At 1/15/18 12:17 AM, Dr-Worm wrote: It's a new year, gang, let's see those Best of 2017 lists.

Since I stopped watching TV and almost never go to the cinema anymore, it's hard for me to keep up with recent film releases.

The only 2017 films I watched last year are:
I Don't Feel at Home in this World Anymore
Hidden Figures
Okja

All of which fall into the 'okay but not great'-category in my opinion.

In other news, I had an absolute blast rewatching Monty Python and the Holy Grail last weekend. It holds up incredibly well upon repeated viewings.

At 1/22/18 08:35 PM, Zymbot wrote: I've seen all I need to at this point.

You can never go wrong with al lol

~X~

Just watched 2000's Memento today. It's been a long time since I was so engrossed in the plot of a movie. Obviously, I'm super late to the party on this movie as it's been out for over 17 years, but DAMN this was so good. The cinematography and acting in this movie were something I'm still marveling at even hours after seeing this flick.

I'm gonna stop gushing like a fanboy over this film and just tell you guys to go sprint to see it if you haven't already. As I write this, it's available for streaming via Netflix in the US.

All the 2017 movies I've seen are (other than standup, which is the vast majority of 2017 titles I've watched)

Logan
John Wick 2
Get Out
It
Baby Driver
Alien Covenant
Happy Death Day
Savage Dog

https://letterboxd.com/senseoffender/films/

My favorite is John Wick 2, though Logan is close. But I did really like Get Out and Baby Driver and It was quite good, definitely better than the 1990 one. I just didn't like Savage Dog. I'm a big fan of Scott Adkins and Marko Zaror, plus Cung Le was in it, but it's not a good action movie. Alien Covenant was also... eh... Oh yeah, and Happy Death Day was actually a pretty decent dark comedy, which surprised me becuse I went thinking it would suck (it was the only thing playing).

Anyway, hype for John Wick 3.

Since Amazon were doing £10 off on orders over £50 a few days back I decided to order four Blu-rays. First time I've bought any in a while.

Pre-ordered Blade Runner 2049 and Thor Ragnarok. I rarely go to the cinema, so haven't seen either of these yet. Looking forward to both of them when they arrive in Feb.

The other two arrived today; The Collectors Edition of Akira and Star Trek Beyond.

I recently decided to re-watch my old Akira DVD for whatever reason and got really into it, so thought I'd upgrade to Blu-ray. The first time I ever watched it I think I pretty much dismissed it as one of those films that tries to be awkward to follow in an attempt to be cool or whatever, but I never had that issue at all this time. It does still leave me wanting to know more about the world, so I'm also in the process of reading through the manga.

As for Star Trek Beyond, it was ridiculously cheap and it still surprises me that I haven't gotten around to watching it yet. I liked the other Trek reboot films, so hoping this one is just as fun although I have had people tell me it's their least favourite of the three.

At 1/27/18 05:55 AM, Dean wrote: although I have had people tell me it's their least favourite of the three.

It's the best of the three. Less nostalgia heavy/pseudo-remake, more just a solid original Star Trek story.

@TheQuietGamer @Sense-Offender I've noticed Metacritic's user score for Jacob's Ladder is totally out of wack. 3.6 out of 10, really? I get that it's more of a cult hit but sure;y something' gone awry there, esp. given the actual reviews present.

http://www.metacritic.com/movie/jacobs-ladder

At 1/10/18 12:43 AM, TheQuietGamer wrote: The Last Jedi. Incredible. At first I didn't like it and thought I could understand all of the hate.

Early on I was thinking it felt more like a high budget reboot of Spaceballs than an actual Star Wars film. Even as a big SW fan, I remember thinking during the casino planet sequence that I could just up and walk out right now and be content never seeing the rest of it.

It's somewhat interesting how the fans and the nay sayers basically say the same thing in their reviews. The Leia bit was dumb, the humor is excessive, Rose & Finn are pointless but all the Luke/Kylo/Rey stuff was great. The only difference is that the negatives are utterly unforgivable and dominate the movie for some, and for the rest of us the latter half of the movie redeems it.

That said, the people claiming it's the absolute worst Star Wars of all time are way out of wack. Even at its most egregious it's still head and shoulders above any of the prequels (and I would argue above Rogue One as well, if you think RO is what a Star Wars film should be like then you can just go straight to heck).

Also, Kylo might be my favourite character in all of Star Wars and it's nice seeing people finally grasp the impossibly complex idea that he's not meant to be Darth Vader 2.0. Even a lot of the negative user reviews have said they understand him now after disliking him in TFA, which is nice to see.

It's kind of like Rian Johnson was just swinging his massive dick around.

It felt surreal when "Written & Directed by Rian Johnson" popped up. I expected multiple dedicated writers. It's so bizarre that Disney would pick out this totally random guy with only a couple decent films under his belt and seemingly just hand him Star Wars to do what he wants with it. Honestly I wonder if reeling him in a bit could have been beneficial. It definitely shouldn't have been as much of a comedy.

I also think it probably had to do with the Rey reveal and the lack of new info on Snoke.

What happened to Snoke in this film is the absolute most valuable thing his character ever could have accomplished to me. I hate this mindset current fans have that every SW character just has to be related or have some background that ties into established lore. In the OT the Emperor was just a random hooded space wizard who got no explanation and never needed it, and futhermore he was fuckin' boring. He served a pragmatic function in the OT and people were content with that. No amount of backstory would have made Snoke interesting, instead he serves a purpose in building up Kylo (a far, far better character) and then GTFO of the way.

Some of my new favorite Star Wars moments happened in this film. I actually think it's one of the best in the series.

Same, TLJ contains probably my favourite moments in the entire series, but the missteps prevent me from calling it the best Star Wars film outright.

At 1/16/18 12:20 AM, Oolaph wrote: 1. Blade Runner 2049

How hard did you relate to officer K? He was me irl tbh fam. If you only watch one other film in your life it's gotta be Baby Driver though.

At 1/24/18 06:24 AM, Auz wrote: Since I stopped watching TV and almost never go to the cinema anymore, it's hard for me to keep up with recent film releases.

If you think this is a problem I'd recommend starting a Letterboxd account. I learn about new films faster than I'm able to watch them, and just tracking how much films you watch in a year makes me watch significantly more than I otherwise would.

At 1/27/18 05:55 AM, Dean wrote: Star Trek Beyond,

Simon Pegg wrote this one, fun fact.

At 1/15/18 12:17 AM, Dr-Worm wrote: It's a new year, gang, let's see those Best of 2017 lists. I've now caught up on most of the things I've been meaning to see, so I'm reasonably satisfied with this as a top 25:

Everything I've seen is in the pic below, but there's over 30 more films I want to see. Most of what I'm interested in still isn't even released over here.

I genuinely loved Baby Driver, Blade Runner and Get Out, all three could've easily been #1 on a different year. Three Billboards, Star Wars, Split and John Wick were great, although Three Billboards was a 2018 release here so I'll probably move it off the list.

The rest are fairly whatever. The Salesman was good but I expected it was building to something more. Logan and Toni Erdmann are competent but I got absolutely nothing out of them. Death Note was garbage.

1. Nathan for You: Finding Frances

The amount of praise this has gotten is pretty mental. Having only seen the first season of the show, do I need to watch the rest to get this or can I jump right to it? I'll probably watch it all either way, it just seemed like this type of humour would suffer from diminishing returns and I don't want to be sick of it by the time I watch Finding Frances, after binging the whole thing just to reach it.

6. World of Tomorrow Episode Two

Keep meaning to rent this one on vimeo, though I've already seen a few negative reactions and hope they don't colour my own experience too much.

14. Lasagna Cat - Telephone Sex Survey Results

what, uh, the fuck is this? this is better than Dunkirk? why is it so long? why is there so much effort put into repeating the same thing for almost five hours? Does the rest of the channel give context?

I've watched like half an hour of it so far and to be fair it is weirdly compelling. Can you, in your professional opinion, promise that it's worth watching the rest?

At 1/27/18 07:19 AM, Absurd-Ditties wrote:

At 1/27/18 05:55 AM, Dean wrote: although I have had people tell me it's their least favourite of the three.

It's the best of the three. Less nostalgia heavy/pseudo-remake, more just a solid original Star Trek story.

I'm with you on this one. I watched it last night and it was good fun. It's been quite a while since I saw the previous two films, but if I had to rate them I'd probably say 3 > 1 > 2 or 1 > 3 > 2. On the whole I've really enjoyed the reboot films.

I just watched Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.

I must say that I'm a little divided about it.

As a comedy it didn't really work for me. There were a few times I chuckled at the absurdism, but most of the humour fell flat to me.

I can, perhaps, appreciate it is as a satire on masochistic, male-dominated work cultures. I believe the film was made during a time when things like the underappreciation of female workers and #metoo weren't taken seriously as issues yet. In that regard, the film might actually be a bit more clever than it lets on.

Then again, there is that plot point where Veronica concedes to sleeping with Ron, even though he's being a sexist pig to her, which weakens the satirical aspect of it in my opinion.

A fave of mine has always been

For Pete's sake

An older movie not all of you may like this but it's a classic with some great oldstyle comedy and really can keep you laughing I have enjoyed this old classic.

~X~

Saw some films I forgot to post about.

I, Daniel Blake - Didn't emotionally destroy me like some had promised but a solid film. Bit of an odd choice for Palme though considering it's quite rudimentary film making. It feels more like a low budget newcomer than the work of a veteran like Ken Loach (though admittedly I've seen very few of his films). Good watch if you want to feel dejected for a bit.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri - This is absolutely excellent & had me thoroughly engrossed for its duration. It's started getting some backlash after winning four golden globes but those people are literally and not subjectively wrong. There's a few small scenes and choices I have a problem with but it's great overall.

The Book of Henry - I watched this on the promise that it would be a catastrophic mess. It delivered, sort of. If you want to be fucking baffled and wonder what on earth anyone was thinking, this is your movie. Not that it's unconventional filmmaking in any way, but the story goes in a direction that's physically impossible to see coming and the tone shifts so much that it can't be intentional. "you've got to see it to disbelieve it" indeed.

I also finally watched season 4 of Black Mirror, which is pretty much just a set of small standalone movies (and each is listed on letterboxd) so I think it's relevant here.

Easily the weakest and most disappointing season so far imo. Still good overall, and I'd still rank it among my favourite shows, but it's missing a lot of what made the series special to begin with and I found literally every story along with the technology in it had some very contrived elements to clumsily push the story where they wanted it to go. Definitely some of the laziest episodes of the show from a writing perspective. Here's what I thought of each ep:

USS Callister - Decent. Good concept, although the DNA cloning machine is a little bit ridiculous and you just have to accept it for the story to work. Loved the villain but he gets outsmarted so incredibly easily that I just felt cheated. The whole episode builds him up to be a cold genius and then he suddenly becomes a total dumbass to allow the heroes to win. The features the heroes exploit also make absolutely no sense and have no reason to exist other than the writer needing a way for the heroes to win. 3/5

Arkangel - People seem to like this one, but for me it was the worst of the season and one of the worst episodes overall. The technology is extremely far fetched and the barely even gets explored. So much missed potential. The themes and message of the episode are fine and I can't think of any egregious plot holes, it's just a boring, predictable story and the climax is laughably executed. 1/5

Crocodile - Dumb as fuck but I enjoyed it. The technology here is nonsense and insurance companies being able to legally compel people to give up their entire memory to be rummaged through stretched my disbelief too far.
The ending is absolutely retarded and makes zero sense even in the context of the episode, where everything building up to it directly contradicts it. That said it was refreshingly dark after the last two, visually great and kept me interested the whole way through. Very tense, and would be a solid crime/detective story on it's own, just maybe not such a great BM episode. 3/5

Hang the DJ - ehhhhh. People are loving this one, to me it felt like a shitty retread of San Junipero, an episode that was notable for being unique, except this time the lead couple and the world they're in aren't even half as interesting as their SJ . They try to imply the whole thing is about rebellion toward the end, while at the same time implying the computer overlord is actually totally correct and trustworthy. It's a bit all over the place thematically, and it's a slow burn without any real payoff. The aesthetic shift at the very end was a really nice touch though. There's a mild twist but they pretty much outright tell you what it's going to be at the halfway point and then just play it straight rather than subvert expectation.

SJ was the only episode of the series to win an emmy and was pretty much universally loved, and that had me worried going into this season. SJ is good, but it's completely different to the rest of the series and I'd hate to see them try to limply recreate it and going against the spirit of the show. This episode is definitely the closest to confirming my fears. Rating: 2/5

Metalhead - This is by far the most hated episode from what I've seen and I absolutely don't understand why. It's simple and stripped back, yeah, but it's also a unique episode in the overall lineup and I was pretty hooked throughout. I love how people smugly point out the contrivances in this episode while completely ignoring the more egregious ones in every other episode this season. It wouldn't rank too high on my overall favourite episodes but it is probably my favourite of the season, for at least being new and memorable. Rating 4/5

Black Museum - Ridiculous, but I liked it. This is an anthology episode that dives straight into Tales From the Crypt-tier campy silliness, with gross out moments and an antagonist that just relishes in his own nastiness. Didn't blow my mind or anything close, but it was a fun episode and I this point I'd accepted that the season wouldn't have any real heavy hitters. Rating: 3/5

so uhhh the Oscar nominations were announced a little while back, and while I haven't seen most of them I must say it looks like one of the best lineups they've had, in that almost every film up for the major awards are ones I've been hyped to see.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/90th_Academy_Awards

Now we just sit back and watch all the absolute wrong movies get awarded.

Any thoughts on the noms?

At 1/27/18 08:14 PM, TheQuietGamer wrote: It probably had a more reasonable score once upon a time, but I've noticed a frightening trend where older movies with more cult appeal have been getting zero bombed so that their user scores drop into the red. No idea why.

That's disappointing, but even then it's weird that so many people would stumble upon a film like Jacob's Ladder, enough to tip the scale that far. It's the type of thing only sought out by cult horror fans who'd appreciate it and not so much by more mainstream viewers who wouldn't get it. Has to be bots involved imo, and in that case every score on the site goes out the window.

I could rant about the humor in this so much. Like, don't even get me started on the Porgs. I think it had less to do with the amount for me, and more the actual style. It didn't fit Star Wars.

Fuck the porgs. They were added for a pragmatic reason though - Luke's island was covered in puffins irl, so instead of digitally removing them from the footage altogether they decided to replace them with alien fauna. Pity they decided they should be the Star Wars answer to minions though. They're not cute, they're not funny, they fucking grate on my soul every time they appear on screen (and doubly so every time someone coos about how adorable they allegedly are), they feel like a physical embodiment of the infinite lowest-common-denominator merchandise abyss that all of "nerd culture" has become.

But at least I can take some solace in the fact they were added as part of a necessity rather than cynically conjured up and forced in by a marketing team. But still, fuck the porgs.

All of that only existed because TFA created way too many new characters who are obviously supposed to be significant so therefore have to be doing something during all of this. They should've killed Finn by letting him crash into the laser generator. He doesn't even serve the purpose of love interest anymore now that he and Rose have a thing.

I agree Rose was a bad addition and only muddled things. Her kiss was possibly the least romantic kiss ever caught on film and the romance element was so sudden and awkward that even Finn was baffled.

I don't think TFA had too many characters, but TLJ definitely did have too many additional characters rather than fleshing out the ones already there. In an ideal timeline Poe would have stayed dead in TFA as was originally intended, and Finn would be in his place for TLJ. It makes sense that Finn's sensibilities would clash with the rebels, and that they'd be iffy on letting an ex-empire soldier in on their plans and calling the shots so soon. With Poe they keep him in the dark purely for a story reveal for the audience.

Failing that, Finn and Poe should've just been together for the whole film. Finn and Rose being able to leave for a whole sidequest and then return just completely undermines the whole idea that the rebels are trapped and pinned down, and just opens the floodgates in making you question all the other plot holes in this setup (why doesn't the empire just warp away and then warp back, in front of the rebels?).

I don't agree that they should have killed Finn either though. For one thing it made no sense that the codebreaker gave Finn this whole revelation of the war being bullshit and both sides being flawed, after it had already been established that Finn wants out of the conflict... and then no time later Finn is fully ready to die for the rebels all of a sudden. It would've been a weak and pointless end for him, whereas him getting pulled out of his heroic sacrifice I feel bookends his arc for this film a whole lot better. Though granted it's still messy, and Rose's rescue + the moment afterward is possibly the worst part of the entire film. They just should never have lined him up for a suicide run at all.

I actually like that they just handed Star Wars off to some guy, but I also think a co writer and another rewrite could've been a major boost, ironed out all the issues and made a much more cohesive film.

Watched The Hills Have Eyes (1977) the other night and I couldn't help feel disappointed by it. I knew next to nothing about it going into it but the title is one I've heard a million times and always assumed it was a bit of a horror classic. It had all the ingredients there to make a scary film about cannibals living in the middle of nowhere, but it never felt like it got anything right. It was just goofy from beginning to end and it never had a single scary moment. Was that intentional?

At 2/4/18 03:24 PM, Dean wrote: Watched The Hills Have Eyes (1977) the other night and I couldn't help feel disappointed by it. I knew next to nothing about it going into it but the title is one I've heard a million times and always assumed it was a bit of a horror classic.

I actually like that version of the movies I like those random scary ones while not always scary they did use more effort in props and stuff shadows and elements of the area to creat a scary effect. They don't do too much of that anymore these days

~X~

At 2/4/18 03:24 PM, Dean wrote: Watched The Hills Have Eyes (1977) the other night and I couldn't help feel disappointed by it. I knew next to nothing about it going into it but the title is one I've heard a million times and always assumed it was a bit of a horror classic.

It's a cult classic for sure but it's also a very low budget exploitation movie from the 70's so it's not likely to hold up particularly well. Definitely nowhere near Wes Craven's best.

Re-watched the original Blade Runner last night and then watched 2049 today for the first time. I have a hard time deciding which I like better. I think the original probably wins by a slight margin for me, but both were really enjoyable. 2049 just felt like it went on a bit longer than it needed to and Batista seems to keep appearing in all the films I watch these days.

The main group of replicants in the original just made it more interesting for me. The scene with Roy sitting in the rain with water dripping from the bleach blonde hair is probably one of the most standout moment of the two films for me, and I'm not even entirely sure why, it just worked well.

(Blade Runner spoilers)

At 2/10/18 03:15 PM, Dean wrote: Re-watched the original Blade Runner last night and then watched 2049 today for the first time. I have a hard time deciding which I like better. I think the original probably wins by a slight margin for me, but both were really enjoyable. 2049 just felt like it went on a bit longer than it needed to and Batista seems to keep appearing in all the films I watch these days.

I guess the pacing of 2049 will always be a point of contention but I don't agree at all, I could've spent another hour in that world in 2049, but I can't get through the original without being bored at times. I could watch 2049 again right now and be glued to it, but if it was the original I'd be tempted to skip the nonsensical "enhance" scene at the very least. I find the first one slow in a way that's unengaging but I wouldn't want 2049 sped up at all.

I think 2049 just does a way better job of making each place and event memorable. It's almost like a video game in how K travels to all these different places with completely distinct aesthetics and colour schemes, and every scene has something visually or emotionally engaging going on. Idk, i'm biased but I feel like so little actually happens in the original film.

One scene I'd have liked to see added to 2049 is K meeting Wallace. Like after the bridge scene where he talks to the giant version of Joi, add a bit where K has to go into Wallace HQ to find Deckard's location and ends up meeting Wallace face to face. I was waiting for those two to meet and looking forward to that conversation for the whole film.

One of my favourite scenes of the original is where Roy meets Tyrell, and I think it would've been fascinating to see that mirrored in 2049, given that Roy and K are surprisingly similar in that they're both looking for something external to validate their existence, and of course Tyrell and Wallace are similar on the surface but pretty much opposites in personality. There's also the aspect that K had just been commanded to kill Deckard, the man he'd hoped was his father, but he'd probably end up killing Wallace (the closest thing to his actual father) to save Deckard. I think it would've been neat.

The fact that Wallace is still alive and active also undermines K's sacrifice in the end a bit imo. Wallace surely will have tech to search for the sunken spinner and find that Deckard is missing, and probably had some way of tracking K's car as well. If Wallace finds Deckard's daughter they're fucked, since her condition means she can't even leave the facility.

The main group of replicants in the original just made it more interesting for me. The scene with Roy sitting in the rain with water dripping from the bleach blonde hair is probably one of the most standout moment of the two films for me, and I'm not even entirely sure why, it just worked well.

Roy is the only genuinely interesting character in the original imo, where I was invested in virtually the whole cast of 2049. I see Officer K as kind of a combination of Deckard and Roy, leaning slightly more toward Roy, and so 2049 is sort of like what the original would be if it focused on the replicants instead of Deckard.

The tears in the rain scene is an all timer and by far the most famous part of the film but there's at least a few moments in 2049 that beat it for me, namely the ending and the meeting with giant Joi (also shout out to the final boss fight in the ocean, Adam Savage did a video on the mental giant water set they had to achieve that scene with practical effects, if you'd be interested). I can elaborate on why I like those scenes but it'd be an even bigger wall of text than this.

Also you might not have heard but they released these three shorts bridging the gap between the two films and filling in the lore a bit. One of them is a 15 minute anime by the creator of Cowboy Bebop, and another one has Bautista again. All are on youtube but I think they're also included on the 2049 blu ray.

https://letterboxd.com/film/blade-runner-2022-black-out/
https://letterboxd.com/film/2036-nexus-dawn/
https://letterboxd.com/film/2048-nowhere-to-run/

At 2/11/18 03:15 PM, EclecticEnnui wrote: I've actually seen every film nominated for Best Picture. My favourite is Get Out, but I'm predicting either Lady Bird or Three Billboards will win.

Get Out winning would be phenomenal, but I wouldn't mind if Three Billboards got it, especially given the ridiculous backlash that film has been getting. I'll probably be happy with any pick as long as its not Darkest Hour or The Post, and Dunkirk would be a boring choice.

Finally a place to write this, lol!
Here is a link for my favorite movies list (trakt.tv) https://trakt.tv/users/glitch07/lists/favorites

The Cornetto Trilogy (Shaun of the Dead / Hot Fuzz (fav.) / World's End
Pyscho / Vertigo /Rear Window (fav.)
Fantastic Mr. Fox / The Budapest Hotel
Get out / 10 Cloverfield Lane / The Shining
Every Tarantino Movie + Reservoir Dogs (fav.)
Bingo The King of the mornings & Elite Squad (brazilian movies, i am from Brazil)
The Evil Dead Series & (not joking) It's a Wonderful Life

I went to see The Shape of Water last Tuesday.

Generally it's a pretty good film and I had a good time watching it. I just had a few gripes though:

I was hoping for a little bit more mystery surrounding the amphibian man. I don't know why the cold war had to be such a major theme in this film, and why characters like General Hoyt even needed to be in this story. Lastly, I think 13 Oscar nominations is honestly a bit much. The only performance that stood out to me was Michael Shannon's, who was delightful to watch as the big bad guy, but oddly enough he's the only major actor in this film who isn't nominated. Not that that would be totally deserved or anything, but if there really weren't any better performances last year...

At 2/10/18 03:15 PM, Dean wrote: The main group of replicants in the original just made it more interesting for me. The scene with Roy sitting in the rain with water dripping from the bleach blonde hair is probably one of the most standout moment of the two films for me, and I'm not even entirely sure why, it just worked well.

"I've... seen things you people wouldn't believe."

Such an awesome monologue! :D

Just so happens I gave the original Blade Runner a rewatch as well recently. There were so many things I didn't pick up on the first time, and I like it way more now than I did back then.

Jumanji must be good or what is left of my entire being will collapse for all eternity.The last comedy I truly loved was Tropic thunder and that was a decade ago. They both have Jack Black so maybe my joy chemicals will be saved for at least one more movie.

And the new star wars with Kenobi on tatooine and Luke in combat I have faith in and should be at least better then the anakin movies.

There was about 4 inches of snow in the UK this week, which meant our entire transport network ground to a halt, and I've not been able to travel to Frightfest. Fucking gutted, I was so hyped for Primal Rage. Even the hosts haven't been able to make it this year, and the festival was opened by some random guy who volunteered to do it when they announced they couldn't make it on Twitter. Fuck me I wish I was there.

I did catch Lady Bird last weekend, which was pretty fun. Don't know about a Best Picture contender, but I laughed throughout, and it's just cute and quirky enough to be endearing rather than irritating. The football coach standing in from the drama teacher and bellowing instructions while drawing play diagrams for how he wants them to move on stage had me howling.

At 3/2/18 02:08 AM, Zymbot wrote: Death Wish, which is both adapted from Brian Garfield’s 1972 novel and remakes the 1974 film starring Charles Bronson, is an ugly film for ugly people.

You know what? Now I kinda want to see it.

There is no way it will be better than the original. No way.

At 3/2/18 02:27 AM, Zymbot wrote:

At 3/2/18 02:20 AM, DoctorStrongbad wrote:

At 3/2/18 02:08 AM, Zymbot wrote: Death Wish, which is both adapted from Brian Garfield’s 1972 novel and remakes the 1974 film starring Charles Bronson,
You know what? Now I kinda want to see it.

There is no way it will be better than the original. No way.

Oh, I'm sure.

Glad that we agree. How could it compare to the original?

I just like these kind of revenge movies. Even a lot of the bad ones I get a kick out of.

Ah okay. Nothing like laughing at a bad movie.

Death Wish 3 is one of my all time favorite comically bad movies.

Nice. lol

So them oscarinos took place last night, though I didn't bother watching them this time (finding and switching streams is just too much of a pain in the ass)

Best Pic - Shape of Water
Best Director - Del Toro for Shape of Water
Actor - Gary Oldman / Darkest Hour
Actress - Frances McDormond / Three Billboards
Screenplay -Jordan Peele / Get Out
Adapted Screenplay - James Ivory / Call me By Your Name

Haven't seen Shape of Water but I guess I'm happy enough with these, other than Gary Oldman b/c I don't know anyone who gave a shit about Darkest Hour and Daniel Kaluya absolutely deserved it.

Lady Bird got NOTHING though and Baby Driver was absolutely robbed (Dunkirk won in all three categories it was up for).

Blade Runner got Cinematography and Visual Effect, which it $1000% deserved, but I reckon it absolutely deserved production design as well (which went to Shape of Water)

At 2/20/18 10:48 AM, top10dotexe wrote: The Cornetto Trilogy. Get out, 10 Cloverfield Lane, Reservoir Dogs

mmmm that's the good shit

At 2/22/18 04:16 PM, Auz wrote: I went to see The Shape of Water last Tuesday.

Well it's the best pic winner now so clearly that means it's the best film and ur wrong

Just so happens I gave the original Blade Runner a rewatch as well recently. There were so many things I didn't pick up on the first time, and I like it way more now than I did back then.

But have you seen 2049? That's the real shit. The original Blade Runner is an alright prequel I guess but it aint the main course anymore.

At 2/22/18 06:23 PM, WaffleCrisp wrote: The last comedy I truly loved was Tropic thunder and that was a decade ago.

Have you seen:

-21 / 22 Jump Street
-The World's End
-This is the End
-The Nice Guys
-Grand Budapest Hotel
-What We Do in the Shadows
-Toni Erdmann

Jumanji is a weird choice to be putting your faith in tbh fam

At 2/26/18 09:04 PM, TheQuietGamer wrote: Arrival might just be the best sci-fi movie I've ever seen.

This was just a practice run for Denis Villeneuve's real sci fi epic Blade Runner 2049 though.

It's undeniably well made and I normally love Amy Adams, but I got nothing out of Arrival. It kept me intrigued but none of the reveals really impressed me and the time stuff had more holes in it than people seemed to realize. I remember disagreeing with the philosophy of it as well. Maybe my expectations were too high.

I enjoyed Villeneuve's older film Enemy w/ Jake Gyllenhaal as well for how different it was, though I found it took clean-cut and easy to understand when it tries to present itself as a puzzle, and Arrival was even more disappointingly straight forward still. Like imagine how interesting Arrival could've been if they didn't outright tell you how the alien language functions but instead left clues for you to figure it out yourself.

Also even at his best I also vehemently disagree with anyone claiming Villeneuve is the next Kubrick, though I appreciate there's someone churning out big budget films with such consistent quality at his pace.

At 3/5/18 02:38 PM, Quisty wrote: Anyone want to discuss M. Night Shyamalan, because some of his films are great, and others are....wtf why lol. I think his camera use and the effort he puts into his movies is very much there, but I wonder why his quality has suffered? Or do you find him bad or overrated?

I think he just got too stuck on the success of Sixth Sense, he thought the follow up needed to be another high-concept film with a big twist and then suddenly he's trapped as the guy who only does high concept films with big twists.

I've only seen a four of his films (although most of the remaining twists have been spoiled & I've watched a couple long reviews)

Unpopular opinion but I thought Sixth Sense, even having seen it without the twist being spoiled beforehand. The Visit was abysmal, Unbreakable was good, Split was great and now I'm hyped for Glass. Split is easily the best one he's come out with imo. Oh and Stuart Little is alright I guess.

Finally saw Black Panther. It's good, but extremely overhyped and left me a little disappointed. To the people calling it the best MCU film or just the best super hero / comic book movie in general... yeahhh nah, no, nope, not even close. It does break from the template to be fair (first half is Bond-esque as many have pointed out, and the second half turns vaguely Shakespearean) and I did appreciate that, but I still left feeling like it was the same old shit.

Some scattered thoughts:

Both villains are great, but Killmonger doesn't show up until well into the second half & I feel like neither gets the screentime they deserve. And of course it turns into the usual giant CGI mess-fight by the end where I just stop caring. I also thought the CGI was horrifically gaudy and just bad throughout, this film is not going to age well visually.

Kaluuya's character's philosophy flips like a switch multiple times.

The world here still feels sterile and even the violence has this overt fake-ness to it, probably exemplified by Killmonger cutting someone's throat with no sign of blood.

Big nitpick: They're willing to use Wakandan tech to fix Martin Freeman's spine. What about War Machine? In Civil War he was rendered paralyzed from the waist down. They're willing to bring a CIA agent into Wakanda to cure him so why not for a fellow Avenger? They were on the same side in Civ War as well.

There's a literal meme used as a punchline and it misses the mark by so many millions of miles. No one laughed. It was just bizarre.

I was quite excited for this one but now I'm firmly back in the "over it" camp in regards to marvel. I'll watch Ragnarok at some point for the director, after that I think I'm done with this franchise.

As for some praise:

The early chase and fight scenes are solid.

It works very well as a standalone film which is crucial when there's like 20 movies in this got dang series.

There's many new characters introduced all at once and they're all fairly memorable.

Both villains were excellent, as already stated.

that one bit where Okaya pins a moving car with a spear was badass.

Spoilers onward

The second ritual duel and aftermath really got me hyped for how good the last act of this film could be, but then they almost immediately find T'Challa again by pure coincidence.

I was expecting something like the Revenant or Metal Gear Solid 3 (after Snake gets wrecked by the Boss in the prologue), where he'd have to heal his own wounds, battle with nature and really fight tooth and nail to get back to Killmonger, all without the Black Panther powers. Which would be a good contrast to him being literally invincible for most of the movie & killing any possible tension.

I feel like we were completely robbed of a cathartic, triumphant return of the king moment by just handing him his life and his powers back via deus ex machina coincidence. He should've earned that shit and proved he was king with or without the panther.

At 3/5/18 06:41 PM, TheQuietGamer wrote:

Like imagine how interesting Arrival could've been if they didn't outright tell you how the alien language functions but instead left clues for you to figure it out yourself.

That would probably be asking too much. Not everyone has a background in linguistics after all.

You don't need a background in criminology to piece a murder mystery together, or a psychology degree to make sense of Evangelion, or a PhD in physics to get Primer (actually that lat one may not be true). They could lay the groundwork for the time linearity ideas and clues on how to bring it all together. Like there's a middle ground between giving us the answers outright and in being hopelessly esoteric.

The problem I had with Arrival and to a lesser extent Enemy is that they both present themselves as heady "smart" movies but then by the end everything's so clearly explained and wrapped up that I don't have anything to think about or piece together. It's like i'm left with intellectual blue balls.

I really need to watch more Kubrick. All I've seen is The Shining. Which I think is a great movie, but people make too much of a fuss about it. Saw some bits from 2001 in the Room 237 documentary. It looks pretty amazing.

This will sound wack after that last statement but I'm not even that big a fan of Kubrick. I agree Shining is overrated and so is most of his work, although visually he was on another level and always will be.

Kubrick's key trait though is his absolute perfectionism and the fact he had a hand in every aspect of his films' production. He also was a photographer before a filmmaker, so at the time he would've been a relatively rare director who absolutely knew what he was doing when it came to visuals, and had the technical experience to know how to communicate his vision to his cinematographers. Kubrick also has a writing credit on all of his major films, Villeneuve has a writing credit on none of his. In one interview I watched Villeneuve was asked about a detail in 2049's dialogue, his response was (paraphrasing) "I don't know, you'll have to ask the screenwriter." Kubrick would only every have given that response as a joke.

Villeneuve is a good director but I feel he gets the auteur badge when I don't think he really deserves it, not when we have contemporaries like PTA making genuine auteur masterpieces, and people throwing around Kubrick comparisons like that only undermines everything that made Kubrick significant. Villeneuve is only as good as the scripts and crew he's given to work with.