Movie News, Reviews, and Discussion Super-Thread

[D3RANG3D]

I'll watch it on the yargh screen tyvm. 

[Don Rumata]

I think they push this spectacle angle because the movie basically has no plot, but it's no different than many other "spectacle" films, like Blade Runner 2049 (which was better looking in my opinion) or Mad Max Fury Road (also better looking).
It's 2021, if you have a decent OLED tv, the cinema is going to do very little for you.

Infact, the movie is very dark and often has VERY low contrast, on a projector it's not great.
On a screen that can handle subtleties of the dark areas better, it'll probably work much better.
 

[Nintex]

If you're saying that it'll look even better on my OLED I can asure you that I can't fucking wait until I can watch this on my OLED.

I don't agree that the movie has no plot, the movie has plenty of intertwined plots. Villeneuve hit it out of the park with this one.
All the things I liked about his previous work are combined into an incredible epic experience.

[Don Rumata]

The plot that's there is very simple, and nothing is resolved even in the slightest.
You can argue that it is a "part 1", but then you can look and Fellowship (or even Star Wars, both ep4 and ep1) and they more or less work as stand alone, when they are over you feel like you've been given something of an arc, despite the larger plot remaining unresolved.
DUNC doesn't really do that, it just cuts and and it's "see you in 3 years".

It's so preoccupied with dumping lore on you, that it doesn't even have the time to really explore any of the characters aside from Paul and his mother (and his father, somewhat).
When some of the characters die, you're like "ok, this guy we've seen twice died i guess".
Now compare that to Gandalf's or Boromir's death in Fellowship... hell, even Qui Gon's death felt more impactful, despite that movie being a proper piece of shit.

The political intrigues are quite straightforward, so it's not like they can carry everything on their shoulder.

A lot of time is also spent on Paul's visions of the future that are essentially a trailer for what's to come in future movies, this will likely be terrible for rewatches once those movies actually come out (assuming they do).

But it does feel very grand, larger than life, epic, this is really where it shines, for the most part (some of the costumes i found cheap looking) and why i think the spectacle *is* the selling point.

I'm not gonna call it Villeneuve's weakest, because i haven't seen his super early work, but i do think it's his weakest this side of Polytechnique.

That said, i'm not sure i feel good dumping all the film's problems on him, as i rewatched the infamous Lynch version for comparison lately, and if you isolate the first act, it's basically a 1:1 in terms of plot, and shares similar problems, with a first act that dumps a lot on you, and takes its time, sometimes with really pointless lore details, and then has to rush through the finishline when all the meat comes up.
So maybe the problem is really that first act of DUNE itself, that should be restructured some other way for the cinematic format.

[benjipwns]

[Joe Molotov]

Born to Coom

[Rahxephon91]

Saw Malignant on a Sunday afternoon in a empty theater.

Thought the movie was silly fun.

[Nintex]

Just ordered my tickets for No Time To Die, going to see it in exactly 1 week

[Don Rumata]

Just ordered my tickets for No Time To Die, going to see it in exactly 1 week

Got my Imax tickets for the 30th. 

[Great Rumbler]

Raised on Porn: The Shosta Story

[Bebpo]

Been picking up some older films I've missed in my life during cheap 4k sales. Grabbed Carpenter's They Live. Excited for that. It's one of the few John Carpenter films I've never seen. Also Argento's Bird with the Crystal Plumage, De Palma's Scarface, and I'll probably grab Halloween III when it comes out next week since I've never seen that one and always been curious.

[Bebpo]

Watched They Live - Uhhhh, this is kind of a bad movie?

Like the script is awful, even for 80s. Instead of conversations, people just shout out random gibberish lines. There's this scene with Keith David where he tells him to put on the glasses and instead they beat each other up for like 8 mins long. Or the 8 min long scene of the police raid at the beginning that dragsss. Like the concept of the movie is solid and fun but the main guy fucking sucks (apparently was a wrestler and not an actor?) and the directing is pretty meh. The Thing is great, Halloween is great, Escape from NY is great, but this...not so much. Did he try to get Kurt Russell but couldn't?

I can see the cult classic aspect of it being dumb and zany, but it's not good -_-;

[Don Rumata]

You got, as the kids say, "filtered".   

They Live is a great action comedy/satire.

[GreatSageEqualOfHeaven]

Watched They Live - Uhhhh, this is kind of a bad movie?

Like the script is awful, even for 80s. Instead of conversations, people just shout out random gibberish lines. There's this scene with Keith David where he tells him to put on the glasses and instead they beat each other up for like 8 mins long. Or the 8 min long scene of the police raid at the beginning that dragsss. Like the concept of the movie is solid and fun but the main guy fucking sucks (apparently was a wrestler and not an actor?) and the directing is pretty meh. The Thing is great, Halloween is great, Escape from NY is great, but this...not so much. Did he try to get Kurt Russell but couldn't?

I can see the cult classic aspect of it being dumb and zany, but it's not good -_-;

[paprikastaude]

Like the script is awful, even for 80s. Instead of conversations, people just shout out random gibberish lines.  There's this scene with Keith David where he tells him to put on the glasses and instead they beat each other up for like 8 mins long.

 

[Don Rumata]

"I've come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass... and all out of gum."
*shoots up a bank*


I mean, how can you not think this is a great scene?

[Joe Molotov]

"They are dismantling the sleeping middle class. More and more people are becoming poor. We are their cattle. We are being bred for slavery."

[Tuckers Law]

Yeah, it’s a bummer you didn’t gel with They Live, that movie is great.  “You’re okay, but her…real fuckin’ ugly!”

[Bebpo]

Look, the message in They Live is good, especially for the time. It's still totally relevant today. The aliens look great too and obviously inspired Mars Attacks look later on. Hell the movie itself may have given some inspiration to The Matrix.

But man, go watch it now. It is a slow boring movie with bad acting and bad action. It does not hold up. You go and watch The Thing or Halloween and they hold up pretty well. They Live, not so much.

I can see it having holding power as a cult film, but as an actual film it's pretty much 2/4 stars these days.

"I've come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass... and all out of gum."
*shoots up a bank*


I mean, how can you not think this is a great scene?

As terrible as it is to say it, having grown up on Duke Nukem 3d before watching this, Duke Nukem sells that line a lot better.

[GreatSageEqualOfHeaven]

Like the script is awful, even for 80s. Instead of conversations, people just shout out random gibberish lines.  There's this scene with Keith David where he tells him to put on the glasses and instead they beat each other up for like 8 mins long.

 

this fundamental misattribution of a quotation... *Sniff* ...this is ideology.

[Don Rumata]

Nah, i think it's full of iconic and great, unique moments.
Rough around the edges isn't a problem for me, that's pretty much all of Carpenter's catalogue aside from maybe The Thing, which is quite polished up.
That roughness is part of what gives his movies "grit", for example in something like Assault on Precinct 13, and it's one aspect sorely missing from most (main stream) modern cinema (also why it was more fun seeing Jackie Chan jump through a glass pane, than cgi Vin Diesel jump off of an exploding SpaceShuttle or whatever they're doing in F&F).
I also disagree on the acting, it's a corny over the top satire so already it needs to operate in that wavelength, but Roddy Piper needed to sell the simpleton aimless bum vibe (which he does, for the most part), not have any particular emotional depth.
And i think acting needs to work within the frame of the story, not stand out, so what is or isn't good acting, should be seen withing the larger context of what is needed.
Not every movie is vehicle for DDL-style one man show extravaganza.

If it makes you feel better though, i didn't really care for Halloween, so we've all got our flaws. 

[GreatSageEqualOfHeaven]

If it makes you feel better though, i didn't really care for Halloween, so we've all got our flaws. 

I think Halloween suffers from "Seinfeld syndrome" in that it has been aped so many times that most of the impact the original release had has become so muted that it has effectively diminished the original work as overly derivative

e: although having said that, the opening reveal of the kids POV is still solid as fuck

[Don Rumata]

If it makes you feel better though, i didn't really care for Halloween, so we've all got our flaws. 

I think Halloween suffers from "Seinfeld syndrome" in that it has been aped so many times that most of the impact the original release had has become so muted that it has effectively diminished the original work as overly derivative

e: although having said that, the opening reveal of the kids POV is still solid as fuck

Yeah i believe that's the case, i watched it for the first time recently, and felt somewhat underwhelming, even if the film is well constructed.
I also watched Seinfeld later in life and loved it though, so i dunno why it's called "Seinfeld syndrome".

[paprikastaude]

Either way, Dune is good. If you like looking at scifi cranes and trucks doing chores for several minutes, accompanied by a Hans Zimmer OST. Which you should. At least in theaters. Like enjoying Ghost in the Shell for the montages and pictures and music first, ignoring a cliche story.

[team filler]

I love the halloween series, even the bad movies. I remember watching scene with michael and they took the music out. it felt so cheap and shitty. like suddenly the low budget they were on is everywhere. then you put the music back in and it's good again 

[GreatSageEqualOfHeaven]

There is no movie that rips off Halloween that actually does what Halloween does better than Halloween. It is an enduring classic because the rip offs were never able to actually rip off what makes it great, they just added a gore and jump scares and ignored the camera work, lighting, music, and pacing that sets Halloween on top of the heap.

I've seen the complaint that it's "boring" from enough different sources seemingly made independently that I have to draw some kind of conclusion about genre familiarity with a contemporary audience

Same way as back in the days of the Lumiere brothers a train heading right for the camera scared audiences shitless, or Orson Welles adapting War Of The Worlds led to mass hysteria seems absurd by modern standards.

[Potato]

It's "boring" because all the knock offs that followed in its wake focused on gore and effects, which was not at all the focus of Halloween. Even the Halloween series, with and without Carpenter's involvement, made this mistake.

That's pretty much what happens with all genre films though. Something comes out which is a good film with some cool concept, then the imitators just turn the cool concept up to 11 and forget what made the first film good.

[Don Rumata]

Came back from No time To Die.
Imax was quite good, bombastic sound and all (better than iSense, even) but i think i'd still prefer a 65" Oled with a good surround sound (not that I have any of that ).

The movie was fun.
Great first half, boring second half.
Casino Royale remains king of the Craig era.

[chronovore]

I think they push this spectacle angle because the movie basically has no plot, but it's no different than many other "spectacle" films, like Blade Runner 2049 (which was better looking in my opinion) or Mad Max Fury Road (also better looking).
It's 2021, if you have a decent OLED tv, the cinema is going to do very little for you.

Infact, the movie is very dark and often has VERY low contrast, on a projector it's not great.
On a screen that can handle subtleties of the dark areas better, it'll probably work much better.

[Don Rumata]

Ok ok, it has a very basic "political" plot, so far.
A whole bunch of lore tho.

[Transhuman]

From what i'm reading it has at least half a plot

[Don Rumata]

From what i'm reading it has at least half a plot

A third more like, 1 act of a 3 act story.

My issue with resting it all on the political intrigue, it's that so far it's painfully simple, with little to no nuance.
It's a space opera so that's understandable.

I know Paul's rise as the Messiah of a space Jihad is supposed to be the main plot point, so i'm curious to see how that develops.

[Transhuman]

As long as Timothèè rides the worm in the end i'll consider it $30 well spent

[MMaRsu]

Saw Dune last weekend

fucking impressive and amazing movie.

What a beauty. Worth the watch in the cinemas even tho tickets were expensive AF (17.50 euro per ticket)

[Madrun Badrun]

Doctor Sleep was good.  Haven't watched The Shinning since I was a kid and didn't like it then.  Should go back and rewatch it. 

[Transhuman]

I like Doctor Sleep way more than The Shining

[Joe Molotov]

 

[benjipwns]

https://twitter.com/scumbelievable/status/1443994435784749056

[GreatSageEqualOfHeaven]

I really enjoyed Doctor Sleep, and its a pretty crazy ambition to adapt a book that apparently (I haven't read it) kind of sucks, while also simultaneously being a sequel to two radically different interpretations of The Shining.
I also appreciate they didn't computerglue a young Jack Nicholsons face onto a dude doing a Jack Nicholson impression when it came to revisiting the Outlook Hotel.

Having said that, I have mixed feelings about The Shining just becoming some kind of piece of "I recognise that!" pop culture zeitgeist, although its probably that whole scene in Ready Player One responsible for that rather than how Doctor Sleep handled it.

[Transhuman]

https://twitter.com/scumbelievable/status/1443994435784749056

That's not that quick.

[Madrun Badrun]

Parasite was great. 

[Nintex]

Went to see No Time To Die as planned.

I wasn't sure what to expect going in but overall it feels like two different movies taped together.
For me Casino Royale remains the best Craig bond film followed by Skyfall. This will mostly get a mixed reception I think.

Ana des Armas did not get enough screentime but I bet she'll get a lot of new roles in action movies after this one as will Lashana Lynch. They both did an awesome job.
Léa Seydoux didn't have much to work with and came out better in Spectre.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

It really feels like they should've went with either of these movies, instead of combining them into one. On one hand you have Felix and Bond doing one last ride to stay ahead of MI6.
Which in and by itself would've been enough material for a very fun movie but that vibe is cut short because they want to tell a bleak origin story of Madeleine Swan and Bond dragging up the past (again) who in the end loses everything and sacrifices himself.

[close]

It's a shame that they were never able to match Casino Royale again with Craig as Bond. Over the years they wasted a ton of great talent, plots and characters.

[Don Rumata]

Tbh the movie dies after Cuba, in my opinion.

Even the set pieces go from being creative, to Bond and the new 007 just walking in corridors shooting out bad guys that fall off like in a Spaghetti Western.

Also Ana De Armas top waifu in this one, too bad she was in for 4 minutes.
She's zoomer's Olga Kurylenko. 

[Nintex]

It probably had the worst scene in all of James Bond history. This actually happens in the movie.
Not much of a story spoiler but just a thing that happens near the end. 

spoiler (click to show/hide)

At one point the black 007 lady is trying to escape with a cringe Russian scientist.
They get into an argument and he says something like: "I'm going to exterminate your entire race!"

She gets angry turns around and asks: "Do you know what time it is?"

He says: "What?"

She says: "It's TIME TO DIE"

And kicks him into a pool of acid

[close]

The budget for the reshoots must've been pretty low also as the maximum security prison is 1 room and M is mostly stuck in his own office.
I would say Swan's office at the top of the mountain in Spectre had more detail than the entire final base.

It's a fun watch but I don't undertand all these 5/5 reviews for such a mediocre movie.

[Don Rumata]

That scene was so random. 

I think anything after Casino Royale (which is one of the best western action movies ever made) has been decent to bad though, so it doesn't stand out in a negative sense.

Mission Impossible stay winning. 

[Nintex]

Yeah, thank god for Tom Cruise he has been hitting it out of the park with MI. Really excited for Top Gun 2 as well.

For me as far as the Craig films go it's probably:
Casino Royale -> Skyfall -> Spectre -> No Time To Die -> Quantum of Solace

Shame they had so many issues with these films, from big delays to licensing SPECTRE and writer strikes.
Except for Casino with all of them I had the feeling that they could've been better.

[Rahxephon91]

QoS is good. I will stand by that.

[Nintex]

QoS is good. I will stand by that.

I would argue QoS has less severe problems than No Time To Die does in terms of plot and pacing but No Time To Die has both really great and really bad scenes while QoS is quite consistently mediocre from start to finish.

[Don Rumata]

Yeah, thank god for Tom Cruise he has been hitting it out of the park with MI. Really excited for Top Gun 2 as well.

Cruise Missile can't be stopped BUT, i think a big part of the equation there is McQuarrie, he's a great action director and you could already see that in Jack Reacher.
He's also producer behind Edge of Tomorrow, i think he has a bit of a golden touch.

Though i also love MI4, Brad Bird did an excellent job on that one.
Really out side of 2, which is bad, and 3 which is mediocre, MI is all great in my book.

And Rogue Nation/Fallout really perfected that type of globe trotting, big scale, action spy thriller that Craig era Bond (and even F&F to a degree) are going for.

[Mr Gilhaney]

Not sure why I avoided The Witch for so long. Absolutely loved it. Thomasine can haunt me any day 

[Lonewulfeus]

Ana de Armas was fantastic in No Time to Die.  Wish she was in it longer.

[Madrun Badrun]

Injustice was good.  Falls apart a bit in the end.  Never played the games so the concept was cool.

[Nintex]

Ana de Armas was fantastic in No Time to Die.  Wish she was in it longer.

Reportedly, James Bond actor Daniel Craig personally hand-picked Cuban actress Ana de Armas to play Paloma in this Bond movie, after working with her on Knives Out (2019), which first released about only four months before No Time to Die was originally meant to release.

Unfortunately it couldn't save the entire movie but Craig made the right call.

[Lonewulfeus]

I thought the movie was fine but like Rahx I also enjoyed QoS.  The only thing that bothered me was Vesper’s birth year.  If she was born in 1983 that would make her 23 during the events of Casino Royale.  She certainly didn’t look like she was 23 and how would she have gotten a job presumably high enough in Treasury to escort 15?m Euro’s, dollars, pounds, whatever currency it was at that young of an age?

[chronovore]

I enjoy QoS more with each rewatch, but it’s weaker than Casino and Skyfall. SPECTRE makes the misstep of going back to the outrageous stunts of the Brosnan era, and the mythology building of the Star Wars Prequels.

I’m hoping they ease back for NTtK, but it’s unlikely.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

I’m worried Lea Seydoux will end up being Bond’s sister or daughter in an OLD BOY scenario.

[close]

[Nintex]

Some people have started to note how No Time To Die takes a lot of cues from Metal Gear Solid

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Blofeld dies the same way as the Darpa Chief, Fox Die

[close]

[Mr Gilhaney]

Ana de Armas was great. But the scene where bond ties her up and rapes her was a bit much

[Don Rumata]

That probably wouldn't have been too far off in the 70's.

[naff]

damn bebs, that's a hot take for a fantastic film

[Rahxephon91]

Here are my opinions on the Bond movies as my mother and I rewatched all of them while I built some Gunpla. All to lead up to going to see No Time to Die tonight, before her surgery tomorrow. Yep, I'm actually this nerdy.

Casino Royale: I was never that big on this movie. I avoided seeing it during its initial release and I'm not sure why. It's certainly a good movie, but disappointing in retrospect, because I don't think the Craig movies really follow through on its promise. It feels like a solid reboot that is the James Bond Begins treatment that will lead us to better understanding the character and play with his legacy. Like I always saw the whole conclusion with Vesper as kind of explaining James' detachment to women. I love how he says the James Bond line and we only hear the Bond theme at the end. It felt like a clever origin story, without the lame stuff Specter and Skyfall would push.

But I think it goes on too long and the whole back end of the movie reminds me of Superman Returns where we spend like 30mins of Supes in a hospital and it feels very un-superman. I believe Craig and Eva Green have great chemistry, but some of those lines.....

QoS: I love this movie. It feels better paced and well shorter than CR which is good. People laugh about Dominc Greene and water, but again I like the whole toned-down affair this series started with. It can get a bit cringy with how "topical" it wants to be("the dollar is not what it use to be"). But I genuinely think it's an exciting movie that works as a continuation of CR. I also really like Bond and Olga K's character. I like how it's not a romantic relationship, but two characters who can really understand each other. Bond feels fully formed at the end, signified by the gun barrel sequence.

Skyfall: This is just a classic bond movie. Traditional down to the very Bond Adelle song that yes I really like. I've seen the joke that Silvia is the Bond people trying to do Ledger Joker and maybe they are right, but he works as a fun villain with a real unique presence. I also have seen the take that M is the Bond girl here and well that works two. Introducing Money Penny and Q was great and continued the reboot feel, but I also think it does well by them. I like how they are characters and not just things that appear before the main mission starts. Maybe it drops the more hard edge of the previous two, but I enjoy it. Not as into visiting Bond estate which I feel goes against the orphan stuff from CR and does nothing for me.

Spectre: I'm not sure how I feel about this one. I hate the title song but upon more rewatches, it's not that terrible. Looks great, just like Skyfall. The whole Bolfield stepbrother is really lame and feels like anime shit. Also makes things feel just a bit smaller. Madison Swan isn't that great of a character and the whole "it was me all along with James" feels unearned.