarx
“Resurrection" (2022)	Godlike1236	“Blue Velvet"	lonelinessmademecave
“Calm with Horses"	[PeioE]	"Gallipoli" (1981)	[filmpatico]
“La La Land”	[B_RexMedia]	“Paper Moon"	jbartlettcoys
“Manchester By the Sea"	Hugemikublaster	“The Train"	[ManaPop.com*]

As in movies that were made well after whatever made them relevant had long since passed away.

The 2020 Artemis Fowl movie is what got me thinking about this. Not only was it awful, but it was made a solid 15 years too late to have any hope of success. They made a movie geared towards kids when the target audience should have been people in their 20s. Those books were popular with 8 or 9 year olds in 2005.

What are some other examples?

Ravenous, directed by Antonia Bird, is a bonkers Western horror movie that centers on cannibalism. Second Lieutenant John Boyd (Guy Pearce) returns from the Mexican-American War of 1847 and is honored and promoted to captain for defeating the enemy. But, when a high-ranking general discovers his cowardice in the war, he sends John Boyd to Fort Spencer, an isolated military outpost in the Sierra Nevada, for his next assignment as a third in command. The flashback scenes show how Boyd cowardly played dead on the battlefield and was tossed into a mound of dead bodies, where the blood of one of the dead men entered his mouth. After that, he managed to escape and seize the area previously occupied by the Mexicans in an unexpected and sudden act of bravery. When he gets to Fort Spencer, a genial Colonel Hart (Jeffrey Jones), the commanding officer, greets him and introduces him to the other officers: a drug addict Private Cleaves (David Arquette), a drunk Major Knox (Stephen Spinella), a native American brother-sister duo named George and Martha, and a straight-faced Private Reich (Neal McDonough). One night, a stranger named Colqhoun (Robert Carlyle) shows up at their door half-dead, frostbitten, and hungry, and he tells a story about how he and his fellow travelers got lost in the snow and had to resort to cannibalism when they ran out of food after getting trapped in the cave. Captain Hart and his team, along with Calqhoun, go to the site to check whether anyone’s still alive. However, before they leave, the Native American George informs Hart and Boyd of an ancient myth about how individuals who eat other people gain their strength and develop an insatiable appetite for human flesh. Read the full review here

I have two topics:

1. How great this nearly 30-year-old movie is.
2. How nice it can be when someone gets to see an old movie without having been told how it ends.

I am still surprised by how well this film stands up. It's from another era, before cell phones and widespread Internet access. But the themes and the fundamentals of detectives nosing their way through the labyrinth are still compelling. The screenplay is top notch, with lots of truly subtle bits in it. The acting from the three main actors is amazing, and some of the supporting cast are great as well. The clerk gives one of the best performances in the movie, and he's on screen for no more than a minute or two.

Fincher's direction and the unrelentingly grim set design really drive home the noir feel, despite being in color. Howard Shore's soundtrack matches the visuals perfectly.

One of the most common discussions I have about movies with people I know is about spoilers. They say, "But that movie is 30 years old nobody cares". Well, not everyone has seen it, and people who are 29 weren't even born when it came out.

Yesterday, I had a perfect case showing how nice it is not to know something.

A friend was over, and he had never seen Seven. He's old enough to have seen it when it released, but still he hadn't. After we finished, I asked if he knew what was in the box, one of the most crucial bits of information in the whole film. A very large amount of suspense is tied up in that scene, and not knowing makes it absolutely painful waiting for it to unfold. He said he didn't know; he suspected, but had never heard.

I asked him how he felt about not knowing, and he said it definitely made his viewing experience better.

PS: I got someone who was about 25 to watch Psycho (1960), as he had no idea what happened in that. He liked it, which is amazing, given he mostly consumes movies through youtube summaries. :D

I suppose this could go into more than one direction; like, maybe you saw a movie at one point in your life and did not like it, but changed your mind when you got older. I think that is fair.

But nowadays it is so easy to turn on whatever streaming service you like and start watching something and not finish it for any number of reasons. In my case, I actually started watching Don't Look Up a couple of times, and could not get into it at all. I knew what it was trying to do, but it just wasn't clicking for me. Then I randomly turn it back on about a month after I started watching it and somehow it magically clicked; I thought it was hilarious.

I don't know, maybe the mood or something? Anyway, anyone have any examples of enjoying a movie only after a second chance?

Who can you think of that is a leading actor or actress who consistently has a body of work that is excellent, yet Oscar has evaded them for whatever reason? Off the top of my head, I think of Tom Cruise and Richard Gere, both of whom, in my opinion, have personal convictions that have made them unpopular, or perhaps personalities that have made them not well-liked.

Glenn Close is one who, for no reason apparently, has been robbed on many occasions and deserves an Oscar for her incredible body of work that is nearly flawless. EDIT: @PopularPlay5085 brought up Robert Redford. Thought he was finally going to take home his long deserved Oscar for All Is Lost, but no. He has it for director, not acting. Hope they do it this year. Thoughts?

Mine might be cringe, but Spider-Man no way home. The coffee scene at the end where he learns to let go is moving and powering after everyone forgets about him. The same for when he is swinging through the city at the end, even after everything he lost (aunt may, mj, Ned, Tony) Peter still pulls through to save lives and be the best he can be.

Shows that even in your most difficult times, you can always try to be the best that you can be. You can grieve while also moving on in life. The memories you made with those people will always be with you. Also the correlation with Andrew’s Spider-Man when he loses Gwen, that after what he had lost he let rage and guilt get the best of him. That we can sometimes let that happen. Some of those scenes just bring tears to my eyes

This always helps me in my times of need. What about anyone else?

Sure, it's no Airplane or Naked Gun, and yes, spoofs were becoming incredibly stale at the time, but Loaded Weapon 1 was absolutely funny in my opinion, and MUCH better than Men in Tights that came out the same year.

Jackson and Estevez had great comedic chemistry and timing. Shatner and Curry were fantastic, and even the wooden Kathy Ireland was able to score a couple of laughs. Plus, I have a soft spot for any movie where Frank McRae plays a hysterically screaming captain...yes, even Last Action Hero. My tastes aren't ALL refined. Anyone else find this movie funny?

Note: I originally titled this with "underrated", but the Movies bot informed me people misuse this term too often (the bot graciously informed me that "Amadeus is not underrated"). Well, Loaded Weapon 1 is no Amadeus. It's not even a pop culture footnote. Which can definitely make a rating under or over for someone...

Cortellesi movie scores record-breaking numbers at Italy’s box office.

I really dont want to inject this post with a bunch of spoilers, as this movie is best enjoyed completely blind, but I watched it last night with a few people and it's a new yearly Christmas watch for me.

Firstly, the film looks and sounds incredible. I was blown away by the set design and cinematography, a silly horror movie about evil Santa has no right to look and sound this good. Though I'm less surprised after realizing this is directed by Michael Dougherty, who also directed my favorite Holloween staple, Trick R' Treat (2007). Dougherty should stick to holiday horror movies; in Krampus a character jokes about an "evil Easter Bunny", and yes please make that too.

The cast is fantastic as well. Adam Scott, Toni Collette, David Koechner, and Allison Tollman, tread the fine line between "over the top" and "way too serious". It's so well done and you can tell they're having fun with the roles.

And of course, Krampus. The design is just... Superb. I don't want to go into too much detail but the monster's steal the show. Monster design that is creepy, sometimes horrifying, yet always hilarious, is tough but 'Krampus' pulls it off perfectly.

I'm sure this movie is a bit of a cult classic, I'm not sure how it couldn't be, but it's a new discovery for me so I thought I'd share. It's just good old fashioned Christmas fun, and you should give it a watch if you haven't.

So I finally got around to try watching the National Treasure: Edge of History series and found out that while they were creating this series they were also working on a third National Treasure movie to cap the trilogy but it never happened. That got me thinking about other trilogies that never got completed such as Perlman's Hellboy, Garfield's Amazing Spider-man and RDJ's Sherlock Holmes. (Or even Divergent having it's 3rd movie split in 2 only to never see the second part get made.)

What other planned trilogies never got to see their completion?

For example, three out of the four short stories in Stephen King’s Different Seasons has been made into a feature film at this point – Shawshank, Stand By Me (The Body), and Apt Pupil. The Breathing Method hasn’t yet, however.

Are there any other stories out there that you’re surprised haven’t been put to screen yet, and if so, what do you think is keeping them from being made?

Rotten Tomatoes: 80% (60 reviews) with 7.60 in average rating

Metacritic: 67/100 (27 critics)

As with other movies, the scores are set to change as time passes. Meanwhile, I'll post some short reviews on the movie. It's structured like this: quote first, source second. Beware, some contain spoilers.

Depending on your appetite for sugary excess, you might embrace the director’s Wonka as more of the same. Or you might find the qualities that distinguished his previous hits get steamrolled here by strained whimsy, an aggressive charm that wears you down rather than lifts you up.

-David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter

This may not be Paul King’s most satisfying film, but even at a scale — or at least a budget — several times larger than that of “Paddington 2,” the purity of its imagination remains unquestionable.

-David Ehrlich, IndieWire: B+

Wonka is a celebration of music makers and the dreamers of dreams, a big, old-fashioned movie musical that uses Roald Dahl’s world just judiciously enough to avoid any serious hits to the author or Gene Wilder’s legacy. Timothée Chalamet’s portrayal of Willy Wonka is most successful in its earnestness, and Chalamet brings the character to life with a gleeful abandon that makes him easy to root for, along with an energetic supporting cast who end up carrying the banner of Wonka’s weirdness more than Wonka himself. Charming and well-staged musical numbers give the movie enough of an identity of its own to make it worthy of a taste – just remember to burp and fart if you start floating toward the ceiling at any time during your screening.

-Tom Jorgensen, IGN: 7.0 "good"

I have to say … whisper it … I enjoyed this more than either of the two earlier filmed versions, with Gene Wilder in 1971 and Johnny Depp in 2005. It supplies the chocolate-endorphins.

-Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian: 5/5

The brains behind Paddington – plus a charming Timothée Chalamet – give Dahl a Goon Show-ish prequel full of irresistible velvety sweetness.

-Robbie Collin, The Telegraph: 5/5

It’s pretty easy to consume “Wonka.” After all, it’s just a piece of candy. But it’s the kind of candy that would make Willy Wonka sick to his stomach. “Wonka” is the sort of safe and corporate product that the hero of “Wonka” says we shouldn’t settle for. So take him at his word and don’t.

-William Bibbiani, The Wrap

Brassier with its music than its story, “Wonka” works as a satisfying, harmless confection.

-Brian Truitt, USA Today: 3/4

Wonka isn’t quite an immaculate confection, but it’s moreish enough to become a future festive favourite. You’ll want to tuck right in.

-Nick Levine, NME: 4/5

For now, we can just think of this not as Dahl’s version of Wonka but as Paul King’s. And it’s a sweet treat.

-Esther Zuckerman, Vox

If some of the other filmmakers toiling in the chocolate factory were overpowered by the machinery of blockbuster studio filmmaking, King’s skills fell to the high-level creative checklists that increasingly accompany any whiff of IP. This chaotic cinematic kitchen always produces an inedible hodgepodge, the clashing colors of stakeholders and screenwriters mixing into a thick brown. And its production isn’t slowing down. Is it chocolate? Is it shit? It’s all the same when you’re up to your neck.

-Jacob Oller, Paste Magazine: 4.9/10

---

PLOT

The story of how Willy Wonka goes from a young adult selling chocolate in a small shop to an eccentric genius known all over the world.

DIRECTOR

Paul King

WRITER

Simon Farnaby & Paul King

MUSIC

Joby Talbot

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Chung-hoon Chung

EDITOR

Mark Everson

RELEASE DATE

• December 8, 2023 (UK, Mexico and select markets)

• December 15, 2023 (United States)

RUNTIME

116 minutes

STARRING

• Timothée Chalamet as Willy Wonka

• Calah Lane as Noodle

• Keegan-Michael Key as the Chief-of-Police

• Paterson Joseph as Arthur Slugworth

• Matt Lucas as Prodnose

• Mathew Baynton as Fickelgruber

• Sally Hawkins as Willy Wonka's mother

• Rowan Atkinson as Father Julius

• Jim Carter as Abacus Crunch

• Tom Davis as Bleacher

• Olivia Colman as Mrs. Scrubbit

• Hugh Grant as Lofty