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Post by eatersthemanfool on Jan 2, 2019 23:17:42 GMT -5
Went and saw Mary Poppins Returns.
Enjoyed it overall, though I think a movie like that is never going to live up to the original. Also really think they misused Meryl Streep. That whole segment kinda sucked.
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Post by Woody Alien on Jan 9, 2019 9:44:25 GMT -5
Ralph Breaks the Internet
As much as I loved the original Wreck-It Ralph 6 years ago (time flies, dammit!) I think this one doesn't hold a candle to it. Maybe it's because half of the fictional gaming characters are irrelevant this time, maybe it's because I didn't find anything truly funny or moving, maybe it's because I felt some scenes were kind of contrived in order to say something about the current status of the internet, but I felt disappointed after going out of the theater, with the feeling that I was going to instantly forget it. Also I get that the film is trying to be both a celebration and a parody of all things Disney, but the continuous shilling of their characters becomes annoying after a while (maybe because I never could care less about their Princesses) and the way they were including their other franchises like Marvel heroes and Star Wars is quite forced. Not to speak of the huge number of brands throughout the whole movie, I get that this is the world of today, but this being Disney it never becomes satirical and is just ads upon ads for stuff that is already dominating the real world.
Ralph as Bob Ross is hilarious though.
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Post by 🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 on Jan 9, 2019 16:18:04 GMT -5
Watched (played?) Bandersnatch the other day. I have a Netflix subscribtion so I might as well, I guess.
It's...not what I had hoped it would be. First of all, you CAN go back after you 'fuck up', which makes it too much of a game. It's convenient if you just want to see as much as possible of the movie, but I thought the whole idea was that it would be a MOVIE that you have some say in, not a GAME that you have some say in. I think the idea of interactive movies is pretty cool, but it should just be focused on a few branching paths and not something that's as convoluted as Bandersnatch. At least it's charmingly cheesy and I did have fun with it, so I can't say I disliked it or anything.
Also finally watched Battle Royale a while back. It's one of the most entertaining movies I've ever seen. It's also super b-movie-ish. Like, the acting is bad, the plot is ridiculous, the emotional scenes are often a bit laughable, the villian is an anime character and the reason for the BR program existing is never even explained. That doesn't really matter though, it only adds to the charm. The action kicks ass and despite the fact that it's literally a bunch of teenagers being forced to kill each other, it never feels shlocky, nor does it ever resort to cheap gore.
Also watched Bean a while back. It's still as hilarious as I remember.
And In Bruges, which is one of the best movies I've ever seen for sure. It's clear that after this and Three Billboards I have to check out Seven Psychopaths.
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Post by eatersthemanfool on Jan 10, 2019 22:15:06 GMT -5
I always felt like the villain in BR was meant to be an American exchange student.
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Post by 🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 on Jan 11, 2019 6:25:34 GMT -5
That would've actually kind of made sense in a way.
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Post by GamerL on Jan 11, 2019 8:22:00 GMT -5
I watched Battle Royale once a long time ago, in 2008.
I don't remember much at all about it, I should watch it again.
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Post by kaoru on Jan 11, 2019 11:56:09 GMT -5
I watched Battle Royale once a long time ago, in 2008. I don't remember much at all about it, I should watch it again. That's probably because there is honestly not much to remember. I really like the cool, trashy, bloodsport of it. But it litteraly is almost exclusively watching a couple dozen Teens murder each other for two hours. There is little story or character investment to add to the big meatgrinder. Even in the Director's Cut, which adds to the scenes about the kids before they were choosen for the program, it is hard to really get invested in any of their lives. For all the "Battle Royale did it first" screaming when Hunger Games came out, I honestly prefer the later. As much as it lacks in the brutal honesty of BR, HG has more of an interesting story going on and characters to relate to.
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Post by eatersthemanfool on Jan 11, 2019 22:40:28 GMT -5
I chopped it up and set it to an Acid Bath song as a music video. Had it up on YT for years but it finally got flagged down.
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Post by jackcaeylin on Jan 12, 2019 8:47:08 GMT -5
I had a small movie marathon:
-Bad Times at the El Royal
I liked the movie. The editing is great as well as the backrounds. The story is nothing unique, but it doesn't really need to be unique. The pacing was great and it strengthens my feeling that you just need to have great pacing, if you want to make even the most used things interesting. My only concern are the characters. They believe each other too fast. It was kinda comical to me. I can imagine people saying that the movie is a "tryhard Tarantino", but I don't think so. It has its unique elements.
-Baby Driver
It was okay, I guess. The structure of the film was kinda familiar and it should not surprise me, because the Scott Pilgrim guy directed this movie and it also shares some problems. I am not a big fan of the second third of his movies. It kinda feels aimless and not funny in comparison to the first third of the movie. Most scenes or dialogue are kinda awesome in paper, but still lacking for whatever reason (to me). I mean the love relationship between the main characters felt like wish fulfillment with unromantic "scenes". I don't want to downplay the movie. From a technical point, it was beautiful. It had great action scenes and the main character with his quirk is kinda awesome. The dialogue can be smart and funny. It is enjoyable.
-Monster Party (2018)
a weird movie, I mean, in certain seconds, it is great, but then, it has kinda very awful scenes. You can say that to the acting, editing, lighting, camera view, to literal everything. It is weird to me. The story is not for everyone. It is highly crazy and doesn't really make sense, if you think about it. The movie is for the crowd that just like to see bunch of crazy people doing crazy things. I would not recommend it. The biggest problem is the tone. It wants to be everything at the same time and the result is mixed. The gore was kinda weak and they tried their best to make them as short as possible regarding showing stuff. At least, the movie was surprising in certain moments, but it is still a forgetful experience. The ending was awful and weak.
Yours sincerely
Jack Caeylin
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Post by toei on Jan 13, 2019 20:59:52 GMT -5
The story of Battle Royale is basically that hyper conservative politicians lose their minds over a rise in teenage delinquency and create this program to keep the kids in line. If a class gets really bad, their teacher can submit them for BR. Kitano's character turned on his class after getting (accidentally?) stabbed in the leg in the beginning of the movie, but he's also kind of a pedophile, with a crush on one of his students. The point being that those same self-righteous adults hide their own fucked up sins, and their extreme solution is worse than the problem it's supposed to combat. I disagree with all that stuff about it being "b-movieish", or cheesy-ass, corny Hunger Games being better. It's a raw, in-your-face movie that doesn't waste the viewer's time. I don't recall it being especially sappy, unlike the novel and the manga, and sentimentality isn't the point. It's about struggle for survival in the face of an unjust system, hence the ending (RUN!). There is also a satirical aspect, as seen in the scene where the kawaii, cheerful girl in military cosplay explains the rules of BR in front of the terrorized teens.
Also, the acting is not bad at all.
The sequel is flat-out about America's imperialism and terrorism as a response to it, but it's pretty terrible. That's because Kinji Fukasaku died after shooting a single scene - the excellent flashback sequence involving Kitano - and his young son made the movie instead. It does have another memorable scene, where Riki Takeuchi reads off an absolutely interminable list of countries, then finally says something like, "these are all the countries America has bombed since the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki."
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Post by jackcaeylin on Jan 15, 2019 1:30:52 GMT -5
I share the sentiment with toei.
Besides, Battle Royal has social commentary regarding college entrance exams and life after high school. You see the girls that claim that they will be friends forever, before the disaster. The same thing what people try to mantain when they finished high school, but they still don't see each other frequently. The same thing can be said about the couple. The same thing can be applied to the danger zone, which are referring to life that when you chose not to study the frequent studied stuff like (medicine, engineering, jurisprudence), then life will be harder for some people. The engineering people are one of the last victims in the movie. The obese kid is one of the first victim, which is kinda a message that Japan doesn't really like obese people, thus you have to on the edge of society. There are more examples in the movie.
I don't think that the acting is bad. I think it is just okay. I tried to watch some japanese movies and TV series and in comparison: Battle Royal is kinda an Oscar movie. TV series actors behave like that they are imitating acting and even the most loved shows look very cheap. It is horrendous. I am kinda surprised that the Outrage trilogy from Beat Takeshi is good looking.
Yours sincerely
Jack Caeylin
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Post by kaoru on Jan 15, 2019 2:45:51 GMT -5
You don't even have to compare Battle Royale with TV stuff, just compare it to its sequel and the acting suddenly doesn't look so bad.
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Post by edmonddantes on Jan 15, 2019 10:09:18 GMT -5
Of course, none of the Battle Royale movies will ever be as good as the original novel.
.... For some reason I've recently been on a Disney kick (after years of basically not giving a damn about Disney), particularly their older stuff. So I've been watching their stuff on the basis of one movie (and/or a disc of short cartoons with an emphasis on ones with Mickey in starring roles) for the last couple of nights.
last night's was a phenomenally underrated one: The Three Caballeros, or as I like to call it, "Donald Duck gets LSD for his Birthday while learning about Mexico."
Apparently Don Rosa did a comic about the three reuniting. Took 'em long enough, altho I don't like what I've heard about how Joe Carioco (the parrot) is portrayed in recent media... apparently there's a tendency to portray him as a con-man for some reason, which just doesn't fit his character to me.
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Post by toei on Jan 15, 2019 12:04:21 GMT -5
The BR movie is quite a bit better than the original novel, which is trite and sentimental. And the damn manga adaptation, which is more faithful to the novel, and which I had to drop a few volumes in because it was literally just a series of attempted extended tragic death scenes for characters we didn't really know.
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Post by edmonddantes on Jan 16, 2019 10:47:03 GMT -5
Its been awhile since I read the book or watched the movie, i just remember feeling like the book was a powerful story and the movie made it goofy.
Though... I was just turning 20 (I think?) when the book came out in English, so who knows if I'd feel the same way today.
...
My disney kick is continuing.
Movies watched so far:
Pinocchio The Three Caballeros Fantasia The Rescuers Down Under The Little Mermaid
I'm not sure what movie I should watch next... The Lion King or The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Also trying to decide if I should even bother watching Fantasia 2000 (which I have a VHS tape of, but I think I literally only ever watched it once).
I have mixed feelings the post-Little Mermaid era of Disney. It produced a lot of classics but its also when their films started getting really formulaic, and I'm not always big on that.
Movies I would watch but happen to not own in any form: Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Black Cauldron and especially Sleeping Beauty.
I'm basically ignoring their live-action movies for the time being.
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