Movies you've just watched

[soprano1]

Minty, please spoiler that image.

[GaijinPunch]

Nightcrawler

Finally I got to watch an actual fucking movie.

This was a surprise hit for me. It looked like it could go either way in the trailer, and after some verbal affirmation from friends, gave it a go and was pleased. Between this and Demolition, I'm a member of Team Jake. I just realize he has to buy $300,000 cars too, so will do shit movies for a ton of dough. Life is apparently lame.

[Skykid]

Margin Call


Oddly I find the subject of economic meltdown via financial markets an intriguing subject. Sadly, bar the odd good documentary (Enron springs to mind) there aren't that many good dramatisations.

Margin Call is a good dramatisation. It is completely unapologetic about giving you nothing but financial jargon to figure out that the crux of it is about selling bad debt to your loyal customers, but this overnight view of a company heading into the financial meltdown of 08 is a very adult depiction that does away with sensationalism and cliche and just tells it as it would have been. It feels like an inside view and it's very compelling. Casting is excellent, bar perhaps Demi Moore, who really could never act and still can't; but the rest - even the uneven Jeremy Irons - do well here, with an expectedly superb turn from Kevin Spacey.

I could never recommend this unless you're interested in the subject matter, but if you are it's definitely one of the best dramatisations I've seen - far superior to Wall Street and other overly-Hollywood attempts.

And before you all shout Boiler Room, I've seen it twice, and it's ok entertainment.

[kaicooper]

just watched THE ABYSS 1989 Special Edition cut
this's my first time..and i though its gonna suck BUT..why did i skip this for yeaaaars??
amazing movie

[MintyTheCat]

just watched THE ABYSS 1989 Special Edition cut
this's my first time..and i though its gonna suck BUT..why did i skip this for yeaaaars??
amazing movie

The special edition is quite different. To me they tried to meld about three different types of film together with that version.
Well done though.
Have you seen Leviathan from the same year? It is more of a SciFi Horror but worth seeing.

[kaicooper]

just watched THE ABYSS 1989 Special Edition cut
this's my first time..and i though its gonna suck BUT..why did i skip this for yeaaaars??
amazing movie

The special edition is quite different. To me they tried to meld about three different types of film together with that version.
Well done though.
Have you seen Leviathan from the same year? It is more of a SciFi Horror but worth seeing.

Leviathan 1989..not yet..i remember the poster but has very bad ratings donno why
if worth watching then i'll watch

[kaicooper]

just watched The Unbreakable 2000
this's the one i skipped for years from N.Shyamalin list..the only one
i havnt watched yet..why the fk i skipped this..its one of the best..amazing movie

now gonna watch Split 2016

[Skykid]

just watched THE ABYSS 1989 Special Edition cut
this's my first time..and i though its gonna suck BUT..why did i skip this for yeaaaars??
amazing movie

The special edition is quite different. To me they tried to meld about three different types of film together with that version.
Well done though.
Have you seen Leviathan from the same year? It is more of a SciFi Horror but worth seeing.

Leviathan 1989..not yet..i remember the poster but has very bad ratings donno why
if worth watching then i'll watch

That movie has the best anti-feminist punch committed to celluloid.

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

While we're on the Ghost in the Shell thing, here's another example of James being too insightful. Remember that Battle Angel movie he was gonna make? He pawned it off onto some other sap to take the blame when it inevitably tanks.

is that true? haha I was looking forward to that, I'd argue Alita lends itself much better to Hollywoodization than GitS ever did...

[neorichieb1971]

Isn't Angel Alita the same story as the Iron Giant? Never seen Angel but read about it.

[MintyTheCat]

The special edition is quite different. To me they tried to meld about three different types of film together with that version.
Well done though.
Have you seen Leviathan from the same year? It is more of a SciFi Horror but worth seeing.

Leviathan 1989..not yet..i remember the poster but has very bad ratings donno why
if worth watching then i'll watch

That movie has the best anti-feminist punch committed to celluloid.

"Corporate Lady: "you must have been through hell"
Miner: "Bitch - we're still here"

[kaicooper]

That movie has the best anti-feminist punch committed to celluloid.

finally..ok movie but what a Punch ha..

[Ixmucane2]

Ghost in the Shell (2017)

The Major, tactical leader of Section 9, an elite militarized police unit, consists of the brain of a woman in an artificial humanoid body; she has been built by a robotics megacorp, led by a standard issue psychopathic manager, who considers her a resource and an experiment. A case that involves the brain transplant technology used for the Major causes interesting changes and revelations.

A disappointing plot, in which the most traditional cyberpunk elements (cyberware, androids, virtual reality, the Network, evil corporations...) fail miserably to make sense, to tell an interesting story (both regarding the good guys and bad guys in general and regarding the Major), and to depict a coherent and realistic science fiction setting. The best scene, narratively central and surprisingly moving, is the most low-tech: the Major manages to find and visit SPOILER but they fail to have a cup of tea together because the Major, overwhelmed by emotion, leaves suddenly.

Warning: an obscene finale by genre and common sense standards; it's more disgusting because it comes suddenly, with ample chances of getting it right. If you don't like being angry you might want to walk out as soon as the Major is rescued after the last battle.

My impression is that adapting an existing film provided a solid foundation but also unwelcome constraints, and that the writers and director understood only the superficial appearance of cyberpunk, with little interest or understanding for the depth of meaning science fiction allows. Following a model incorrectly and unwillingly is better than nothing.

[MintyTheCat]

I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095348/

It was pretty funny. I remember seeing part of it eons ago but managed to watch the full film this last week as a friend reminded me how good it was.

[emphatic]

I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095348/

It was pretty funny. I remember seeing part of it eons ago but managed to watch the full film this last week as a friend reminded me how good it was.

"It's a gang!"

[Zen]

Split (2016) - M. Night Shyamalan

What the fuck is wrong with this man?!
My guess is that he is just too comfortable, too stagnant to finish his work with the edge it so obviously lacks. He has no true darkness to him at all. The amount of unintentionally hilarious moments in this film, mainly from James McAvoy's various personalities, is comically high.
Shyamalan has said in interviews that he is the first person to posit the core question that he raises in this film, namely;

Spoiler

can a person with D.I.D, believe himself into actually having supernatural powers?

I would posit that Shyamalan has "forgotten" his Poe. Specifically "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar", which, in my opinion, is also the basis for Martyrs (2008) - Pascal Laugier. Further, I would suggest Martyrs directly inspired Shyamalan's Split.
There is a sense of the fraud with Shyamalan, I think, in more ways than one.

Other things of note; Its sad to see the promise of Anya Taylor-Joy devolve into what is little more than this gens scream queen, with each passing film.
The ridiculous way Shyamalan scripts the undressing of the girls, for the obvious titillation of the audience.
The connection to probably Shyamalan's greatest film at the end of all this, felt very awkward. As I heard the music from that past gem creep in (unfortunately highlighting how little of Split's score I had noticed), it was almost like a real version of the Sixth Sense, with Shyamalan revealing "yeah, I made that back in the day! Great isn't it?! But I didn't make this one. Couldn't have because . . . I've been dead for years . . . . "

[GaijinPunch]

I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095348/

It was pretty funny. I remember seeing part of it eons ago but managed to watch the full film this last week as a friend reminded me how good it was.

Fuck da cup, po it in my hand fo a dime!

Classic as fuck movie. Gotta watch again...
Thanks for the reminder.

[soprano1]

I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095348/

It was pretty funny. I remember seeing part of it eons ago but managed to watch the full film this last week as a friend reminded me how good it was.

Hey, thanks for mentioning this movie, it's great.
I wonder what bean soda tastes like...

[Skykid]

GITS IN THE SHELL

So low expectations are always for the best. This actually isn't all bad. What we need to do, before any judging of the content occurs, is compare this anime adaptation against the entire catalogue of competing Hollywood fluff that rolls off the production line day in, day out. And by that I mean superhero movies made to a now officially boring as shit stock template, revivals of 80s cartoons made modern to an officially boring as shit stock template, and almost every other Hollywood genre movie also made to boring as shit stock templates.

When weighed up against that, GiTS is at least fairly fresh, remake status notwithstanding. And watchable, thanks to the creativity of the source material being at least more creative than Kong 1000 or Superleotard XII.

Sanders and co. didn't get it all right, but for the most part there were some good physical sets and location shooting, using Hong Kong as the backdrop and embellishing it with CGI. I absolutely didn't like the full scale people models stuffed everywhere across the cityscape; it was all a bit 90s iffy and didn't work that well compared to the desaturated and bleak future of the anime - but parts of it were fine and the overall aesthetic recalled the original's sterility with a few tweaks here and there.

Casting was fine, Johannssen with her new 17 year old airbrushed face was fine, and tonally it holds its own. The augmentation of the plot actually worked favourably until the end, which is a catastrophic fuckup that almost ruins the entire movie.

Spoiler

Simply put, reducing the idea that she was once a human being inhabiting the city at some point had a certain mystique, horribly ruined by a cliché corporate villain snatching runaways and a clanger of a final sequence that desecrated the source material in its inept handling.

It's a flawed film if you compare it to Oshii's work, but at the same time doesn't completely offend in its handling. It is at the very least, intriguing and interesting, if not wholly satisfying or properly rounded. It would have benefited hugely from scripting rewrites to the final third, as it just seems like the Hollwooditis - where nothing can be left to the imagination - fucked the ship, as it were.

But is it as bad as its professional critical appraisal? No, I don't think so. That said people who have an appreciation for Oshii's bleaker take on GiTS might get more from it than SAC fans or people who nothing at all about it. To them it might just be a load of boring technowaffle and trite themes of robots with souls. You may need a previous affection for the work to get a feel for the remake.

[MintyTheCat]

I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095348/

It was pretty funny. I remember seeing part of it eons ago but managed to watch the full film this last week as a friend reminded me how good it was.

Fuck da cup, po it in my hand fo a dime!

Classic as fuck movie. Gotta watch again...
Thanks for the reminder.

How much for 1 rib? .... you got change for a $100 bill?

I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095348/

It was pretty funny. I remember seeing part of it eons ago but managed to watch the full film this last week as a friend reminded me how good it was.

Hey, thanks for mentioning this movie, it's great.
I wonder what bean soda tastes like...

Very good film, I like how it starts "Ghetto: anywhere, USA"

[soprano1]

Train to Busan -

Korean Zombie flick based almost entirely on a train from what looks like Seoul to Busan. Extremely well presented and the blu ray was incredibly crystal clear on the PQ. There were quite a lot of ideas in the zombie theme never done before here so that was susprising. The claustrophobic setting works well and the train scenes were done well too. Is it me or are Asian child actors just incredibly emotional in their acting? Some scenes I almost shed a tear. Train to Busan is not one of the best movies i've ever seen but I did find enough positives to highly recommend it.

I watched this today, i thought it was great. The last escape scene, with the father remembering her daughter as a baby was too sad...
I thought the movie would end with the sniper killing the two survivors, but i guess Koreans know better.

[boagman]

I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095348/

It was pretty funny. I remember seeing part of it eons ago but managed to watch the full film this last week as a friend reminded me how good it was.

Fuck da cup, po it in my hand fo a dime!

Classic as fuck movie. Gotta watch again...
Thanks for the reminder.

*Really*? Wow...I never knew. I've never seen *any* of it due to complete lack of interest by me. Looked all wrong/stupid to me. Perhaps I'll give it a shot in the future.

[boagman]

Interesting...I didn't know about this: they're re-releasing "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" in August, in 3D. That, uh...that could be enough to get me to spring for it. A great movie by Cameron that still holds up today, with more of his whizbangery. I might just be in for that.

[Skykid]

Interesting...I didn't know about this: they're re-releasing "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" in August, in 3D. That, uh...that could be enough to get me to spring for it. A great movie by Cameron that still holds up today, with more of his whizbangery. I might just be in for that.

T2 has gotten weaker for me every time I've seen it, sadly. I feel like it's aged poorly, but I loved it when I was a kid.

If they re-released the original Terminator I'd definitely spring for that. Police station massacre a-gogo.

[neorichieb1971]

T2 never made any sense to me. Just copy a random person, get close to Connor.. Movie done.

The first Terminator was flawless, and I am still waiting for the War of the future depicted in that movie to become a movie of its own. Terminator is a very dodgy franchise these days.

If you like the original Terminator I say give "Dredd" a go. Its definitely got that cold, Robocop 80's vibe thing going on. One of the best USA movies i've seen in years.

[kaicooper]

Split (2016) - M. Night Shyamalan

did u ever watched Unbreakable 2000?

=======

Terminator and T2 = Masterpieces
never get old..
somtimes i prefer First Terminator but donno

[Zen]

Split (2016) - M. Night Shyamalan

did u ever watched Unbreakable 2000?

=======

Terminator and T2 = Masterpieces
never get old..
somtimes i prefer First Terminator but donno

Yes I have seen it many times. It was the film that I referred to as possibly his greatest, in my review above.

[Mischief Maker]

If you like the original Terminator I say give "Dredd" a go. Its definitely got that cold, Robocop 80's vibe thing going on. One of the best USA movies i've seen in years.

It's actually a UK movie filmed in South Africa.

[Ixmucane2]

Ghost in the Shell (1995) (non-revised)

Thanks to the wonders of technology someone, somewhere, starts hacking people. Section 9, an elite police force, investigates; but between pondering the difference between man and machine and the mysterious hacker showing interest for her, the plot turns personal for Section 9's most important and most cybernetically enhanced member, Major Motoko Kusanagi, who has a completely artificial body and (supposedly) a human brain in a titanium enclosure.

I had to see the original after the live-action remake, and it's even more vastly superior than I expected. Maybe I'm overrating it, instead of despising the adaptation.

First of all, it's the story of how one person (the Major) evolves, not a boring action adventure of heroes defeating villains.
Second, it's focused on, and carefully designed about, the main theme of humanity vs cyberware, with plenty of dedicated scenes, dialogues and even characters (e.g. the barely enhanced policeman section 9 keeps as a mascot for diversity reasons).
Third, it's well-written, wasting no time for pointless drama and explanations.

[soprano1]

Idiocracy (2006)
Crappy movie that seems to parody Futurama in a scary, sarcastic way.