At 3/6/16 03:18 PM, Jackho wrote: You mean the ones they spend years building up to with countless solo movies, tv shows and cameos, as opposed to making one piece of shit and clumsily trying to turn its inbred sequel into the fanservice ensemble film? You can criticize marvel stuidios' method but the corporate planning is balanced by a genuine love of the IPs they're working with, with gratitude toward comic book fans. Marvel has fully earned their current fanatics.

Yes, Marvel has mastered making quality super hero films. They have great stories and action. I look forward to seeing the Black Panther and Dr. Strange in the Future.

At 3/8/16 12:13 PM, Amaranthus wrote: Watched Oblivion.
It was pretty boring, and I don't think I even understood most of it because I'm dumb.

The game is good tho

At 3/8/16 12:13 PM, Amaranthus wrote: Watched Oblivion.
It was pretty boring, and I don't think I even understood most of it because I'm dumb.

no, it's pretty dumb. screenplays that are only designed for twists tend to be very badly written and post-apocalyptic fiction is dead horse anyway. i still go back to that ending monologue for a quick laugh every time though, it's so fucking cringey.

have been too busy to watch anything for these past few weeks but spring break is coming up and i'm already making a list of films i'll watch over that time. looking at stray dogs, incendies, as tears go by, anomalisa, and slow west.

Finally got around to seeing The Martian. It was pretty much just the coolest parts of Apollo 13 stretched over a whole movie with one dimensional characters and a hit or miss cornball sense of humor. That being said for what it was it was really fun and if a film is going to pretty much be a propaganda piece for a government agency god knows NASA deserves it a hell of a lot more than the military.

I was dying of throat last weekend, so didn't get to see The Witch.

I will FINALLY see it on Saturday. I have been so hyped for long it cannot possibly meet my expectations.

Will also see High Rise, which I'm almost as hyped for, because barring Kelly Reichardt, I think Ben Wheatley might be the best director currently working. Well, Lenny Abrahamson and Ana Lily Amirpour would be in the conversation too, but I need to see more of Abrahamson's older stuff, and Amirpour only has one film to go on so far, so we'll need to see how The Bad Batch (which I'm also hugely hyped for) turns out.

Will also see Hail Caesar and Anomalisa too because why not.

Crimson Peak - This is Guillermo Del Toro at his most self-indulgent, which is to say it's still a pretty good, albeit inconsistent film. I liked almost everything here, the acting is good the directing is solid, and it's got that kind of gothic style that I almost always like. It just falls somewhere between being too campy and not campy enough as if it just can't decide. I wish Del Toro would have just gone whole hog in one direction or the other. Sometimes it's a little cheeky in a bad way, at one point Mia Wasikowska explains that the story she's writing, "Isn't a ghost story, it's a story with ghosts." Doesn't excuse the CGI ghosts looking a bit shit.

Angel's Egg - Very artsy and heavily symbolic early film by the director of Ghost in the Shell, Mamoru Oshii. A girl wanders about a desolate cityscape while carrying an egg under her dress. I'm not a huge fan of nearly plotless art films. I understand their place, but I feel like symbolism shouldn't be a means to an end in itself. That being said there was something compelling about Angel's Egg. Partly due to Yoshitako Amano's striking visual look and partly due to the excellent musical score.

Spectre - I haven't seen a Bond film since Casino Royale, so I'm more than a bit out of the loop, but somewhere along the line the Daniel Craig 007 movies stopped being good films and just became good James Bond films. Watching this movie is like flipping through an issue of GQ, for everything that's generally entertaining there's something that betrays how heavily you're being advertised not just physical items, but a piece of the James Bond lifestyle. You could pull every other frame of this film, slap "Armani" on it, and put it on a billboard and it would make a fine ad. That would have been a really interesting stylistic choice if the concept of product placement wasn't so embedded in the franchise. It comes off as creepy and it's hard not to look at it cynically.

As an action flick it's pretty fun, though.

10 Cloverfield Lane - The spiritual successor to Cloverfield that betrays itself by being a spiritual successor to Cloverfield. Which is okay since it's really about the human drama. I can't help but feeling like the story would have been better served with an R-rating, but that's the way things go, I guess. John Goodman is no Kathy Bates here, but he's serviceably creepy.

At 3/16/16 09:35 AM, Jercurpac wrote: Angel's Egg - Very artsy and heavily symbolic early film by the director of Ghost in the Shell, Mamoru Oshii. A girl wanders about a desolate cityscape while carrying an egg under her dress. I'm not a huge fan of nearly plotless art films. I understand their place, but I feel like symbolism shouldn't be a means to an end in itself. That being said there was something compelling about Angel's Egg. Partly due to Yoshitako Amano's striking visual look and partly due to the excellent musical score.

I love Angel's Egg. It was one of my picks back when we were doing the super cool exclusive movie of the week.

Spectre - I haven't seen a Bond film since Casino Royale, so I'm more than a bit out of the loop, but somewhere along the line the Daniel Craig 007 movies stopped being good films and just became good James Bond films.

I'm not sure they were ever good films. Casino Royale blew my mind when I first saw it, it's what got me into the bond films and books, but I saw Skyfall in theatres and thoroughly hated it. Leading up to Spectre's release I rewatched Casino and was baffled by how bad it actually is, promptly killing my interest in James Bond and in seeing Spectre. My tastes must have done a clean 180 on that one since I was 12 and addicted to CoD4 (CoD4 is still excellent though I will fight you irl about that).

Hail, Caesar! was fine. Enjoyed it well enough while watching but already struggling to recall the details as it's entirely forgettable.

High-Rise was a very good, but maybe the weakest of Wheatley's films so far. It's got the same dark humour all of his pictures have, and a good dollop surrealism (although much more restrained than in A Field in England), but it drags a little in the middle. Takes a bit too long between social order collapsing and the dog-eating, tribal insanity of the in medias res opening coming to pass. Still great and definitely worth a watch, though.

Anomalisa just made me sad. It's quite funny in places, which makes the grinding, inescapable misery of the conclusion all the more depressing. It's a horrible film made by sadists and I really quite liked it.

The Witch. Fuck me, The Witch. Everything I could have asked for and more. Phenomenal stuff. Not quite the traditional folk horror tale I was expecting, but focussing on the internal strife between the family members that resulted from the more fantastical elements was probably the more interesting path to take. Brought to mind Nigel Kneale's Baby in places, which is just about the highest praise it's possible to give to a film. Adored it from start to finish.

If there's any criticism to be found, I never felt that creeping dread of the unknown that the very best of folk horror evokes. While something like Baby lays out the obviously hideously evil disfigured foetus monster in the first could of minutes and then just leaves it there, doing nothing, until the climactic scenes, allowing that stress and tension to eat away at you because you know it's going to do something, this picture plays its cards much more openly. Kicking off with a ritualistic killing of a baby is a hell of a way to set the tone, but it denies you that mystery. We know there's a witch and we know what she's doing. The Black Philip stuff could act as somewhat of a substitute later on, but I never trusted that goat for a fucking second so it was wasted on me.

At 3/20/16 01:33 AM, SithCorduroy wrote: I watched Pee Wee's Big Holiday, the new Pee Wee Herman movie on Netflix.

I'm happy to say that it was much better than I predicted. I liked it a lot. Much better than Big Top Pee Wee, but not quite Pee Wee's Big Adventure, and that's all I asked for, really.

Reubens still seems to have a real affinity with this character, and it doesn't come off like just a cynical cash-grab over a nostalgic property.

I was curious about seeing it. I think I will give it a chance, Pee Wee's films are always silly and goofy in a good way.

Can't remember all the stuff I've seen since I last posted. Goddard is probably not for me, honestly. Waking Life was kinda neat, but lolwtf Alex Jones is in it. New Godzilla, meh. Rise of the Planet of the Apes was surprisingly good. Last thing I watched was the 25th hour. Not bad.

Edit: Did I mention that Deadpool is tits? I thought I did.

At 3/8/16 01:20 PM, Jolly wrote:

At 3/8/16 12:13 PM, Amaranthus wrote: Watched Oblivion.
It was pretty boring, and I don't think I even understood most of it because I'm dumb.

The game is good tho

Hail Sithis, bro.

At 3/18/16 07:36 PM, Jackho wrote: I rewatched Casino and was baffled by how bad it actually is, promptly killing my interest in James Bond and in seeing Spectre. My tastes must have done a clean 180 on that one since I was 12 and addicted to CoD4 (CoD4 is still excellent though I will fight you irl about that).

I'll have to rewatch it at some point, but Casino Royale was the first James Bond I ever liked. I think part of that is because people tend to identify with the Bond they grew up with and I grew up with the thoroughly bland and identityless Brosnan Bond films which were a safe amalgamation of what everyone assumed James Bond should be. That ended up putting me off of the whole series even though at this point in my life I think I'd actually enjoy the campiness of the original Bond films.

But ten years is a long time and we all may have given Casino Royale more credit then it deserved for the simple fact that it was a bold move (well, as bold as a big budget blockbuster film ever gets).

At 3/16/16 09:35 AM, Jercurpac wrote: Watching this movie is like flipping through an issue of GQ, for everything that's generally entertaining there's something that betrays how heavily you're being advertised not just physical items, but a piece of the James Bond lifestyle. You could pull every other frame of this film, slap "Armani" on it, and put it on a billboard and it would make a fine ad.

Lol, I mean yeah, that's Bond. Though to Spectre's credit up until whatever the hell that watch-through-the-fingers embarrassing third act was I thought the movie was starting to do some fairly interesting things to puncture that fantasy. Like, Bond is clearly a functioning alcoholic in this movie in a way I've never seen the franchise acknowledge before.

Haven't watched a movie in seven years but just got a p good one

"Proudly making their first appearance on Blu-Ray just in time for the format to slowly grow obsolete"

I went to see The Pearl Button.

Feels like a lesser rehash of Nostalgia for the Light, which in itself was a film I thought was almost great but just lacking some intangible, which I'd hoped Guzman would find in this follow up, but I guess not. Still a decent watch though.

At 3/23/16 09:00 AM, Jackho wrote: Haven't watched a movie in seven years but just got a p good one

"Proudly making their first appearance on Blu-Ray just in time for the format to slowly grow obsolete"

Guess mine are on a boat somewhere at the minute.

At 3/23/16 09:00 AM, Jackho wrote: Haven't watched a movie in seven years but just got a p good one

What the fcucck no fair I still haven't gotten miiiine.

"Proudly making their first appearance on Blu-Ray just in time for the format to slowly grow obsolete"

Wait, are you saying that the nearly 100 Criterion Blu's I've been hoarding were not a prudent investment?

Adult Swim and Production I.G. are making 12 new episodes of FLCL.

YOU GUYS

I mean, this will probably be awful and little more than a cheap, cynical cash-in on the current reboot craze, BUT STILL.

zootopia: very good

At 3/25/16 01:12 AM, Dr-Worm wrote: Adult Swim and Production I.G. are making 12 new episodes of FLCL.

I mean, this will probably be awful and little more than a cheap, cynical cash-in on the current reboot craze, BUT STILL.

I will watch it. Even if it is terrible, I will check it out.

At 3/25/16 01:12 AM, Dr-Worm wrote: Adult Swim and Production I.G. are making 12 new episodes of FLCL.

I did not ask for this.

I liked FLCL and all that, but a sequel twice the length of the original being made 16 years later is not something that I can easily get excited about.

Oh well, I guess I'll watch the first episode and then immediately forget about it like I do with just about everything else.

@Natick I watched Hope and Glory and I really liked it.

@TheMaster I watched A Field In England and I didn't really like it.

At 3/26/16 10:20 PM, Oolaph wrote: I liked FLCL and all that, but a sequel twice the length of the original being made 16 years later is not something that I can easily get excited about.

Oh it will almost certainly be a total trainwreck, and I will almost certainly torture myself by studiously watching the entire thing. This must be how really devoted Simpsons fans feel nowadays.

At 3/29/16 01:04 AM, Dr-Worm wrote: @TheMaster I watched A Field In England and I didn't really like it.

Please try harder next time.

At 3/29/16 01:04 AM, Dr-Worm wrote: @Natick I watched Hope and Glory and I really liked it.

sweet
last film i saw in 16mm
german jam is easily one of my favorite scenes in any war film

At 3/26/16 10:20 PM, Oolaph wrote: I liked FLCL and all that, but a sequel twice the length of the original being made 16 years later is not something that I can easily get excited about.

Oh it will almost certainly be a total trainwreck, and I will almost certainly torture myself by studiously watching the entire thing. This must be how really devoted Simpsons fans feel nowadays.

it's funny that this was just announced because one of my roommates came back from spring break with what i assume is season 1, might start watching in the next few weeks if we're not too busy

So these are the things I watch when I'm visiting family over the Easter holiday.

Poltergeist (2015) - One of the most unnecessary remakes ever. It doesn't even have the courtesy to be outright terrible so you can properly make fun of it. It's really only notable if you want to see Sam Rockwell give the most bored performance of his career. I will admit that I actually thought the scene where the younger girl (I can't even remember if they kept the names the same) gets sucked into the closet was surprisingly creepy and effective although spoiled by a pointless jump scare at the end.

Goosebumps - If you're around children and have to watch a kids movie this one a'int too bad. Jack Black is painful and seems to continually double down on his Jack Blackiness as time goes on. As a whole the film is obnoxiously satisfied with its own corny sense of humor, but if it's dumb it's only because it's true to the source material. For what it is it's kinda fun and would be even if it was divorced from being a series of Goosebumps references.

Watched the recent Batman v Superman film...it's alright, I actually found it to be a good watch. I felt that if I watched it with a critical mind (like a critic), I'd probably not like it and rates it low. But I'm not a critic, so I watched it for entertainment and for fun...and found it to be a good movie, some cringy scenes but overall it's something I'd love to re-watch on TV one day.

Hope it's not too much to ask for movie recommendations in this thread, I've been itching to watch some 70's horror movies with great scores since I've seen It Follows a few days ago (Alright movie, character motive was off but loved a ton of scenes) and I don't really know where to go for a list of movies like that.

I rarely watch movies to be completely honest but It Follows got me wanting more here.

Batman vs Superman was okay. I was kinda disappointed. Although, I am looking forward to The Justice League. I'm hoping they go for an Injustice, where The Joker tricks Superman into killing Lois. That would be cool :)

Batman vs Superman was terrible. My two friends dragged me to see it, and one of them fell asleep. We ended up getting our money back. There was were at least five others in the line for ticket refunds. Who thought having a teenage Lex Luthor was a good idea?

Save your money and skip Batman vs. Superman, which is actually Superman 2.

At 4/1/16 01:03 PM, DoctorStrongbad wrote: Batman vs Superman was terrible. My two friends dragged me to see it, and one of them fell asleep. We ended up getting our money back. There was were at least five others in the line for ticket refunds. Who thought having a teenage Lex Luthor was a good idea?

Save your money and skip Batman vs. Superman, which is actually Superman 2.

I thought it was really good, actually. I was never bored and liked it a lot more than Man of Steel. It had some flaws sure, but I liked it a lot. The biggest complaint I have is how it movieified a few things to make it easier for the audience to understand, e.g. Batman's tracker being huge with a red blinking light, and the fact that the other superheos (Aquaman, Cyborg, Flash) already had their own logos attached to their files despite apparently being unknown.

Other than that I only had maybe 2-3 other complaints about the movie.

At 4/1/16 05:32 PM, Jolly wrote:

At 4/1/16 01:03 PM, DoctorStrongbad wrote: Save your money and skip Batman vs. Superman, which is actually Superman 2.

I thought it was really good, actually. I was never bored and liked it a lot more than Man of Steel. It had some flaws sure, but I liked it a lot. The biggest complaint I have is how it movieified a few things to make it easier for the audience to understand, e.g. Batman's tracker being huge with a red blinking light, and the fact that the other superheos (Aquaman, Cyborg, Flash) already had their own logos attached to their files despite apparently being unknown.

Other than that I only had maybe 2-3 other complaints about the movie.

I'm with ol' Strongbad on this one.

The first half produced some concepts and ideas that could have been really interesting, but every scene was a massive drag that didn't feel like it was going anywhere, then Justice League characters were given hasty introductions (logos and all) and that went nowhere, then Lex Luthor made a giant monster as they flushed the script down the toilet.

They tried to do some visually interesting things towards the beginning of the film, but aside from a few "pretty shots" there was nothing notable in the camerawork department. Soundtrack was standard Zimmer with help from shockingly out of place ROCKIN' GUITAR tracks for Wonder Woman. Dialogue was the same desperately lofty and grand lines that are simply begging to be quoted.

They tried a bit more than I expected, but when my immediate reaction was to laugh at multiple instances in the very serious film, I can't really say they won me over. I think this will be my last comic book film for a good while.

I've been reading the His Dark Materials-trilogy lately and after finishing the first book I decided to give The Golden Compass a watch.

Although the film is not good, I feel that it has a few redeeming qualities. All-in-all I think most scenes were adapted from the book decently with sufficient detail. I do think they could've taken 15-20 more minutes in the early parts of the film to establish the world more subtly rather than starting off with a voice-over doing all the exposition as in LOTR. Also, the film's ending is very, very disappointing if you read the book. But I understand the reasoning behind these decisions.

The cast is very impressive and the casting is almost spot on. Daniel Craig is the only actor whom I felt was out of place. Lyra and Mrs Coulter were played perfectly by Dakota Blue Richards and Nicole Kidman. Ian McKellen has a good voice for playing an ice bear and Sam Elliot has a great screen presence anyway. Too bad Christopher Lee was wasted.

The CGI is also pretty well done. For 2007 standards the film looks very good and it rightfully received an Oscar for visual effects I suppose. What really bothered me though is that they left out the blood in the ice bear fight. Without spoiling too much: the description in the book is pretty gory and the most gruesome part of it is in the film. However, it looks so unimpressive and stupid when these bears are still perfectly white and clean after literally smashing each other's faces in.

Anyway, it's too bad that the film got messed up during editing. From what I read they had to take out some of the anti-religious elements of the original work as to not offend the religious crowd and this compromise makes some of the character motivations quite vague (particularly Mrs Coulter's) and leaves important story elements like Dust poorly explained. I'm guessing this is also the reason why they discontinued the film series as it was likely impossible to make anything of the remaining two books while leaving out the religious commentary.