memes @lemmy.world

2w ago

What was the last original movie you saw and how did you watch it?

155 comments

I used to say "if you're gonna remake a movie, you should remake a bad movie but do it better."
Then they remade The Crow. "Dude I said do it better. 🤦‍♂️"
- You said "remake a bad movie."
- Every iteration of me from 1994 to now is coming to your home to kick your ass right up and out past your teeth for calling the OG Crow a bad movie.
  Yes, most of us will be in face paint. Some of us may have black trench coats on. There may even be some hammer pants, but we won't talk about that.
- Remakes that are better than the original:
  The Thing
  The Fly
  The Blob
  Invasion of the Body Snatchers
  Cat People
  Hmm. I'm noticing a trend here.
- Seriously, there's nothing inherently wrong with remakes but why do it if you're not trying to make it BETTER? Or at least substantially different? Do a different take on the material, don't just swap the CG animated boy for a real life actor while leaving everything including the CG animated dragon as it was, for fuck's sake.

The Wild Robot in theaters. Not a sequel or a remake. It is based off of a novel though.
2024 was apparently the first year where all the top-10 highest grossing movies were sequels. List doesn't include Moana 2 and Gladiator 2 which are expected to make a lot of money as well.
- Wild Robot really surprised me.. Score was fantastic and some scenes had me bawling
  
  We took our toddler to see it and both my partner and I had multiple episodes of weeping. Lovely film.
- Also, for those interested in more mature movies: Juror #2. I had good expectations and was not disappointed. At least, not by the movie. There were only a handful of people in an already small cinema room, only a week after release. Meanwhile, Gladiator II is drawing a lot of public.
  While I love shitting on CEOs and business people as much as the next left-oriented person, this trend in the movie industry is very much, at least partially, at fault due to many of the consumers.
  
  Juror #2
  Thought provoking in that everyone who wants to convict is "because he's a piece of shit, whether or not it is unlikely he did it". How do you tell people they are pieces of shit themselves, without them reactively thinking you are? Is the big thought experiment this film provokes.

Y2K. It was better than I expected!
Also, I remember walking out of Everything Everywhere All At Once and being angry because it probably wouldn’t do well in theaters or win any awards, despite being one of the best original movies I had ever seen.
I was happy to be wrong on that one.
- Another also, I absolute hate that the video game industry is jumping on this trend. Sometimes it’s nice to play games I missed out on as a kid but it’s getting so bad now, they remaster games from a couple years ago. Enough is enough.
  
  Last solid remaster is probably Age of Mythologies Retold.
  Most remasters by now are just junkware though.

I'm not against sequels/prequels, just need some more than "it's the sequel to that one you liked".
OK, but why does it need a sequel? Can you make me interested in it aside from the fact it's a sequel? Is it any good....?
Not a movie or fully original, but I watched Arcane and I loved it. It was good without knowing about the game, and those who know the game say it's better if you do. That's what a sequel/remake/adaptation should strive for.

It's to the point right now that a young person 20 years of age could spend a decade just watching all the old classics from the past 80 years to enjoy great films. If they stopped making movies tomorrow, there's more than enough content now for people to watch.
My wife wants to keep watching the latest stuff but if it were up to me, I'd just take the time to watch at least all of the AFI top 100 films.... last I checked I think I've only seen about 30 of them and I thought I watched a lot of films. My last rough count of watched films that I could list was over 1,500 films. And I still have a waiting list of hundreds more I want to see.
I'm a Trek fan and I thought I watched lots but I've only seen about half of all the TV series and most of the films.
That's also not counting all the other TV series I'd like to see from the past ... MASH, All In The Family, Adam's Family, The original Batman series, The Munsters, X Files, Walking Dead, Arrested Development, Battlestar Galactica, Twilight Zone, The Office ...... and on and on
If my spouse wasn't so stuck in watching the latest stuff I'd probably be happy just spending my time catching up on everything I wasn't able to see for the past 30-40 years.
- I agree. Its the same with literature as well. One thing I enjoy about older media is not feeling so drawn to reflect on any social commentary of my own time. To me it makes it more immersive and more about the timeless aspects of the story.
- I'm exactly that young person. I won't be even able to consume every work of art I'm interested in. That's both sad and amazing.
  
  I'm not a young person and I'm in the same boat

People want original without taking the risk of watching an unknown movie that might be bad
- I just can’t afford $30 for a ticket
- So they take the risk of watching a movie that is somehow familiar to them ahead of watching it, and that might also be bad.
- Good thing the critic was invented, my tip is to follow one and getting familiar with them, not looking at aggregate scores, because even if they dislike a movie, you'll know if you would like it since you are familiar with their tastes.

The Banshees of Inisherin
i watched it in a theater, because i've heard the movie was good. Didn't read up much on it beforehand and enjoyed watching it, albeit not fully getting it i guess.
It felt worth going to a theater for. Contrary to the last 3 or so Marvel movies i've seen in theater because friends dragged me and i ended up falling asleep every time.

Movies and shows that I have watched this year in no particular order and not all released this year:
The Beekeeper
Iron Claw
Say Nothing
Altered States
The Substance
Oppenheimer
Peaky Blinders (rewatch)
Kneecap
In The Name of the Father
The Batman
Lord of the Rings (rewatch)
The Departed (rewatch)
Deep Space Nine (haven't finished)
The Devil's Own
Sicario
Additionally, my wife has recently started watching Gossip Girl but I only catch glimpses of that show. Did anybody actually like that show when it came out?
- Additionally, my wife has recently started watching Gossip Girl but I only catch glimpses of that show. Did anybody actually like that show when it came out?
  If you think of teenage girls as people, tons of people liked it when it came out. They also liked the books.
- You should check "The Penguin". Somehow better than The Batman.

The reason I believe sequels are doing good is:
movie theaters have been perverted into massive and expensive hype fests
in strong opposition, past movie theaters were not expensive to go to and got you entertained in a social setting
due to the rise of large chains, small and cheaper theaters have died out.
assumption: the price to rent a movie for your theater will probably be horrendous by now
sequels have kind of a known quality which lowers the hurdle
that means new movies could be watched in smaller theaters and would have to be sustainable for those
- There used to be dozens of theaters in a city, each one with a different set of contracts playing a different set of movies. Nowadays there are hundreds of movies in a city, all of them with the same set of contracts playing the same 5 movies.
  Yes, everything is too expensive, what means nobody can afford to take a risk. Not the public, not the theaters, not the studios. (You can see people on this thread commenting that they won't.)
  There are what? 3 movie studios nowadays? Or are those 2? Either way, you can't expect diversity from that.

~~Millions~~ Hundreds of beavers.
On a projector at home.
A silent film. From 2022.
Bizarre. Stupid. Funny. Silly. Stupid. Cute. Bizarre. And stupid.
★★★★
- Hundreds of Beavers? Can confirm. It's a masterpiece.
  imdb
  
  That's the one.

I stopped watching almost all franchise and remakes. Horror seems be the only genre worth watching. I had the highest hopes for the creator so much wasted potential.
- Horror has been exceedingly formulaic for long while, which cabin in the woods masterfully satirized by flopping, but there have been many innovations recently. Love that practical effects have made a comeback.
  
  Yeah I really liked the substance. There were a few issues but enjoyed the overall message they were trying to tell. Most A24 movies have been solid.
- I watched every Terrifier film in the span of a week and it was a roller coaster. Art is amazing.
  
  I enjoyed those too for what they are but the second one feels sooo looooong

Poor marketing and limited theater releases is why and studios can blame themselves.
- The huge improvements in TV screens have a lot to do with it too, I think.
  When we only had CRT screens at home it was a big jump in quality to go to the theater. But when you have a 4K screen in your living room, there's less reason to go to the theater.
  
  It's not just that they were CRTs.
  You can get an excellent picture from the CRT computer monitors of the '90s and '00s, with high resolution (up to 2048×1536—better than 1080p!) and color rendering that's arguably better than modern LCDs.
  CRT TVs had low resolution, and NTSC/PAL has pretty bad color fidelity as well, but one of those high-definition CRTs connected to an RGB component video input (VGA or SCART) carrying high-definition content (DVD or Blu-Ray) is another story entirely.

Bullshit. The box office speaks for itself. Maybe YOU want to see new movies. Regular people want the newest superhero shit movie and remakes
- Check the meme again

How original we talking?
I have seen The Substance (good) in theaters and I saw the TV glow (hated it). I also watched Megalopolis (weird) in theaters and if we want something really original I even last year watched the Onyx the Fortuitous movie in theaters (enjoyed the heck out of it)
I will likely watch Nosferatu in theaters and any smaller movie that puts the effort in and deserves my money.
But I am not paying for the movies that they make just to make money. I don't reward that kind of bad behavior and that afront to art and story telling.

The price of movies is too damn high to go out and watch them. My system at home is far more comfortable and costs barely anything.

Just get Nick Cage to be in your movie, that seems to be the secret ingredient
- This checks out. I think the most recent "original" movie I watched was The Color Out of Space. Not in theater though.

There was a theory somewhere that this is about power play. If you produce Spiderman 245, power shifts away from the director and towards the production company. Less artistic freedom, more money management. If you let the director create their own movie, they are mostly in charge of how things go, movies become more artistic and less focused on money (alone).
I have nothing to confirm this and don't remember the source I have that from except "the internet"
- Your comment is compatible with my ideology. It is therefore true.

Hundreds of Beavers.
And I watched it by just sort of holding my eyes open while the video file played on my computer screen.

Does Barbenheimer count?

The Substance was a wild ride
- I enjoyed it. Very Cronenberg-esque.

What makes money is recognition.
Sequels are one way to do that. Another is a big name actor. Another is a big name director. What was the last thing you watched that fulfilled none of those?
Mine is probably Oddity, and I watched it on Jellyfin. It's honestly tricky to find things like that that aren't £2 DVD bargain bin trash from the depths of Netflix.

In theaters: Heretic, and before that The Substance
Recently at home:
Saturday Night
Man on the Moon
I saw the TV Glow
Edit: for line breaks

Edge of Tomorrow. It was fun. Drag didn't give any money to Tom Cruise, though.
- Edge of tomorrow is awesome. When he gets squished rolling under the truck and Bill Paxton asks "What were you thinking numbnuts?"
- Yeah, I really enjoyed the central conceit of that movie, which is that it is really fun to watch Tom Cruise die over and over again.

Wild Robot - Piracy
Hundreds of Beavers - Piracy
Chocolate - Tubi
Don’t remember the last sequel I watched but movies are too long to watch in one sitting
- Wild Robot - movie theater
  It only cost us about $42 for two tickets, a popcorn, and a soda. The movie was truly wonderful and I don't regret going, but it was our only visit to the theater in 2024 for a reason.
- Chocolate, the kung fu movie about the girl with Taskmaster's ability?
  That's a fun one, haven't seen it in probably 15 years. I should do a rewatch.
  
  Yes that one
  I found the ending disappointing but my Thai friend said that’s what Thai movies do

The last one I saw, by release date, was Late Night with the Devil, and I pirated it. I'm glad I pirated it, because I didn't know it had AI slop in it. If I did, I wouldn't have watched it. It's a shame, too, cause otherwise, it wasn't bad.
- I just watched this recently and didn’t know it had AI slop in it. Boooooo.
  
  Yep. All the interstitial "be right back" cards are AI generated. Such a dumb thing to skimp on.

Beau is afraid. I found a stream of it online (yar matey). It was strange but good.
- Real weird film. Wanted to love it more but it's hard to recommend. It's a perfect dream like movie about life but leans a bit hard into the absurdism

People want to watch good movies. With remakes people want to see the original but with different actors and usually studios fuck them up by trying to fix what wasn’t broke.

The adjective "good" needs to proceed "movies".
- Precisely. The problem with some original movies is that they're not great. Of the thousands of movies made every year, probably only a hundred will receive wide recognition and praise, let alone a tidy profit. There is a reason why people are typically skeptical of indie movies.

I watched A League of Their Own last week. Very watchable, not at all flashy, and refreshingly earnest. I hate that so many modern movies are so wised up and meta, and I find myself watching older movies more and more.
Recently it's been Ghost, Bull Durham, Forrest Gump, and Field of Dreams. (I don't even like baseball, no idea why so many of these are baseball movies!)
- Theres some amazing Hockey movies too.
  
  Aside from The Mighty Ducks, any recommendations?
  Ooh I just remembered another random sports movie I watched recently - Hoosiers!

Wild robot at home, My last theater movie? Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse.
The theaters used to pack everybody in for every show. And they just crank the prices up and up. I'm sure that they think home streaming and piracy is what killed them. But you can buy a TV the price of taking a family afford to the movies.

Sure, it's the customers who decide the market. That's how it works.

The Substance on Netflix
- relatively original, and troubling focus with A24/neon cinematography quality. Definitely a must watch movie. Even if you hate it.

People have been making original movies for over a century, many of which have profoundly stood the test of time. I'll watch any of those before I will watch a modern remake or sequel.
To the answer the question I just now watched Things Change on my friend's Plex server. Four stars.

Boondock Saints
The Wiz
Corpse Bride
Joe's Apartment.
I have a bad movie night with family every week, and these were the recent ones. We watched via streaming services.
The last Marvel movie I watched was the end game one. Haven't bothered with another Marvel TV series or movie since. The last star wars movie I watched was the one where Luke projects his appearance and the bad guys shoot it a lot without doing anything. I haven't bothered with any of the other tv series or movies for star wars either.
I'm not the usual customer though. The last movies I saw in theaters was wicked and inside out 2.
- The last Marvel movie I watched was the end game one. Haven’t bothered with another Marvel TV series or movie since.
  With some exceptions, this was a good choice

The Substance. I streamed it using the free trial to MUBI.
I used to go to the movies weekly as a matter of course and never missed opening weekends. I only saw Dune 2 in the theater this year, and between the IMAX ticket for just myself, a popcorn and a coke it was $60. Plus, I don’t like being in public anymore.

I saw Megalopolis in theatres
- I too sometimes pee in my own face.
  You have my sympathies my brother in Crisp

Look Back in the theater
- That movie was successful in making my eyes leak in the theater. It's on prime video now.

Went to the kinoplex to watch Megalopolis, I didn't think it was that bad, the acting was just more like a regular theater than movie acting.

The substance last week in a rocking indie theatre. Lots of.collective "ohhhhhhhhhhhh."

Heretic. In theaters, I think opening weekend.
It was, BTW, absolutely fantastic. They absolutely nailed Mormon doctrine and dogma, as well as the practices of missionaries. I highly recommend it.

Hmm, either Oppenheimer or Poor Things I think. I support new IPs in Hollywood in concept, but a lot of them just don’t interest me is the problem. Looking forward to Nosferatu this month tho!

Finally got around to to watching Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3. I liked it a lot. Rented it on Amazon Video.
Before that, I watch 'The 5th Wave' which I think falls under the context of OPs question. Rented on Amazon Video. Garbage movie. Saw it because I saw a single clip of the movie that looked good. It was the only part of the movie that was good.
And before that one, I watched 'Smile'. Dumb, lazy, predictable writing. Rented on Amazon Video.
Before that, I watched 'The Edge of Sleep'. Very good series. Also Amazon Video.
Finally, 'The Menu', also Amazon Video. I liked it.
I saw all that for probably the cost of a single movie theater ticket. A matinee ticket right now, for my local theater (ordered online) is $17.60. I think the rent price of each of those movies was maybe $4 and 'Edge of Sleep' is free.
- 5th wave started strong with a bit of promise, then quickly degenerated into a hot steaming turd.

I hardly watch movies anymore since I find the format limited compared to TV shows.
Last TV show - Slow Horses season 4
Last original movie in a movie theater was probably the Pokemon Movie.
Last movie in a movie theater was Dune part one. (Which for one was a hell of a good remake tbh)
- I find the limit to be useful. It prevents random relationship drama and filler.
  But I think both film and television series work great for different stories. Having television without a definitive end makes stories weirdly convoluted and meaningless as they try to change another season, just the same as the empty film sequel.
  
  I have a 2 year old so what I find time to see is quite limited. Perhaps my opinion is a result of watching TV-shows adapted from books (Slow Horses), reality (Clarkson's Farm) and crime/thrillers with a "monster of the week" structure, but with a slight narrative over a season (criminal minds)
- Slow Horses is so freaking good.

wtf have they done to the book

Last weekend I saw Conclave in the theater. It was pretty good.
- It's was sooo good! Really slow and deliberate and tense and at no point did it feel like it was dragging.

Embrace of the Serpent at home on streaming. Simple and beautifully shot in black and white. It was what I wanted from a movie, a great story that was well told. It’s definitely original.

I think it was The Whale, in theaters with my sister

I've watched a few older original movies here and there on streaming at home, but I guess the last time I went to the theater for one was Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. I don't really go to the theater much in general anymore. Last time I went was for Dune 2 (mostly because I like the director more so than I'm interested in the franchise) and it was so loud I thought it was going to damage my eardrums.
That aside, if I'm gonna go see something, I want some reason that isn't just brand recognition. A director I like, some good reviews, maybe an interesting premise, etc.

Heretic in theatre. Was pretty good

Red One. It was shit. Don't recommend.
- Bummer. I wanted to see that

Civil War in the theater, at home, I just recently watched They Live, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Wizards, and X at home. I have a biweekly movie night group and we were the only ones in the theater for Beau is Afraid.

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