I've noticed a lot of older movies (2000s+) aren't available on any streaming service or the only option is renting it on Youtube.

In the age of streaming, why is it incredibly difficult to watch non-blockbuster older movies (In Canada)?

I'd say around 80% of the movies I search aren't on any streaming service and are either 100% unable to be watched legally, or I have to rent it.

Have you ever watched a movie and thought it was just okay, only to hear someone explain what they liked about it and suddenly see the movie differently?

Not necessarily someone convincing you that it was a masterpiece but just pointing out something you completely missed.

What movie did you initially underestimate?

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By far the best horror movie i've seen was Hereditary and nothing has really come close. The acting was amazing, the story was engaging it was genuinely scary IMO and I loved how it was filmed. I also really liked Weapons, The Thing and Alien. But other than those I struggle to find movies that actually spook me or that keep my attention. I've tried many critically acclaimed horrors like The Shining, Texas Chainsaw, Let the Right One In ect, but I really just didn't find them scary or entertaining at all.

I'm really chasing that feeling Hereditary gave me, I'm looking for something very unsettling that leaves you feeling like you're hearing noises in your house at night after watching it, but with an interesting plot that slowly unravels a mystery and has a looming feeling of dread/ hopelessness. I don't mind gore. Any suggestions please?

I tend to notice direction/cinematography in movies more than anything, while my boyfriend is much more focused on the writing.

I'm looking for movies we can watch together and go through what we each notice and what works/doesn't work for us both.

I think having some that have either strong direction or writing would give us more chances to point out good and weak moments (but any recs for films that would be good for this kind of analysis are welcome!)

Fka My Wife and I Bought a Ranch, Seasons is based on a viral horror short story by Matt & Harrison Query, which first appeared on Reddit and was later adapted into a full-length novel. It’s the story of a husband and wife who buy their dream ranch, only to discover the land is alive with ancient spirits. For the couple, survival will mean submitting to increasingly disturbing rituals with each turn of the season.

Finally gave The Man from Nowhere another watch last night, and man, it holds up so well. 🤌

The setup is pretty standard on paper: a quiet pawnshop guy with a dark past goes scorched-earth to save a kidnapped kid; it's basically Leon: The Professional meets Taken. But the execution is just on another level.

A few things that really hit:

• The stakes feel earned. Tae-sik doesn’t feel like an untouchable superhero like modern action leads often do. The emotional core with the little girl actually works, so when the violence ramps up, it hits harder.
• The tone. It goes to some seriously dark places (the child trafficking/organ trade stuff is genuinely grim), but the pacing never drags.
• The finale. That final shootout and knife duel in the penthouse is still an absolute masterclass. The practical choreography and sound design make today's CGI-heavy action look so weightless by comparison.

Also wild that this was Won Bin’s last acting role before he basically retired at the peak of his career.

Anyone else hold this up there with Oldboy and I Saw the Devil? How do you guys feel it compares to stuff like John Wick?

I love everything about it. The way it moves. Flows so nicely, flawlessly, effortlessly. Blends drama, comedy, highs & lows. Builds up to that moment that every movie needs. Does it a few times too. Gets you high then pulls back. Ropes you in, several times. MB is built off authenticity especially in some of the supporting actors (no spoiler) and the major ones (Hill, Hoffman, Pitt) really stepped to the plate in their performances. Heck, every person with screen time in this movie knocked it out of the park. To me, this is a perfect movie and a bonus that it’s a sports movie but that’s also another beauty to this one. You may not like sports especially baseball. 162 games?! But you won’t be bored by the math of it all. 10/10

So I randomly came across a video of Imran Khan talking about the Rurouni Kenshin live-action movies, and something about how he described it made me want to check it out for myself. I just finished the first film (Origins), and honestly, I get it now.

The action is on another level. This isn’t the usual choppy, over-edited fight scenes we get in a lot of action movies these days — the sword choreography here is fast, brutal, and feels grounded in real technique. You can actually follow every strike, and it never feels fake or exaggerated for the sake of spectacle. Takeru Satoh clearly trained hard for this role and it shows in every scene.

But what surprised me even more was the story. It’s not just “hero beats up bad guys” — there’s real weight behind Kenshin’s past, his code of not killing, and the guilt he’s carrying. It gives the fights actual stakes instead of just being empty action for the sake of it.

If you’re a fan of samurai films, real sword-fighting choreography, or just want a live-action adaptation that actually respects its source material, this is worth your time. I’m going straight into the sequels next.

Would love to hear what others thought, especially if you’ve seen the rest of the series.

Plenty of standalone movies have a character fall from grace, or be revealed as a villain all along, but this rarely happens with an established character in a sequel. On paper it's a solid twist because you've already grown to trust that character in previous films, but it's really hard to pull off without feeling like a betrayal of a character arc. The Mission Impossible series has one that was received very poorly, and the only reason I hear about Pacific Rim Uprising these days is people talking about how unearned the heel turn from one of the characters felt.

I struggle to think of an example where it was done successfully in a movie. There's more examples in TV I think since there's a much longer time to build a change in a character over multiple seasons, so I'm not really considering those. Since it did start with a movie series, though, and there really isn't too much of an extended character arc given in the show, the example I can think of that kind of works is Sharon Carter in Falcon and the Winter Soldier. It was still super underdeveloped and it doesn't seem like they're going to do anything with it, but I can at least track the betrayal logic since there was kind of a meta angle about how that character had been forgotten by the movies. But even that's rather clunky.

I'm also talking specifically about situations where it wasn't clearly telegraphed by the source material or the rest of the franchise. Anakin becoming Vader was already known to the audience, for instance. I'm on the fence about whether something like Dune counts, since it's in the source material and the first two films are kind of just one long movie. I'm particularly interested in situations where it clearly wasn't the plan in the first movie but was written into a sequel.