What's the latest movie you've seen?

[DJChameleon]

Saw this thing:



It's not bad, yet there's plenty not to like about it.

If you're also a little late to this, you may wonder WHAT it is. It's actually a Forgotten Realms fantasy movie centered on the Sword coast and Neverwinter that features some usual D&D tropes along with Faerun specifics like elk tribe barbarians, harpers, Elminster, Szass Tam, etc.

The good is it's fairly entertaining throughout. The actors are okay and it was fun to see Hugh Grant back on the screen and in a role that was fun and kinda suited him.

The bad is it feels like Disney made a D&D movie like they might have made a Marvel movie. While the story has some surprising and imaginative turns that I enjoyed, it does seem predictable in its basic narrative structure and a little superficial. It's more Princess Bride than Lord of the Rings.

To me, it doesn't feel like quite the right tone for a Forgotten Realms movie, but then again you probably can't treat it like it's early seasons of Game of Thrones either.

At least it's fun and I enjoyed it a lot more than the latest Ant-Man movie. If you're an old D&D/Forgotten Realms nerd like me, just don't take it seriously and you'll probably enjoy it.

I loved this movie so much. I took my wife to see it and she loved it too without knowing all the references that was happening. I'm a D&D head so I recognized a lot of them but I didn't notice what campaign it was supposed to be from like you did. This is the best D&D movie ever made imo.

[Lexi Darling]

Not a huge DND fan (I've played before years ago but ultimately I don't think it was for me) but the 2000 DND film is a personal favorite. It's fantasy ridiculousness that hits all the right sweet spots of entertaining cheese. And Jeremy Irons gives an incredible and fittingly over the top performance as the villain.

Judging by you guys' praise, the new one sounds up my alley though. I love fun Princess Bride style fantasy and I love Hugh Grant and didn't know he was in it.

Might have to suggest it next time we do a movie night.

[Guybrush]

Judging by you guys' praise, the new one sounds up my alley though. I love fun Princess Bride style fantasy and I love Hugh Grant and didn't know he was in it.

Might have to suggest it next time we do a movie night.

It is entertaining 🙂

I think the only things that will stop people from enjoying it entirely would either movie snobbery or D&D snobbery.

I do a bit of both, but just a little bit as I'm also somewhat self-aware and try not to lean too hard into that side of me. Most people should enjoy it 🙂

Edit:

I'm a D&D head so I recognized a lot of them but I didn't notice what campaign it was supposed to be from like you did.

D&D was a huge part of my childhood and formative years and while I no longer play it, I've read all of the Drizzt novels 😄

I also used to DM Forgotten Realms campaigns.

[Lukaismyname]

Entrapment
1999

[Guybrush]

Entrapment
1999

What did you think about it?

[Guybrush]

I saw this yesterday:



Also known as La Casa Lobo. I believe it is a Chilean film from 2020. If you like dark animation like Jan Svankmajer (yes please) or the recently tackled Mad God by Phil Tippett, this might be right up your alley.

The story is hard to piece together, but it is a fairytale about Maria, an escapee from some cult. She isolates herself in a house in a forest, hiding from a wolf. In the house are two pigs that she turn into humans, Ana and Pedro, and then start improving them, like turning them into blonde haired, blue eyed aryans. There's a lot of fairytale tropes and some cult/nazi themes and imagery.

It was inspired by Colonia Dignidad, a german cult community located in Chile that looked nice from the outside, but was also set up by a probable nazi as, among other things, a place to torture people and rape children. These themes are not explicitly present in the movie, but there is a dark tone to it and parts of it are nightmarish, although I wouldn't call it scary.

The best thing about it, imo, is the animation which is done in such a unique way. The frames are sometimes just painted on the walls of the house and while the style is rough, such an incredible amount of work must have gone into this.

It's a little sad that the movie also feels confusing and I found it a little hard to engage with in an emotional sense. I was just a spectator, but the visuals here are remarkable and they alone make this worth checking out.

[Guybrush]

Saw this movie, 19 Cloverfield Lane from 2016, as it was recommended to me by a colleague.



It's a very small cast of about 5 people I believe and is a thriller set in the Cloverfield universe. I won't spoil it too much, but most of the movie takes place in a survivalist's homemade bunker.

I saw Cloverfield from 2008 when that was fresh, but honestly can't remember much from it other than it was this Godzilla-ish movie filmed pov style with a handheld camera.

I'm not that fond of disaster movies, so I think this one suited me more. It was entertaining and has an interesting ending with some cool scenes.



Mary Elizabeth Winstead does a good job as a comely lead and it was nice to see John Goodman again as he plays the survivalist Howard.

[Guybrush]

I also wanted to see the 1992 Clint Eastwood movie Unforgiven from 1992 whether or not it's a pick for the SCD film club



This is a classic, of course, and won 4 Oscars - among them best picture from 1992. I remember seeing parts of it before, but that must've been back in the 90s.

The story feels familiar and contains quite a few cliches, like Eastwood's retired and reformed outlaw/gunslinger who goes back to his warrior ways to do one last job. But there are also a few surprises here and there and the movie is entertaining from start to finish.

The supporting cast of Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman and Richard Harris (!) are all good. Hackman even got an Oscar for his portrayal of sheriff Little Bill.

I enjoyed it!



I've also never seen anyone fall down as many times in a movie as Clint does here. Maybe Buster Keaton.

[Lukaismyname]

What did you think about it?

not bad, remeber seeing it many years ago, Nothing special but entertaining

[DJChameleon]

I saw the latest installment of Transformers.

Transformers Rise of the Beasts. I was a little bit late to my showing so I didn't realize it was set in the 90s. The main reason the soundtrack was so dope is because of that fact. They wanted to build off of the Bumblebee movie that was set in the 80s by doing this one set in the 90s. I loved it for what it was. A good summer blockbuster popcorn flick. Can't wait to see what they do next based off of the end credit scene.

[jadis]

Saw this movie, 19 Cloverfield Lane from 2016, as it was recommended to me by a colleague.



It's a very small cast of about 5 people I believe and is a thriller set in the Cloverfield universe. I won't spoil it too much, but most of the movie takes place in a survivalist's homemade bunker.

I saw Cloverfield from 2008 when that was fresh, but honestly can't remember much from it other than it was this Godzilla-ish movie filmed pov style with a handheld camera.

I'm not that fond of disaster movies, so I think this one suited me more. It was entertaining and has an interesting ending with some cool scenes.



Mary Elizabeth Winstead does a good job as a comely lead and it was nice to see John Goodman again as he plays the survivalist Howard.

Have you seen The Decline on Netflix? It's set in a survivalist camp and it's pretty good imo

[Guybrush]

Have you seen The Decline on Netflix? It's set in a survivalist camp and it's pretty good imo

I haven't seen it, but I'll add it to my mental list.

Thanks for the recommendation!

In some hours, we'll be going on our vacation to Denmark with my parents, brothers and sister and their kids and partners.

On the off chance that we might wanna watch a movie together, at least some of us, I'm bringing the following on a small thumb drive:

• Dead Alive
• Forbidden Zone
• Harold and Maude
• The Wicker Man
• Threads

I may have forgot some 🤔

Anyways, there should be something in there for everyone 😅

[Lexi Darling]

Pound Puppies: The Legend of Big Paw (1988)

The mister and I enjoy sharing movies from our respective childhoods to roast and riff on, especially those that one of us grew up with but the other didn't. He's a bit older than me and thus grew up with more things from the late 80s and early 90s that were before my time, and I grew up with some kids media from the mid to late 90s that he was definitely too old for. We refer to that three year difference as "the gulf betwixt us", and one example of it was this movie, based on a toy line, because of course it was, it was the 80s.

This movie is pretty delightfully silly honestly. I don't think it's great for a kids movie, but there's nothing too hideously obnoxious. We got a kick out of all the copyright friendly references to classic songs from the 50s, the villain (hilariously named "McNasty") was delightfully flamboyant, and I personally loved how the movie just treats humans and dogs being able to communicate as the most normal fact of life in the world. Mr. Waffles said he never thought about that as a kid, and if there's one thing we both love, it's destroying our own childhood magic and wonder like the sassy jaded 30 somethings we are.

I would never watch this on my own time, and the same goes for any kids movie I did not experience as a kid, really (the real joke is me having an hour of free time, lol). But I'm glad I got to have this experience.

[Psy-Fi]

Not a movie but it's connected to a movie...

Repo Man Filming Locations



One of my all-time favorite flicks. Interesting to see how many of the locations have changed and how some still look much the same.

[Lexi Darling]

Digimon: The Movie (2000)

Welp, it was my choice for movie night last night, and boy was my pick an absolute doozy. Okay, so remember when I was talking about stuff that I grew up with but Mr. Waffles was too old for? One of those things was Digimon. I was 10 when the original show came out and I was a huge fan for a couple years. My first ever pieces of writing I put online were Digimon fanfics back in 2000-2001. I saw this movie in theaters, and even back then I was confused at its bizarre pacing and stitched-together storyline. The man of the house, on the other hand, had zero familiarity with the entire franchise. He just thought it was a Pokemon ripoff and never watched any of it. This movie is so unwanted by anyone that it's not on streaming services and we had to watch an upload on archive dot org of all places.

I gotta say, I kinda regret my choice for last night's movie. The entire time Mr. Waffles was just sitting there with a kind of dumbfounded look on his face like "you wrote fanfiction about this? and I tried to explain to him that the actual show was good. It didn't matter, this movie was not only bad for a first introduction to Digimon, it's also really bad for us fans, and a big reason for that is that it was originally three separate movies that the American editors Frankensteined into one poorly paced mishmash. It's not even so insanely dumb or egregiously low-brow that we can make fun of it like we do our usual favorite movies to roast. And if I, a (once) huge Digimon fan finds it that awful, you can probably imagine how utterly unamused Mr. Waffles was.

I almost want to make a formal apology to the mister for the complete sugarshow that occurred last night. The only amusing thing about this movie was the hilariously dated inclusion of popular hits of the day, including Fatboy Slim, The Barenaked Ladies, and of course, the obligatory Smash Mouth.

I give this movie a negative billion out of ten. I think I can speak for both of us when I say our lives are now just a teensy bit worse after having this experience.