shmups.system11.org

Thank you for the update on your current actions, atheistgod's brother. I was just sitting here waiting for the bare, uncritical facts about what your eyes had most recently beheld.

Enemy - A rewatch. Without the shock value of some of the film's more surreal moments, it felt less substantial than in my memory. Still liked it, though, and there were strong performances from Gyllenhaal and Gadon (for all that she appeared). I need to read the book this is based on and see how definitively it handles the whole 'double' thing. And the Walker Brothers song from the credits seems to be stuck in my head.

This has been on my list for a while. Just not gotten around to it. Apparently it's not as highly rated as Incendies which is, admittedly, fantastique.

24 Hour Party People

Somewhat embarrassingly I had never seen this. The guy that played Ian Curtis was uncanny, at least in movement. What a fun trip through history even though I'm sure loads of it was crap. Hilarious.

Greenland

Was a bit soap opera and straying from the main storyline but I kind of enjoyed it.

Everything is Illuminated - Went into this on my friend's recommendation totally blind and without seeing-eye bitch. I didn't think I would like it at first, but around the train arrival scene it started to crack me up. Writing patois that sounds casually charming in English takes skill (the author's probably drawing from personal experience too, though I haven't looked up his background). It's good this came to me from a sort of insider's scoop so I wasn't wondering if the humor was mean-spirited.

Laughter mostly disappears in the latter half, which takes a very melancholy tone. What's funny is that I almost made a counter-recommendation of Pan's Labyrinth after this film was brought up, decided against it since they might not want to get viciously angry about fascists, and look what ya did to me.



One criticism is that the familiar faces bit in the ending felt too Wizard of Oz. And I could bring up the coincidence of the collector protagonist happening to hire the one travel agency that had a driver with roots in the past to his family, but that kind of thing isn't unheard of outside cinema. All in all, it's a good watch.

I realise it's not a Granada TV's production, technically, but I suggest looking up some of their shows as well, starting from Cracker episodes written by Jimmy McGovern.

Will do!

I love, love, love Rob Ager/Collative Learning, but holy fuck, some nights he'll make me spray my Horlicks all over the monitor Couched in unfailingly articulate, amiable delivery, his essays launch wild overreaches with painterly grace - as entertaining as the classic films he analyses! Five-star unintended (?) hilarity!

https://youtu.be/QdkvLMeorcM?t=58

"Does the shotgun concealed in a box of flowers symbolise a theme of love for the young boy he is going to protect?"

It's a visually striking means of concealing a shotgun to split a motherfucker's wig with. That is Ahnuld's job: approach his target, then shoot them repeatedly in the face, using firearms concealed about his person. A gift of flowers for a young boy would get Ahnuld partyvanned, compromising his efficiency. If it is symbolism, it is wrenchingly contrived Mr. Ager! Not to mention redundant, with T2 marking its theme of emergent artificial humanity quite overtly! :O

I am 95% recalling Cameron & Wisher's T2 script - floridly peppered with overture, a fun read - describing Ahnuld as resembling "A hunky guy on his way to a hot date," striding through the mall with roses tucked under-arm.



Part of the joy that I get from this boy is his innocent laugh and style ♫

"You okay?"
"Fine. *glance over shoulder; return* Say, that's a nice bike."
"There was no need for the T1000 to express his admiration of the motorcycle! Clearly, he LIEK the motorbike."

I see this from a lot of T2 fans, re: Patrickbot. The T1000 is an unfathomably advanced mimic from the distant future. For narrative purposes, his ruse is absolute, obviating the line between imitator and object. If Ahnuld is ammonia, jarring to the unaided senses - Your clothes. Give them to me! - Patrick is carbon monoxide; not merely harder, but outright impossible to perceive. And so, he maintains a human grace we find curious, and his victims never find at all.

This quasi-supernatural terror - a faceless assassin, striking at leisure, melting back into the milieu with an ease undreamed of by his hopelessly outmatched counterpart - is integral to T2 on multiple levels, Rob Ager! By fixating on the excellence of Skynet's ruse, over its narrative function, you and others are pissing up the wrong tree! :O You will only be showered in piss!


^ Not far from the warmthless white glare of HK searchlights piercing the nighttime battlefields of humanity's sad future. T1+2 are handsomely shot films, legit.

"ADDENDUM: THE FLOWERS MIGHT ALSO BE A REFERENCE TO POPULAR 'ROCK MUSIC GROUP' 'GUNS AND ROSES' WHO FEATURE PROMINENTLY IN THE FILM'S MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK"

Now that is more like it! Give me that old time rock and roll! Might You Could Be Mine represent fatherly themes towards the young boy he is going to protect? AHNULD could be HIS DAD :O A good thing, as delinquent John is WAY OUT OF LINE!



Make you move like an animal ♫
Making noise like an animal ♫

Might You Could Be Mine's hardcore bareback fucking theme be a reference to Ahnuld's unexpected fatherly role? Wait. This is genuinely addictive. I'm gonna end up like POPEYE DOYLE in THE FRENCH CONNECTION 2.

<3 this dude. Great taste in films, keen observations, occasionally batshit ridiculous to always entertaining effect - you will never leave empty-handed!

Social media is a movie that made me take a different look at Facebook.

Christine - 1983

Hell fire.

Strangely holds up pretty well apart from the fashion and big hair doos. Still quite a good movie as a Carpenter/King collaboration. I think I have all Carpenters good work on 4k/blu ray now.

Its nice watching older movies where people aren't hackers, on their mobile phones all the time and fighting military equipment with hot rod cars.

Midway

Pretty decent, was surprised of the 2 way battles. It makes me wonder how a gazillion bullets misses almost everything especially when the ships are firing using an aim.

It would be nice to see some parts of the war where the whole coalition played a part. It seems Americans will only learn the past from movies and it is almost non existent according to Hollywood.

Very good none the less. Bought the steelbook from bestbuy, had it shipped over. Due to me not having 4k playback capability had to get the 60gb USA PS3 out of the closet since the bluray was region locked to A. I have heard the surround on the 4k disc is second to none, so looking forward to a rewatch when I get the 4k player.

7.5/10.

Coming to America and the first 20 minutes of Coming 2 America

I never thought I would describe Coming to America as "subtle," but compared to the sequel, holy shit!

This sequel can't let a fucking joke breathe. Quick cut! Quick cut! Quick cut! ZoooOOOOM in for a reaction! And the oversaturated colors everywhere! If it's more colorful it's funnier, right?

And gee thanks for letting me see an aged En Vouge and Salt 'n Peppa. Nothing like an unnecessary sequel to a B+ comedy to remind me of the bony hand of the reaper steadily approaching.

Maybe tomorrow night I'll watch the remainder of the sequel, but the direction of this movie is exhausting. Shoulda brought back whoever directed that Dolemite movie.

You're better off not watching the rest. It doesn't get any better. This might go down as a bottom five Eddie Murphy movie.

Thanks for the heads up. It occurs to me that they cut the funniest line from the trailer, too (the one about Wakanda being fictional and Leslie Jones mutters, "maybe to you...")

Speaking of trailers, I just saw the trailer for the Snyder cut of Justice League. I like how despite taking place in the desaturated DC murderverse they still captured the old superfriends feeling of everyone being a distant second fiddle to Superman.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrdQSAX2kyw

Cannonball Run 2: **

Sequel to The Cannonball Run which somehow manages to be pretty much more of the same, only more cartoonish and over-the-top, and not necessarily in a good way. Brought back most of the main actors from the first film, but recast the two token hot chicks in the Lamborghini (not that anyone would have been looking at their faces anyway) and threw in a bunch of additional celebrity cameos (most notably Frank Sinatra in his last film appearance.) In spite of some good stunt work scattered through the picture, the overall plot feels like it was lifted straight from a Hanna-Barbera cartoon, and if not for some of the decidedly PG-13 content scattered through the film and the fact that most of the last 20 minutes of the film take place in a low-budget clone of the Mustang Ranch, one might confuse this for a kids movie.

Received eight Razzie nominations, but failed to win any of them. Nonetheless, did well enough at the box office to result in one more film in the series, which proceeded to bomb hard enough to finally kill it off.

That is a bold statement... and sad considering Dolemite was so damn dope.



Uh... Daisy Duke herself Catherine Bach? False.

It is very sad. Leslie Jones is so annoying that she offsets anything funny in the movie and everything is overplayed and over the top. Even Morgan Freeman's cameo can't save this dumpster fire which barely spends any time (maybe 15 minutes tops) in America this time around. This really adds nothing of value to the original which is far superior.

But the characters are so underused in the movie that they are pretty much just scenery anyway.

She's synonymous with a style of shorts that allow the lower butt check to be exposed in a (hopefully) tantalizing fashion. Is that a shock?

Borat 2 - Free on amazon prime.

I keep singing the Wuhan flu song now. I find the movie franchise mildly entertaining but some of it is just "oh I can't look at this" and cover my face.

6/10. Its not really my thing, watched it out of curiosity.

I spent plenty of time watching Dukes of Hazzard back before it got Cancel Cultured into oblivion to know who Catherine Bach / Daisy Duke were. This movie falls well below the level of your average Dukes of Hazzard episode in terms of entertainment value (even the Coy and Vance ones, and that's a pretty low bar.)

The lowest of the low!

I guess they were cancelled b/c of the confederate flag. I mean, I remember loooong before the current climate most people were raising a single eye brow to the confederate flag, dixie theme song, and zero black people other than villains.

You gotta admit -- Boss Hogg was dope.

I think most of us know and love Fantastic Planet, yet somehow two other films along the same vein were unbeknownst to me until recently. I enjoyed both, especially Gandahar.

Time Masters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcnEpr7kd_w&list=LL&index=9&t=1s&ab_channel=AVeryETVSpecial

Gandahar - Light Years: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBrysnbRj6w&list=LL&index=14&ab_channel=RichardAnderson

After watching Terminator, T2, and one of the newer ones I have come to a conclusion that will be most unpopular:

Terminator is easily the best of the series by a far margin and T2 isn't really that much better than any of the ones that came after it.

That's an unpopular opinion?

Terminator 1 is the only film in the series with any sense of style, with its sweaty faces in neon-soaked cyberpunk streets that make it look like 1980s America is already being taken over by the machines. And for a B-movie time travel plot the loop is perfect.

Terminator 2 jumped the shark with a magical Terminator. And the cinematography is just so sterile and nothing. It's either full sunlight on boring suburbia or empty deserts, or blue-tinted night. And the preachiness starts to get in the way of the setting. "Your future sounds terrifying" gets the message across so much better than "It's in your nature to destroy yourselves."

Incredible practical effects, though!

And the sound design is next level for when it came out.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League.

Not that Terminator is the best one (I've thought that for years - in fact I am pretty sure if I go back far enough I have posts here saying as much), I've always thought the first was the best. That T2 honestly kind of blows and isn't any better than the rest of them. The older I get the more unwatchable it becomes.

I think a fair amount of people love T2 and there are definitely people who (wrongly) consider it better than the first.

Agree with your points though.

Stop arguing about T1 vs T2 and watch Gandahar

I enjoyed Gandahar a lot, a while back, but I'd actually not heard of the former two! So much to explore re: foreign animations Not From Japan. Surprised to hear Gandahar was animated in North Korea, fucking hell.





T1 is an efficient B-film played with furious conviction and skill, its only clanger being the overwrought hardcore bareback fuck - I mean, love scene, in which Michael Biehn grapples with an enraged furry animal to sickly muzak. T2 is a big dumb blockbuster from the same people that just about stays within T1's bleak parameters, inferior but acceptable. As far as blockbusters go, it's relatively thoughtful and remarkably restrained, its most titanic setpieces amounting to little more than T1's desperate flights with bigger vehicles and/or guns. It actually improves on one of them, having the protagonists corralled into Designated Robot Disposal Facility, rather than voluntarily entering it.

Everything after is shades of numbingly iterative to idiotic, as a tight concept is stretched into farce, the slack filled with cartoon setpieces, inane machine designs, and plot-armoured protagonists bearing not a whit of Kyle Reese or Feral Radfem's cornered fury. The only one I've seen recently enough for comment is Dark Fate, but I do not believe for one second the preceding three have transmogrified into anything better, having watched all at release to identical result (and occasionally re-watched, to identical result).

TLDR: I'll happily watch T2 after T1 with you, but I'm gonna be a lot drunker for the second. I'm out the door on anything further! Also, I'll pay for the booze if you ensure we're watching the theatrical cut of the second film. See also Alien+Aliens!

EDIT: What am I saying?! I'll stick around for drunken T3, Salvation, Genisys and Dark Fate too, but you will probably throw me out Uncle Phil-style as the night descends into discount MST3K!

The Sarah Connor Chronicles had some ok stuff, and several of its arcs would've made for better individual films than the shite that we actually got - however, by virtue of the concept's innately limited lifespan, the only further material I'd actually approve would be a simple Future War trilogy, leading directly into T1. The Terminator (1984) is made to burn out, and T2 just barely sneaks in under the wire, as-is.