Movies you've just watched

[BrianC]

I too love the Coen Brothers' True Grit, but I find it frustrating how the John Wayne version does many things wrong with Hollywood movies (I still like it, but it's definitely the inferior movie), but is considered the better movie by some just because of John Wayne.

[null1024]

Doctor Strange.

I didn't even know there was going to be a Doctor Strange movie until like a week ago.
Enjoyed it quite a bit, although the ending was a bit anti-climactic. Dormammu looked weird.

And man, that trippy fractal/tessellation effect was really cool.

[Opus131]

I too love the Coen Brothers' True Grit, but I find it frustrating how the John Wayne version does many things wrong with Hollywood movies (I still like it, but it's definitely the inferior movie), but is considered the better movie by some just because of John Wayne.

I haven't seen either movie, but i'm curious about what you mean when you say the John Wayne version does many things wrong with "Hollywood movies" specifically. What are Hollywood movies, and in what way do you do things that are "wrong" in that regard?

As for people thinking the original is the superior film, that's how it usually goes. It is very rare anyone will concede a sequel/remake is better than an original, probably because it rarely happens and it is hard to accept the exception when it shows up.

[BrianC]

I haven't seen either movie, but i'm curious about what you mean when you say the John Wayne version does many things wrong with "Hollywood movies" specifically. What are Hollywood movies, and in what way do you do things that are "wrong" in that regard?

Why not look it up on Wikipedia before asking a loaded question? Anyway, the John Wayne version makes changes from the book for the sake of being a John Wayne movie. Some of the supporting characters are played by weak actors (Glen Campbell is especially weak) and the ending is changed to a happier one. I didn't mean to be "politicial" by mentioning Hollywood and didn't expect to be questioned over it. I just thought it was common knowledge that Hollywood (or other US movies) often had unnecessary changes for the worse.

[Zen]

Incarnate (2016) Brad Peyton
One of a handfull of films that I have actually turned off half way through (its usually a point of form with me to finish a film I start).
Aaron Eckhart, possession flick. How bad can it be? Twenty minutes into it I was genuinely wondering if this film was a tax trick/money laundering venture. Its that bad. Its "made for tv" bad.
Its frankly, unbelievably bad.

[Zen]

Rewatched The Neon Demon. Absolutely riduclous, absolutely sublime. Like Suspiria being throttled by the perfect Bret Easton Ellis adaptation no one has ever been able to make. The ultimate manifestation of a true cinema of the gaze. Definitely going to use it as a case study next time I teach a cinematography unit.

Ars Gratia Artis? I can only hope one of your brighter students gives you hell for forcing a near two hour perfume commercial upon them.

[Opus131]

I haven't seen either movie, but i'm curious about what you mean when you say the John Wayne version does many things wrong with "Hollywood movies" specifically. What are Hollywood movies, and in what way do you do things that are "wrong" in that regard?

Why not look it up on Wikipedia before asking a loaded question? Anyway, the John Wayne version makes changes from the book for the sake of being a John Wayne movie. Some of the supporting characters are played by weak actors (Glen Campbell is especially weak) and the ending is changed to a happier one. I didn't mean to be "politicial" by mentioning Hollywood and didn't expect to be questioned over it. I just thought it was common knowledge that Hollywood (or other US movies) often had unnecessary changes for the worse.

The way you said it made it look like you were arguing the film did something wrong to some specific formula used by Hollywood films. That's what you said, that the film does many things wrong "with" Hollywood movies. That's why i was confused.

I now see you meant the film was too Hollywood. Of course, that's pretty typical of a John Wayne film, not the least because he became successful thanks to the work of Hollywood pioneers in the first place (the people who "invented" Hollywood, so to speak). I'm thinking of John Ford in particular since it was with Stage Coach that John Wayne got propelled into fame.

[EmperorIng]

True Grit is good for being one of those last classic "romantic" Westerns, which John Wayne personified. As such, it is very enjoyable. Actors are often purposefully under-acted to magnify the Duke. I don't know if I agree all the time, but his popularity would seem to point to a winning strategy.

On a related note, I really need to watch more John Ford films to witness more of that wide panorama shot quasi-spiritual mythology that makes that era's Westerns so justifiably famous.

[Mischief Maker]

I'm sorry but for me the greatest role John Wayne ever played was Ghengis Khan!

[Opus131]

John Wayne's popularity has to do with his charisma more than his acting skills. Schwarzenegger became a huge star and the guy couldn't even speak English properly. I guess when you got that kind of swag you don't need much else.

Either way, being associated with such great names as John Ford and, to a lesser extend (IMO at any rate), Howard Hawks definitely went a long way to propel his career, as i said. John Ford in particular was a revelation for me. His films aren't "serious" cinema in any sense but there's an unexpected and subtle hint of greatness in almost everything he does. Even in his more commercial films there's always this sense of something more going on underneath the surface, a certain poetic undertone. I remember watching Rio Grande (a film he allegedly made exclusively to satisfy his studio so that they in turn would allow him to make The Quiet Man) and there's a scene in it where Maureen O'Hara walks into a tent to kiss her son in the film, and... it is one of the most beautiful moments in any film i've ever seen. By all accounts it should have been just a bit of good old sentimentalism, and that's what it is too, but somehow he and O'Hara make it work at a different level as well.

[Opus131]

Also, this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeOWZLpVK58

[S_Fang]

Watched a bunch of movies in these days:

Nine Lives

The usual animal flick with a magic realism scenario, the kind of movies I used to watch since I was a kid. The ""twist"" here is Kevin Spacey switched the body with a cat by Christophen Walken because he was a tosser with his family, so he could learn to love them again and save his business by another prick.
Is a decent way to spend half an hour, but only for that. It got a nice press beause Spacey hooked everyone with House of Cards, but is anything but like that with a cat (I wished for that, though).


Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Pretty much what @Ixmucane2 wrote about the movie pages ago, plus the great craft in stop-motion and special effects.
Beside, I wonder if they'll adapt the rest of the trilogy or the first one bombed or something.


Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Nice movie, but the exposition and the political subplot kinda bored me.
If they want to make a series out of a fictional bestiary, then I hope they don't get lame.

[Xyga]

Highlander (1986 uncut version) - was curious for a memory refresh, since I couldn't remember much about that film I probably saw only once on VHS sometime around 1990.

Well, it's comically bad, really bad, awful play/dialogue/stunts and script, but there's some effort with selected practical effects, the bad dude is kinda funny, and the nicely shot Highlands scenery is the best thing in the whole two hours.

[NYN]

The Kurgan sure is the most fun.
"I have something to say: It's better to burn out than to fade away!"

[Sinful]

Highlander (1986 uncut version) - was curious for a memory refresh, since I couldn't remember much about that film I probably saw only once on VHS sometime around 1990.

Well, it's comically bad, really bad, awful play/dialogue/stunts and script, but there's some effort with selected practical effects, the bad dude is kinda funny, and the nicely shot Highlands scenery is the best thing in the whole two hours.

Never seen it. But the Highlands scenery does look nice and is actually my main motivation for wanting to watch it as a fan of Sci-Fi and or High Fantasy settings. That and it can't be much worse then the movies I've seen in 2016, right?

[neorichieb1971]

Highlander is 80's cheese. I watched it a year ago or so and its really bad. The sword fighting is akin to the latest star wars movie

[TransatlanticFoe]

A Frenchman playing a Scot and a Scot playing a Spaniard. What could possibly go wrong? It's an entertaining enough film, just don't go anywhere near the "universe" they attempted to create with the sequels and spinoffs.

[Opus131]

The Kurgan made that movie. Very entertaining villain.

[BrianC]

I have never seen him in Highlander, but Clancy Brown definitely knows how to play/voice entertaining villains.

[cj iwakura]

La La Land: incredibly beautiful film... and all the more heartbreaking for it.


What a score, too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBUXcNTjviI

[NYN]

and a Scot playing a Spaniard. What could possibly go wrong?

The Scotsman playing the allegedly Spaniard claiming to be Egyptian of all things halfway through an extended flashback could be one. Maybe.

It's an entertaining enough film, just don't go anywhere near the "universe" they attempted to create with the sequels and spinoffs.

True enough for all that followed. But I think of 'Highlander: Vengeance' as being the exception. That Kawajiri action-sequence magic is a visual joy.

[Xyga]

A Frenchman playing a Scot and a Scot playing a Spaniard. What could possibly go wrong? It's an entertaining enough film, just don't go anywhere near the "universe" they attempted to create with the sequels and spinoffs.

The biggest problem with the two protagonists - beyond the funny ethnic distribution - is that neither Connery nor Lambert fit in their roles, Sean is the 'annoying dandy mentor' for the Nth time in his career, and C. Lambert should only be playing animals like monkeys.

Really the recipe isn't too bad, and they've brought lots of good ingredients, too bad the cook sucked.

Something I've forgot to mention: Qeen's music, another thing feeling misplaced here because it's kind of too good for the movie.

[GaijinPunch]

Manhunter

Fell asleep a couple of times. Decently directed. Whorably acted. Michael Mann definitely gets better. Not necessarily bad and probably more enjoyable at the time. Has a lot of Mann's qualities: solid scoring, interesting shots, lots of low-light scenes, and general mystique. Hard for me to get over the short-comings though.

[emphatic]

Rogue One 4/5

Loved it, so a solid 4. Great cast, well crafted and even though you know how it'll end, you just don't know at what cost to the rebels, so it's exciting all the way IMHO.

Spoiler

The animated Tarkin should have been introduced as a hologram instead if possible.

[Zen]

Traffic (2000) Steven Soderbergh

Fist time watching it.
This won four Oscars? One of which was a win over "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"?
The smug sense of holistic and insightful knowing on the""drug problem/war on drugs" is water cooler level, bluffer caliber, at best.
Decade and a half ago. Maybe i'm being too harsh on it.

[xxx1993]

Watched Big Game (2014) which is airing on CBS tonight. Heard so much about the movie and now it's time I actually see it.

[BIL]

Occasionally I'll rewatch Lucio Fulci's The Beyond (1981), indulging its head-asplodin' antics for my true reward, a movingly bleak climactic glimpse of hell. Then, enthused by that fleeting, perfect moment of surreal doom, I'll get all fired up to seek out more of his horror pictures - before soon throwing in the towel! This time around, The House by the Cemetery (1981). Serviceable haunted house schlock, elevated slightly as per Fulci with a handful of memorably creepy and/or batshit shots. Soundly inferior on that count to its companions in Fulci's unofficial "Gates of Hell Trilogy," City of the Living Dead and The Beyond. Passable lazy Sunday material, not really worth seeking out.

Dun-dun-dunnn!

Spoiler

Stage 1 Boss: Giant Bat (special thanks to The Jim Henson Company)

Spoiler

[EmperorIng]

Fulci's constant eye closeups seem almost intentionally silly and at some point, but knowing Fulci's ego it probably wasn't.

[Xyga]

Speaking of it, I've just watched my fifth Argento: Inferno (1980)

So far:
- Profondo Rosso (1975)
- Suspiria (1977)
- Inferno (1980)
- Tenebrae (1982)
- Phenomena (1985)

That makes two 'giallo', two 70s-weird glam-gore, and one 80's mashup.

I must say the glam-gore stuff (Suspiria, Inferno) didn't work well for me, though I understand it was a thing at the time, today it's really only cute bourgeoises walking in old mansions corridors under colored spotlights and whooshing sounds while the music goes 'TATSSSAAAN!' every time something falls or a door slams.

I enjoyed the two giallos a lot though, Profondo Rosso and Tenebrae push the kitschy leahter gloves + knife mystery murders style to excellence, and they're both well played and directed.
Phenomena also did it while it kind of mixes the two genres and is clearly more 80's lively/silly than the others, it's also really entertaining.

Now I don't know if I'll watch more in the near future but maybe when I have time I'll go for more of his (early) giallo stuff, since I like the formula.

[BIL]

Aha, I did think that was Ania Pieroni I remembered from Tenebrae and Inferno in "House by the Cemetery." Only had bit parts in all three (the most dignified being Inferno), but goddamn! She was mesmerisingly beautiful even among the many pretty (and usually horrendously dispatched) faces in those late 70s-early 80s Italian horror flicks.

I went on a moderate giallo binge several years back... watched all of the above plus Argento's "animal trilogy" and The House With Laughing Windows. Although it was an enjoyable excursion, I have to admit outside of their most central setpieces and twists, Argento's non-Tenebrae stuff has blurred together for me somewhat. Quite possibly my fault, would need to refresh my memory. Tenebrae's the only one I've rewatched lately after MX7's very apt tribute to it earlier this year. That one I'll never forget. Deliriously malevolent psycho killer fun with impeccable style. That fiery intro, holy fuck what a swaggeringly evil synth-rock jam from Goblin. Have to say, I'm not a great fan of overly cruel slayings in my horror films*, making giallos rough going at times... but the pounding extended version gives the double slaughter it soundtracks an irresistible pull.

Laughing Windows is cool. More of an eerie small town vibe than Argento's typically urbane productions. Resoundingly fucked up, altogether.

*don't get me wrong, I can fap 2 a ballpeen shattering a screaming captive's kneecaps as much as the next degenerate! Has to be the right sort of captive with the right sort of blowback though! Gimme catharsis motherfucker!