Movies you've just watched

[Zen]

I'm not sure if you're familiar with the Midnight's Edge channel on Youtube, but there was an active attempt at marginalizing Ivan Reitman's involvement from Amy Pascal's part, which they documented in this video. It's pretty fascinating stuff.

What an absolute disgrace.

Also;

JESUS!


FUCKING!


WEPT!



By the way, the only thing that Bill Murray did wrong, was to even appear in Ghostbusters 2. Fuck all sequels!

[Ixmucane2]

Black Panther

A valiant attempt to produce a good, serious superhero movie. Not significantly damaged by fitting in the same continuity as other MCU episodes (the plot is about the kingdom of Wakanda, not about Avengers-worthy threats), featuring a meaningful, interesting and deeply evil villain, and earnestly facing racial issues (from a classic "african-american" viewpoint).

Relatively realistic action keeps the spectacular side within the boundaries of good taste; Black Panther has a bulletproof costume that absorbs and releases kinetic energy, vibranium weapons and assorted high tech gadgets, making him a subtler, less charismatic and slightly stronger variation of Iron Man.

Thanks to the somewhat realistic setting and the sufficient breathing space for the story, plot holes are few and minor.

There are, however, significant shortcomings and flaws: some fundamental (from the positively idiot characters causing a particularly pointless insurrection in order to require enough fighting scenes to the unrealistic, fairyland concept of Wakanda itself), many stylistic and cultural (for example, what self-respecting giant rhino would stay inside the miserably weak wood fences that Wakandan farmers appear to prefer to vibranium? Why do the prosperous and purportedly high-tech Wakandans make a point to dress in pretty, colorful and rather primitive assorted African costumes of various incoherent styles without evolving and adapting beyond typical third world standards?).

[Skykid]

I honestly can't bring myself to see Black Panther. I'm so grossly burned out on superhero movies I'm getting sick just thinking about having to see another.

[soprano1]

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005)
I never read the books, although I've heard they were fun. That being said, this movie was OK. The use of practical effects instead of full-blown CGI was a plus point to me. The rest was a mixed feeling of "WTF am I smoking" and "LOL so random!".

[Jonny2x4]

By the way, the only thing that Bill Murray did wrong, was to even appear in Ghostbusters 2. Fuck all sequels!

I would feel more sorry for him for doing unwanted Ghostbusters sequels out of contractual obligations if it weren't for the fact that he got Lorenzo Music fired from the animated show. With that said, I still enjoyed Ghostbusters 2, even if it was a lesser retread of the original with a premise that made no sense.

[xxx1993]

I've just seen Black Panther. I liked it.

[xxx1993]

By the way, the only thing that Bill Murray did wrong, was to even appear in Ghostbusters 2. Fuck all sequels!

Ahem. Rambo, Mad Max, and Mission: Impossible would like a word with you on that one.

[neorichieb1971]

Kill order.

Some sort of cheap American/Japanese crossover movie about a kid who has been experimented with a power from another world. It makes you do all sorts of martial arts and your eyes turn blue.


Was alright, some great Matrix style fighting scenes.

[BrianC]

I would feel more sorry for him for doing unwanted Ghostbusters sequels out of contractual obligations if it weren't for the fact that he got Lorenzo Music fired from the animated show.

and ended up doing Garfield himself (and for movies far inferior to the specials and TV shows where Lorenzo Music did the voice). I do agree that Lorenzo Music did sound a little too much like Garfield, but he wasn't terrible either. Janine's first VA, however....

[soprano1]

Appaloosa (2008)
Hey, not a bad "modern" Western. Structured story, screwed up characters, a nice cast... Yeah.
Worth watching, I say.

[boagman]

I don't think the 2016 Ghostbusters movie was terrible, nor did it warrant all the political backlash it generated (although I think some of the reviews were judging the movie on its political correctness instead of its actual merits) but it was a very average movie overall. The big problem was that it couldn't decide if it wanted to be a followup to the originals or a completely separate movie, and suffered for its inability to make the distinction.

I'm going to disagree with you, here. It *was* terrible, and it was terrible primarily for one reason: the script sucked/was patently *not* funny.

It's absolutely amazing to me that these *severely* funny ladies would sign off on a script that left them with absolutely terrible lines, devoid of real, actual humor. I didn't care *at all* that they were women...I cared that the whole thing, stem-to-stern, was patently unfunny. Oh! *SOUP DUMPLINGS*!!!! They can't...they can't get it *right*!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!

This movie was not good, but the stars are just as culpable in its failure: funny women of that caliber are easily able to ad lib and make script calls when they know stuff isn't landing, or won't land. They didn't, and the movie made them *all* look terrible. They have no one to blame but themselves. They went in for an easy payday, and now they're going to be working twice as hard to try to prop themselves back up to the point where they can call their shots again. The only one that *may* be immune to that is McCarthy, since she's already got a proven track record of box office success. She may have earned her mulligan.

The others? Not so much (Wiig, McKinnon), to not at all (Jones).

[Zen]

So, IMDb first closes its comment section. Then reorganises its review order based on "helpfulness", eliminating quick access to the more critical viewers opinions.
In effect, spamming up-voted fluff at the user.

Netflix changes its ratings system to "thumbs up, or thumbs down", which is infinitely more forgiving on films that would have gotten thrashed with a "one star."

Rotten Tomatoes has a pole shift in critic to user ratings (usually the critics were less forgiving than the user. Now its the other way round.)
I take it that Rotten Tomatoes' "critics" wrong-think is being "discouraged"?
Rotten Tomatoes "narrative" re. The Last Jedi critique and now Black Panther (which now stands at 97% among the critics btw ) is some top tier preemptive/damage control/marketing emetic.
Polygon, in full narrative-compliance mode; https://www.polygon.com/2018/2/2/169639 ... -alt-right

TLDR;
Why did the TLJ get savaged? = "Muh Misogyny"
Why is Black Panthers marketing hysteria getting criticised for race baiting? = "Muh Nazis"

So, studio-friendly changes all round, then?

[lilmanjs]

By the way, the only thing that Bill Murray did wrong, was to even appear in Ghostbusters 2. Fuck all sequels!

Ahem. Rambo, Mad Max, and Mission: Impossible would like a word with you on that one.

Rambo's sequel is worse than the first, everyone knows this. And Mission Impossible 2 is one of the worst John Woo movies. Have you not seen an actual good John Woo movie?

[xxx1993]

By the way, the only thing that Bill Murray did wrong, was to even appear in Ghostbusters 2. Fuck all sequels!

Ahem. Rambo, Mad Max, and Mission: Impossible would like a word with you on that one.

Rambo's sequel is worse than the first, everyone knows this. And Mission Impossible 2 is one of the worst John Woo movies. Have you not seen an actual good John Woo movie?

Actually, Rambo IV is often considered the best of the Rambo sequels. And I wasn't talking about Mission: Impossible II. I was talking about Ghost Protocol and Rogue Nation. And I have seen good John Woo movies. I already saw Hard Boiled and Face/Off. I own the latter. You guys want to know another good movie sequel? Aliens.

[wgogh]

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005)
I never read the books, although I've heard they were fun. That being said, this movie was OK. The use of practical effects instead of full-blown CGI was a plus point to me. The rest was a mixed feeling of "WTF am I smoking" and "LOL so random!".

The book itself I didnt found as good as people say, and it is very random. Originally it was a radio show which kind of explains the style. If you like stuff like 'Futurama' you may like the book, but its not my case.


And speaking of good sequels...
Female Convict Scorpion Jailhouse 41
Great film! Matsu is a memorable character. I suspect Tarantino might had seen this series before working on Kill Bill

[xxx1993]

Female Prisoner Scorpion? I don’t think I heard of that one before.

[drauch]

Released on Bluray in 2016 in English from Arrow, but there were some DVDs before that in English. The original four rule, and there's a bunch of other bleh spinoffs and modernizations later. Stars Meiko Kaji from Lady Snowblood and a million other sweet things. The manga, Sasori (scorpion), is awesome as well. The highlight of the Women in Prison genre in my book .

And come 'on, folks. There's plenty of amazing sequels out there.

[z0mbie90]

Been meaning to get the Arrow release, just need the money

[wgogh]

You guys know about Sasori? This forum rocks indeed

Female Prisoner Scorpion? I don’t think I heard of that one before.

It cant get away from being an exploitation film, but does it in great fashion. I've read that the first two films are the best from the series (specially the second one), so I'm not too anxious for the other two.

Meiko Kaji is beautiful and talented

Been meaning to get the Arrow release, just need the money

The Arrow release fucks up the collors, saddly...

[drauch]

Personally, I prefer the first. But yeah, the first two are certainly the best.

I wouldn't say they messed up the colors, really. It's so hard nowadays to know exactly what the original intent was or the condition of prints. Here's Arrow's response regarding the color:

"The images on all four Female Prisoner Scorpion films favor a noticeably cyan/blue look throughout. This look was inherent in the film materials supplied and relates to how these lab materials were created, as well as how the original elements have faded over time. With these restorations, we have aimed to present the films as close to their intended original style and appearance as possible."

[soprano1]

Lady Snowblood (1973)
Fantastic and beautiful. Is the sequel worth watching, or a cash-in?

[drauch]

Definitely not as good, but still worth watching I think. The manga's a bit disjointed as well, so it makes sense to do another.

[soprano1]

Definitely not as good, but still worth watching I think. The manga's a bit disjointed as well, so it makes sense to do another.

Alright, I'll do just that, thanks.

[drauch]

Really I'd recommend any of the stuff based on Kazuo Koike works: Lone Wolf and Cub, Hanzo The Razor, Bohachi Bushido. Demon Spies is another lesser known one, which is just okay, but kinda cool if you like ninja stuff. There's multiple Crying Freeman adaptions too from Hong Kong that are pretty cool, both Dragon From Russia and A Killer's Romance. Loosely based, obviously, but good action if you like the stuff from the HK heydays.

[rapoon]

^
Good-ole Hanzo, who amuses himself by pursuing one of three activities: murder, rape, or torture. all three films are fucking trash.

[boagman]

"Black Panther"

Liked it a good bit. Not nearly as heavy-handedly preachy as I expected it to be. They had some fun making this, and it shows. Serkis is doing *nothing but* having fun. Overall, quite the pleasant watch.

[wgogh]

Actually, that seems to be the bad Hanzo.

This is the good-ole Hanzo!

[rapoon]

Actually, that seems to be the bad Hanzo.

This is the good-ole Hanzo!

don't get me wrong, they're entertaining. but outside of hanzo using his cock as a information / confession extracting apparatus, there's not much there.
I guess Koike reused that 'psycho cop' archetype for 'sleepy in Mad Bull 34.

[soprano1]

Lady Snowblood 2 (1974)
As a sequel, it's very weak. But if you watch it on it's own, it's not bad at all. Obviously it went for a critique of Japan's political climate after their victory on the Russo-Japanese war, which increased it's desire for imperial conquest, and we all know how that turned out 40 years later...
The torture scenes and that public beating in the slums were horrible to watch.

outside of hanzo using his cock as a information / confession extracting apparatus, there's not much there.

wut.

[soprano1]

Female Prisoner No.701 Scorpion (1972)
Absolute brutality on this one. Hell, some things shocked ME, never thought that would happen anymore.
Even in Japan the 70's were ballsy. The shower scene with the glass stabbing was really well done, demonic grin lady was terrifying, even more since she looked like an Asian version of an aunt of mine I'm not fond of!