Movies you've just watched

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BrianC
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Re: Movies you've just watched

Post by BrianC »

Skykid wrote:
BrianC wrote:I'm definitely interested in Stephen Chow movies. Oscars are frustrating. Even with older films, the choices are often perplexing. One Droopy Knight won an award despite reusing jokes from previous shorts and being inferior to Tex Avery's shorts.

The thing that bothers me with newer movies is how PC Hollywood can get. Valkyrie is a character who CHOSE the form of a caucasian blond woman in the original comics, but is played by Tessa Thompson in Thor Ragnarock. Spider-Man homecoming has similar PC stuff going on.
I think Homecoming was the most absurd force feeding of the lot, I winced several times in it and went into some detail in this thread a while back. Otherwise I thought it was fairly entertaining for a once-over.
I enjoyed the movie, but I agree with this. I liked Michael Keaton as the Vulture, despite being nothing like the one in the comics. I definitely like the frist two Sam Ramini movies better and, even the Andrew Garfield movie did some things better.
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Skykid
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Re: Movies you've just watched

Post by Skykid »

lilmanjs wrote:The New King of Comedy a sequel to the other one? I bought that for real cheap and watched it again last night. What a depressing movie, but well acted.
It's completely different and bears almost zero similarity bar the theme of acting and the name. I think the new one is a better film overall, although the original has some great scenes, but it was a co-directed and co-written project. Chow didn't first get full reign over writing and directing duties until Shaolin Soccer.
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soprano1
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Re: Movies you've just watched

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Green Book (2018)
It's kinda like Driving Miss Daisy with reverse roles, but saying it's just that is a huge mistreatment to the movie. The characters carry themselves wonderfully all through the movie, with some nice dialogue. The outburst at the 1H30 mark by Doc, in that rain, beautiful stuff. A very good movie indeed.
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Re: Movies you've just watched

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I have only just now realised that Crimewave is a 1986 movie! Having casually purchased a cheap DVD of it lately, I thought it was a pretty recent film for some reason. Why on Earth does it seem SO forgotten, being magnificent as it is? Excels at EVERYTHING that 1990 Dick Tracy sucks at, plain and simple.
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soprano1
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Re: Movies you've just watched

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Forbidden Planet (1956)
I would say it's THE 50's SciFi movie. Has some great looking scenarios, nice effects for the time (dat Cinemascope and colours. :o ), and a dashing Leslie Nielsen taking the lead like a champ.
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BryanM
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Re: Movies you've just watched

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Got roped into watching Final Destination again. I remember liking it when it came out, but no one stays the same. It's very barebones, with nothing really to offer aside the Rube Goldberg deaths. If you know the spectacle that's coming, there's no payoff. Zero replay value.

While The Orville's recent two-parter is easily arguably the best Star Trek content put to film yet.
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Re: Movies you've just watched

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The Hill (1965)
I believe Sidney Lumet hasn't made a movie I haven't liked, this one is great too.
It's set in a British military prison in North Africa during WWII, where soldiers who commit certain offences are sent for some really heavy drilling.
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Stevens
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Re: Movies you've just watched

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BryanM wrote: While The Orville's recent two-parter is easily arguably the best Star Trek content put to film yet.
Love the Orville. Started watching it shortly after we began watching TNG. Watching them side by side has made both of them better.
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Re: Movies you've just watched

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How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World: ***

To be honest I think I liked the second film better. I know I shouldn't expect too much from a PG-rated animated film, but I think this one played it just a little too safe and never quite reaches its potential. Even so, Toothless is still one of the best CG-animated characters ever created, and the animation was a significant step up from the last film (which, for as much as I enjoyed it, felt a little janky at times.). It makes a fitting conclusion to the series, assuming they don't they don't decide to milk another 3 or 4 movies out of the franchise the next time they run out of ideas.
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Randorama
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Re: Movies you've just watched

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Something by Spielberg, recent, very stupid.

I was on an inter-continental flight and I had to sleep to avoid jet-lag. I remembered that I hated E.T. as a kid (feel free to ask about it!), and avoided more or less all of the movies this...person has made, over the decades.

10 minutes into the movie, I was sleeping like a log. Thanks, Mr. Spielberg!

P.S. Did I hallucinate a scene from the movie involving Gundam? I briefly woke up to take a leak, I remember the RX-78 model appearing on-screen. A "yes, it's there/no, don't worry" will suffice; please do not fill me in with the details.
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Mischief Maker
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Re: Movies you've just watched

Post by Mischief Maker »

Spielberg is a fantastic director, and I also disliked ET as a kid. He's one of those directors who lost their edge after having kids/grandkids and has really been phoning it in recently, but Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Raiders of the Lost Ark alone are indispensable films.

Even when he whiffs there's something worth seeing, the first half of his version of War of the Worlds is the closest we've ever come to a big budget film creation of a Lovecraftian apocalypse. Too bad about that second half. But I'd still put Spielberg above James Cameron, because unlike Cameron he hasn't been remaking basically the same plot structure and characters in different settings over and over and over again.

People are harder on Spielberg because he's one of the biggest dogs in Hollywood. If an unknown indie filmmaker made Minority Report they'd be rewarded with directing a zillion dollar budget MCU movie.
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Re: Movies you've just watched

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I've said it before but almost any director would kill for Spielberg's near misses.

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BryanM
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Re: Movies you've just watched

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Mischief Maker wrote:Even when he whiffs there's something worth seeing, the first half of his version of War of the Worlds is the closest we've ever come to a big budget film creation of a Lovecraftian apocalypse.
Lindsay recently made a youtube contrasting War of the Worlds with Independence Day. One observation is the post-9/11 nature of movies (and in a broader sense, entertainment in general) - where before we celebrated destruction and the fictional deaths of billions, apocalypse movies suddenly had to always be grey misery porn. (Except for Zombieland. Looking forward to Zombieland 2 this year...... jesus christ, I actually want to see a movie this year.)

Back in the 80's "a terrorist" was a halloween costume, as we saw in Married With Children and various other places.
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Leandro
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Re: Movies you've just watched

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If Rando was talking about Ready Player One, I completely agree, it's awful and I could not keep watching it.
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Zen
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Re: Movies you've just watched

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Randorama wrote: I remembered that I hated E.T. as a kid (feel free to ask about it!), and avoided more or less all of the movies this...person has made, over the decades.
I am curious.
I also disliked it, for specific reasons (I would be surprised if they were the same reasons as yours)

Spielberg makes me . . . uneasy, inasmuch as it is possible to "feel" that way about a person one does not know.
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Re: Movies you've just watched

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Mischief Maker wrote: Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Raiders of the Lost Ark alone are indispensable films.
Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, are in my top most enjoyable Cinema experiences and I still watch both, to this day.
Mischief Maker wrote: Even when he whiffs there's something worth seeing, the first half of his version of War of the Worlds is the closest we've ever come to a big budget film creation of a Lovecraftian apocalypse. Too bad about that second half.
I was equally enthralled and infuriated, by the film.

Dakota Fanning as the young daughter;
I can assure you, if I was driving that car and was subject to such behaviour in an apocalyptic scenario, the Tripods would have been the least lethal presence in her vicinity!
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Randorama
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Re: Movies you've just watched

Post by Randorama »

Zen, thanks for mentioning the only two movies I liked from him (i.e. not Close Encounters).

Re: E.T.. I remember watching this after I watched Blade Runner, some episodes of the classic Trek series and other more mature Sci-Fi, some time in the mid-eighties. I could already read, and I remember watching Sagan's Cosmos. There was an episode in which he speculated about how intelligent non-terrestrial beings may be like, I believe.

I felt that the movie was aimed at some kind of kid that had a conception of "aliens" and more in general outsiders from his small community as "things" that should not be taken seriously. It was not for me already by the time I was 5 (1986), simply put.

I feel that most of his movies target provincial U.S. and the "plain folk" type of person (from the U.S. and beyond), which I dislike. There is something else that rubs me off as well, but I cannot be bothered to figure it out. I also remember that he mangled the plot of Minority[ Report to make it a "safe" movie for the masses.

I do not doubt that he is likely an incredibly skilled film-maker; the concepts he works with rile me up, though.
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Re: Movies you've just watched

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I never liked E.T. at any point. Even as a kid, I would rather watch Princess Bride or Goonies for whatever that is worth.

I watched Terminator 1/2 again today. I don't even remember how long it had been. The first is better, but both are good. Nothing after 2 in the series is worth watching. Not that I even bothered to confirm that again. I don't think I even have anything past that on a physical disc. I remember watching T3 in theaters. What an utter disappointment. My defense is that I was young when it came out...

If wiki is to be believed, they took quite a few liberties with Minority Report.
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Mischief Maker
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Re: Movies you've just watched

Post by Mischief Maker »

Total Recall took some liberties with its source material as well. Phillip K. Dick doesn't translate well to the screen without some finagling.
Two working class dudes, one black one white, just baked a tray of ten cookies together.

An oligarch walks in and grabs nine cookies for himself.

Then he says to the white dude "Watch out for that black dude, he wants a piece of your cookie!"
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Re: Movies you've just watched

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Randorama wrote:Zen, thanks for mentioning the only two movies I liked from him (i.e. not Close Encounters).

Re: E.T.. I remember watching this after I watched Blade Runner, some episodes of the classic Trek series and other more mature Sci-Fi, some time in the mid-eighties. I could already read, and I remember watching Sagan's Cosmos. There was an episode in which he speculated about how intelligent non-terrestrial beings may be like, I believe.

I felt that the movie was aimed at some kind of kid that had a conception of "aliens" and more in general outsiders from his small community as "things" that should not be taken seriously. It was not for me already by the time I was 5 (1986), simply put.

I feel that most of his movies target provincial U.S. and the "plain folk" type of person (from the U.S. and beyond), which I dislike. There is something else that rubs me off as well, but I cannot be bothered to figure it out. I also remember that he mangled the plot of Minority[ Report to make it a "safe" movie for the masses.

I do not doubt that he is likely an incredibly skilled film-maker; the concepts he works with rile me up, though.
Sounds like the commercial, American net that Spielberg casts, is not for you.

I can empathise with your dislike, regarding the portrayal of the Alien.
I was older than you when the film came out. Had no interest but all the same, despite being geared towards kids, the lazy aesthetics's of the blob-like creature, offended.
Of course I realised that it's shape made it very easy to replicate as a toy but still. Perhaps this also foreshadowed how the Alien was going to be viewed within the film?

I saw it years still, after that.
While Spielberg at that time seemed well able to emotionally plumb the Zeitgeist, E.T was perhaps the first time I clearly felt the decay from Spielberg the candy-man.
I believe a member here, once said of E.T., that it's portrayal of the single parent family, resonated positively with their own situation. I hope I am remembering that correctly.
Conversely, it was this very plot device that shook me out of Spielberg-sugar coma.

My feeling is that it was indeed, a cynical plot device.
A group of kids, two out of three were boys, off on an autonomous adventure, while they mollycoddle their very fragile mother.
This scenario, formulated for maximun cosy effect on kids engrossed in the experience of this generation defining cultural blockbuster, particularly young boys, was, I am convinced,
a clear insight into the total lack of beetus-Spielberg's sense of responsibility.

Which is not to denigrate the film's masterful effectiveness as a piece of Cinema. Effective it certainly is. But so is Opium.

Re. Cosmos; It was quite the spectacle.
I could never fully enjoy it, though. That insufferable bombast, Sagan, displayed such mental disease, that I would not believe him if he were merely to say that it was raining outside.

Also; I can strongly empathise with your personal dislike of the phenomena of media "For Kids". Though I would not be so merciful, if I were making that point.
My parents were very early on informed, that any presentation by them, of media hinting of "For Kids", would be taken as an act of aggression!


As an aside to all this; I wonder, now that Skykid is back, would he be interested in favouring us with opinion on the "Big Directors" and their "fall"?
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Re: Movies you've just watched

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I watched ET for the first time a couple of years ago and loved it. I remember the hype from when I was a kid but for some reason never went to see it. I was thinking at the end of the movie " just end now" and it did! Cut to black, perfect.

A similar thing happened with Nocturnal Animals - which I really liked, weird as it's a modern movie. I've been meaning to post about this but I want to watch it again just to check if it was really good or I was just in some kind of fragile state...


Back to the berg - like all those directors they were great in the 70's then lost the plot in the 80's. I thought Minority Report was ok but it should have ended at a specific point to leave the audience with a question, but instead goes into full on action movie mode and shits on the first two thirds of the film.
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Re: Movies you've just watched

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Ikiru (Kurosawa)
Watched on a plane. A slow burn, and quite an interesting look at very early post-war Japan. Obviously has some banter that feels "very 50s" but definitely worth the time, especially for those of us that are on the older end of the spectrum and think of our mortality.

A Most Wanted Man (Anton Corbijn)
Music nerds will recognize the director's name as the Rock 'n Roll photographer who has closely worked with Depeche Mode & U2 since the early 90s (to name a few). His visual characteristic is here, and of course the performance by Phillip Seymour Hoffman is excellent. Going in and expecting an action-thriller will result in an even bigger disappointment than going in w/ the same expectations of his previous film, The American (which was actually promoted as such, in the US at least). Personally I have trouble with immersing myself in a film where non-native English speakers interact with each other in English, and this is no exception. Hoffman, Willem Defoe, and Rachel mcAdams all play German's, complete with accents, and while their roles would require them to speak English to non-German speakers they always speak to each other in English. A nitpick? Not sure. Anyway, enjoyable, but very slow.
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Mischief Maker
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Re: Movies you've just watched

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Zen wrote:That insufferable bombast, Sagan, displayed such mental disease, that I would not believe him if he were merely to say that it was raining outside.
Aw Jesus, now you hate Carl Sagan, too?
Two working class dudes, one black one white, just baked a tray of ten cookies together.

An oligarch walks in and grabs nine cookies for himself.

Then he says to the white dude "Watch out for that black dude, he wants a piece of your cookie!"
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Re: Movies you've just watched

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I have no first hand memories of Electric Turtle, no desire to watch Electric Turtle, and no desire to talk about Electric Turtle.

Except.

For the Electric Turtle console game for the 2600.

As a kid I thought this thing was incomprehensible garbage. A few years ago I learned how to actually play it - the Jedi force power of Sonar alone makes it playable. I was horrified to discover it was one of the best 2600 games, though the competition is rather nascent.
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Re: Movies you've just watched

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GaijinPunch wrote:Ikiru (Kurosawa)
Watched on a plane. A slow burn, and quite an interesting look at very early post-war Japan. Obviously has some banter that feels "very 50s" but definitely worth the time, especially for those of us that are on the older end of the spectrum and think of our mortality.
This is one of his best movies imo. I'd put it in his top 5 pretty firmly.
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Re: Movies you've just watched

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Mischief Maker wrote:
Zen wrote:That insufferable bombast, Sagan, displayed such mental disease, that I would not believe him if he were merely to say that it was raining outside.
Aw Jesus, now you hate Carl Sagan, too?
Yeah, I couldn't even bother to comment on that.
Steamflogger Boss wrote:
GaijinPunch wrote:Ikiru (Kurosawa)
Watched on a plane. A slow burn, and quite an interesting look at very early post-war Japan. Obviously has some banter that feels "very 50s" but definitely worth the time, especially for those of us that are on the older end of the spectrum and think of our mortality.
This is one of his best movies imo. I'd put it in his top 5 pretty firmly.
It had been recommended to me as such. Sadly, I'm a weird case in that I've seen little of his work. Maybe I should have started lower. :)
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Re: Movies you've just watched

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Which others have you seen? Honestly he doesn't have any truely bad movies that I have watched. Though Red Beard is overly long and didn't hold up to well to a 2nd viewing. To me even is weaker efforts are much more interesting than the large majority of movies but this is also true of Mizoguchi and other greats.
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Re: Movies you've just watched

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GaijinPunch wrote:
Mischief Maker wrote:
Zen wrote:That insufferable bombast, Sagan, displayed such mental disease, that I would not believe him if he were merely to say that it was raining outside.
Aw Jesus, now you hate Carl Sagan, too?
Yeah, I couldn't even bother to comment on that.
But you did!

Oh, GP, not you too?!
SAGAN-ites! A nest of them! :lol:

And here was I, thinking that the Farm's Lynch-ian Order, was the worst of it!
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Re: Movies you've just watched

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The Lady from Shanghai (1947)
Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth do a somewhat bizarre, but appealing, noir suspense story that keeps unravelling towards a courtroom drama scene, and then a mirror room showdown. Great movie.
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Re: Movies you've just watched

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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

It took me long to see this essential one. A powerful film. I was not in awe with the movie while watching, but later, when I was narrating the story to someone, it came down to me how many brilliant moments it has.
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