I enjoyed it and Amy Adams(?) song "Party of One" is a great little number. The central character motivations and story arcs are good too. The main "Plot line" is so prefunctory to the premise of the movie that it only gets resolved in the credit sequence.
Overall, it made me want another Muppets big screen film and to go find DVDs of the old shows. Mission accomplished I guess.
"Remember the word Tenet. It is very powerful. Use it only in emergency."
Spoiler:
The main character never uses the word. The word never gets mentioned again. I guess he had everything under control and didn't need it after all? So why the films name is Tenet? Is it just for the palindrome? Sator square reference obviously, but it has nothing to do with the plot of the film...
I guess the film was entertaining enough, but the time jumping gets a bit tedious.
Spoiler:
The end "twist" is so predictable, I'm putting it in quote marks.
I saw the movie 'Domain" made in 2018 at a dollar tree store for guess.
The premise of people locked in pods to survive a plague seemed eerily intriguing, and in the early moments of the film there were news soundbites of the plague reaching our shores, riots over emergency medical equipment people needed to keep loved ones alive. rising death tolls, yeah, for the days when that was all fiction...
You began to know something was up early on because the bunkers functioned too well.
It was a dark movie that got darker and darker until the ending made the center of a black hole look bright and cheery.
Not really recommendable. Not bad for it' obvious sofa cushion change budget and some decent acting, but just too dark and depressing in these dark depressing days to recommend.
@Matt Swain: Almost sounds interesting due to low budget, but the topic and your warnings make me refrain from seeking it out.
I watched two films.
Suburbicon (2017)
Set in the 1960s in US suburbs, which basically is a gated community. Possibly not by design, but by core. Then a black family moves in. And then things start to happen to their neighboring family. I think it's best not to reveal any more about the plot.
Originally written by the Coen brothers in the 1980s, George Clooney picked it up over 10 years ago, then it went through a whole lot of development stuff, Clooney wanted to direct and star in it, but eventually decided to just direct, leaving the starring male role to Matt Damon (the female lead's played by Julianne Moore), Woody Harrelson was cast in the film (and I bet I know which role he would have gotten), Josh Brolin actually was in the film, but didn't make the final cut, and so on. Interesting stuff.
Speaking of which - interesting film. After the first sentence on here, Clooney directing and the rest of the cast I think it's kinda clear which direction this is going. AMERICA! SOCIETY! And the problems thereof. It's interesting how the film runs two separate storylines which barely cross, and rather actively refuse to to have anyhting to do with each other. Which makes sense and it is something to be noted. There are one or two central phrases to the film which resonate strongly, and there's a really impactful moment towards the end of the film.
For some reason this was advertised as a comedy. I have NO idea how you would get to that conclusion. Maybe on second or third viewing it can be viewed as a dark comedy, but the first watch certainly holds few laughs. Things are a bit unsettling from the start and then start spiralling out of control.
It's a nice film. I mean it's okay. Some things could have been more subdued, and more and more I feel like Hollywood films could do with 80% less music. Anyway, it's an interesting one and can be watched. Watch It, if you wanna see an interesting film. And we all should every now and then. It's not 'tough to watch'. It's a broad Hollywood film, it's got got actors in it, things happen all the time.
Glory (1989)
Right after that film I watched another film (just so I exhaust all the watchable films on bloody Netflix right now). It's a war film about the first coloured regiment set up by the Union army during the American civil war. I'd seen it a long time ago on TV, recently friends of mine brought it up and agreed that it was pretty good. I didn't remember it as being so good. A few weeks ago those friends and I started meeting for boardgaming again (outside, keeping a distance). That week the play date was cancelled, because there was a possibly corona case at one friend's wife's workplace. So instead I watched Glory.
Maybe it helps that I watched the original english language version for the first time. It's a good film, avoiding some hollywood trappings (well, SOME). But I'll cut war films some slack in terms of flag-waving and pathos. At least this one, because I think it does it right. There's some cheesy stuff in there (Denzel Washington's single manly tear, but he pulls it off), but it's all easy to sit through. The battle scenes are alright, the dynamics between characters are interesting, the officer's job Matthew Broderick's character is thrust into, ... all well done.
As far as films about the american civil war go, this certainly is one of the better ones. I enjoyed it. Watch It.
Did you watch the end credits scrolling over the the actual bronze at the end? Those were made from pictures of him and the soldiers themselves. I found that little scene to be utterly moving.
We watched The Last Starfighter. Afterwards my wife described it as a surprisingly fun movie. It’s fast paced with just enough hints of background to give you the bigger picture without slowing the film down by showing much. The characters are memorable and just shy of wacky. The effects seem to “work” better now than they did when the movie was new because no one today expects a modestly budgeted 80’s sci fi flick to have realistic CGI.
That and “Ramming Speed!” are the two lines we quote every time we play a spaceship game, from BFG to DFC.
A classic, classic line in a villain death so iconic that Devlin and Emmerich essentially ripped it off twice.
Don't forget to say "Forget the guns!" first.
Hmm, in the age of sail a command to ready for battle was "Run out the guns!" This was when you can old cannons behind wood doors that had to be opened and the guns physically pushed into firing position.
It might be cool to see a sf movie where the weapons were behind armored panels nd had to be 'ran out' before battle.
Personally think these two are beter than TLS's ramming bit. How much courage does it take a battleship to ram a crippled fighter? At l;east enterprise and galactica rammed comparable sized targets.
"Spaced invaders". A low budget sfifi comedy about particulalry inept martians trying to invade eart on halloween after picking up a rebroadcast of orson wells' "WotW" radio broadcast.
Pretty funny and fun for the whole family, the kids can watch it safely.
DalekCheese wrote: Threads Depressing as feth, but a brilliant film nonetheless.
The War Game Um... see above. I watched them as a double bill.
speaking of british nuclear war movies, wasn't there one where at the end the survivors in a village kill some british government officials who were at least partially responsible for the war? ISTR something about that fut full recollection eludes just now.
Rewatched Ant-Man and the sequel a few days ago. The first one holds up well and the second is better than I remember but still rather disposable. I think it mostly suffers from not having the strong heist movie pitch of the first. Humorously, during the bit where Pym dives into the Quantum realm, I kept thinking his suit looks like a recolored costume for Kang. I'll be interesting if that's where the sequel really ends up going.
I feel the Ant-Man sequel suffered because of its timing.
It followed Infinity War, which was pretty colossal in terms of impact.
So I choose to consider it a palette cleanser. A stripped back “our films are fun” affair, which plot wise couldn’t tread on its bigger brother’s narrative toes.
Like Age of Ultron, my opinion increased when I saw what followed. And how that film slotted in to the overall universe.
It was definitely more interesting to watch out of sequence with the rest of the films. It stands as a sequel to the first better, but it still feels a little disjointed. Ghost's arc is weird and resolves even weirder. I actually quite like that the tension is more about the science of rescuing Jan but the mix of a tragic villain and two overly campy antagonists doesn't quite gel for me. It's still good, just a little weaker than its predecessor.
DalekCheese wrote: Threads Depressing as feth, but a brilliant film nonetheless.
The War Game Um... see above. I watched them as a double bill.
speaking of british nuclear war movies, wasn't there one where at the end the survivors in a village kill some british government officials who were at least partially responsible for the war? ISTR something about that fut full recollection eludes just now.
I’m not sure. It sounds vaguely familiar.
Off-topic but related (British, nuclear war): Brother in the Land is a brilliant book.
The man who shot Liberty ValanceJohn Wayne is one of the most over rated actors to have existed, and he doesn't blemish that record here.
It's fortunate that the rest of the cast, the story and the directing are top notch.
A truly great film.
Orgazmo. A movie by the South Park guys about a Mormon missionary who becomes a famous porno superhero. Surprisingly quotable.
The Auteur. It’s like Best in Show or A Mighty Wind, but about a film festival celebrating the Kubrick of pornography. I wasn’t expecting to like it, but I was absorbed start to finish.
Rewatched Dr Strange last night. Suffers from a weak antagonist that makes it feel a little generic or at least never breaks the origin story mold. Still visually stunning however and has me looking forward to a sequel that can hopefully focus on it more and star the more "complete" version of the character we've seen since.
LunarSol wrote: Rewatched Dr Strange last night. Suffers from a weak antagonist that makes it feel a little generic or at least never breaks the origin story mold. Still visually stunning however and has me looking forward to a sequel that can hopefully focus on it more and star the more "complete" version of the character we've seen since.
LunarSol wrote: Rewatched Dr Strange last night. Suffers from a weak antagonist that makes it feel a little generic or at least never breaks the origin story mold. Still visually stunning however and has me looking forward to a sequel that can hopefully focus on it more and star the more "complete" version of the character we've seen since.
Two movies came up in my thread renamed "nonsense" deserve mention here. (They're so nice the deserve mention twice.)
A.P.E.X. An 80's scifi time travel film obviously slightly inspired by 'terminator" (but still notably different) that had some cool killer robots. Not as cool at the terminator endoskeleton, I admit, but still pretty damn cool.
The plot was kind of hard to follow and will have you going "Hey!" and "But how..?" "What about..?" and "WTF?!?!" a lot, plus ranges and time seem to be very inconsistent, main characters have the PC immunity write large, etc, but it's still an entertaining movie with a special guest star from a popular 70's post apocalypse scifi movie. And trust me, the robot suits alone are worth watching this for, as you can clearly see above. (Oh, yes i described this as an 80's scifi time travel apocalypse movie even tho it was released in 94. Well, that;s just part of the time paradox. )
Due to legal bull hardware was unavailable until 2009 so a lot of you may not have seen it. If this is so it is a sad situation you can and should correct now.
Lastly, for a good techno thriller/crime drama/ terrorist plot type movie, look up "Juggernaut" from 1974. No scifi killer robots, but a good plot, sensible premise and great acting.
Been rewatching Harry Potter. 4 movies in and I gotta say, It is impressive to me how well these films hold up, both in the effects department and the talents of the child actors.
Also random side rewatch. A youtube video made a reference to the film Stardust (2007). So my wife immediately got out the dvd and put it on. Stardust might be one of my new favorite underdogs for "Films that should have been more successful." Every performance is great, and the characters are all charming.
Watched Snowpiercer recently. 2013 film by Bong-Joon-Ho (director of Parasite) depicting the last few hundred humans left alive after a global-warming strategy goes wrong, stuck on a train endlessly travelling around the world.
Stars Chris Evans, Tilda Swinton and the late John Hurt. An odd premise but a rather chilling and very exciting film.
I never could watch snowpiercer. Basically i hear the premise and think "Uh, they're in a freezing world and their biggest issue is heat, so they.....spend energy moving a giant train around instead of just using that energy to produce heat directly?"
I know it's supposed to be a social commentary film and an allegory to modern society, but still the physics just got to me.
"Galaxina" is on Comettv this month so I've watched it.
This should have been a low budget schlocky scifi parody that was quickly forgotten except possibly for some acceptable SFX and a decent ship model.
Unfortunately it became a minor cult hit due to the particularly horrific murder of it's star, playboy centerfold and playmate of the year trying to turn actress Dorthy Stratten. Her murder was so heinous it made her only starring role film a minor cult hit that is mostly remembered for that.
Regrettably her role as an android wearing mostly a skintight leotard (and once a french maid outfit) gave her little chance to demonstrate any acting skills she may have had, focusing instead of her physical assets which playboy had already (un)covered.
On it's own galaxina is a very low brow scifi parody with fairly good sfx for a low budget movie made in 1980. Not really recommendable unless you want to see every scifi movie you can.
The main ship in it was a good model that would look pretty good in some SF games, even traveller if any GMs out there want a ship design for a game.
Yes, that ship model is arguably the best thing in the movie.
Valkyrie wrote: Watched Snowpiercer recently. 2013 film by Bong-Joon-Ho (director of Parasite) depicting the last few hundred humans left alive after a global-warming strategy goes wrong, stuck on a train endlessly travelling around the world.
Stars Chris Evans, Tilda Swinton and the late John Hurt. An odd premise but a rather chilling and very exciting film.
Really cool film, on so many levels.
The Siege (1998)
Never seen that film before for some reason. "It's the one where's some terror attack happens in New York and the army is called in to keep the peace."
But it's so much more. Pretty visionary stuff. New York is being confronted with successively worse terror attacks (the reason for which, or the thing the terrorists ask for, is very interesting too.), FBI agent Denzel Washington and a CIA lady Anette Bening each work on discovering the terrorist cells, but don't really get results fast enough to stop more attacks in time. The interplay and rivalry between government agencies is very interesting.
Out come the harr-de-harr-"smoke'em out"-hardliners who call a declaration of state of emergency throughout the city and for the US army to lock down Brooklyn and search the part of the city for the terrorists. Bruce Willis, who's the army guy in Washington, makes it crystal clear that this is a bad idea, but the plan is put into place, and the army starts searching every single house for arab men, aged 17-30, take them with them and set up a detainment ....site in a big football stadium (because where else?) to keep them for questioning. This has a whole bunch of impressive scenes built up around it. All the while Washington and Bening search for the last terrorist cell.
Impressive film, that.It's like 1998 Denzel Washington being thrown into a film from 2002 or 2003 and just being aghast with the crap that's going on. Watch It. It's a film for grown-ups.
...and just for the heck of it:
Fallen (1998)
I'm sure I've written about this film before, but I just saw it again (well, the first half) on tv a few weeks ago. A supernatural crime thriller featuring Denzel Washington as a police detective. His direct colleagues are John Goodman AND James Gandolfini. That's an overkill of super-charismatic cop colleagues. Imagine having to play the lead between these two. Washington pulls it off. Hooray!
It's kinda cheesy, it's kinda silly at times, but it's just such a fun film. Whenever I think of fallen I also have to think of Ricochet (1991). My favourites from the "Denzel Washington is a successful cop, and a really, really dedicated evil is dead set in ruining his life" genre. I think I like Ricochet a tad better, but Fallen comes with the strong supernatural aspect, which is great fun.
Watch It for some light, well-acted, well-made fun.
I read a bit of the synopsis on wikipedia, and I'm fairly certain I've seen this one at some point, but it must be ages ago. Dang, I wanna watch that film now. Good suggestion; I'll try to hunt it down.
There's a few musical cameos in Hardware to look out for.
Carl McCoy from Fields of the Nephilim is the scavenger that first finds the mk13. He's a mate of the director, who was also pretty well known amongst a certain sector of the music industry, too, which is how he got the other two in.
Iggy Pop the angry radio DJ Angry Bob, angry all the time.
The man, the legend that was Lemmy. The water-taxi driver.
I quit being a carpenter fanboi after his awful "Ghosts of mars" movie. I'd been losing faith in him for a while before that, and PoD was one reason why.
PoD couldn't decide what it was trying to be. A religious horror movie? I scifi horror movie? Maybe like "the thing" meets "The omen" or something?
I found it to just be a confused mess that wasn't really anything coherent or really good. It hasn't improved with age. It's not even a good halloween horror flick.
The Fox News/Roger Ailes/Sexual harassment story, very decent, great performances, but in the end not all that shocking. Anyone predisposed against Fox will say they're not surprised, anyone predisposed towards Fox will say no big deal. Also tonally uneven, they start with this 4th wall breaking device that I liked, but then drop it, instead doing documentary like tags to tell you who is who. I also thought Margot Robbie's composite character had a weak arc with a tacked on happy ending. And also being the only fictionalized character among real world people made her feel more forced. So decent watch but a 3-4 star film not a great one.
Anyway, there is always such great, whip-crack, smart, shade throwing dialogue in a Jane Austen (sp?) movie. This one is no different.
Some parts I enjoyed:
1. Kiera walked dreamily through some blowing laundry, while in the background a servant cracks a goose's neck and starts plucking it.
2. Said laundry getting rained on
3. Twirling on a swing to represent the passing of time.
4. Mr. Darcy looks like he is planning on killing everyone in the room when we first meet him. Whenever I saw his glower, I said; "I'm Batman"
5. Dame Judi Dench laying the insults on Lizzie
6. The rollicking fun everyone is having while dancing at a country party.
7. How bored women must have been all the time. No wonder they had to read, draw, write, play music, and craft al the time. They were bored senseless!
8. The difference between poor, country yeoman and the actual landed gentry.
9. That Lizzie's dad was an amateur scientist
10. There were several single take tracking shots movie from room to room that were really well done.
This movie was gorgeous to look at.... and completely by the numbers.
After the first 5 minutes, I had the entire movie figured out. It is very by the numbers.
I think it needed another go through the script editing process, and the editing is just not good.
However, fantastic costuming, set design, and cinematography. Just watch it on mute.
Also glosses over the Armenian Genocide but just skirts it enough. If people were not familiar with it, this movie would not have really clued them in on it.
It’s the movie Eat, Pray, Live wishes it was. Charming and often fun without being challenging. Americans love to have their preconceptions about foreigners affirmed in good humor.
Schlocky 80s horror throwback, predictable but daft fun
Humans
Wildly uneven and probably best it ended when it did, although the effort put into Synth 'acting' was interesting (with terrible child acting actually coming in handy)
This is free on 'Prime' at the moment (in the UK). I so, so wish I had gone to the cinema to see it - although it possibly might have been too intense!
One of the best war films I have ever seen. Very well paced, a simple and exciting premise, spectacularly filmed (I had to watch a 'making of' immediately afterwards just to see how they had done some of it).
Well acted and the 'names' in it (there are a few) blend in to the setting rather than dominate it.
I quit being a carpenter fanboi after his awful "Ghosts of mars" movie. I'd been losing faith in him for a while before that, and PoD was one reason why.
PoD couldn't decide what it was trying to be. A religious horror movie? I scifi horror movie? Maybe like "the thing" meets "The omen" or something?
I found it to just be a confused mess that wasn't really anything coherent or really good. It hasn't improved with age. It's not even a good halloween horror flick.
Watched this as a kid and was absolutely terrified by it!
But saw it again not long ago and like you said it is really bad, laughably so in some places.
Definitely don't think it can be recommended alongside most of Carpenter's other films.
Deeply by the numbers. Nazi Zombies has been done better, either by Dead Snow if you want over the top, Evil Dead style gore and humour, or The Outpost if you want something bleaker and more horrific.
The only things this has over either of those is a higher production budget (it's made by JJ Abrams' Bad Robot) and the chap who played Euon Greyjoy demonstrating he could have, in fact, chewed the scenery even harder in GoT if he hadn't shown some restraint.
Deeply by the numbers. Nazi Zombies has been done better, either by Dead Snow if you want over the top, Evil Dead style gore and humour, or The Outpost if you want something bleaker and more horrific.
The only things this has over either of those is a higher production budget (it's made by JJ Abrams' Bad Robot) and the chap who played Euon Greyjoy demonstrating he could have, in fact, chewed the scenery even harder in GoT if he hadn't shown some restraint.
That's a shame, was hoping for some raising the ghoulies jiggery pokery, preferably involving a kraut with a monocle
Babysitter; Killer Queen
Outside of spooky season horror isn't really ones jam and couldn't quite figure if this was sequel clever shenanigans or rushed sequel boswellox
Once more with feeling
Nowt more terrifying the musicals, well maybe bunnies...
The era from the mid 80's to the mid 90's brought us a wave of low budget, cyberpunkish, post apocalypse scifi movies.
Many were just terminator ripoffs, and at least one of those, "Hardware", was a fairly decent movie on its own merits.
Then there's circuitry man.
CM is a pretty good low budget cyberpunk/mad max road warrior mashup. Starring the late, great vernon wells it's about a post apocalypse world where neural interfaces are common and VR chips are the drug of choice. Oh, and intelligent, very human looking "fully functional" androids are a thing too.
Basically a hawt badass courier is hired to transport a shipment of vr drug chips across a wasteland with unbreathable air. She takes an android gigolo as her companion . They are pursued by Plughead, a psychopath who's bald pate is covered with neural interface ports.
One of the great lines in the movie is when a crime lord says of plughead "He used to be my psychotherapist before he went legit and became an honest crook."
The other great line is when plughead asks "Like I always say: Why xxxx xxx, when you can....jack in?"
Still worth a watch despite obviously dated graphics and a low budget. Vernon Wells turns in a great performance as the charming and sinister plughead. With the hype about the upcoming cyberpunk game coming, people might want to give this a view.
BobtheInquisitor wrote: That looks like a TV movie made by the USA network on the leftover sets of Tekwar with the props from Cherry 2000. I think I need to see this.
I can't say the first sentence in the above statement is very accurate. The second one is completely true.
It is Halloween and now is the time to indulge in Horror. So, I decided to watch this Rom-Com starring Rachel Weisz, Elizabeth Banks, Isla Fischer, and Ryan Reynolds.
Reynolds is getting a divorce. His daughter is sad, and demands to know how Reynolds and her Mom met. He proceeds to tell her the story, but it is a "Who Dunnit" as there are three potential women in the story! Not a bad idea for a movie..... It almost feels like.... a sitcom I have heard about......
Overall, it is pretty forgettable and a tad bit depressing. Not really the kind of movie I would want to bring a date too, and what good is a Rom-Com if not for a date movie?
This is a film made before COVID about a hypothetical outbreak of a bat-carried disease from China, and it’s just so ...bittersweet? The pandemic team are treated with respect, the government is mostly competent, medical care is fully funded. It feels almost like wishful thinking.
The only 'straight up" scifi movie hammer studios made it had some terrible moments mixed into a generally well made and fairly intelligent scifi movie with great effects for the time.
May have been the first movie to deal with commercialization of space and the idea that spacejunk would become valuable salvage. Ahead of it's time in a lot of ways.
Hubie Halloween. I saw it only because my friends wanted to see it, and to my surprise it was good. Not great or hilarious, but charming and chuckle worthy at enough points to keep me engaged. Lots of familiar faces in this movie.
This is a film made before COVID about a hypothetical outbreak of a bat-carried disease from China, and it’s just so ...bittersweet? The pandemic team are treated with respect, the government is mostly competent, medical care is fully funded. It feels almost like wishful thinking.
Yeah, insane, isn't it? The only slightly incompetent or odd character was the blogger IIRC.
By the way, I watched Virtuosity now. Thanks for the suggestion, BobtheInquisitor! I had a ton of fun, especially with Russel Crowe's performance
An action-comedy that parodies tropes from 80’s TV and video games, Kung Fury is free to watch on YouTube. Be warned that there is some gore and swearing. It’s short and fun, and has a great music video.
Eddie Murphy stars as Rudy Ray Moore, the famous comedian and low-budget movie auteur who created the character of Dolemite.
Clearly, this was a movie made with tons of love, and full of great, black character actors. Wesley Snipes plays his role really good.
I love a good Blxploitation movie, but this is not one. Instead, it is a Bio-pic about Blaxpo characters and creators.
They lovingly re-create some of Dolemite's scenes with "behind the scenes" additions. The big pay off is when they show some of the actual movie in a screening AND book end the movie with the actual scenes from Dolemite!
Good stuff. I enjoyed it, but probably not for everyone.
I just watched Vampire's Kiss, featuring a young actor named Nicholas Cage. Holy moly. Watch It. It's got to be seen to be believed. It's like a David Lynch film. In a way. If it was made today it would look like a really, really lame go at "omg isn't Nicholas Cage over the top you guys". But it was made in 1988, so it's good. Well, it's not good. But it has to be seen. It's unique. It's not great. But I can't believe anybody would regret seeing it.
The plot: It's about a man who's convinced he's turning into a vampire.
Yup. I'm generally not a huge fan of that whole "omg look how weird nicholas cage is". Because he can be really boring too. Also, it may lead to stuff trying to capitalize on this, and we've seen the deep, deep abyss of bancrupcy on all levels that is Sharknado and other films trying to capitalize on internet memes and attempts at artificially creating 'cult films'.
But as I said - that one was made 1988, and it's a unique film. Later last night I read some reviews from when it was released, and one critic called Nicholas Cage's performance self-indulgent. Maybe that's very true. It looks like he went about this thinking "oh, I'll just have fun with this one". OR maybe he went about playing a person who's losing their mind very, very, very seriously. Which would make it a bit scary again. Nicholas Cage - good or bad? The good kind of bad? The bad kind of good? Who knows.
This is like a modern day Grimm's Fairy Tale, before they sanitized and Disney-fied all the Fairy Tales.
There is a lot to unpack in this film.... if you are so inclined. Ultimately, it is not a pleasant tale about the human condition......
Real Steel
A heart-warming family tale about Wolverine learning to love again when re-united with a young Anakin Skywalker. They bond over a family road trip with robot Rocky Balboa as they claw their way up the ladder to face the robot Apollo Creed built by an super-cool Taejo Togokan and financed by Russian Paris Hilton.
If you have never seen a movie before, it could be considered original!
BobtheInquisitor wrote: Is the job of the actor to give a performance that is believable or a performance that is memorable?
Good question. Depends on the film, I suppose? But then, a REALLY memorable and/or REALLY believable performance can make a whole film. It's complicated, I guess.
@Easy E: What a double feature. Never seen Real Steel, because I don't like Wolverine much. Or the premise/look of that film. I did see Being John Malkovich, and I think so should everybody else. Great stuff.
Not a movie, but I watched Generation Kill for the first time.
I know nothing about the War on Terror aside from second-hand accounts, so I can't comment on that aspect outside of a lot of combat veterans say it's an accurate depiction. I've heard about the supply line issues from some Marines that were over there, so that part didn't surprise me.
The behavior, particularly the language and gallows humor, of the Marines is dead on. Especially the dipping.
I was primarily dismayed by the embedded reporter. He seemed to have zero knowledge of the military or even military history and was depicted in the final episode as being unable to even ask Godfather a coherent question about anything. Struck me as a very poor choice for a war reporter, but I'll grant that he did an outstanding job recording the events from the grunt's perspective.
Memorial watch, still the best of the three, with Mr C having a whale of a time
bonus lockdown telly watchs
Monkey, Xenatastic Aussie hijinx and "Brother" Sand is strikingly distracting
Locke and Key, thought I'd got to the end but was a few episode short apparently, passable enough but the twist ending was, possibly purposefully, obvious
Age of Resistance
Got on with it better second time round and Hup is clearly the hero Thra needs and deserves, now to see D+ agree with me
I totally dismissed this show when I first heard about it thinking it was some quirky kids show trying to capitalize on the only good thing in Suicide Squad but holy gak it's funny, irreverent as hell, and shockingly clever in really subtle ways that just work. Basically, everything the Birds of Prey movie wasn't.
I was just wioth someone watching a movie i think was called "jurrasic world fallen kindgdom" or something like that, and i swear to ghawd it was so stupid it literally hurt my brain.
An ork would have called this movier stupid.
I only saw a few minutes of it and i was cerebral agony.
The part i saw involved an international auction of a genetically engineered SUV sized velicoraptor being sold to international arms dealers as a weapon.
Ouch!
They showed it was conditioned, programmed, whatever, to go after someone who had a laser spot on them when a certain sound was triggered.
Oh the pain!
(Uh, if you have a rifle with a laser pointer on it aimed at someone's chest and you want them dead, why not just pull the trigger and kill them with, oh, say, a roughly 50 cent bullet?)
International arms dealers, some of whom had russian accents boris badenov would have laughed at, were biding up to 28 million dollars for one.
My brain in screaming at this point.
Yeah, what would it take to stop a 28 million dollar giant velicopator?
*a 300$ assault rifle with about 20$ worth of ammunition.
*a roughly 25$ in bulk grenade.
*a high powered .50 caliber sniper rifle bullet with an explosive core that maybe costs 5-7$ in bulk.
I rewatched Black Panther for the first time. It was better the second time. I still deeply hate that end scene. Yes, let's portray young kids seeing a freaking hovercraft as fools debating whether or not they can jack the rims. Are you serious right now?
Chadwick was a great actor. He had tremendous potential beyond the MCU. Watching him actually kind of hurt a bit.
trexmeyer wrote: I rewatched Black Panther for the first time. It was better the second time. I still deeply hate that end scene. Yes, let's portray young kids seeing a freaking hovercraft as fools debating whether or not they can jack the rims. Are you serious right now?
Chadwick was a great actor. He had tremendous potential beyond the MCU. Watching him actually kind of hurt a bit.
He also appeared in a movie called A Message to the King where he travels from South Africa to America to find out what happened to his sister. She has gone radio silent. Things escalate quickly.
I also saw him in The 5 Bloods from Spike Lee which I recommend. 5 Vietnam Vets return to locate the remains of a fallen comrade, and a lot of gold bullion they stashed in the jungle. It is a typical action movie plot, but it does so much more with the material. Chadwick and Del Rey Lindo are very good in it!
Watched: Jingle Jangle This is a musical Christmas movie set in a quasi-fantasy steam punk world. An inventor has his book or inventions stolen and other heartbreaks, and losses the ability to create. His ability is rekindled when his inventive grand-daughter re-enters his life. Christmas tinged adventure ensues.
I was not in the mood for this movie, and I had a hard time with the world and setting. I kept thinking too much about the consequences of what they were showing us on screen instead of just sitting back and enjoying the "Christmas Magic". This has a fine all-star cast who do their parts justice..... I just couldn't get into it.
Watched: Christmas in Palm Springs Pretty much what it says on the tin! This is full of stalwart B-Movie actors and made-for-TV/DTV performers. Cheesy and probably financed by the city of Palm Springs. However, it had a certain low-budget appeal that amused me but really it is NOT good.
Since my wife has seen most of the Christmas Movies on Netflix last year, we are starting to scrape pretty low in the barrel, UNLESS something new has come out!
Once upon a time, a man was born who had a genetic abnormality that make it possible for him to safely consume vast quantities of LSD, far more than any normal human could possibly survive ingesting.
We're talking about someone who could take enough acid to kill ozzy, iggy, Bowie, janet and jimi and survive.
How do I know this mutation existed? Because it's the only possibly explanation for the existence of a movie called "Frankenstein island".
Whoever wrote this movie had clearly taken many, many times the lethal dose of LSD and lived long enough to write a screenplay about an island populated by beautiful bikini clad cavegirls who are actually aliens from another planet, Dr. Frankenstein's granddaughter who is married to a 200 year old Dr. Van Helsing who needs blood to survive, mindcontrolled zombies who must wear sunglasses to hide their weird eyes, the frankenstein monster who is hiding underwater waiting for his chance to do something and above it all the disembodied head of dr. frankenstein, played by john "anything for a buck" carradine (Ghawd I can't believe he used to be a really huge classic movies) repeating "THE POWER! THE POWER!"
If you haven't been overwhelmed by the brief description of this movie and are now semi catatonic and drooling you've probably either vowed to avoid this movie like the plague or are even now hunting it down on the net.
As proof this movie actually exists and this post isn't a result of me taking LSD (I'm into 40k, i can't afford drugs) here:
The name says it all. I am pretty tired of movies with protagonists who are completely unlikable, and then trying to prop them up and give them rooting interest by surrounding them with people who are even worse.
I see this a lot in TV right now too. I find it tiring, almost as tiring as the "Heroes use Torture" to get information they need trope we see so much of lately.
As far as I recall, it was Cameron Diaz's last Hollywood film. Did Jason Seagal do anything after this in Hollywood films? I think he did, but I am not sure what.....
The Korean one that won all of the awards.
Found it super unsettling to watch, but really compelling.
Loved the shades of grey with the character and the premise
Does you good to watch a non-Hollywood film once in a while, as you just don't know what you will get.
Fantastically acted too.
I used to live in Korea so it probably had a bit more of an impact on me - the 'inequality' question, along with social stratification and snobbish-ness is a really powerul topic there, but not really talked about openly so I can see why this film hit like a bomb-shell in their domestic cinema.
Pacific wrote: that Frankenstein Island sounds incredible
Parasite
The Korean one that won all of the awards.
Found it super unsettling to watch, but really compelling.
Loved the shades of grey with the character and the premise
Does you good to watch a non-Hollywood film once in a while, as you just don't know what you will get.
Fantastically acted too.
I used to live in Korea so it probably had a bit more of an impact on me - the 'inequality' question, along with social stratification and snobbish-ness is a really powerul topic there, but not really talked about openly so I can see why this film hit like a bomb-shell in their domestic cinema.
It's not the first time that a movie had a bigger impact in an asian market than the west due to unspoken cultural truths being raised.
In Japan "Godzilla, mothra and king ghidorah" made a cultural splash for daring to bring up japanese war crimes in ww2, and having that godzilla being animated by the spirits of the victims of japanese war crimes which are simply not taught or discussed in japanese culture.
Testing the theory that Jim Carey puts out a decent film once per decade (and maybe Zooey, a bit), if so it's not this one, the flimsy if understandable premise being if Terence Stamp tells you to do something you best had dissolves into predictable twaddle as Jim's gonna Jim and Ms D had the MPDG cranked to 11
@Easy E: I also led to a ton of bad comedies titled "Bad [x]" I think. Not sure if it was her last Hollywood film with a wider release. I think Sex Tape came after that one?
@Pacific: Aye, can't wait to watch it.
I just watched A Christmas Carol earlier tonight. The Patrick Steward version. As far as A Christmas Carol films go it's hard to stand out, and this one seems to be incredibly close to the book. Which is perfectly OK. It's a nice story, and Patrick Steward is able to carry this film well. Perfectly unoffensive, in my opinion the least creepy of the Christmas Carol films. Well made, but nothing outstanding.
Last night I watched The End of the World again. I really dig that film.Apart from the overblown ending I think it's right up there wish Shaun of the Dead; in terms of characters it's better, as a genre comedy it's not as funny, but it's really good.
I've always had a soft spot for the franchise, and the original is probably one of my favorite movies of all time
story is pretty standard in that it can be boiled down to
feth, graboids, better call Burt
no Jamie Kennedy in this one, which I'm good with, something about him annoys me, so i spent the last two movies hoping he would get eaten
I like how they've updated the design of the monsters the last few movies, and this one got back much more to the old vibe of Its out there, but you don't see
it til it strikes
Finally, the idea of hunting the beasts on an island would make a hell of a one-shot for an rgp, something sci-fi but either low or no magic
This was the one with Hugh Jackman, Russel Crowe, Amanda Seyfried, Helena Bonham Carter, Sasha Baron Cohen and Ann Hathaway.
The director really wanted to make this a different experience than seeing it at the play house. To do this, he made extensive use of close-ups and tight shots. This is something you would NEVER see on stage by the nature of the mediums. However, this technique really, really fails as the movie becomes static and boring despite the actors doing their best to "emote" at such close range.
The second option is that perhaps the director really hated the set designer and costumer. Despite being set in Paris in the early 19th Century, you would have a hard time telling! You never see anything beyond the actor's face for 95% of the film. It is a huge disservice to the material and work of the crew.
A huge disappointment. I almost fell asleep despite a talented cast. Russel Crowe can not sing either..... and his character maybe as Hugo made him; but he is completely unbelievable.
On the plus side, I did do some research on the June Rebellion of 1832 which is the setting for the film. I learned something new.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Sigur wrote: @Easy E: I also led to a ton of bad comedies titled "Bad [x]" I think. Not sure if it was her last Hollywood film with a wider release. I think Sex Tape came after that one?
I actually think Bad Santa started that trend and this was one of the later "cash-ins" on that idea.
BobtheInquisitor wrote: Was Tremors: Shrieker Island good? How does it compare to Tremors 2?
I found the movie enjoyable
I can't say I'd rate it as high as Tremors 2, but i certainly think its better then say 3 or 4
there are a few logic holes that i can recall, but nothing storybreaking (how is it people seem to forget the big wurms split into the smaller mobile beasties, especially given they killed a fething ton of them in major countries, given past movie events)
Given that its currently on nexflix, its worth watching at least the first few minutes to see what you think
Sigur wrote: @Easy E: I also led to a ton of bad comedies titled "Bad [x]" I think. Not sure if it was her last Hollywood film with a wider release. I think Sex Tape came after that one?
I actually think Bad Santa started that trend and this was one of the later "cash-ins" on that idea.
I would rather watch Bad Santa than this any day.
Aye, good point there. And I found Bad Santa to be very 'meh' already.
Love Tremors. Never bothered with the sequels, because I hear they're much, much worse.
Sigur wrote: @Easy E: I also led to a ton of bad comedies titled "Bad [x]" I think. Not sure if it was her last Hollywood film with a wider release. I think Sex Tape came after that one?
I actually think Bad Santa started that trend and this was one of the later "cash-ins" on that idea.
I would rather watch Bad Santa than this any day.
Aye, good point there. And I found Bad Santa to be very 'meh' already.
Love Tremors. Never bothered with the sequels, because I hear they're much, much worse.
Sex Tape.... I had totally forgotten about that.
I feel like these types of "late night" comedies and Rom-Coms have really suffered in the past few years due to the spiraling costs of making movies. It has just become much harder to make smaller and non-tentpole movies in the studio system now.
It was just on comet, and to my amazement they didn't blur or block cybil danning's b3wbz like some showings did.
This was a fun little star wars knockoff by roger corman with some decent acting talent and very low budget but high effort special effects for like 1981.
One thing I never noticed: Of all the mercenary ships it seems only the semi suicidal valkyrie's had an escape pod...
@Easy E: That may well be. Also - it's harder to make a comedy (and it's easier to fail I guess), than using that tried-and-tested formula they're applying to all the Disney blockbusters now. Bit of a shame really.
@Bobtheinquisitor: Dang, I may have to go watch tremors 2 then...
Over the past weeks I've been enjoying something quite out of the ordinary for me - an anime tv series. I felt like I needed to watch something 'new', so I searched Netflix for ANYTHING anime made before bloody 2004 (I'm not a fan of the abstract, overly clean, digital look of more modern things) and found Trigun. So I started watching it. Boy, I'm not used to watching anime any more. In my teens I watched Bubblegum Crisis (2032, because I have a soul), and of course I love it (because I have a soul and because the first scenes of the film basically reenact the first scenes of Streets of Fire, my favourite film). I also watched Neon Genesis Evangelion (and I loved it, because I have a soul, or SEELE, if you will, and because I was a male teenager during the late 1990s). Apart from that, of course the usual films, a bit some lighter tv shows such as dragonball or Dr.Slump, but never watched much more Anime any more since.
But I did enjoy Trigun a lot. Some stuff to get accustomed to, but in the end I really enjoyed the characters. Sympathetic characters. Of course there's a lot of silly stuff and it's getting all melodramatic at times, but it's got its heart in the right place, and it never gets too heavy. I can't dislike any of the main characters, in fact I like them. Recommended.
The very definition of 5/10. If this was MCU there's some elements that would be interesting for their wider implications, but as I believe this is essentially in a bubble of its own (little in joke there) then there's not a lot to recommend it, but not a lot that's flat-out bad, at least in execution, I have reservations over some of the concepts.
My God, this film has the most amazing Trivia section I have ever seen on IMDB.
Fitzcarraldo, one snippet "After a Peruvian logger was bitten by a deadly snake, he immediately cut off his own foot with a chainsaw to prevent the spread of the venom. Werner Herzog commented, "It was a good decision, he lived.""
I need to watch it again but remember it being quite sedentary, other than Klaus Kinski acting every scene at 110% as though it's his last ever acting role and he is going to die immediately after they cut the take.
A real oddity this one. One would have thought a comedy horror anthology starrring and directed by people like Mackenzie Crook, Johnny Vegas and Sophie Thompson would have at least registered on the radar, but I had no idea this film existed until I tripped over it on Prime Video.
Basic premise is a group of old friends meeting up to scatter the ashes of one of their group at the lake where they drowned, while indulging the group tradition of telling scary stories to one another.
Large parts feel like they've been adapted from a stage play, which is likely down to the limited cast and location. Amusing without being laugh out loud funny, a bit creepy without really being all that scary. It benefits from a short runtime keeping things tight and experienced comic actors keeping the dialogue snappy.
That a twist is coming is obvious, probably even expected given the genre, but it wasn't the twist I expected (and frankly if you watch this and correctly guess it, I'll give you the money myself.)
Given its only about 90mins and a lot of us have spare time right now, I'd say it's worth a watch.
Pacific wrote: My God, this film has the most amazing Trivia section I have ever seen on IMDB.
Fitzcarraldo, one snippet "After a Peruvian logger was bitten by a deadly snake, he immediately cut off his own foot with a chainsaw to prevent the spread of the venom. Werner Herzog commented, "It was a good decision, he lived.""
I need to watch it again but remember it being quite sedentary, other than Klaus Kinski acting every scene at 110% as though it's his last ever acting role and he is going to die immediately after they cut the take.
If you're a Kinski fan, have you see his 1985 movie "Creature", AKA "Titan find"? An in your face "alien" ripoff, with a respectful nod to the original "the thing" ,not too bad for an '85 movie with low budget. He's as over the top as usual. I looked for a clip of him from it on youtube but all i found was postings of the whole movie,l which is apparently dropped from copyright now.
Pacific Rim: Uprising.
I tuned in for a big fight scene, and I wanted to claw my eyes out.
So, you’ve got a robot and Godzilla-type chappy fighting each other, in a city that has clearly not been fully evacuated, if at all.
Huge skyscrapers are being destroyed every minute, causing millions upon millions in property damage and likely ruining the local economy for years to come.
The pilots of the mechs, instead of- for example- using manual controls to pilot them, are using (presumably finicky) holographic things. This seems like a silly system to use when it’s going to be being bashed about.
A biopic of the group in the title. They were an influential all-female rock band in the late 70's. You may have heard of them, as Joan Jett and Lita Ford are alumni of the band.
If you have seen ANY rock star bio-pics you know the model and storyline pretty well. However, this movies camera really loves to ogle the ladies and it feels way more like an extended music video than a movie.
All that being said, the performances are pretty solid from Dakota Fanning, Kristen Stewart, and Michael Shannon. Shannon is a hoot as the band's agent. Great stuff from him! You can also tell that playing Rock N' Roll music in a band is the most important thing in the world for Joan Jett, but not so much some of the other girls.
There is also a great scene where the agent is "preparing" the band to face male hecklers, so he has a bunch of kids throw garbage at them while they practice. Later, when performing at a house the crowd gets rowdy and starts throwing bottles and cans. The band casually knocks them back with their instruments while continuing to play, deflecting some into the thrower's face.
Pacific wrote: My God, this film has the most amazing Trivia section I have ever seen on IMDB.
Fitzcarraldo, one snippet "After a Peruvian logger was bitten by a deadly snake, he immediately cut off his own foot with a chainsaw to prevent the spread of the venom. Werner Herzog commented, "It was a good decision, he lived.""
I need to watch it again but remember it being quite sedentary, other than Klaus Kinski acting every scene at 110% as though it's his last ever acting role and he is going to die immediately after they cut the take.
If you're a Kinski fan, have you see his 1985 movie "Creature", AKA "Titan find"? An in your face "alien" ripoff, with a respectful now to the original "the thing" ,not too bad for an '85 movie with low budget. He's as over the top as usual. I looked for a clip of him from it on youtube but all i found was postings of the whole movie,l which is apparently dropped from copyright now.
I've got a Werner Herzog boxset (nearly all Kinski films) but that isn't one of them - will check it out, thanks!
Pacific wrote: My God, this film has the most amazing Trivia section I have ever seen on IMDB.
Fitzcarraldo, one snippet "After a Peruvian logger was bitten by a deadly snake, he immediately cut off his own foot with a chainsaw to prevent the spread of the venom. Werner Herzog commented, "It was a good decision, he lived.""
I need to watch it again but remember it being quite sedentary, other than Klaus Kinski acting every scene at 110% as though it's his last ever acting role and he is going to die immediately after they cut the take.
If you're a Kinski fan, have you see his 1985 movie "Creature", AKA "Titan find"? An in your face "alien" ripoff, with a respectful now to the original "the thing" ,not too bad for an '85 movie with low budget. He's as over the top as usual. I looked for a clip of him from it on youtube but all i found was postings of the whole movie,l which is apparently dropped from copyright now.
I've got a Werner Herzog boxset (nearly all Kinski films) but that isn't one of them - will check it out, thanks!
if you need a little inventive to check this movie out, here's a very spoilery review by brandon tenold, one of YTs better reviewers. He seems to dwell on kinski a lot in it.
To start with, the first one was no great shakes. However, it was nice to see more Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russel's righteous beard in this.
Other than that..... there is a lot going on, but not much worth talking about.
Sucker Punch I have read a lot of hate on the internet for this film.... but I liked it.
The first 10-15 minutes where they wordlessly set-up Baby Dolls backstory is really well done piece of cinema. I was actually disappointed when character's actually started to talk.
Next, this is clearly a movie about mental illness. It is not so much subtext, as a clear theme. Sure, the movie wishes it was The Matrix; but for a multi-layered take on "what is reality" I was satisfied how it all tied together..
As the movie went on I found it more, and more interesting. The big "reveal" was not much of a reveal, but thematically important.
The biggest distraction was the "Dance Scenes" where we go into some ludicrous music video fight scenes with fantastic (in the unreal sense) set-ups and over-the-top everything. These actually distracted a bit from the main film and its point.
My biggest complaint is that ultimately Zach Snyder can not make a film that isn't about cynicism and nihilism. Sure, he tries to dress it up with some weak sauce "Uplifting Message" that doesn't even make sense when you consider the outcome of the film..... but whatever.
Finally, a lot of people complain about the obviously exploitative elements of the film. However, I think they were thematically necessary. Why? It is clear that Baby Doll has suffered from sexual, mental, and physical abuse from her stepfather. Frequently, victims of abuse manifest their trauma by oversexualization. To me, this a visual shorthand for the trauma our protagonist had gone through, and how she saw her "value" to the world from that trauma. Sure, I am probably over-thinking it.... but I felt it was thematically consistent. Maybe I am just a pig?
Ultimately, a movie that is worth considering and thinking about. That is more than I can say about a lot of other films.
What can be said about the film that seared this image into our minds?
(Spoilered to spare virgin eyes from the horror)
Spoiler:
It is not a good film by any stretch. But it is an interesting one. For example just how many naked women can a film have and still be entirely unerotic?
What can be said about the film that seared this image into our minds?
(Spoilered to spare virgin eyes from the horror)
Spoiler:
It is not a good film by any stretch. But it is an interesting one. For example just how many naked women can a film have and still be entirely unerotic?
Zardoz (Please never give away the deep meaning of the title, make people see it to get it.) gets a lot of flak for the line "The gun in good, the penis is evil."
Yeah, but try showing both on tv and see which one you get more grief over. And evewryone remembers connery in the dominatrix boots and orange diaper, but no one remembers him in the full bridal dress and veil.
BTW, a miniature zardoz head would make a great pieceof tabletop game terrain.
Surf Ninjas is free on YouTube. So, we watched it.
Imagine Jackie Chan style choreography and Masters of the Universe level production value with Leslie Nielsen and Rob Schneider at the peak of their declines. Watch it for Ernie Reyes Jr and Sr, Tone Loc, and some truly bizarre studio-note-driven plot devices.
Aye, back when I watched the Nostalgia Critic (as we all did, don't try to tell me you didn't ) I watched a "review" of his of that film. Doesn't look entirely enticing, despite it being on youtube.
Speaking of youtube, for years there's been a film I pretty closely associate with christmas, and that's Nobody's Fool from 1994. A late Paul Newman film for which he got an Oscar nomination IIRC. Just a film about people in the US. Great ensemble piece. Melancholic, funny, all the good stuff. Excellent acting. Highly recommended. AND comes with greek subtitles too! So what's not to love?
Automatically Appended Next Post: Last night I zapped through tv channels and was met with a film which surprised me.
Dreamcatcher (2003)
Based on the Stephen King novel of the same name. Missed the beginning, so I was twice as confused as you'd be with this film anyway. It's about four childhood friends (Thomas Jane, Jason Lee [whom i ALWAYS mistake for Ryan Reynolds if he doesn't wear a beard], Timothy Olyphant, the guy from Life and Homeland with the small mouth) who get caught up in an alien invasion in [snowy forest area]. Morgan Freeman leads a tip top secret army unit who have been fending off alien attacks for decades, Tom Sizemore is his right-hand man.
Now that is a very interesting film. A very, very interesting film, constantly meandering between horror, sci-fi and Steven King film. Along with a very, very strong parodistic bent. And that makes the film charming. Also of course: The cast is pretty impressive, and they seem to have fun doing this film too.
The downside though is that this film is a huge mess. It works with future visions (all of the friends got magic powers in their childhood from a mentally challenged friend of theirs, because this is a Stephen King story), flashbacks to scenes before, childhood scenes, what's currently going on with other characters, and so on. I was not able to follow what's happening, but it certainly wasn't boring, because there was always stuff happening and somehow it kept me guessing what would happen next.
There's some hilarious stuff in there, some vaguely scary stuff, lots of splattery stuff and much confusing stuff. And in the end Tom Sizemore downs a helicopter gunship with a colt he got from John Wayne via Morgan Freeman.
I'm pretty sure this is a 'cult classic' with some people, because it's a pretty unique and entertaining thing, even though it's very long (2 hours I think) and confusing as heck. But it's got a killer cast, all of whom seeming to be really into it and having a good time. Especially so the guy from Life/Homeland, who's got some really fun scenes.
Take it or Leave it. Can't give it any other verdict.
There is nothing in this movie you have not seen before a million times. Well, except maybe an FBI agent referring to a US cars rear as a "Boot" and not a "trunk".
Despite it being super formulaic and totally predictable, it was fine. The main protagonist is not likable at all and I have really not been into this in my cinema lately.
At the 36th Golden Raspberry Awards, it won in the categories for Worst Director, Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel and Worst Picture (the latter tied with Fifty Shades of Grey) and was also nominated for Worst Screen Combo and Worst Screenplay.
To think, this was one of the first Marvel movies to do well in the theatre. That opening scene is still epic, and totally gets you into the movie.
Snipes performance is.... weird because Blade is not a likable and has some strange mannerisms. Just enough for you to realize that this guy is:
1. Not fully human
2. Messed from years of trauma
Stephen Dorf and his gang of Vamp villains is also really engaging.
The Vamps as portrayed in the film are clearly biological and not Undead. After all, their are full-blood vampires who are "born" as Vampires. In addition, they are not immortal, but just live a long time compared to Humans. In a way, they are more like Fantasy elves than undead, soulless monsters.
In a way, Blade is another twist or play on the "what it real" tropes that were popular in the time period this movie was made.
The Christmas Wife This was a made for TV movie in 1988 starring Jason Robards. The transfer looks like it came directly from a VHS tape, complete with tracking static at some points.
The movie is about a man who lost his wife that year. He decides to spend time at their family cabin instead of visiting his son's family. However, to avoid loneliness he hires an older woman to spend Christmas with him.
This is the type of movie that could not be made today. It is almost more like a play as there are very few sets, no special effects, and it is completely dialogue and character driven. The main drive of the story is about the motivations of the characters. I found this incredibly re-freshing!
The movie has some excellent lines about what it is like to by an older person in America. I do not think these truths have changed since the late 80's. It was a mix of sad, re-affirming, and melancholy. Robards kills in a film that he could have just phoned it in, but he doesn't.
I strongly recommend this film to anyone with older folks still in their family to watch before you connect with them for the Holidays. You may have some new insight.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Last night I zapped through tv channels and was met with a film which surprised me.
Dreamcatcher (2003)
Based on the Stephen King novel of the same name. Missed the beginning, so I was twice as confused as you'd be with this film anyway. It's about four childhood friends (Thomas Jane, Jason Lee [whom i ALWAYS mistake for Ryan Reynolds if he doesn't wear a beard], Timothy Olyphant, the guy from Life and Homeland with the small mouth) who get caught up in an alien invasion in [snowy forest area]. Morgan Freeman leads a tip top secret army unit who have been fending off alien attacks for decades, Tom Sizemore is his right-hand man.
Now that is a very interesting film. A very, very interesting film, constantly meandering between horror, sci-fi and Steven King film. Along with a very, very strong parodistic bent. And that makes the film charming. Also of course: The cast is pretty impressive, and they seem to have fun doing this film too.
The downside though is that this film is a huge mess. It works with future visions (all of the friends got magic powers in their childhood from a mentally challenged friend of theirs, because this is a Stephen King story), flashbacks to scenes before, childhood scenes, what's currently going on with other characters, and so on. I was not able to follow what's happening, but it certainly wasn't boring, because there was always stuff happening and somehow it kept me guessing what would happen next.
There's some hilarious stuff in there, some vaguely scary stuff, lots of splattery stuff and much confusing stuff. And in the end Tom Sizemore downs a helicopter gunship with a colt he got from John Wayne via Morgan Freeman.
I'm pretty sure this is a 'cult classic' with some people, because it's a pretty unique and entertaining thing, even though it's very long (2 hours I think) and confusing as heck. But it's got a killer cast, all of whom seeming to be really into it and having a good time. Especially so the guy from Life/Homeland, who's got some really fun scenes.
Take it or Leave it. Can't give it any other verdict.
Stephen King adaptations always vary massively in quality and I would definitely put this film down there with one of the worst.
It's years since I've seen it but I remember Morgan Freeman being horrendously miscast as the film antagonist.
As is normally the way, the book is pretty excellent. I would recommend it if the film hasn't totally spoilt your appetite! (You will never read a fuller description, with better use of language, of someone visiting the toilet.. )
A Holiday movie with a pretty good cast from 2004. It has Penelope Cruz, Paul Walker, Alan Arkin, Susan Sarandon, and Robin Williams all directed by..... Chazz Palmeteiri (sp)! Well....
As an ensemble piece it holds together pretty well. Everybody pretty much does their thing and provide solid performances and Penelope Cruz has a great screen presence. Chazz even has a small cameo!
It was a solid Holiday movie, and mostly avoided the over-the-top cheese you get in most Holiday movies.
It is weird to think that two members of the main cast have since died!
Saw this in theaters and it really rubbed me the wrong way. At the time, it seemed like transparent China-pandering.
Watched it on blu ray the other night and was impressed by its workmanlike competence despite falling far short of the fascinating vision of del Toro.
I enjoyed that it seemed to be aware of what kind of film it was. It didn’t aim nearly as high, but it hit its target, in my eyes.
It’s the kind of movie where the somewhat villainous CEO has to redeem herself ...by strapping into a giant scrapbot and parajumping into the fray to save the day. One is either onboard with that or not.
I am decidedly not. That is a thread that, to the extent you pull on it, unravels the entire movie.
About that utterly awful baby scrap mech: that piece of gak is the mascot for everything that is wrong with PR:U and is the manifestation of the betrayal of del Toro’s vision for the franchise.
It’s a movie where overlooking flaws ends up being more important than emphasizing the bright spots. And the better one is able to make that a single process, the better one will enjoy it.
Man, I have watched a lot of Christmas movies this year, and I do not expect that to slow down anytime soon. I have watched some real bad movies too, but this one is just insipid and insulting.
It is the basic Hallmark Holiday movie trope where a big city business woman goes to a small town for work and ends up finding the true meaning of Christmas! Just a terrible insulting premise and delivery to all involved. The actors do their best and they are not to blame at all, this is all the producers and writers fault. The worst themes and cliches of Christmas movies are on display here and it makes me mad!
On the plus side:
- Somehow, this movie has Morgan Fairchild AND Chevy Chase in it!
- As a corporate goon, I could relate to how the small towners reacted to the business consultant rolling into town. I have experienced it myself! The front line folks are happy you are there to help. The Higher-ups are mad as hell and resent you. However, in real-life most folks are professional enough to keep it toned down and not obvious.
It's a Russian superhero film. A carbon copy of Marvel films, lacking the IP and these actors. It's actually rather enlightening as to how these films work if you take these two factors out. It's less enjoyable to watch, but more about telling the viewer "LOOK. THIS IS WHAT YOU PAY DISNEY MONEY FOR. Better yourself.".
Well, that's a bit harsh. One of the superheroes is a dude who turns into a bear, and I'm fairly certain that this dude's a cult figure in some internet subculture. I really enjoyed how bland the baddie is, but at least the exposition was very efficient.
It's a bad, bland Russian superheroes/sci-fi film. Even got into cinemas in Germany as far as I read, but I don't know how well it did. If you're interested in exactly the same take on superhero films as everybody else takes, Watch it. If not, Pass.
I also watched most of The Firm. A perfectly serviceable film, well-made, well acted. Surprisingly long. But perfectly OK.
Last night I watched There's something about Mary. It's just such good fun, it's upbeat, it very, very, very rarely drags, it works. If you can say that about a comedy you know it's good.
As I said, I have been watching a lot of Holiday movies lately..... I really just went to TUBI and then to the the Holiday movie section and just started watching with almost no filter (I skipped knock-off CGI animated films though. I have some standards!).
I do not recommend this approach. There is a lot of really bad, mixed in with better than expected, and meh.
Anyway, here is today's serving.....
Cup of Cheer This was a nice palate cleanser that came at the right time. It is basically a Police Squad/Airplane/Austin Powers comedy about Christmas movies like Christmas in Vermont.
First strike against it, it is an Indie Canadian film! Red flag! However, there are a lot of comedy swings, with a fair share of misses, a few base hits, and a couple laugh out loud home runs.
Some of my favorite one liners:
Karen: Are these Gluten-free?
Mary: No, they are $5 dollars.
And then this gem:
Mary: I always like to think what my dead parents would do in a situation like this?
Keith: Probably die?
If that is not the style of humor you like, then avoid. However, after watching the cliche ridden, Hallmark Fall of Fame, Gakfest that was Christmas in Vermont this one hit the spot!
A really weird movie, almost looks like a kids movie, but it's not.
Some sort of post apocalypse movie with rag puppets and a monster. Hard to follow plot. Very dark and creepy.
Back when I was in highschool and that movie came out my friends and I came to the conclusion that the original draft of that script had all of the characters dying and the evil machine somehow absorbing their souls and becoming "good" and rebuilding the world as pennance for its crimes. However our theory is that the studio had other ideas and wanted a traditional happy ending. Hence the confusing plot and odd ending/wrap up.
A TV series with lots of endearing awkwardness and healthy dose of snark. Watch it for Catherine O’Hara’s hats if for nothing else.
I've just started watching this off of a recommendation and am really enjoying it. Really good script, characters are amusing and it's in short 20 minute episodes so great if you just want something to watch quickly.
A conceptual if not narrative sequel to Black Water, Abyss takes the same largely formulaic monster movie paradigm as its predecessor, with a large Saltwater Croc as the villain, and doesn't really do anything new with it.
Black Water, while not offering much to recommend itself in the first instance, could at least be praised for experimenting with the idea that crocs don't need a huge amount of water depth to hunt in, and should you find yourself in muddy water, you'll potentially find yourself in real trouble.
Abyss does nothing apart from move the whole idea into a cave (so now it's dark and murky) and present one of the best collections of clichés for you to fill out your horror movie bingo card in some time.
Also, even on what was presumably a low budget, how does it manage to make the CGI elements worse than you'd get in 90s TV shows? There's one sequence where I swear the Croc misses about 15 frames and just jumps across the screen. It's a real shame as there's either some other CG sequences or practical effects that take real advantage of the lighting and murk to look really effective, only to be let down by a few rank amateur almost unfinished looking shots.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Oh, I will give the script a few extra bonus points for making the Croc none of either omnipotent, omniscient or omnipresent. When the protagonists are physically scattered around the cave, the Croc is very definitely not.
Surprisingly good, (maybe not such a surprise since it's the same team as Batman TAS, Superman TAS and Justice League Unlimited), stylish and fun. Some of the tech is a bit outdated but hey it's 20 years old. Recommend.
Browsed over it on Netflix before, but always thought better of it and passed. Last night I caught it on TV. German dubbed version, whatever.
The setting is a wedding, it's used mainly as a backdrop to the stuff that's going on. The characters are a rag-tag bunch of 'misfits' who weren't deemed suitable for being sat at any of the other tables. I'm sure most of you were at weddings before, it's usual wedding stuff. You seat people together who fit some sort of category or circle. Only if you are a complete psychopath you'll "mix it up" by making everybody uncomfortable and flee the table asap as you seat complete strangers who have nothing to do with each other at one table.
Anyway, Table 19 is the table of people they didn't know where to put really, either because they're figures of the past who play no part in the wedding couple's lives any more or are invited out of obligation, and so on. Early on the table is referred to as "the table for the people of whom they secretly wish they'd not show up at all". It's a very clever setup, because it allows for cool character stuff. Basically the Breakfast Club for grown-ups, but in such a situation which isn't unlike detention. And Breakfast Club is one of the greatest films in the world, so that wouldn't be bad at all, right?
Well, it's a bit of a broader, basically romantic comedy. But it goes about things in a very clever way. At several points I groaned at the screen in anticipation of annoying things happening, but very, very, very rarely they did. In one later scene especially I was fully willing to give up on the film if a specific thing happened. And it didn't! This bloody film is clever about things. Especially characters. Some are flatter than others (the kid and Steven Merchant), but what the heck, they're just a kid and pretty much a broken person.
In the middle it dips a bit deep into "US indie comedy" territory with some tropes (the effin' music!) [a few weeks ago someone very fittingly claimed that 99% of US indie films were basically regular Hollywood films which skipped washing their hair for a day], but overall there are some really interesting stories in this one and surprisingly nuanced characters. And it had me audibly laugh at least twice and tear up in the end. What else do you want, right?
Watch It. It's good. And so is Anna Kendrick. The whole cast is actually. It's starring Lisa Kudrow, who probably got the most interesting and complex story of the characters.
Watched all 3 Starship Troopers films ($10 box set on Amazon). The perfect set to paint Cadians by.
The first is just a classic and everyone should see it. I'm amazed there are people who did not get that it was a satire of American media and culture. Just amazed.
The second film is... a passable science fiction horror film as a squad try to survive as a new kind of bug infiltrates their ranks. It is definitely improved by the twist at the end. "Shed no tears for me, my glory lives forever!"
The third has a bit of a return to the humor and satire and is fairly watchable. The long-awaited debut of the Marauder power armor suits is a bit of a bust, just some unremarkable CGI, but the return of the news items more than makes up for it as the military government demonizes the peace movement and religious resurgence for threatening the war effort.
So just about the perfect painting movies, either taken on the surface level as good old bug shooting movies or as parodies of war films.
I watched Wonder Woman 1984. Apparently, people hate this one? I can't quite figure out why. Yeah, it was goofy but I felt like everything had a good internal logic that let me ignore the goofy bits as "just the way that this world works" and I think the villain was leagues better than most Marvel villains.
balmong7 wrote: I watched Wonder Woman 1984. Apparently, people hate this one? I can't quite figure out why. Yeah, it was goofy but I felt like everything had a good internal logic that let me ignore the goofy bits as "just the way that this world works" and I think the villain was leagues better than most Marvel villains.
It's worth watching if you have HBO MAX.
Like the first one it's too long, hopefully a reverse cut with 45mins chopped out is coming, also Cheeta was some decent lighting away from Cats level nightmare fuel, but I'm not the target audience as superfilms peaked at Logan / Ragnorok
Also
The Old Guard
Normally keen on Charlize does a thing movies but this was two hours of plodding tedium with video game shooty bits we've seen in every Wick wannabe
On a whim I watched Onyx Equinox. It's a Crunchy Roll original based on Mesoamerican mythology and I have found myself very very pleased! I like Dragon Prince as a successor to Avatar, but honestly I think this series is a much more worthy spiritual successor particularly in it vividly depicts some of the same themes.
It's only 12 episode thus far, but another season is confirmed to be on the way. It uses higher quality animation, which I consider a major bonus after a few years of western funded shows uses cheap looking CGI. It can be a bit generic at times. Really only the art of the gods and some vistas really stands out but attention to detail is amazing in some areas. The series references real world cultures with a clear eye for their differences (Zapotec vs Maya vs Aztec for example), and the use of a Mexican-American development team really pays off in some of the details like Tezcatlipoca's left leg, Quetzlcoatl's big good nature in a cosmology dependent on human sacrifice, and even an eye for more obscure cultures like Classic Veracruz peoples! If you like Mesoamerica, the series is great just for how it rewards you for knowing what's what, but also manages to be coherent enough that anyone unfamiliar will probably be thrilled by the setting's novelties.
Character development is a bit spotty, but I see room for improvement in a second season.
Be warned that it plays Mesoamerican myth fairly straight, human sacrifice and blood hungry gods and all. I consider it a massive bonus. The series isn't afraid to show gore, body horror, or nudity but never feels gratuitous! It's all measured with a respect for the source material that I think would be really hard to replicate.
Wow. Well, most of us will have heard of how this film came to be and how many times it almost did not come to be. As far as I know two documentaries were made about the production of this film.
Aaaaanyway. The plot revolves around a jaded advertisements director played by Adam Driver who's ordered to make a film about Don Quixote in Spain, but not caring about it at all. He remembers back to when he was a student and made student film about the same topic many years ago, also in Spain. And it goes on from there. It's really hard to give a plot synopsis as not to spoil anything and also because I probably couldn't comprehensively recall it just now. It can be said that a lot of things happen, and it's quite a romp.
There's a lot of things going on in these 120 minutes of this film. Many will find it too long, I assume. And I assume I wouldn't appreciate this film quite as much without the faint idea I got of the production issues of this film in the back of my head. But I did. It messes with the perception of reality and dream/delusion as Driver's character more and more has to give in to the delusions of "Don Quixote".
It's just amazing that a film like this can still be made. It looks so great. Especially the last third or quarter takes place in this lavish half-world, full of costumes and contraptions and scenery. It's a cinematic film. The casting is impressive - great character actors all around.
Watch It. Simply because it's unique and a film that stands by its own.
I have not seen this since I initially saw it and had good feelings about it. Here are some random things I noticed:
1. Kat Dennings is in this?
2. Having worked at a big box Electronic Store like the one in the movie, they nailed the atmosphere. It was exactly like that.
3. The movie features two scenes of painting miniatures.
4. I forgot that in the end the main character sheds his "Nerdiness" to become a married, non-virgin man. Lame.
5. I had forgotten all the great actors that were in this film.
Machete Kills
It had been a long time since I have seen Machete. However, in the tradition of all solid grindhouse fare, it doesn't matter at all!
It is a classic grindhouse style movie with over the top violence where that is the gag! This movie also features a ton of well-known actors in very clever cameos and roles. It reminds me a lot of films like Black Dynamite, Undercover Brother, and Austin Powers. Not as obviously funny though, just its very earnest OTT nature is what makes it funny. A love letter to B-movies for sure.
There is an amazing fake trailer for Machete Kills..... in Space! By the gods, I want this movie to be made.
Not worth it. It's slow and dull. The characters are all morons, the plot is preposterously overly sentimental, and the film is driven predominantly by author fiat rather than anything that actually makes sense. It's got a bunch of musings in it too, but I'm pretty sure none of it means anything and is just a case of someone thinking a lone character talking forlornly at the audience is 'deep.'
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Kid_Kyoto wrote: About halfway through the live action Titans show and...
Well the Doom Patrol have been on screen for half an episode and they're already more interesting then any of the Titans characters.
Yeah, I found the Titans TV series to be incredibly uninteresting which is kind of amazing really. It was boring throughout the first season and its boring in the second season.
Easy E wrote: Young Justice the cartoon is greater than Live action Teen Titans. Fact!
Young Justice is DC's only consistently good TV/film property (currently). Doom Patrol was a little too erratic for my tastes, but I can see why others might prefer it to various films and shows.
We should get season 4 this year, too. 22 of 26 episodes were fully recorded back in november. Just on HBO Max rather than Netflix.
The thing I hope they fix this season is that they don't simply ditch some of the more interesting side characters like they did from seasons 1 and 2.
I think DC's animated film franchise has been massively better than their live action films, but this one really blew me away. Does anyone else miss the old DC cartoons from the 90s and 00s? The ones that started with Batman The Animated series and ended with Justice League Unlimited?
Well you should probably watch this movie! It uses the same animation style, and even brings back the old voice actors fro Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman from the animated series of old! It doesn't seem to be set in the the universe, but the sheer fact it has the animation style and old voice actors made me geek out when the movie started. It also features Mr. Terrific, Miss Martian, Jessica Cruz, and Starboy. The plot is solid and fun, with great character work and a simple plot, but in a way where simple and fun totally works. There's a subtheme of coping with mental illness and trauma to the film, which maybe doesn't reach for the heights it could have but I think it makes the movie better that it didn't try to go past what it could grasp.
Highly recommended for anyone who misses the bygone era of DC's classic animation franchise!
Soul was amazing. Jamie Foxx and Tina Fey knocked it out of the park with their banter. I wouldn't put it quite on par with Coco, but it's pretty damn close.
Nice costumes, when do the musical numbers start?
Cool cast, when do the musical numbers start?
Lily Collins is cute, when do the musical numbers start?
Oh, one song, over the end credits.
Should've been a musical.
Bit late to the party on this one but it's a bit sappy but the cast sells it and Ms Plaza .might be the new best thing ever
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
Started ok but slid into the usual CW format depressingly quickly, the alt universe was kind of fun, especially the authenticley rubbish Salem puppet and og Aunt Zs snarky description of every CW show ever
I just watched several 'select, pivotal' episodes of the 70's japanese spiderman live action series.
Think spiderman by way of voltron.
Spiderman is a japanese guy given a sipder costume and gadgets by an intelligent spider from another planet who's peaceful race was destroyed by evil alines now coming to earth.
He fights the aliens with various spider powers provided by his suit, and a 150' tall giant robot spiderman he pilots against the giant monsters the aliens send to destroy tokyo over week.
Matt Swain wrote: I just watched several 'select, pivotal' episodes of the 70's japanese spiderman live action series.
Think spiderman by way of voltron.
Spiderman is a japanese guy given a sipder costume and gadgets by an intelligent spider from another planet who's peaceful race was destroyed by evil alines now coming to earth.
He fights the aliens with various spider powers provided by his suit, and a 150' tall giant robot spiderman he pilots against the giant monsters the aliens send to destroy tokyo over week.
My Filipino friend told me about this when I was kid. I didn't believe him.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Terminator 6 - Grrl Powrr
Found this on Amazon Prime for free. So far it's better than Terminator 4 - Terminator vs Batman, Terminator 3 - Terminator vs Girl Terminator and about even with Terminator 5 - Terminator vs Daenerys Targaryen. But with 90 minutes to go still plenty of time to F it all up.
Whatever happened to Moon Bloodgood anyway?
EDIT
Finished it tonight and it was a perfectly cromulent Terminator film. The double terminator was cool, Carl more or less worked. Not sure why they needed to have a different evil AI, I mean just call it Skynet 2, and the revelation about Dani was necessary, the initial assumption seemed a stretch and no need to hide that information but whatever. Like I said cormulent. Not nearly as painful as the reviews seemed to imply.
Finished it tonight and it was a perfectly cromulent Terminator film. The double terminator was cool, Carl more or less worked. Not sure why they needed to have a different evil AI, I mean just call it Skynet 2, and the revelation about Dani was necessary, the initial assumption seemed a stretch and no need to hide that information but whatever. Like I said cormulent. Not nearly as painful as the reviews seemed to imply.
I am unreasonably fond of this movie, more so every time I see it, and I'm very grumpy it won't get a sequel because I think it was lining up some really interesting stuff it won't get to dig into now. The future war stuff we see here hit my "Preposterously Doomed Imperial Guard Last Stand" receptors exactly, and I would watch a hundred more movies of that Sarah Connor. I think Mackenzie Davis is 1 movie away from being huge, too.
For what it's worth though, I am very firmly convinced the reveal about Dani wasn't meant to be a reveal at all when the movie was shot, I think somebody decided to make it a reveal around the test screening stage, through the magic of a half assed reshoot and a lot of editing, and it came at a cost to her character and the movie generally. Which is a shame.
I think the problem is the movie we WANT to see, (and should have gotten with Terminator 4-Terminator vs Batman) is the future war against the machines.
As nice as car chases in modern America are, I want to see 2 hours of scruffy norms dressed in rags fighting off invincible killing machines with weapons made from the debris of civilization.
I want the film where it's Return of the Jedi and we're the damn ewoks. It's the Vietnam war and humanity are the Vietnamese farmers trying to fight supersonic jet bombers. And somehow they do, and somehow they win.
I think the idea of a 1980s Future War movie is very much a careful-wish-for case tbh. I don't think it can sustain a whole movie, and I don't think it's just run of bad luck that nobody can make an adult John Connor work for more than 5 mins at a time.
I'm not against hard sf war movies but it's not the appeal of Terminator for me and I don't think the specific elements of the Terminator future we get can be glued together coherently for the length of a feature. I think they're like old showstopper White Dwarf covers, they look amazing for the second you're looking at them, but if you saw them in live action you'd realise they make no sense.
I’d love to see the movie hinted at in the meeting of the machines—a time war for causal supremacy between multiple possible futures. Skynet vs Legion vs humanity vs ...?
The story could be simple and straight forward: a time soldier comes back to a devastated future, his family wiped out. His mission: go back and kill some machines.
There are a lot of simple stories that could be done.
Even a simple 'escort the civilians' mission, or a squad trying to get to (apparent) safety in the face of machine assaults, or a raid on an important facility that goes awry.
Part of the franchise's problem is it constantly tries for too big and too 'epic,' when it needs to focus on the small stuff. There's plenty of room for good 'future war' story. Especially for something as easy as a feature length film. Personalize the small group of protagonists, make the audience care if any are lost along the way, set up a climax and a spot of resolution. About 105 minutes or so.
Agree that small stories set in a larger universe can be very effective. We need more of that.....
Searching for Bobby Fischer A young boy is very good at Chess, and his father sets him up with a strict Chess teacher and starts taking him to Chess tournaments.
That is the story in a nutshell, but there is so much more going on here. This movie has layers of subtext, and tells a lot without telling the audience explicitly what it wants to tell them. Of course, it is all wrapped up in a standard sports cliche movie so it can be easy to overlook all that other stuff.
The movie has a ton of great character actors, and they are all delivering. This is a very strong film. When I think of this compared to other, more modern films; it is easy to recognize the strong writing and crafting that went into this one. Very enjoyable to watch and appreciate the craft of making movies.
Do you like the Nutcracker but wish it didn't have all that dancing and music and stuff but instead took a deep dive into the lore and mythology of the greater Nutcracker Cinematic Universe? When you see a ballet dancer dancing with snowflakes do you need someone to explain to you that this is about the realm of snowflakes?
Easy E wrote: Agree that small stories set in a larger universe can be very effective. We need more of that.....
Searching for Bobby Fischer A young boy is very good at Chess, and his father sets him up with a strict Chess teacher and starts taking him to Chess tournaments.
That is the story in a nutshell, but there is so much more going on here. This movie has layers of subtext, and tells a lot without telling the audience explicitly what it wants to tell them. Of course, it is all wrapped up in a standard sports cliche movie so it can be easy to overlook all that other stuff.
The movie has a ton of great character actors, and they are all delivering. This is a very strong film. When I think of this compared to other, more modern films; it is easy to recognize the strong writing and crafting that went into this one. Very enjoyable to watch and appreciate the craft of making movies.
Did this deal with his future mental issues? He was a sad example of the truism "Never was there born a genius who did not know at east a touch of madness." EDIT Never mind, i never saw it, just looked it up, it wasn;t about bobby fischer actually. A movie about him could have been interesting.
Army of Darkness
It’s pretty much a live action cartoon built onto a horror franchise. In terms of wacky horror sequels it’s somewhere between Gremlins 2 and Freddy’s Dead.
Ghostbusters 2.
It isn’t a classic like the first movie, but it’s still a fun ride. There are no boring scenes or character actors. My wife thought the Statue of Liberty seen was a shark-jump, though.
Interesting you mentioned Army of Darkness. I just started watching Starz Ash vs The Evil Dead.... too early to tell, but it seems like they did their homework on style. My wife said, "It's like a cartoony Supernatural."
War Horse
Entirely improbable storyline (I am waiting for someone to now link to the actual true story to show how probable it was!) of a horse who lives through WWI and the boy who loves it.
The horse's journey is a great way to capture vignette's of various smaller stories set in WWI from 1914 to the end. Things like the loss of innocence, the dawning horror of industrialized warfare, the impacts on the non-combatants, the influence of militarization, and other topics to try and capture the humanity and brutality of it all.
A Rom-Com from 1995 written by Alan Sorkin and starring.... a lot of big name people! The President of the US is a widower. He decided to date a lobbyists. Politics ensues.....
I have seen this movie dozens of time, just like I had watched Sabrina dozens of times. I still enjoyed it, BUT it just felt really different watching it this time. In a way, it felt really quaint, like a throwback to a simpler time and more innocent politics. You can never go back....
This exchange struck me deeply as still relevant today. Lewis is played by Michael J. Fox while the President is Michael Douglas:
Lewis Rothschild : [in the Oval Office] You have a deeper love of this country than any man I've ever known. And I want to know what it says to you that in the past seven weeks, 59% of Americans have begun to question your patriotism.
President Andrew Shepherd : Look, if the people want to listen to...
Lewis Rothschild: They don't have a choice! Bob Rumson is the only one doing the talking! People want leadership, Mr. President, and in the absence of genuine leadership, they'll listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone. They want leadership. They're so thirsty for it they'll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there's no water, they'll drink the sand.
President Andrew Shepherd : Lewis, we've had presidents who were beloved, who couldn't find a coherent sentence with two hands and a flashlight. People don't drink the sand because they're thirsty. They drink the sand because they don't know the difference.
Another graduate of the "Horror movies that tried to look, sound, act and feel like a Hammer movie" school of film, this features Roddy MCdowell as a british version of Norman bates who discovers a strange statue that was just brought into the museum he works in is actually the legendary Golem. (It looks radically different that the silent movie version, and is actually pretty striking)
McDowell's character having been beaten down, abused and exploited all his life and suffering serious mental issues is quickly corrupted by the power he now has, but even has he is he realizes what he's done and seems to regret it, in one scene he even takes steps to protect others from being corrupted by the golem's power and to keep the golem from being used by others. Also he seems to be trying to explain himself to the golem, and even in a way apologizes to it for misusing it. This was pretty much te best scene in the movie and McDowell makes is plain his character regrets in some ways what he's done and is doing but just can't stop himself after a lifetime of being stepped on.
McDowell's acting really carries this movie, as as far far british horror goes its a welcome change from the endless vampire/Frankenstein movies hammer was churning out. Recommended.
McDowell as he begins to realize the "statue" has changed position slightly.
A cheap, comedy starring Ken Jeoung and the Hoff. Some sketchy acting, and a few good lines. However, it is nothing to write home about, so I will move on......
Agatha Christie and the Truth of Murder
A fictional account of what Ms. Christie was doing when she disappeared for 11 days.
According to this, she was trying to help solve a murder! This time of a nurse from the Great War who gets clubbed to death on a train. All the potential suspects are gathered together with a fake inheritance, and then it all starts to revealed.
Spoiler:
It is refreshing that the most likely killers are in fact the killers! That was the point of the story, to teach Mrs. Christie that murder is pretty straight forward.
A nice Detective Inspector character is in this as well. Rather blunt, straight forward, and smart fellow.
The Polka King
A Polish Polka musician in Philly starts to sell unauthorized investments. This is a slow burn comedy. The main character is a try hard do-gooder who ends up being a villain.
JB Smoove is a SEC officer that delivers the best line of the movie, which I am paraphrasing.
All they do is complain about taxes being too high, regulations being too odious, and the government being inefficient. Then, one guy steals their money and who do they come crying to? The government.
AVA
Jessica Chastain plays a killer for some nameless organization. She has 40+ kills, each one netting her about $75K. (Aside: That actually sounds somewhat accurate, if a little on the high side!) Anyway, the Company wants to "end her contract". Things escalate from there.
John Malkovich does a good job playing her mentor and handler. Colin Farrel looks terrible in a moustache. There are a lot of side plots and family business to tie-off so we can get to the resolution.
Ends in a cryptic way so you as the audience can interpret it how you like. I prefer to think it is an ode to the cycle of violence, and we now know what Ava really cared about and was willing to sacrifice for. It ended with where it should have.
This is a cute little anime film they put up on netflix late last year. It's fine. The premise is that the main girl can turn into a cat and the boy she likes finds her when she is a cat and takes her in thinking she is a stray. prompting an identity crisis after the boy refuses her advances as a human and she begins to consider being a cat forever because at least he loves the stray cat version of her.
It honestly comes together in a pretty OK way but the set up is just awful. The main girl is basically a stalker and any reasonable person would take on a restraining order. Early on its revealed, she became a cat specifically to see him and the fact he took her in was a happy accident. Which then kinda forces a creepy vibe to the entire relationship for a good portion of the movie.
I personally don't think I would recommend it. but if you really are curious, it's not a bad way to spend an hour and forty-five minutes.
Oliver Stone's bio-pic of Alexander the Great. This movie is three hours long, and it does a lot of telling and not showing to cover the subject matter at hand by using Anthony Hopkins as a narrator as Ptolemy. Wow, if they tried to film it all..... how long would it be?
I was actually pretty impressed with the film being relatively accurate (Often choosing one version of events over another, but still a version that exists!) with the story line, the props, and the sets. Really top notch work.
It gets to be a bit much and long, and the narration does it no favors; even from Hopkins level acting skill! However, I enjoyed it overall and it got my family to ask me a bit about Ancient History and warfare so that is a plus!
A surrealistic take on Shakespeare's 'titus andronicus", this movie is....surreal.
Using the exact dialog old Willie wrote, but in a world with modern technology like guns, cars, video games, radio, etc.
It is sexist, as was a lot of shakespeare's stuff, as in when tamara begs titus to space her son from a terrible death titus refuses and kills him horribly in accordance with roman custom. When tamara goes after his family in revenge she's the queen of the universe.
There's some racism in it to, as the most evil (And damn proud of it!) person in it is a black man named Aaron, who is pure evil simply for the sake of being evil. His own line was "Let other men dream of good deeds and heaven's grace. Aaron would have his soul black as is his face." While evil just for the sake of being evil and reveling in it characters are usually boring and tiresome, Aaron manages to somehow be interesting in a horrible sort of way.
But it was made faithful to the bard's writing and deserves credit for that, and Anthony Hopkins plays titus as arguably more insane than hannibal lecter.
Based on classic literature well acted and intense, if you like surreal you'll love this.
Oliver Stone's bio-pic of Alexander the Great. This movie is three hours long, and it does a lot of telling and not showing to cover the subject matter at hand by using Anthony Hopkins as a narrator as Ptolemy. Wow, if they tried to film it all..... how long would it be?
I was actually pretty impressed with the film being relatively accurate (Often choosing one version of events over another, but still a version that exists!) with the story line, the props, and the sets. Really top notch work.
It gets to be a bit much and long, and the narration does it no favors; even from Hopkins level acting skill! However, I enjoyed it overall and it got my family to ask me a bit about Ancient History and warfare so that is a plus!
Yeah, I also kinda enjoyed that Alexander film.
Detective Pikachu (2019)
It takes place in a city in which pokémon and people live alongside, much more like spouses than the usual trainer/pokémon dynamic. This way the film cleverly got around some of the problematic moral bits the whole pokémon thing comes with. Anyway, it's about a boy who basically inherits his father's Pikachu BUT can also understand what he's saying rather than just interpreting various variants of "pika pika". Together they have to solve the mystery of the boy's father's mysterious death.
I really like the approach they took to this whole thing. The concept requires viewers to suspend a LOT of disbelief, but these usually are the interesting films. The main achievement here is that they took the material seriously and put thought into making this a film for the fans. There are no painful amounts of exposition, the film doesn't talk down to the viewer. I'm by no means big into pokémon or know many of them beyond the original 150 ones. But what I saw was pretty impressive and at times just seeing these creatures interact with the rest of the world is just neat.
The story is forgettable. It simply lives by the fact that this is actors interacting with pokémon and seeing pokémon behave as they would. That's a lot of fun. Yes, yes, Deadpool makes a lot of jokes. A LOT. Thing is - and I think that's the big thing this guy is capable of - he never gets really annoying and he's able to let emotional scenes run as they should (yup Marvel films, it IS possible to have that).
It's a pure CG film, NOTHING looks real, but that's not a huge problem. The problem is that the film does that thing which every single hollywood film does: First half is alright and works with one or two fresh ideas. Second half it goes for exaxctly the same story, exactly the same hooks, exactly the same tropes as any other such film does. It's painful. The last third or so I Had to just skip through. I detest that "crapping out" point. It always feel like we're taken for idiots who can only deal with one story. I was alright with the new Ghostbusters film, I was mostly okay with Tucker&Dale vs. Evil, I was mostly on board with Detective Pikachu.... up until the point where they fall back into the same old, tired molds, and don't even work those well.
Either way, overall I'd suggest Watch It for the first half, if you like pokémon. At least this film somewhat tries to cater to a specific group of people, at least in the beginning. That's good.
It's an enjoyable movie that plays up to the strength of Robbie's appealing character. The story is interesting enough and none of the characters feel flat. It ticks along at a satisfying pace and the quirks in editing give it an unusual format that keeps it interesting. It's OK.
But...
There's so much wrong with it. The music is damn annoying. At times it becomes as though the pictures are supporting the music instead of the other way around. They didn't know how to say enough.
There's plenty of action involving vehicles but it never feels fast. Every single sequence involving a car or motorcycle looks staged, looks slow, looks like it's a stuntman. The director doesn't know how to use the camera to reveal enough of the action to make it look frenetic while hiding enough that we don't have a point of reference to realise how mundane it is. Because we see so much we can't help but see it as slow.
The dialogue and stage production at times is arrowverse levels of bad - and I really have contempt for the low quality of that sort of serialised pyjama nonsense. I get the joke of Huntress being that bad, but that's deliberate. It's the stuff that's supposed to be seriously directed that comes over weak. Take the last scene on the pier after the last explosion. All the characters run together to get a group shot with some corny last lines. There's nothing wrong with the concept but the direction is appalling. It's just amateur.
And the action! Why the hell couldn't they employ someone who knew how to compose and cut action? It's terrible. There's a great move that lasts less than 3 seconds. I had to rewatch it because it's the sort of move that captures Quinn's character but is so poorly framed that it's nothing but a let down. She somersaults twice, bounces in the air and belts someone between her legs with a hammer. Written like that it sounds amazing but the lighting is awful, the framing is bad and the sound doesn't do it justice. Rather than being a standout moment there's clumping and bumping background noise and more of that unnecessary music, all very poorly lit. With that sort of fabulous set piece I'd have wanted to see bright colour, great sound effects and a Quinn cackle to show that in the middle of the action she's a fruit loop. Instead it doesn't stand out at all. And that's one of the highlights of the action, the rest is just forgettable.
Another example. Quinn's fighting on top of a roofless car with four men. In between punching and kicking the other three she repeatedly belts the driver's head against the steering wheel making the horn sound. Written down this works, it should be funny. But the camera stays stuck to the side of the car. We see it happening but there's no pay off with the poor sap this was happening to. We should have had some quick cuts breaking up the oh so obvious (and yet again arrowverse lack lustre levels) staged fighting with Dead Pool style slapstick that focuses the camera on the object of the joke.
There's another wonderful Quinn style move where she clobbers someone by throwing a baseball bat at them and it lands back in her hand. This should be great but they balls it up by running it in slow motion. Let me watch it in real time, let me feel the force of the hit and the satisfying catch in one fluid motion. But no, they use bloody stupid slow motion which removes the whole impact of the sequence.
There's a lot to like with this movie but there's also a lot to be frustrated with. So close yet so far away.
Oliver Stone's bio-pic of Alexander the Great. This movie is three hours long, and it does a lot of telling and not showing to cover the subject matter at hand by using Anthony Hopkins as a narrator as Ptolemy. Wow, if they tried to film it all..... how long would it be?
I was actually pretty impressed with the film being relatively accurate (Often choosing one version of events over another, but still a version that exists!) with the story line, the props, and the sets. Really top notch work.
It gets to be a bit much and long, and the narration does it no favors; even from Hopkins level acting skill! However, I enjoyed it overall and it got my family to ask me a bit about Ancient History and warfare so that is a plus!
Yeah, I also kinda enjoyed that Alexander film.
Detective Pikachu (2019)
It takes place in a city in which pokémon and people live alongside, much more like spouses than the usual trainer/pokémon dynamic. This way the film cleverly got around some of the problematic moral bits the whole pokémon thing comes with.
Um? I'm... not sure how _spouse_ is less problematic morally than trained animal. It honestly seems worse in every possible way. Imagine getting your spouse(s) into underground or even sanctioned fight clubs, as a sidekick to a fire department to be the fire hose, bomb/drug sniffing dogs, and then you get into the super creepy aspects of a theoretical spouse relationship with a questionably intelligent animal and everything implied by that. How is this possibly better?
Yeah, it feels like there's no one at WB who can direct an action sequence. The final battle where the bad guys send in the karate mooks is really bad. You have a whole army of dudes with guns outside? So, OK, you want them alive so no guns. But no. Next scene everyone is using the guns. So basically the karate mooks were so the heroes could have a big karate fight.
I watched the recent Constantine: Sin City. It wasn't the best but it was what you'd expect from the title. A good Constantine film about a man of many vices and subtle virtues, battling demons and such.
A movie with Robert Pattinson, Pierce Brosnan, and famous character actor Chris Cooper. There is also a leading lady who I think was Emilie di Ravin or something? I am less familiar with her.
This is run of the mill, Young Adult fiction as film.... until you get to the ending. The ending is a bit of a gut punch and elevates the rest of the YA level writing and plotting to a much higher level.
There is a certain point where the movie fades out to black that should be the end, but in classic studio fashion they have to spell it all out for you with an "epilogue" of sorts. Bleh.
The confrontation between Pierce and Robert in the board room full of lawyers is very good and the movie goes up from there through the ending. I know Mr. Pattinson gets a lot of "Twilight" flak, but he can really act.
Kept getting Moon deju vu but a decent if predictable post-apoc vault hijinx
The Perfection
An early front runner for forked up movie of the year, totally reinforced my bias against classical music sorts, worth a go but I can see it would be easy to give up on but stick with its twisty turny twisting
Oliver Stone's bio-pic of Alexander the Great. This movie is three hours long, and it does a lot of telling and not showing to cover the subject matter at hand by using Anthony Hopkins as a narrator as Ptolemy. Wow, if they tried to film it all..... how long would it be?
I was actually pretty impressed with the film being relatively accurate (Often choosing one version of events over another, but still a version that exists!) with the story line, the props, and the sets. Really top notch work.
It gets to be a bit much and long, and the narration does it no favors; even from Hopkins level acting skill! However, I enjoyed it overall and it got my family to ask me a bit about Ancient History and warfare so that is a plus!
Yeah, I also kinda enjoyed that Alexander film.
Detective Pikachu (2019)
It takes place in a city in which pokémon and people live alongside, much more like spouses than the usual trainer/pokémon dynamic. This way the film cleverly got around some of the problematic moral bits the whole pokémon thing comes with.
Um? I'm... not sure how _spouse_ is less problematic morally than trained animal. It honestly seems worse in every possible way. Imagine getting your spouse(s) into underground or even sanctioned fight clubs, as a sidekick to a fire department to be the fire hose, bomb/drug sniffing dogs, and then you get into the super creepy aspects of a theoretical spouse relationship with a questionably intelligent animal and everything implied by that. How is this possibly better?
Equality.
I get what you're saying. The way the film depicts this partnership is how they try to get around the master/slave dynamic, without having to sacrifice the kinda superfluous underground fight club scene. It's slightly questionable.
Here's something that is entirely unquestionable: Blade totally rocks. Caught the second half on tv last night and was pretty impressed with the camera and how the action scenes are done. Haven't seen Blade in a while, obviously. If you haven't either - watch it. It's so good. It's the cool Marvel film (along with Punisher:Warzone).
Oliver Stone's bio-pic of Alexander the Great. This movie is three hours long, and it does a lot of telling and not showing to cover the subject matter at hand by using Anthony Hopkins as a narrator as Ptolemy. Wow, if they tried to film it all..... how long would it be?
I was actually pretty impressed with the film being relatively accurate (Often choosing one version of events over another, but still a version that exists!) with the story line, the props, and the sets. Really top notch work.
It gets to be a bit much and long, and the narration does it no favors; even from Hopkins level acting skill! However, I enjoyed it overall and it got my family to ask me a bit about Ancient History and warfare so that is a plus!
Yeah, I also kinda enjoyed that Alexander film.
Detective Pikachu (2019)
It takes place in a city in which pokémon and people live alongside, much more like spouses than the usual trainer/pokémon dynamic. This way the film cleverly got around some of the problematic moral bits the whole pokémon thing comes with.
Um? I'm... not sure how _spouse_ is less problematic morally than trained animal. It honestly seems worse in every possible way. Imagine getting your spouse(s) into underground or even sanctioned fight clubs, as a sidekick to a fire department to be the fire hose, bomb/drug sniffing dogs, and then you get into the super creepy aspects of a theoretical spouse relationship with a questionably intelligent animal and everything implied by that. How is this possibly better?
Equality.
I get what you're saying. The way the film depicts this partnership is how they try to get around the master/slave dynamic, without having to sacrifice the kinda superfluous underground fight club scene. It's slightly questionable.
Here's something that is entirely unquestionable: Blade totally rocks. Caught the second half on tv last night and was pretty impressed with the camera and how the action scenes are done. Haven't seen Blade in a while, obviously. If you haven't either - watch it. It's so good. It's the cool Marvel film (along with Punisher:Warzone).
The original starship troopers novel actually came pretty close to this issue when discussing 'uplifted' canines used on the battlefield by specially trained handlers that had a relationship with the canine calebs which was described as more intense than human marriage. If a dog's human were killed, the dog was immediately humanly euthanized. If the human's dog was killed the human was immediately placed under heavy sedation and spent months in therapy to recover.
Oh dude. I tried to watch Alexander just the other day!
I forgot how awful that movie is (I did not enjoy it).
The actors are Greeks with Irish accents. And apparently, they have Irish accents on purpose! The action scenes are awful, bordering on incomprehensible. The movie just kind of pitters away the time on anything and everything when it really would have benefited from making cuts.
I found it sad to, because Stone did seem to do some research in preparation for the film, though some things were probably just unavoidable. I couldn't get through the first 40 minutes and just turned on Gladiator. It ain't accurate but it's a much better movie XD
I could overlook the Irish accents as that allowed them to portray the idea to the audience that the Macedonians were not like Olympia or the Persians at all in a quick, audio way. It would have been better if we could have seen it juxtaposed better against traditional Greek accents in the movie itself.
I also liked that after Ptolemy narrates the whole story to his scribe he says:
"Throw it all out. Just say he died of fever and be done with it."
Man, that really felt accurate to ancient sources to me!
Shadow in the Cloud, that cool-looking (from the trailers) WW2 film set aboard an allied bomber that may be infested with aliens, gremlins or whatever with Chloe Grace Moretz as a spy, pilot and/or other exotic occupation-holding adventurer, costs $20 to stream on amazon and other services. Not enough that the subscriptions are making them bazillions, they gotta sell tickets right in your own living room. But that's a story for another time.
Found it for $1.80 on disk at a local redbox. That was good, I thought, because I didn't wanna roll the dice on $20 for a movie that looked this good in the trailers. Been burned before. And, without too much spoilage, I was burned again.
The film starts out decent enough and keeps it up for about the first 15 minutes. After that, it's like they grabbed a group of middle schoolers and asked them to shout out what scene they would like to string on to the previous scene.
If we paid the full $20 I would have been really pissed. Wife and I were laughing by the time the credits rolled because they apparently gave the middle schoolers sour patch kids by the wheelbarrow full to stoke their shouting of random things for the characters to do next during the final 20 minutes or so. I'm a little disappointed that CGI Luke Skywalker didn't fly in on the batplane since that would have at least made more sense.
WW84 was something I looked forward to in 2020 but never saw it and apparently my life is better for not having seen it. Shadow in the Cloud was my other movie to look forward to. Let my sacrifice shield you from having to watch this plane wreck.
On a positive note, I didn't feel completely robbed when the wife paid the $20 for us to stream News of the World, the Tom Hanks old west film. It had an uplifting story, good pacing and solid acting. If you gotta make Bezos richer by streaming a movie on amazon prime, may as well do so with something like News of the World.
Easy E wrote: I could overlook the Irish accents as that allowed them to portray the idea to the audience that the Macedonians were not like Olympia or the Persians at all in a quick, audio way. It would have been better if we could have seen it juxtaposed better against traditional Greek accents in the movie itself.
I've been watching HBO's Rome and noticed they do English accents for the Romans, Irish for the slaves.
Which is certainly a thing which they did.
Great series by they way, easy to draw a line from it to GoT.
privateer4hire wrote: Shadow in the Cloud, that cool-looking (from the trailers) WW2 film set aboard an allied bomber that may be infested with aliens, gremlins or whatever with Chloe Grace Moretz as a spy, pilot and/or other exotic occupation-holding adventurer, costs $20 to stream on amazon and other services. Not enough that the subscriptions are making them bazillions, they gotta sell tickets right in your own living room. But that's a story for another time.
Found it for $1.80 on disk at a local redbox. That was good, I thought, because I didn't wanna roll the dice on $20 for a movie that looked this good in the trailers. Been burned before. And, without too much spoilage, I was burned again.
The film starts out decent enough and keeps it up for about the first 15 minutes. After that, it's like they grabbed a group of middle schoolers and asked them to shout out what scene they would like to string on to the previous scene.
If we paid the full $20 I would have been really pissed. Wife and I were laughing by the time the credits rolled because they apparently gave the middle schoolers sour patch kids by the wheelbarrow full to stoke their shouting of random things for the characters to do next during the final 20 minutes or so. I'm a little disappointed that CGI Luke Skywalker didn't fly in on the batplane since that would have at least made more sense.
WW84 was something I looked forward to in 2020 but never saw it and apparently my life is better for not having seen it. Shadow in the Cloud was my other movie to look forward to. Let my sacrifice shield you from having to watch this plane wreck.
On a positive note, I didn't feel completely robbed when the wife paid the $20 for us to stream News of the World, the Tom Hanks old west film. It had an uplifting story, good pacing and solid acting. If you gotta make Bezos richer by streaming a movie on amazon prime, may as well do so with something like News of the World.
I couldn;t believe how bad this movie sounded, then i looked up a full review with spoilers. Oh dear lord it was horrible, i think you were being kind to it.
I thought Shadow in the Cloud was okay. I don't think I was the intended audience though. A WWII horror film about a gremlin on a plane is a cool idea, but I guess they didn't have the budget for that so what the movie really was was a okayish I guess attempt girl power flick with an okay twist that doesn't really fit with the movie's original premise.
I really think the movie would have been better as either a movie about a gremlin or a movie about Chloe Moretz's character. As both it's just something of a groaner.
Dario Argento directs Jennifer Connelly and Donald Pleasance in this 1985 film.
Connelly plays a boarding school pupil that can communicate with insects, so solves a bunch of murders.
Also features at least one Iron Maiden song. And a random cave with a single glazed window. Not even properly installed, just wedged in there. No wonder that poor Lass went through it. I mean, you just don’t expect glazing in a cave, do you?
Sound track includes Iron Maiden and Motörhead so far. I’m happy as a pig in muck!
Sort of watched this by mistake as muddled it in my head with Palm Springs, it's heavily young adult and maybe spends too much time hammering home the groundhog day concept leaving character reveals and payoff feels crammed into the last quarter, harmless enough and references the awesome Time Bandits
Bliss
Owen Wilson and huggable hobbit Selma Hayek have a Vanilla Sky misadventure, or maybe take a fup to of drugs and go crazy, or both, interesting but not outstanding
American Gods s3
Was willing to roll with the wheel spinning of s2 due to production issues but s3 is more of the same and without Nancy or Sweeney it's a slog anytime dead wife isn't onscreen
Ice Cream Man is one of those movies like Trolls 2 or Silent Night Deadly Night 2 or even Cabin Fever, the kind we only know exist because of youtube memes.
BobtheInquisitor wrote: Ice Cream Man is one of those movies like Trolls 2 or Silent Night Deadly Night 2 or even Cabin Fever, the kind we only know exist because of youtube memes.
Had to look this one up, than ghawd i missed it...
"Unlawful entry" 1992. A movie about a very bad cop who abuses his power, commits several murders, frames an innocent man and tries to take his wife. Given the attention focused on police abuse and crime in recent years this is a movie for people to watch today.
Slips a bit from the epic level of Season 1, mostly because they killed off that Julius Caesar dude, but also because halfway through they found they'd been cut from 5 seasons to 2...
For Ash Wednesday, I dug out my old copy of Sam Raimi's Army of Darkness and watched it over the weekend. I had recently finished watching the series Ash vs The Evil Dead as well.
Here are some general thoughts:
1. Not as funny as I recalled it being
2. I forgot that Dino De Laurentis was the money behind this.
3. The army of skeletons is still pretty cool as an effect.
4. Danny Elfman did the music!
5. Ted Raimi is in it..... twice, perhaps more!
6. Not as gory as I recalled it being either
The Jackie Chan classic. Young man, ousted by his family and threatened to be put under the tutelage of his sadistic uncle, flees the house, learns street wisdom, finds inner strength and embraces all aspects of his personality. Becomes whole. Also becomes addicted to alcohol and gets into some fights.
Amazing. It's just amazing what these guys do. Of course it's trickery and all of that, but fake fighting's way cooler than actual fighting anyway for several reasons, but the creativity and skill that goes into those choreographies is just incredible. Jackie Chan's the greatest of all time and this film is a complete classic.
Watch It.
Rocky III (1982)
Only caught the second half, so I missed the initial build-up of Clubber Lang and I missed Thunderlips and all of that, but still. It's bloody Rocky 3, so it stayed on. No need to summarize, right? It's bloody Rocky 3.
If you're not familiar with the franchise, here's the order you should watch it in: 1, 2, 3, 4, Balboa. Creed films are optional. 5 is very, very,very optional. Simple, right? Right.
Here's the Rocky films in order of my own preference (meaning how willing I'll be to watch them at any point): 3, 4, Balboa, 1, 2.
Not to say that 1 and 2 are bad. They're probably the best (along with Balboa).
Anyway, Watch It.
Desperado (1995)
Antonio Banderas is the guitar playing pistolero hero. You know the plot, right? If not - no more to know really. Not because there isn't any plot, but because it unfolds and you should watch that film!
Just a really good action film, isn't it. Sure, there's some slightly clunky things, but oh well. Banderas is so good in that role, so is selma Hayek and so is Joaquim de Almeida. At first he's a bit underhwelming looking as a bad guy, but the look really grows on you, because he just acts as such a bastard.
Sure, the action scenes are grander in the sequel (Once Upon a time in Mexico, which I also really like), but Desperado is more Western-y and the 'smaller' look makes it more personal.
Watch It.
Then I ran across a film last night on tv (because this is where the good stuff happens) called Bushwick, starring Dave Bautista and a lady. I turned it off, because I had enough of that stuff on the news already.
Yes, I'd totally forgotten about the end. It looked a bit like they've run out of squibs, time or money. But it's a fine film. I agree with you, it's probably the best out of the three, but I got a soft spot for Once Upon a Time in Mexico.
An italian movie that tries to be a super spy/superhero crossover and ended up being...
bizarre, cheap, ridiculous and so bad you laughed up internal organs.
Here's the poster.
Here's the pre credit scene.
Argoman's weakness is he loses his powers for like 6 hours after having sex. Oh, as to his powers, don't expect them to be defined. He uses his 'mind control' to force a stone column to levitate by telling it to levitate over and over. He can blow up planes apparently, and for some reason his powers don't work when he's not in costume.
10th in the series (blimey!) Pinhead (yay!) but not Doug Bradley (boo!)
It’s another “keep the rights” effort, but is actually fairly good. Some interesting ideas being explored any rate.
I saw some of that, I liked it when pinhead
Spoiler:
tore that obnoxious pushy angel apart. Angels do a lot of really evil gak, and it was nice to see one get taken down. I loved the line "Do I look like someone who cares what god thinks?"
Of course the idea of punishing someone in hell by sending them to earth was...oddly humorous.
Rome season 2 was initially planned to be season 2 of 5 but about halfway through the producers learned it would be the last one so plans intended to play out over four years were compressed into a handful of episodes. With this in mind the show is much, much better than it should have been and almost as good as the first season. It's sad to think about what might have been if they'd continue the show.
Historically it covers the period from the assassination of Caesar (um spoilers?) to the civil war between his heir Octavian and his friend Mark Antony. Because of the abrupt change in plans, things set up in the first half of the season never play out. No sooner can you say "This King Herod fellow seems interesting" than he's gone from the main story.
As with the first season some major events are deliberately set off camera. A sea battle is portrayed but a conversation between two friends with some burning ships in the background. Mark Antony's famous eulogy for Caesar happens off screen but is recapped by a drunken onlooker. Some of this may have been a question of time and money, but other times I think it was to avoid comparisons to other renditions, Shakespeare's being the most obvious.
There's one or two missteps. Octavian is recast early on, but I really can't say why since both actors are fairly young and the character is only supposed to be 19 or 20 at the beginning of the season. I think the loss of Max Pirkis really hurt things, he portrayed Octavian as a brilliant young man and borderline psychopath. Simon Woods doesn't look much older and never seems to bring much to the part other than standing around and looking noble.
Still it is a wonderful series, and does wrap things up well. And if you're still wondering what ever happened to that King Herod fellow, well there's lots of way to find out.
I was sad to see they came down on the wrong side of this debate though...
Huh. I wonder if the bracer thing is an aesthetic thing? Like, the armor with nothing else is kind of unbalanced visually to me. Armored chest and bare arms feels off. So, slap a wrist band there so it balances out a bit.
Aesthetic balance sounds right to me, its a visual thing for modern eyes in a visual medium.
That said, the video is amusing, since the guy seems unaware of his own bias in this regard. There could be quite a few reasons why public statues wouldn't feature those kind of adornments, whether its a class issue (patrician vs plebian), a beauty issue (bare arms being more appealing to Roman sensibilities), or something else.
He's making _a lot_ of assumptions about historical accuracy which is just kind of funny. Especially when he starts to say 'well, no one wears a watch anymore' and sort of walks it back realizing he might be making the same kind of generalization.
What's really weird to me is I've seen some of these statues and pieces of art before. And I've never once noticed or thought much about the bracers XD
Personally I think the watch theory works, but also leather wrist bands thicken the forearm and make a guy look more muscular, which is a benefit in a visual medium.
But yeah, I found that video because I started to notice everyone was wearing them and went to look up the history. There's a few forum pages debating the history, if any, of them.
Yeah, Roman Bracer is a favorite film feature, but not really supported by what we know about the periods in question.
Always good for a rant.
I watched a lot of movies this weekend...
Outlaw King
I really liked Hell or High Water which was directed by the same guy. However, this one just did not grab me at all.
Interstellar
A lot of hard sci-fi and almost felt like a modern look at 2001. Not as clever as it thinks it is.
Lots of talk about the relativity of time, and it must have gotten to the film's editors, director, and screen writer. Way too long to get where it goes with lots of pointless side plots.
Homefront
Have you seen a Jason Statham movie before? The most interesting thing was that it was written by Sly Stallone, and have a GREAT cast. Winona Ryder, James Franco, Kate Bosworth, and others.....
Enjoyable for what it it is.
The Big Lebowski
Lot's of quick jokes with no real nods to them can leave the first time viewer off balance! A modern neo-Noir with a heavy dose of theatre of the absurd thrown in.
My theory is that The Big Lebowski is more fun to quote than it is to watch.
The only scene that actually made me laugh out loud was John Goodman with a baseball bat screaming “This is what happens when you [find] a stranger in the [Alps]!”
It reminds me of Oh Brother Where Art Thou, in that the film is enjoyable and witty without ever becoming my first or second choice for a rewatch.
A lot of hard sci-fi and almost felt like a modern look at 2001. Not as clever as it thinks it is.
Lots of talk about the relativity of time, and it must have gotten to the film's editors, director, and screen writer. Way too long to get where it goes with lots of pointless side plots.
[
I always interpreted interstellar as basically whatever humanity evolves into in the distant future needing humanity as it is in our near future to survive for it to exist, so it basically reached back in time to make sure it's ancestors survived. Maybe whatever humanity evolved into was limited in affecting the past or just did a minimal possible intervention.
Voss wrote: It was a series of memes before the concept of memes, so the 'cultural' 'cutting edge' folks got attached.
Then my daughter should have loved it...... she did not.
Well that's just, like, her opinion man...
Clerks
Going for a Kevin Smith season so best start at the beginning, and well it's of its time and way clunkier than I remember, not sure I can be bothered with the rest, even Ms Dushku in spray on pvc isn't enoughand
American Gods[b]
Time to let Czernobog give this the mercy tap of the cancellation hammer, it's getting worse week by week, and CGI'ing over Brian (as his mum calls him) was odd as his general dreadfullness was know long before the current wave, heck ill save the nonbook fans now
Spoiler:
Mr World is Loki, in cahoots with Wednesday to kill as many gods, old and new, as possible and suck up all the war and trickery energy for themselves, Laura kills Loki before that happens, the end
A lot of hard sci-fi and almost felt like a modern look at 2001. Not as clever as it thinks it is.
Lots of talk about the relativity of time, and it must have gotten to the film's editors, director, and screen writer. Way too long to get where it goes with lots of pointless side plots.
[
I always interpreted interstellar as basically whatever humanity evolves into in the distant future needing humanity as it is in our near future to survive for it to exist, so it basically reached back in time to make sure it's ancestors survived. Maybe whatever humanity evolved into was limited in affecting the past or just did a minimal possible intervention.
Pretty much.
I did hope that when we go to.....
Spoiler:
Cooper Station and got to see that it looked a lot like a "Side" from Gundamn, that someone, somewhere, somehow was going to make a Gundam reference. My hopes were dashed, so I had to do it myself.....
Question: What do you do if you're a former nazi scientist who's on the run and dreams of conquering the world?
Answer: Turn yourself into a nazi/catfish hybrid, of course!
And that, friends, is the premise of the movie Zaat. A nazi scientist decides the best way to conquer the world is to turn himself into a creature that's half nazi and half an animal that humans kill and eat regularly.
Interesting enough a human can be killed by a pistol, a knife, a good whack on the head with a club, etc. A catfish can be killed with a y of the above. But apparently when you combine the two you end up with a creature only an atom bomb can kill. Quick! Someone call the adeptus biologis! We've got a new supersoldier project for them!
By now you're either saying you have to see this one or swearing never to.
As for The Big Lebowski: I think we're doing the film a big disservice if we link it to memes (especially from a 2021 perspective). It's rock-solid comedy (not having "laugh out loud" moments often is a seal of quality, because there's lots of ways to make people laugh without being funny. It's a tension release thing or something like that.) with a big absurdist bent of course and pretty colourful characters. When I first watched it, I wasn't too impressed either. Each time since then (must have been the late 1990s) I enjoyed it more and more. Maybe it's an age thing. It does have these oft-quoted bits, but overall it's a film you're in for the characters and the world these people exist in I think. And that is the very opposite of memes, youtube clips, gifs, and all these snippets.
Maybe your daughter will appreciate the film more later on. Maybe not. Who knows. Memes (again, especially from a 2021 perspective) certainly don't help with appreciating anything.
I watched Clerks back when I got Netflix for the first time. I enjoyed it. I guess it was a good mix of time, place and influences that made this happen. But then again I'm very biased. If there's something 'of its time' from the 80s or early 1990s I'm all for it, if someone brings up the greatness of something made in 2004 and says "it's of its time" I'll probably shoo them away with a rolled-up newspaper (from 1993). To be fair though, if it's of the 90s time it's probably light-hearted, slightly offensive and of little consequence. If it's from 2004 it's probably about how everything's a bit crap except for 'our core values' and how torture is pretty much okay.
Thought I'd stick with the Smith agenda on the off chance I had a grump on with Clerks, turns out making a John Hughes knockoff is somehow harder making a Linklater inspired effort, if it wasn't for Jason Lee, and lubbly Ms Forlani I'd most likely given up, doesn't bode well for Amy
Thought I'd stick with the Smith agenda on the off chance I had a grump on with Clerks, turns out making a John Hughes knockoff is somehow harder making a Linklater inspired effort, if it wasn't for Jason Lee, and lubbly Ms Forlani I'd most likely given up, doesn't bode well for Amy
While I get that Clerks was more appropriate for its audience, I actually 'got' Mallrats better than Clerks. I could at least recognize people I knew in the characters.
Chasing Amy is a lot more serious than the others- the tone is completely different. [As is Jersey Girl, but for different reasons. It should be titled 'How to be a Crappy, Bitter Parent.' It wasn't funny, or uplifting or particularly relevant, just 'here's a crappy life, on screen, because someone doesn't know you can hire nannies in New York City']
I've got mixed feelings about Amy, but by and large I think its a better film? But not particularly enjoyable for a re-watch.
I don't think any of Smith's films hold up very well. Clerks 2 and Jay and Silent Bob in particular very forgettable (the jokes and subjects are way past their prime). Dogma's a very warped take on someone's fragmented memories of a Catholic upbringing, but despite the warp its very predictable and trite.
Chasing Amy has some great little scenes in it, and Jason Lee makes his scenes enjoyable. If you were into comics in the 90’s, you’ll get more out of the movie.
True story: my mom heard good things about Chasing Amy, so she rented it and we all watched it as a family. I can think of few things more painfully awkward than watching Chasing Amy with one’s parents (especially in the 90’s).
Also, I might be an outlier but I found Clerks 2 really funny while I thought Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back was painfully unfunny. And Dogma was unfunny and forgettable. Whenever I try to think about the plot or bad guys in Dogma, my brain says “data not found” and substitutes in their counterparts from The Devil’s Advocate.
BobtheInquisitor wrote: Chasing Amy has some great little scenes in it, and Jason Lee makes his scenes enjoyable. If you were into comics in the 90’s, you’ll get more out of the movie.
True story: my mom heard good things about Chasing Amy, so she rented it and we all watched it as a family. I can think of few things more painfully awkward than watching Chasing Amy with one’s parents (especially in the 90’s).
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Oh, it definitely has great scenes. Just the movie as a whole isn't something I want to sit through again.
Yeah, I can't even imagine watching that one with the parents, especially at the time. The resulting muddle of confusion and pitchforks (respectively) and demands that 'you aren't like that, right?' would have been nightmarish. It was awkward enough explaining that I didn't actually believe in vampires one holiday break simply because I was watching a vampire TV show.
Well, it’s an Indiana Jones knock off, isn’t it? But hey, aside from offensive racial stereotypes, Quatermain suddenly being American and well dodgy cinematography?
It’s got James Earl Jones and Sharon Stone. I fear it’s not going to get any better though.
Well, it’s an Indiana Jones knock off, isn’t it? But hey, aside from offensive racial stereotypes, Quatermain suddenly being American and well dodgy cinematography?
It’s got James Earl Jones and Sharon Stone. I fear it’s not going to get any better though.
Uh, no, indiana jones is a knockoff of Allan Quartermain.
Offensive racial stereotypes? Yeah, temple of doom was full of them, and had offensive sexist stereotypes too.
Quartermain being american? Ok, guilty.
In just watched an old one, "The manitou". A creepy monster movie likely inspired by rosemary's baby. it had its moments, i admit. If you're a 70s horror fan it might appeal to you depsite being 'offensive' to some today.
Oh this film is an Indiana Jones knock-off, regardless of the source material. Really pretty awful!
Now?
Coming 2 America
This is actually rather fun! As with pretty much any late stage sequel I was expecting an out of date car crash, relying on jokes from yesteryear which you know, kinda belong in yesteryear.
So far, nothing to dislike. Some decent call backs, and it certainly feels a continuation of what is a classic 80’s comedy.
Well, it’s an Indiana Jones knock off, isn’t it? But hey, aside from offensive racial stereotypes, Quatermain suddenly being American and well dodgy cinematography?
It’s got James Earl Jones and Sharon Stone. I fear it’s not going to get any better though.
There are some fun bits on that one on the excellent Cannon Films documentary "Electric Boogaloo". Highly recommended. To be watched over and over and over.
Well, it’s an Indiana Jones knock off, isn’t it? But hey, aside from offensive racial stereotypes, Quatermain suddenly being American and well dodgy cinematography?
It’s got James Earl Jones and Sharon Stone. I fear it’s not going to get any better though.
Uh, no, indiana jones is a knockoff of Allan Quartermain.
Why not both!
I think we can agree Quartermain would not have been made if not for Indiana Jones.
Come for Raul Julia, flee from everything else. Oh gods it is awful, apart from the Tuesday line.
Double Dragon
Oh dear god why do I do this to myself? What vile part of my soul not only starts watching such utter tripe, but has to watch it all to absorb the full crapitude?
I mean....Robert Patrick. We know you can act. You were phenomenal in Terminator 2. Did you need that new Conservatory so bad, or was Mr Tax Man just not taking “no” for an answer. Oh the humanity!
BobtheInquisitor wrote: It’s been a while since I’ve seen it, but was Double Dragon one of those movies where every actor was just having fun?
I have the feeling I’d enjoy it the same way I enjoyed Surf Ninjas.
Robert Patrick is channelling Dave Stewart, I can tell you that much. And a certain scene is ripped straight out of The Warriors. Though exactly how the gang dressed as Mimes with Micky Mouse style gloves got taken seriously and not just beaten up by everyone I don’t know.
Punks? Look hard and scary. Skinheads? Look hard and scary. The guy in Lederhosen was probably just lost, but saw a pagga* and thought “well, why not”. But everyone not just descending on the mimes, with their ping pong ball tipped gloves not just getting their poop wrecked by everyone on sight? Inexplicable.
*pagga. A free-for-all street brawl between anyone who wants to join in.
Come for Raul Julia, flee from everything else. Oh gods it is awful, apart from the Tuesday line.
Double Dragon
Oh dear god why do I do this to myself? What vile part of my soul not only starts watching such utter tripe, but has to watch it all to absorb the full crapitude?
I mean....Robert Patrick. We know you can act. You were phenomenal in Terminator 2. Did you need that new Conservatory so bad, or was Mr Tax Man just not taking “no” for an answer. Oh the humanity!
Yeah, there's some people (presumably obnoxiously young ones) who try to pretend that Street Fighter was very funny and so on, but it's just crap.
My brother, my sister and I recently looked for fun films to watch. Of course Double Dragon was a candidate, so we watched the trailer on youtube. After that we decided not to watch it. It seems very, very bad.
For a few Dollars more (1965)
Clint Eastwood and Lee van Cleef team up to get the bounty on a fearsome band of bandits.
Opinion is actually softening a bit on Double Dragon
It remains far from great, and it has really jarring serious moments involving the police department.
But it lies somewhere between the surprising brilliance of the first Ninja Turtles movie and the Schumacher Batman films.
The plot is daft, and the acting ropey at best (though Robert Patrick’s physical acting remains on point), but overall the production values are actually.....pretty good. The composite external shots of New Angeles are certainly above par for the era.
If I’d perhaps seen this in my early yoof, it might’ve been a childhood favourite bordering on Guilty Pleasure. Certainly I’ve seen far, far better films based on video games and general 80/90’s pop culture - but I’ve also seen far, far worse.
I reckon kids would get a decent kick out of it.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Also, the final scene is a giggle.
But the use of The Farm’s “Altogether Now”, a song about the Christmas Truce of 1914, whilst a most excellent track, is kinda jarring.
This is a new movie directed by Amy Poehler about a girl who starts a feminist 'Zine in her HS after the misogyny gets too strong.
I am torn about this film in several ways....
1. It seems a bit "out of time" as most kids today are not into the Punk aesthetic or DIY in the way Amy Poehler probably was when she was a teen.
2. The actions of the administration seem totally plausible and in line with how I have seen institutions handle things.
3. The ending glosses over the fact that the protagonist would have the book thrown at her and destroy her life by the authorities and the antagonist would get a slap on the hand and go about their life.
4. I am unsure about the "Tiger Mom" sub-plot. They make a great point about how the White protagonist has never had to deal with being a 2nd-Gen immigrant kid after the 1st gen worked so hard to give them the chance in the US. However, it also is itself a stereotype which seems incongruous in a Feminist movie.
Some current ones:
Nomadland: Already won a buttload of awards. A woman loses here job and becomes basically a wanderer in a van, part of a subculture that exists (multiple roles are actual wanderers). Its...hard, but really really good. I think its the best film I've seen maybe since the Wrestler.
US vs. Billie Holliday: About...Billie Holliday the singer. Visually very good with some good music. Again pretty rough, but if you google her life, they sugar coated it actually.
Just waiting for the rental for Minari to go down to watch, and next up I Care A Lot
Also a TV shoutout to Clarice: Good mood, not great but has some good actors in it including Bull from Band of Brothers.
Michael Clayton Procedural lawyer tense drama thing. Nothing exciting but a reasonably distracting two hours.
The king of Staten Island I usually give a film at least 15 minutes before deciding it's not for me. This one didn't make it past three.
Reservoir Dogs I don't get the love for Tarantino. Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill, I don't understand the fascination. I utterly adore the first half of Hateful Eight and despise the second half with contempt.
But Reservoir Dogs is magnificent. There isn't a character study of all the players, but then we don't need it. We don't need to know the back story of why Mr Pink is a paranoid contrarian or why Mr Blonde is a headcase. We're given enough to keep the story tight. The crime itself isn't shown and that keeps the story where it needs to be. If this were a modern day A* title, the film would have been padded out with an expensive and loud 45 minute gun battle as the crime is acted out and it would have only made the film worse.
Even the white guys talking about Black people works for me. It's painful to watch but it fits and is believable. About the only bit I don't like is the "Like a virgin" monologue, because Tarantino. Fortunately it's over with quickly and he is out of the film before he's a nuisance.
I feel like loving the first half of Hateful Eight and hating the second is a default position for a lot of people XD It did that thing a lot of Tarantino movies do where they have this intriguing premise and a unique flair, and then promptly squander both.
For a moment I thought you were talking about this movie:
I had to see if it was on YouTube for inspiration after WGA’s Resistance kit dropped, and it is! (Unfortunately, it’s the inferior translation.). It still holds up!
More of a mini-series, but we watched Queen's Gambit (7 episodes total) about a young woman growing up in the 60s and her battles with addiction as she becomes a world renowned chess champ. Well written and acted all around with interesting characters.
Something that I liked in addition to all those pluses was it was a limited series/mini-series. Not everything needs to be Grey's Anatomy including Grey's Anatomy for sticking around. Nice to see something with a definite endpoint that wasn't forced by sagging ratings and shark-jumps.
The Good Jen of the South shows up the modern crop of action star boys as the bunch of softer than Walter the Softy pretty boys by going full Neeson in a silly shoots and splodes revenge yarn (heck she also matches Liam in the prodigious appendage stakes as hers is so big it was once mistaken for The Batman)
The Tick
Previously avoided this as the pilot was not very Tick, the show proper fixes a lot of that and embraces the gloriously silly nature of the Tick comic book
I had to see if it was on YouTube for inspiration after WGA’s Resistance kit dropped, and it is! (Unfortunately, it’s the inferior translation.). It still holds up!
No, that movie rules. The Ashton Kutcher one..... not so much.....
War Machine
The story of General Stanley McCrystal as performed by Brad Pitt. You may recall, Gen. McCrystal was the overall allied commander in Afghanistan during the Obama years, and got sacked after a Rolling Stone article caught him and his staff talking smack about the Pres and VP. He and Patreus (sp) were early advocates of the COIN strategy and the idea of the Surge.
Brad is a damn fine actor and totally transforms himself, now if he is anything like the General, that I do not know. Anthony Michael Hall also does a great job as a fellow general with an anger management issue. However, this movie suffers from a narration that is unneeded and takes away from the movie.
From what I can tell, it seems like a pretty accurate translation of the article to the screen. That doesn't make it a good movie though. Kind of boring. Interesting as history, but most of us are not into that here..... right?
Easy E wrote: ...Interesting as history, but most of us are not into that here..... right?
Oi! We're wargamers, of course we're all into history.
I watched War Machine (despite it being a Netflix production). Maybe it would have worked better for me if they hadn't turned the main character into such a caricature. Overall I think I share your opinion of the thing: It's alright, but kinda superfluous. Very much a Netflix production: Big name, seemingly interesting topic, but ultimately without substance. At least it's a film and not a tv show.
Last night I watched The Matrix. Fun film, still. And of course very interesting on several levels, not just the background ideas of the thing. Today I got a book, read a bit into it, and part of it deals with how the last time films were up to date with issues and worked with current concepts and develop them on and so on was the late 1990s and early 2000s. Since then, film's always been a bit behind because stuff develops so quickly. Interesting point, I thought. And kinda plays into me seeing the Matrix last night.
You'd be forgiven for expecting this to be a run of the mill creature feature about Bigfoot from the marketing, and in some ways you'd be right.
The movie opens to the background of a rash of disappearences in the vicinity of the self styled home of Bigfoot in New York State, and the prologue gives you a clear indication of why that might be. Once we move into the meat of the film, the friends of one of the missing are trying their best to find out what happened.
The movie plays with the creature concept just enough to feel like it is at least trying to do something fresh.
There's a second act twist that probably isn't the revelation that the film makers hoped for, but I kind of enjoyed it, and the cast and crew deserve a lot of credit for producing something of the quality they have on what is clearly no money. The monster itself is, one or two dodgy close ups toward the end aside, by and large pretty effective, thanks in part to decently self aware shot framing and other production tricks to avoid exposing the joins.
I never felt the need to watch the original due to the monumental farce that was Batman Vs Superman. In truth I wouldn't have watched this if it were not such a talking point. I have no skin in the Marvel / DC game, the comic medium does nothing for me and I don't give a crap about Snyder and Wheedon and their personal issues. I'm here for the film. Marvel is a mixed bag for me with some hits and some misses, mostly better than worse, though overall not as good as most people make out. I've watched four DC movies - Man of Steel (intriguing), Birds of Prey (frustrating), Wonder Woman (if you ignore the last twenty minutes you have a very enjoyable film) and the aforementioned calamity that is BvS.
I watched it last night and have spent today trying to decide what angle to take with my review. What did I get from the film? What did it leave me with? What will I take from it into the future to consider while watching other movies?
The answer... nothing.
This was a great big four hour nothing of a movie. It is so nothing that it isn't even bad enough for me to criticise to any noticeable degree. There's certainly little good to talk about. About the only thing I can say is that I have no experience with movie making and even I could have cut an hour of chaff from this nothingness without making any impact on the overall product. Oh, and slow-mo. If I ever find myself watching it again I'm playing a drinking game - drink while there's slow-mo on. I'll be hammered in under an hour.
On the plus side I did get my guilty movie stiffy when the WW theme played early. I love that theme. Don't know if I've linked this before but there's a YouTube musical theorist who breaks it down and it's well worth a watch.
Nick Cage agrees to clean a place overnight in exchange for a dude spotting him the money to cover a tow and a new set of tires
Part way through the night, the animatronic stage band start coming for him one by one as he continues to clean, play the staff pinball machine,
and drink an entire case of soda
At no point does he talk, just a few noises in fights and during pinball excitement
Netflix seem to be pushing this hard, and for the love of God avoid it.
The message, that people, not giant rubber implausible looking fish, are the real monsters, is so vehemently rammed home that we're left in a situation where the character with the most redeeming features is an anamatronic trout. People died, I didn't care a bit, they all fething deserved it.
Humourless, bleak and with little to redeem it. The only reason I can offer to watch it is to see the fish, and wonder at the fact that somebody somewhere looked at it and thought "that'll fool people."
I suspect there's a level of movie investing where the numbers are, comparatively speaking, so small that one can afford to back dozens as tax write-offs in the hope that just one turns out to be a Blair Witch or similar and return the investment in a factor of thousands.
At least I hope that's the case, because somebody backing it because they really believed in it is too sad to contemplate.
A couple of episodes of Best of the Worst have touched on an apparently vast vanity-film scam industry. See for example the episodes about Diamond Cobra vs White Fox or Robo-Woman.
Damn, but those south koreans sure make some of THE most depressing movies ever made! I guess maybe living next door to a nuclear armed society that is dedicated to hating you and ruled by someone who is clearly morally and mentally deficient may give you a fatalistic streak, but seriously, guys, I thought the only other south korean movie i saw, called "I saw the devil" was a real downer, but this movie really topped it on sheer depressiveness.
One thing I wanted to scream at the people in the movie was
I saw the Devil's supposed to be really good too, but I'm a bit afraid it's too thrillery for me. Snowpiercer's bascially a South Korean film, isn't it? That one was pretty great. I'd love to watch Parasite some time, but I think we talked about it on here before.
Aaaaanyway, Train to Busan I didn't find all too depressing, but it's darned good. Good film, that.
I watched films too.
Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965)
British nthology horror film. I'm rather sure I've seen it before, at least I remembered the in-between scenes that tie the thing together. Overall rather tame and very enjoyable.
Watch It.
Tales from the Crypt (1972)
British anthology horror film. A bit 'harder' (mostly visually, and the effects are mostly pretty cheap. I'm okay with it.) than Dr.Terror's House of Horrors, but also perfectly okay.
Watch It.
The Leprechaun (1993)
Nasty leprechaun wants his gold and will kill people in nasty manner if he feels like they refuse him his gold. Features 1993 Jennifer Aniston. What a fun film. I really enjoy the weird proportions the Leprechaun costume got.
Watch It.
I watched the first scene of the Charlie's Angels sequel (not the latest remake, because who gives a hoot about that). I actually thought it was rather engaging and fun. I must be getting old.
edit: I also saw two thirds of Johnny English 3 today. Yeah, kinda meh, but I really liked the villain. Not just the fact that he's a silicon valley technocrat who believes that political problems can be fixed with an app, but also the general portrayal.
Sigur wrote: I saw the Devil's supposed to be really good too, but I'm a bit afraid it's too thrillery for me. Snowpiercer's bascially a South Korean film, isn't it? That one was pretty great. I'd love to watch Parasite some time, but I think we talked about it on here before.
l.
Uh, yeah, about ISTD, one thing you might want to know, it's got a really disgusting scene that can make some people toss. I describe it in the spoiler, and advise people easily disgusted not to view it.
Spoiler:
In one scene a guy is given a tracking pill that makes it possible to track him. Knowing this he takes a massive laxative and takes a huge dump. He proceeds to graphically go thru the big log with his bare hands to find the tracker for some reason. Yep, it's as disgusting as it sounds.
Lately, as I watch movies I am like..... this seems like it was ripped from an airport, thriller, paperback.... I felt that way about this movie.
The character's feel like something out of a paperback. That is not that I did not like them, but somewhat over-the-top, cartoony characterizations, with defining quirks and the like.
The plot, was some convoluted criminal, financial shenanigans with corrupt cops, drug gangs, Irish mob, and a casino. Straight out of a paperback.
Overall, it was enjoyable enough and I wouldn't mind seeing this characters again. However, it is nothing special.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
BobtheInquisitor wrote: A couple of episodes of Best of the Worst have touched on an apparently vast vanity-film scam industry. See for example the episodes about Diamond Cobra vs White Fox or Robo-Woman.
The plot to The Producers did not come out of thin air.
Avengers Endgame. Yes finally saw it while drinking a flight of sample bourbons the wife got me for my birfday.
If you like MCU movies see it. If you are ok on comic movies see it maybe if it is free.
Das Boot Director's Cut: Das Boot but 3 hours + long with a good bit of additional scenes. Original German with subtitles.
Additionally, its easy to break into two nights of viewing.
Really enjoyed it. It actually adds to the terror and desperation when they are stuck trying to get through to the Mediterranean. Also seemed to have a good bit more physical color. Highly recommend.
Kong: Skull Island
How did I sleep on this movie for so long? It had the dumb fun of giant monster fights along with a genuinely good performance from the entire cast of human characters.
Godzilla vs Kong
It was big dumb fun. I enjoyed the big fight. I enjoyed the monsters. It made me want more films in the franchise. But they still need to work on the human characters because none of them mattered.
Frazzled wrote: Avengers Endgame. Yes finally saw it while drinking a flight of sample bourbons the wife got me for my birfday.
If you like MCU movies see it. If you are ok on comic movies see it maybe if it is free.
Das Boot Director's Cut: Das Boot but 3 hours + long with a good bit of additional scenes. Original German with subtitles.
Additionally, its easy to break into two nights of viewing.
Really enjoyed it. It actually adds to the terror and desperation when they are stuck trying to get through to the Mediterranean. Also seemed to have a good bit more physical color. Highly recommend.
ever read the book das boot? I did, it was pretty good. The movie was a faithful adaptation.
balmong7 wrote: Kong: Skull Island
How did I sleep on this movie for so long? It had the dumb fun of giant monster fights along with a genuinely good performance from the entire cast of human characters.
Godzilla vs Kong
It was big dumb fun. I enjoyed the big fight. I enjoyed the monsters. It made me want more films in the franchise. But they still need to work on the human characters because none of them mattered.
Saw it at the theater with the wife and GC. An old fashioned and then pizza/popcorn in a room full of people. Is this what normal is like?
Wife and GC were laughing at the many many jump the shark moments but it was a fun popcorn movie. They learned from KOM and kept the unnecessary human subplots to a minimum, and didn't keep interrupting by cutting back to humans during the big fights.
Well, my family pretty much forced me to watch the Twilight movies. The first one was thoroughly mediocre, to the point that it took a Herculean effort not to pull out my phone. Fortunately the direction and special effects for the vampire action scenes were amusingly bad, and there were enough of them to get me through.
The rest of the movies are watchable in a Godzilla sort of way; the three main characters are annoying and boring, but the background characters are more lively and the action gets better. Unfortunately, the character actors stealing scenes just drive home all the more how unlikeable the main characters are, and how creepy-weird it is that Jacob is so hung up on the most bland woman in the series, knowing he’ll never be with her. All the vampire world building was fun enough to make me want to bust out the latest Dresden Files or Mercy Thompson.
@BobtheInquisitor: Aye, I watched the first film about four time due to me getting the Rifftrax for it. Good fun.
Clown (2014)
Just remembered I saw that Canadian horror film a few weeks ago. The way I understand how this came to be is that the dudes who eventually made the film shot a fake trailer for a clown horror film, put it on youtube, even added "produced by Eli Roth". People picked up on it, Roth was informed, was charmed by that ballsy move and actually produced their film. Not bad. Eli Roth is an interesting dude. He seems to be well-connected and -liked in showbusiness, he seems to produce all sorts of horror films and pops up everywhere. He genuinely seems to enjoy that stuff and doesn't shy away from throwing money at projects such as this one. I'm sure he's a pretty cool dude with his heart in the right place. I don't agree with him a whole lot or like his films, but I'm not to like everything.
Anyway, the film's about an old magic clown costume. Man puts it on, and can't take it off again! Yikes stripes. From that point on a weird transformation happens - the dude turns into a spoopy clown. And gets seriously hungry. That part's really interesting, not only for how they pull it off physically, but also in terms of psychology. It's a bit like a werewolf story crossed with those films in which Tim Allen turns into Santa Claus (The Santa Clause? I've never seen it, but I think he tries fighting being turned into santa claus, right?). It's all played very straight, which is exactly the correct thing to do in this case. Plus: some pretty strong body horror.
The second half of the film it turns into a straight-up gory horror film, basically from the point an old man tells the dude who turns into a spoopy clown the absurd "real story about how clowns came to be". I know it's a horror film trope, but this was just too silly for me. It reminded me of bs youtube videos in which someone makes a 12minutes "documentary", just making up stupid stuff. I would have enjoyed this if the film was a straight-up horror comedy, but it isn't. The alienation/regular-person-becoming-an-absurd-monster part of the film was just too intriguing for cheap stuff like that.
The excellently fun Santa's Slay (2004?) I enjoyed to large parts due to the completely absurd mythos they wrote around Santa Claus and the way that was presented. But that was a comedy and they really built heavily on that completely absurd mythos. Clown doesn't do all that much with that and it's not a comedy.
I think it's an odd thing, this one. The first half could almost work as an absurd drama to play at film festivals. Maybe the film will work for people who watch the film together and usually don't enjoy the same films. One person will prefer the first half, others will prefer the second. In the end though I think that neither will be really happy with this one.
Either way, it's not uninteresting. Take it or Leave it.
Carolina Moon (2007)
Apparently based on a novel. It's a film about a lady who returns to her hometown in ... I don't know where, USA. I assume somewhere in Carolina. She wants to run a store there, but is haunted by a violent past courtsey of her violent, religious fundamentalist father and her sister's murder. She's extra-haunted because she's got The Gift of seeing not only the present (but far away too I think) but also the past. I only got into the film about a quarter in, so I was rather surprised and I think they play a bit loose with how exactly her superpowers work.
The reason I stuck around was because I saw that Oliver Hudson played the male lead (an unthreatening cowboy person being nice and handy.). Of course that isn't a reason to watch a film at all, BUT I got a soft spot for the sitcom Rules of Engagement because who doesn't like Patrick Warburton and Megyn Price. So I watched a surprising amount of that show when it was on TV. (It's also got David Spade, whom I find irritating). AAAnyway, Oliver Hudson is on that show as well, playing Warburton's brother-in-law, who - most anachronistically - is portrayed and made fun of as being very effeminate. It's weird, but adds another little irritation to the show and irritation is good. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaanyway, so I was intrigued by the film in which he plays a nice and very boring role. It's odd.
So we got this dark mystery fantastic film. It looks, works, is acted and shot like a Lifetime movie of the week. Of course I never watched Lifetime because we don't got that here, BUT I've seen several films produced by them because I was alive in the mid-1990s. Aaaaaaaaanyway, it's a boring film. Somehow they even make the showdown boring. It's really interesting how they make a film with so many dark aspects and tension so boring and lifeless.
Don't Watch.
Horns (2013)
Not sure i've written about this one before. Dude (Daniel Radcliffe) is accused of raping and killing his girlfriend during a drunk night, but he didn't do it. He goes out to find her killer. Also: two horns start sprouting from his forehead.
Interesting film, that. Again, alienation of one person, but this time due to wrong accusation. Sadly, there's some superpower stuff in there, but nothing too annoying. I think his horns make his opposition reveal their darkest secrets to him or something.
I think it's best not to tell much more of the story. It's not bad. Didn't like the finale much, but overall alright. It's not extremely captivating, but interesting enough.
Watch It if you like Radcliffe or if people with horns are your thing.
If yes, then you have seen Thunder Force. Nothing new to see here.
Just saw the thumbnail for that on Netflix, was wondering if that's Melissa McCarthy.
I don't have high hopes for Netflix productions in general, and this seems to confirm my opinion.
That's my first gripe with that. Second of course being that it's a superhero thing.
But the biggest thing is that I actually like Melissa McCarthy quite a lot. Just not 99% of her comedy films. I think she can do better (and she's shown that she can, right?).
Not especially. She's sort of like the female Adam Sandler. She's found her audience and will continue to churn out mediocre crap that her fans will love but everyone else will hate. Not that it will make much difference to the cash rolling in.
Sandler is slightly better than the films he does and McCarthy is WAY better than the films she mostly does. I really hope she'll do a whole lotta nice films too later on.
Azreal13 wrote: Not especially. She's sort of like the female Adam Sandler. She's found her audience and will continue to churn out mediocre crap that her fans will love but everyone else will hate. Not that it will make much difference to the cash rolling in.
I thought the exact same thing. She makes many of the films with her friends and husband, and if she is getting paid.... why not!
I am a bit jealous!
However, Sandler can act when he really wants to, so I wouldn't discount his actual talent. Punch Drunk Love and Uncut Gems are really good.
If you like strange horror try "The manitou'. An 80's horror movie about an indigenous american ghost/monster possessing a woman to be reborn in the modern world.
A strage little old one season show from japan, Ultra Q (The q stands for question) is a weird mix of the outer limits, the twilightzone, the night stalker and similar shows.
Basicallye very episode has somethign strange happening, and a recurring cast from a newspaper dealing it. Aliens, monsters, alien monsters, spirits, ghosts, etc. Ad in some criminals for flavor.
A strange show, i've watched a few eps and a coupe were actually not bad compared to american tv of the mid 60's.
My tomorrow, your yesterday(or tomorrow I will date with yesterday's you). Got this by accident somehow thinking(mistakenly) novel author whose books I like was involved and while romancy isn't my usual cup of tea I'm fan of time travel or anything involved with time in general so put it on cart.
First half of the movie is super sweet suger coated cliche romance but when the twist involving time comes to play the latter half it's mix of happiness & bittersweet feelings.
For accidental purchaces could have been worse ones. Still baffled how I got idea the writer was involved with this though...
Saul Goodman does Dirty Harry/Robert McCall/John Wick, with a dash of Tarantino in the soundtrack and a hint of The A Team in the third act. All in a punchy 90 minutes.
I do not like Time travel movies at all, but this is not really a time travel movie. It is a romance with a narrative hook. Enjoyable enough.
Whatever happened to Eric Bana? He was suppose to be the next mega-actor wasn't he?
Accepted
Kids not accepted to a university instead make their own. Hijinks ensue.
This movie feels like a early 00's to late 90's reaction to "everyone needs to go to college" in schools. It really wants to be Revenge of the Nerds but can't pull it off. Typical, Ferris Bueller style lead heads up a group of misfits to take it to the establishment. The side characters that are not "Ferris Bueller" are not given enough to do.
Notable for an early Jonah Hill performance in a comedy.
damn cool.
) I watched a "review" of his of that film. Doesn't look entirely enticing, despite it being on youtube. 
