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Post by 🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 on Sept 3, 2019 7:18:38 GMT -5
I haven't seen Captain Marvel but I was surprised to see her being so overpowered in Avengers: Endgame.
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Post by windfisch on Sept 5, 2019 17:36:40 GMT -5
Anon
Solid SciFi-Noir-Thriller about privacy/mass-surveillance and (implanted) augmented reality. It's by the same writer/director who did Gattaca and quality-wise I feel it's roughly on par with that movie, though I remember liking Gattaca slightly more, due to having more fleshed out characters. If you've ever tried out VR and realized its (scary) potential to feel real and create "real" memories (despite also being pretty cool, admittedly) and if you think about how much of your life and activies can be revealed by your smart-phone data, this movie's scenario seems less far-fetched and more like the next logical step.
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Post by windfisch on Sept 24, 2019 15:13:57 GMT -5
Into the Spider-Verse
This was surprisingly different from what I expected and not necessarily in a good way. The beginning of the movie suggests a strong emphasis on the protagist's character and his relatinoship to his familiy. But over the course of the movie those only play a pretty minor part. There are just way too many characters and the fast pacing leaves little room for most of them to leave much of an impact. Granted, some of them mainly exist to deliver punchlines, but even a supposedly tragic event is brushed aside quickly. The animation is also a bit too jerky for my taste, possibly this was done to give it a more traditionally animated look alongside the cel-shading.
It's still a decent movie overall, featuring some genuinely good moments. But there is so much going on, so many concepts and characters, that they could easily have made three movies out of those. Here's hoping the next chapter will slow things down a notch.
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Post by shelverton on Oct 3, 2019 15:21:49 GMT -5
Ad Astra
Better than The Martian, worse than Interstellar. Brad Pitt’s inner monologue is some of the worst writing I’ve experienced in a movie in a very long time. Other than that it was rather beautiful to look at but ultimately a bit too slow (And this is coming from someone who loved 2001).
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Post by Snake on Oct 7, 2019 17:31:56 GMT -5
Between Two Ferns The Movie
Is it the funniest movie? Maybe not. But I still found it very amusing. It really is like a basic Between Two Ferns episode, but extended with plenty of behind-the-scenes hijinks. All the guest cameos are pretty brilliant at playing along with silly line of questioning. All the bloopers at the end really showcase how hard it was for the likes of Jon Hamm to keep a straight face during filming.
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Post by windfisch on Oct 29, 2019 19:16:46 GMT -5
The Sisters Brothers
It's a Western, but it's also much more. Rarely do I feel knowing too much about a movie will make it a lesser experience (spoiler-warnings are for wimps), but in this case I actually do. There are some surprises here, which are truly earned and don't rely on cheap twists.
Sidenote: I can't quite tell whether the official trailer, which almost makes it look like some Tarantino-style dark comedy, is either willfully misleading or just dumb marketing (I suspect the latter, to be honest).
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Post by 🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 on Oct 30, 2019 11:47:17 GMT -5
Rarely do I feel knowing too much about a movie will make it a lesser experience (spoiler-warnings are for wimps) Really? I can barely think of any types of movie where it wouldn't impact the experience. Comedies, in most cases, but outside of that. Anyway, anybody watching any SPOOKY movies this Halloween season? I usually don't really care too much for horror movies, so I took it upon myself to watch some these past days that DO interest me, in the spirit of the season. Sadly I couldn't watch any in the theatre since there have just been two murders in my local movie theatre and so they don't want to show any horror movies just yet. But I did watch some at home: -Night of the Living Dead. Zombies are kinda lame to me, but this one seemed interesting for historical purposes. It's kind of on the borderline of being old-school and 'modern' in a way. The black-and-white cinematography, music and some of the acting is kind of old-school, but the level of violence, while not very graphic anno 2019, is still pretty surprising to see for 1968. Especially the part where the girl is eating her dad's arm. The ending also is very dark, and accidentally (and sadly) feels very contemporary because of the casting of the main character. It's not a bad watch at all. -The Blair Witch Project. I was a little sceptical going in, but I found this very effective, even if the acting wasn't always the most convincing. It's scary without relying on gross imagery or sudden scares, which was what I was hoping to get out of it. People who've ever gone camping in the middle of nowhere will get it, I think. -The Addiction. Not entirely a horror movie, but it's about vampirism so it's still a Halloween movie. It's about a college student who turns into a vampire after she is bitten by one on the street. It's a black-and-white movie from the 90's where the main characters quote philosphers left and right, so you can guess it's a bit pretentious, but I liked it fine.
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Post by windfisch on Oct 30, 2019 13:09:13 GMT -5
Let's put it this way: Generally speaking the journey to me is more important than the destiny. For example: I don't think it hurt my enjoyment of watching the originial Star Wars movies the first time knowing beforehand who Luke Skywalker's father was (if anything my young mind at the time was eager to witness these moments I heard of for myself). A twist like this might add a little spice to a movie, but it doesn't fundamentally change the experience. Stories like Romeo and Juliet remain powerful, even though (maybe in part because) the author tells us right at the beginning that it won't end well.
Of course it depends on the type of movie and how integral certain turns are to the overall story and feel: If you know the punchline before the joke, the joke probably won't work. But it has to be a good punchline for me to actually care.
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Post by Apollo Chungus on Oct 30, 2019 15:09:44 GMT -5
I think there's something to appreciate about not knowing what's going to happen in a film. Not for the usual reason of not wanting to know the plot (which sometimes seems like the only reason some people will watch a film they otherwise don't care for), but because of how fun it can be to just experience everything that happens in a film as it comes without any real expectations beyond "it stars this guy" or "it's based on this thing". For example, I watched Get Shorty for the first time earlier this year and had no knowledge of it apart from John Travolta starring in it, so when things started happening in that movie, I was legitimately surprised and I became giddy with excitement about what was going to happen next (it also helped that most of the characters I found very likeable).
While it's not that terrible to know what's going to happen in advance, I feel that not knowing allows any reactions you have towards a film (or any work of art) to feel more spontaneous and genuine, instead of checking off a mental list of characters beats or plot points from a detached perspective. It's the difference between seeing a plot twist you were told of in advance and going "Ah yes. So that's the plot twist I heard about," and seeing a plot twist you weren't expecting and going "Holy shit! Did that actually happen?! Oh my God, that makes so much sense!!!"
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I've watched a few films over the last week, so I'll do a couple of short paragraphs about each.
Just Go With It (2011, dir. Dennis Dugan) - Don't ask me why I watched this; we were bored and put this movie on for the hell of it. I haven't seen any Adam Sandler films since Click about 10 years ago, so I don't really get the disdain for him as an actor or the films he stars in, and this one did nothing to change that mindset. It's a serviceable enough film that's probably best to have on in the background while you're doing other things, with maybe one or two slightly amusing bits. Weirdly, the soundtrack was the most memorable part of the film, partially for featuring a baffling amount of songs by The Police (seriously, I caught at least 5/6 songs either by the Police or sampling the Police) and partially for making me go "Wow, I haven't heard X POPULAR SONG FROM 2011 in a long time." I'm now officially an adult.
The Fugitive (1993, dir. Andrew Davis) - I've heard people praising this film out the wazoo as classic lately, so I thought I'd give it a go. It's a fairly good film, and I particularly enjoy the chemistry between Tommy Lee Jones and his entourage of colleagues, but I don't love it as much as most folks seem to. There's nothing wrong with the film (aside from it being a bit too long for my tastes, though it does use that time well); it just isn't my thing. That said, after finding out this was based on a 1960s TV series, I think the premise lends itself much more naturally to a 2-hour film than a TV show lasting multiple seasons.
Police Woman/Young Tiger (1973, dir. Hdeng Tsu) - I've been watching various Hong Kong martial arts films from the 70s/80s over the last few months, particularly in the Wuxia (fantasy martial arts) genre, and I decided to check this out since it featured Jackie Chan pre-Drunken Master. It's a decent enough film, though I admit that I lost interest about an hour in and couldn't push myself to keep watching (a problem I've run into with nearly every HK film I've attempted to watch - I suppose I'm just not a fan of the filmmaking sensibilities that most of these films have, which is a shame since films like The 36th Chamber of Shaolin and The Young Master have some excellent bits).
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Post by windfisch on Oct 30, 2019 21:50:08 GMT -5
I think there's something to appreciate about not knowing what's going to happen in a film. Not for the usual reason of not wanting to know the plot (which sometimes seems like the only reason some people will watch a film they otherwise don't care for), but because of how fun it can be to just experience everything that happens in a film as it comes without any real expectations beyond "it stars this guy" or "it's based on this thing". For example, I watched Get Shorty for the first time earlier this year and had no knowledge of it apart from John Travolta starring in it, so when things started happening in that movie, I was legitimately surprised and I became giddy with excitement about what was going to happen next (it also helped that most of the characters I found very likeable). While it's not that terrible to know what's going to happen in advance, I feel that not knowing allows any reactions you have towards a film (or any work of art) to feel more spontaneous and genuine, instead of checking off a mental list of characters beats or plot points from a detached perspective. It's the difference between seeing a plot twist you were told of in advance and going "Ah yes. So that's the plot twist I heard about," and seeing a plot twist you weren't expecting and going "Holy shit! Did that actually happen?! Oh my God, that makes so much sense!!!" Just to do some more backpedaling, I agree, having no expectations about a movie (not having watched a trailer, nor read a review) can indeed be very rewarding.
This usually applies to smaller, lesser known movies, though. When it comes to ones with bigger budget, which naturally tend to get the biggest "spoiler alerts", those rarely surprise me (which on the plus side makes the ones that do all the better). Even if you've somehow managed to avoid the PR-machine: If you've seen other movies, you'll most likely have a rough idea about what's going to happen in this one, too. Twists in many cases seem to be manufactured to have some superficial "holy fuck"-moments in there, but ultimately within very safe boundaries. After all as a studio you don't want to alienate your target demographic, do you?
I like The Fugitive movie quite a bit, but I actually think the premise works even better for a series - being on the run for a very long time has a certain romantic connotation for me. I've even seen some episodes of the 60s Fugitive, though unfortunately not too many, since at that time (late nineties) it was some throwaway thing to fill a late-night timeslot and stopped airing pretty soon. Pitty, since I remember it being pretty interesting, especially considering its age.
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Post by 🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 on Oct 31, 2019 9:45:33 GMT -5
Let's put it this way: Generally speaking the journey to me is more important than the destiny. For example: I don't think it hurt my enjoyment of watching the originial Star Wars movies the first time knowing beforehand who Luke Skywalker's father was (if anything my young mind at the time was eager to witness these moments I heard of for myself). A twist like this might add a little spice to a movie, but it doesn't fundamentally change the experience. Stories like Romeo and Juliet remain powerful, even though (maybe in part because) the author tells us right at the beginning that it won't end well. Of course it depends on the type of movie and how integral certain turns are to the overall story and feel: If you know the punchline before the joke, the joke probably won't work. But it has to be a good punchline for me to actually care. FWIF, it's not just about 'turns and twists' for me, just about any type of information can diminish the impact of the movie, IMO. I think there's something to appreciate about not knowing what's going to happen in a film. Not for the usual reason of not wanting to know the plot (which sometimes seems like the only reason some people will watch a film they otherwise don't care for), but because of how fun it can be to just experience everything that happens in a film as it comes without any real expectations beyond "it stars this guy" or "it's based on this thing". For example, I watched Get Shorty for the first time earlier this year and had no knowledge of it apart from John Travolta starring in it, so when things started happening in that movie, I was legitimately surprised and I became giddy with excitement about what was going to happen next (it also helped that most of the characters I found very likeable). I also watched that pretty recently without knowing anything about it other than some of its main stars. It's a good example, I think, since it was (for me at least) pretty different from what I expected. Funnily enough, that movie spoils the ending of Touch of Evil. I didn't know what movie it was at the time I watched it, but by complete coincidence, me and some friends watched Touch of Evil a couple days after I watched Get Shorty, so partway through that I realized I already knew what was going to happen at the end.
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Post by windfisch on Oct 31, 2019 10:28:55 GMT -5
FWIF, it's not just about 'turns and twists' for me, just about any type of information can diminish the impact of the movie, IMO. Sure, it could be anything - genre, casting choices, even duration time. The points I made earlier were supposed to be mere examples.
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Post by toei on Oct 31, 2019 14:45:58 GMT -5
Apollo Chungus Most series from The Fugitive's time period were episodic, where the premise was really just a set-up for a series of self-contained story with the occasional bit of overarching story arc popping up now and then. This kind of series was favored back then because it was much harder for the audience to watch an entire series without missing at least a few episodes, so they tended to keep serial storytelling for short mini-series. So rather than focus on his story, most episodes would involve him arriving somewhere, then getting caught up in some one-off character's story before moving on. The movie is definitely an early-90s classic, but maybe you had to be there. The dam jump scene was iconic in the '90s, even if it's nothing special now. To me Harrison Ford was always The Fugitive growing up, more so than even Indiana Jones or Han Solo.
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Post by Apollo Chungus on Oct 31, 2019 16:21:14 GMT -5
toei Ah, that makes more sense. You know, I've actually grown to prefer that style of storytelling for a TV show, though that's probably due to burnout from how many series these days tend to be serialized to cater towards that binge-watching mentality that I've never understood and can't physically stand. I like watching shows where characters have self-contained adventures, since it lets them do whatever they hell the want without fear of breaching some kind of overarching narrative. (It also means that episodes actually have to have some kind of resolution, instead of most dramas where it feels like you have to keep watching to get some faint resolution to something that doesn't matter - incidentally, if my main reason for watching a show can easily be solved by reading the summary on Wikipedia, that's not a good show.) Damn, I wish this was a TV thread, since I'm been watching a lot of the 80s ITV comedy-drama series Minder lately, and I'd love to talk about it. It always manages to make me smile, I love the interplay between the characters, and it's really helped me to appreciate that type of storytelling. Oh well. In the meantime, I just finished watching The Taking of Pelham 123 (1998, dir. Félix Enríquez Alcalá). This is actually a TV movie remake of the 1974 movie, not to be confused with the 2009 remake, that my folks and I ended up watching because we briefly confused it for the original. It's fairly okay, though I did appreciate the look it was going for in terms of cinematography and even the colour-grading - it gave the movie this indie, low-budget look that I think helps it stand out from its time (I've noticed that most films have a feeling about them that makes it pretty easy to guess which decade they came from).
Something that made me laugh more than it was probably intended was the music by Stewart Copeland - he's mainly known as the drummer for The Police, but he's best known around gaming circles for doing the music to the first four Spyro the Dragon games, and this is pretty relevant since he uses a lot of the same sounds and samples from those soundtracks for the music to this film (makes sense; they were composed around the same time). This is especially noticeable when anything happens with the train, as those distinctive power-chord electric guitars kick in, and now I'm suddenly wondering where I can find more gems to grab and Gnorcs to torch. XD
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Post by 🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 on Nov 1, 2019 3:12:00 GMT -5
Sure, it could be anything - genre, casting choices, even duration time. The points I made earlier were supposed to be mere examples. No no, I mean as far as plot-points and other things revealed before a viewing go. Something that made me laugh more than it was probably intended was the music by Stewart Copeland - he's mainly known as the drummer for The Police, but he's best known around gaming circles for doing the music to the first four Spyro the Dragon games, I had no idea he did the Sypro soundtracks. That kind of blows my mind.
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