Movies you've just watched

[vol.2]

The original's love making w/ Kelly McGillis sent my 6th grade brain into all kinds of overdrive. Now that I'm a dirty old man and much fewer reasons to get excited, shit like that irks the fuck out of me.

I remember I saw Kelly McGillis play the lead in a performance of Twelfth Night at the Carter Barren Amphitheater in D.C. in the early 90s, and the gender-bending of the role was kind of a nod because she had just come out of the closet. She ruined my pubescent dreams, but also the performance was so good it was transformative.

[cj iwakura]

Watched Top Gun: Maverick again, this time on Blu-ray. Still a masterpiece.

I very much enjoyed this - it's definitely a theater experience. Cruise is a weirdo but mad props to sticking to his guns for making sure this didn't go straight to streaming. It was the right call.

That being said, there was one HUGE flaw though with this flick, that is hard to overlook. Jennifer Connely is ridiculously hot, and their "love scene" was weak. For all we know, it was just some heavy petting followed by him jerking it in the bathroom and then bailing. The original's love making w/ Kelly McGillis sent my 6th grade brain into all kinds of overdrive. Now that I'm a dirty old man and much fewer reasons to get excited, shit like that irks the fuck out of me.

Lest we forget:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxzwfZ2Wa94

[SuperPang]

I really liked Maverick, but I found the film had a tendency to ram nostalgia in your face a bit to forcefully. In particular, the scene where Goose's son (who has a tash of course, in 2022) plays Great Balls of Fire. And if the reference wasn't glaringly obvious enough, they added a flashback for good measure. That actually made me laugh.

[cj iwakura]

I didn't like Top Gun much, but Maverick was an amazing Ace Combat film.

[Air Master Burst]

I hated everything about the first Top Gun except that GLORIOUS volleyball game.

I wonder if the Air Force put recruiters in all the theaters for the sequel, too.

[GaijinPunch]

. She ruined my pubescent dreams,

Would have just given me new dreams.

Lest we forget:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxzwfZ2Wa94

LOL -- I knew what this was before clicking the link, and I knew I should have posted it originally.

[xxx1993]

I hated everything about the first Top Gun except that GLORIOUS volleyball game.

I wonder if the Air Force put recruiters in all the theaters for the sequel, too.

I thought it was the Navy, not Air Force… But I consider the sequel to be an S-tier, god-tier film for sure.

[null1024]

Original Top Gun is almost aggressively cheesy, but it's so relentlessly iconic that I can't help love it. It has moments that are genuinely good, but it really more just had such cool cinematography that it set the tone for the next decade of media.
I will admit that the writing is honestly mostly painful.

Maverick is an actual 10/10 movie though.

[NYN]

Watched Top Gun: Maverick again, this time on Blu-ray. Still a masterpiece.

Wooh hey, whoa, huh? A masterpiece? I'm sure you could back this up, if only somebody would ask you to. OK then.

Either way, I still love it and now it's become my personal favorite movie of all time. If Top Gun: Maverick was a woman, I'd marry it.

Wait, what? So, like, it's no masterpiece at all? Only a master piece of ass? You're just infatuated with the macho-not-really-gay-of-course-depiction of stupid toy action stuff? Way to raise standards, kid. Also: TMI. Really.

I thought the original one was the lamest trash somebody could talk about. No fun. Gasp, right? I remember only two things: The Cruises Monobrow and thighty-whites (no hot sex). And "action scenes" that consisted mostly of fake pilots in fake cock-pits craning their necks up and down and left and right to look for "bogey" and "bandit". Hope they found them by now. Or was that a respectful gay reference as well?

[Air Master Burst]

Wait, what? So, like, it's no masterpiece at all? Only a master piece of ass? You're just infatuated with the macho-not-really-gay-of-course-depiction of stupid toy action stuff? Way to raise standards, kid. Also: TMI. Really.

I thought the original one was the lamest trash somebody could talk about. No fun. Gasp, right? I remember only two things: The Cruises Monobrow and thighty-whites (no hot sex). And "action scenes" that consisted mostly of fake pilots in fake cock-pits craning their necks up and down and left and right to look for "bogey" and "bandit". Hope they found them by now. Or was that a respectful gay reference as well?

Wait, is this movie ACTUALLY super gay? Because that was the only saving grace of the original Top Gun. If it's actually super gay I might have to check it out.

Airplane action scenes are always boring to me because it's always either crappy special effects or some stunt so carefully staged it loses all sense of tension. While the life of your average stuntman barely makes a dent in the budget of your average action flick, nobody's willing to risk actually crashing a plane that expensive to give us the really cool shit. Instead it's all jump cuts and CGI.

Even the real-life stuff like that failed Red Bull midair skydiving plane swap is more about humans doing something cool and less about the planes themselves actually doing anything cool.

My favorite movie plane "stunt" is that hilarious scene in McBain where Christopher Walken pulls out a pistol and shoots through his cockpit to kill the guy flying in the cockpit in the plane next to him.

[xxx1993]

Watched Top Gun: Maverick again, this time on Blu-ray. Still a masterpiece.

Wooh hey, whoa, huh? A masterpiece? I'm sure you could back this up, if only somebody would ask you to. OK then.

Either way, I still love it and now it's become my personal favorite movie of all time. If Top Gun: Maverick was a woman, I'd marry it.

Wait, what? So, like, it's no masterpiece at all? Only a master piece of ass? You're just infatuated with the macho-not-really-gay-of-course-depiction of stupid toy action stuff? Way to raise standards, kid. Also: TMI. Really.

I thought the original one was the lamest trash somebody could talk about. No fun. Gasp, right? I remember only two things: The Cruises Monobrow and thighty-whites (no hot sex). And "action scenes" that consisted mostly of fake pilots in fake cock-pits craning their necks up and down and left and right to look for "bogey" and "bandit". Hope they found them by now. Or was that a respectful gay reference as well?

What are you talking about? I mean I love it so much.

[BryanM]

In contrast, helicopter stunts are awesome because those roving death machines constantly kill everyone inside and outside of the things. Man seriously wasn't meant to put air in a blender.

That scene in Terminator 2 where one flies under an overpass is hardcore, man.

Real life footage of showboating is always a classic, too. There's one that always sticks with me where the pilot goes "Think I can make it between those two trees?" and his copilot goes "Nope."

"Oh ye of little faith."

Then he goes for it... and the blades hit the trees. The helicopter rocks back and forth for a few seconds. Uncomfortable silence ensues.


..... other instances of real life "Top Gun antics", not as funny. Outside of grim apcalyptico type humor.

[vol.2]

Last night watched The Craft for the first time since I saw it in the theater. 6/10

My first reaction, as I was watching it, is that it isn't as good as I remembered it and I was ready to be disappointed. But it wasn't actually that bad, and I can sort of appreciate it for what it is now. I think I just remembered the whole thing wrong, or parts of it anyway. I distinctly started to remember certain scenes as they were playing out, and I think that got in the way of my suspension of disbelief to where I was being actively critical of it.

I remembered it being more of an angsty teen drama along the lines of Cruel Intentions or something, but it was more about the kids on the fringes having in-fights, and Robin Tunny's character being this "actual witch" while the others were power-hungry fuck-ups. It was cool to see Dorothy from Return to Oz again, before she did too meth or whatever made her prematurely age, but I think they kind of did her dirty by making her character bat-shit crazy; it's like okay, people who live in trailers are fuck-ups with alcoholic parents that want to kill football players or something. Great love that trope, good job. Also, they didn't even bother to make it any mystery that one of the coven was going to be the bad guy. If you're going to make something tropey, at least give us a twist, right?

Anyways, it was just fine. Neve Campbell is always a pleasure to watch circa Scream, and it was neat to see Robin Tunny because the last thing I watched her in was The Mentalist, so it was hilarious to go back and see her so young. She has one of those faces where she looked very adult even at a young age.

[Herr Schatten]

Last night watched The Craft for the first time since I saw it in the theater. 6/10

I haven’t watched it since then either, as I found it fairly mediocre (yet undeniably entertaining) the first time around, but I have listened to the soundtrack countless times. While it’s very much a product of its time, it’s far better than a movie of this quality deserves.

[vol.2]

Last night watched The Craft for the first time since I saw it in the theater. 6/10

I haven’t watched it since then either, as I found it fairly mediocre (yet undeniably entertaining) the first time around, but I have listened to the soundtrack countless times. While it’s very much a product of its time, it’s far better than a movie of this quality deserves.

Thinking about it more, I realized that it was edited very poorly (in addition to my other complaints). It could have been more satisfying a watch if the editing had been done in such a way as to tie the story together from scene to scene better. They jumped around very quickly from this thing to that in a way that was more confusing and messy than it was exciting and fast-paced (I assume fast-paced was the intention).

[Mortificator]

Would have just given me new dreams.

When life gives you lesbians, make lesbianade

Real life footage of showboating is always a classic, too.

Wonderful! If there's a time to keep your hubris in check it's when large machines meet small gaps.

Enterprise is a show where I'm so grateful to the viewers who bitched about it. It got blasted relentlessly the first couple years on the air, but guess what? The staff allowed themselves to think "maybe we're doing something wrong" and changed approach, giving us a pretty good show for the series' second half.

I actually really enjoyed the first two seasons of Enterprise (when they weren't dealing with the colossal idiocy of the Suliban/Temporal Cold War bullshit), but the post-9/11 neocon fever dream that was Season 3 is some of the absolute worst Star Trek that's ever been written. I REALLY don't want to watch my Starfleet captains torturing people for information or growing sentient clones to harvest for spare body parts for the crew, thanks.

This is what I meant about the portrayal of leading heels. Archer HATES himself over the shit he does in the Expanse. He's tormented by it; by the end of the season he wants to die. And it's not ultimately through cruelty that Enterprise prevails, but by showing the Xindi that they're people instead of monsters.

[Mischief Maker]

I feel so privileged that I jumped ship from Trek a few episodes into Voyager before things got truly execrable. Amazing to me listening to people digging for pearls in the shit that was Enterprise and looking down on the people digging through the bloody shit of Kurtzman Trek.

I suppose it's the same with kids who grew up watching Clone Wars cartoons verses me who grew up saying (half of) Return of the Jedi was Star Wars at its worst.

[GaijinPunch]

Would have just given me new dreams.

When life gives you lesbians, make lesbianade

Lol, I need to make this into a shirt.

[Air Master Burst]

I feel so privileged that I jumped ship from Trek a few episodes into Voyager before things got truly execrable. Amazing to me listening to people digging for pearls in the shit that was Enterprise and looking down on the people digging through the bloody shit of Kurtzman Trek.

I suppose it's the same with kids who grew up watching Clone Wars cartoons verses me who grew up saying (half of) Return of the Jedi was Star Wars at its worst.

I dunno, I thought DS9 was the worst pre-Kurtzman Trek by a long shot, but do you.

Also, the Star Wars Holiday Special came out long before Return of the Jedi, and the 2D Clone Wars cartoon by Genndy Tartakovsky is still the single best piece of Star Wars media ever made.

[Mortificator]

I feel so privileged that I jumped ship from Trek a few episodes into Voyager before things got truly execrable. Amazing to me listening to people digging for pearls in the shit that was Enterprise and looking down on the people digging through the bloody shit of Kurtzman Trek.

[Mischief Maker]

I feel so privileged that I jumped ship from Trek a few episodes into Voyager before things got truly execrable. Amazing to me listening to people digging for pearls in the shit that was Enterprise and looking down on the people digging through the bloody shit of Kurtzman Trek.

Are you kidding? That was the best episode!

[GaijinPunch]

Source Code [2011]
I was kind of enjoying this popcorn flick, despite its lack of subtlety and really lame villain. For not having to think too much and enjoy some suspense, it delivers. Also nice to see Chicago again, even if from afar. Then...

Spoiler

The ending just got worse and worse the more I thought of it. If they showed the army gal getting some email from him, not showing the contents, and cutting to black, this would have gone up a good .75 points. But, they had to hit you over the head w/ the happy ending. Also, WTF - did the other guy completely and totally get his life taken over for no reason by some helicopter pilot?

Anyway, not like I'd have watched it over and over. Not a total waste of time. However, speaking of wastes of time...

Stargate [1994]
Didn't know until just this second that it was directed by the guy that did Independence Day, Day After Tomorrow, etc. Okay, so should I even write anything? Just usual cheesy stuff. Done pretty poorly. I realize this one has a cult-ish following but yeah, I guess I missed the window to find this one fun. Kurt Russel in a beret though...

[vol.2]

I just can't fucking stand Scott Bakula. I had to put up with watching Quantum Leap with my parents and it was soul sucking, can't do Enterprise.

DS9 is a weird one. I know I got sucked into the story, but I agree that it's objectively mediocre, especially once it really gets going like season 3 or 4. In the beginning it was good fun, and the setup of the world was done really well. I think they just fumbled it on the follow through. The whole plotline with Garrek and the spy stuff was so promising, but it never paid off, just hokey and corny and dumb. And all that back and forth between Kira and Dukat was mind numbing and awful.

[Mortificator]

Stargate [1994]
Didn't know until just this second that it was directed by the guy that did Independence Day, Day After Tomorrow, etc. Okay, so should I even write anything? Just usual cheesy stuff. Done pretty poorly. I realize this one has a cult-ish following but yeah, I guess I missed the window to find this one fun. Kurt Russel in a beret though...

Emmerich pretends he's doing something serious early on, but by the end Daniel & O'Neil are making goofy faces at each other during buddy cop antics (which is the portrayal that the TV show picked up on).

My theater experience was also memorably unpleasant, due to sitting beside a guy who had the build of Vincent D'Onofrio if he'd eaten John Goodman and took up almost half of my chair plus his own.

[Air Master Burst]

Roland Emmerich is singularly amazing at blowing shit up, and sometimes that's what I want. The plot and script for ID4 may be varying degrees of garbage, but that White House explosion was the benchmark for years.

[BurlyHeart]

The Power of the Dog

Overall, it was good. It was very good up to a point. I was enjoying the character portrayals, relationships, scenery, and slow moving plot. Once the plot took its turn, it was okay. I thought there was some odd editing moments in places and the movie rushed a little into its finale. Was not a huge fan of Cumberbatch in the lead role. He was okay, but I thought he lacked the physical presence his character is supposed to (I assume) exude when leading such tough men.

[xxx1993]

Lost Bullet 2: Back for More on Netflix.

[GaijinPunch]

My theater experience was also memorably unpleasant, due to sitting beside a guy who had the build of Vincent D'Onofrio if he'd eaten John Goodman and took up almost half of my chair plus his own.

#America
I sat next to this dude on a flight on Xmas even once.

[Stevens]

Currently going through the LOTR movies, haven't seen them since release. They feel like what Marvel movies would be if they didn't suck. I mean there's some corny shit here and there, but overall enjoyable.

Also - WOW. Not sure if this has been mentioned in the past, but Miyazaki seems to really like LOTR. The Shadows of Yharnam are Nazgul. A fair bit of other stuff too.

[GaijinPunch]

I don't have a TV now but I have a stack of BluRays and other shit earmarked on streaming apps that I will watch when I get one (or a projector) which will be soon. I will fit the LotR series in there somehow. I think your sum up is pretty good. They are very much meant for a very wide audience, and yes, some pandering moments but on the whole fantastic. Always get chills when Annie Lenox starts singing. Gonna go out on a limb and say these came out at just the right time. Egregious use of green screen was likely too expensive in the big picture. That's a stab, but we can see what happened with The Hobbit.

I never read the books. Maybe I should do that. I have some long flights coming up.