Movie News, Reviews, and Discussion Super-Thread

[james]

Netflix added this movie called The Gray Man. It’s an action movie from the directors of the second highest grossing movie ever, with one of the stars of that, and Ryan Gosling. First I’ve heard anything about it. Also noticed a movie added some weeks ago, Spiderhead, from Joseph Kosinski. Guy who directed the hugely successful Top Gun 2. The leads are Miles Teller, also from Top Gun 2, and Chris Hemsworth of Blackhat and Rush fame.

Am I so out of touch from the regular advertising channels or does Netflix not market anything? Don’t know what Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is, but I’ve at least heard of it.

I feel the same. Those are pushed when you open the app, they put those sort of flicks front and center. Mostly discussed it with the person who I shared my account with though. I won't say there never was any outside marketing (I think the Michael Bay thing and the Hemsworth movie set in Bangladesh had some YouTube ads... but that's it). It's true a lot of those Netflix action films are derivative or feel like slightly bland knockoffs but lack of any public profile making them their own things might heighten this problem.

The only film I ever recall getting a lot of marketing, including posters in the subway, is Roma by Cuaron and maybe that was because they had a limited theater run ? And The Irishman by Scorsese was talked about a lot. In short the prestige ones that really put Netflix in the conversation of being a legitimate actor in cinema.

That's movies tho. The real bread and butter is in the series, I suppose. They're more proactive, publicity wise, with those.

We know marketing budgets for blockbusters are insane affairs nowadays so maybe they save up a lot in expenses and having all that content at the ready for people trialing Netflix or hearing about it via subscribers is doing what they want it to do.

Looks like The Gray Man is in theaters as well.

But they really need a better system. Does Netflix even have a useful "latest releases" page?

[VomKriege]

Those flicks generally are prominently in the top banners on the Netflix homepage as it was designed (when I had it).
It's probably more about retention than outreach ?

Anyway, it's maybe down to personal impressions. Bird Box generated some hype on its own. I'm sure Army of the Dead did too.
Saving on all those marketing expenses (once people are in, they'll see those programs offered) by focusing it elsewhere is probably saving them 9 figures per year.

[Madrun Badrun]

That's a good point.  Like I don't think there is too much Netflix content that I can't just see a new movie and look up it's rotten score to see if I should watch.  For me I don't feel like it's not that I'm unaware of new content I just have trouble judging the quality of that content from Netflix alone.  Which is intentional no doubt. 

[HaughtyFrank]

Those flicks generally are prominently in the top banners on the Netflix homepage as it was designed (when I had it).
It's probably more about retention than outreach ?

Anyway, it's maybe down to personal impressions. Bird Box generated some hype on its own. I'm sure Army of the Dead did too.
Saving on all those marketing expenses (once people are in, they'll see those programs offered) by focusing it elsewhere is probably saving them 9 figures per year.

True, Squid game did become a huge phenomenon despite Netflix doing absolute jack shit for advertising, so maybe they put a lot of stock into simple word of mouth, reviews and their in app recomendations

[VomKriege]

It's a bit like their animation catalog and especially the one styled as japanese.

And to be fair Netflix (and Amazon) are spending a lot of money and not just on ersatz Hollywood schlock.

I think one thing they could improve at relatively low price is having more catalog options for classics / films older than the nineties. In reality it's probably not a huge draw (especially because I doubt you can get exclusivity) compared to new content for the content god regardless of quality... And the major catalog holders are probably not in the mood currently because they're looking at getting their own moneymakers off the ground. One time digital rentals is maybe a lot more profitable for those otherwise.

One thing I liked, though I'm not the primary audience for it, was that they had a larger than average South Asian offering of sitcoms and such, like the Jimmy Onishi based soap from Japan. Some Indian as well. Only a fraction of what those countries output but very welcomed diversity of offering.

[VomKriege]

It's hard to be a man / Tora-San "Pray for us Tora-San"
男はつらいよ 口笛を吹く寅次郎 Otoko wa tsurai yo: Kuchibue o fuku Torajirō
Episode 32 / 1983
Tora happens to pass by the town where the father of Hiroshi (his brother in law) is buried and he pays his respects because he liked the guy (who appeared as a bit role in a couple of episodes I have not seen).
He also gets invited to booze by the local priest (who doubles as a wino) and his daughter. Tora tries to politely takes his leave but reconsiders when he finds out the daughter is divorced, actually. He also pinch substitutes passing as a disciple for the priest that is having one fierce hangover.

This episode has plots plots plots and maybe one too much : Tora playacting as a priest, his love story, the actual priest being estranged with his son, said son photography career and his romance with a local girl, Hiroshi's family gathering about the heritage, Hiroshi's job woes... Felt a little disjointed and lacking in good closure for some of those stories despite the film trying to set up some meaningful visual motifs. Torajiro only really has two scenes of being an hilarious bad priest. A lot more of the film happen on location though and the vista shots are really good.

I sort of expected the estranged son to patch things back up with his father, takes his place as the next priest and squeeze Tora out of that possible marriage opportunity but there's not ifs and buts here : Our protagonist whiffes his shot because deep down he doesn't want to commit. With the parallel story of Hiroshi's family just selling the family house for money (despite the elder brother not being keen on it and having genuine sentimental attachment) that Hiroshi promptly invests back in his job to save the printing shop, it feels like the story is acknowledging that sometimes tradition is not the way.

I think most of the vignettes individually were good and for as sappy a series Tora-San is, it keeps hitting some real life authenticity. Hiroshi's frustration with his job, old parents wondering if they did right educating their kids or the awkward family infighting about heritage. Good small touches like the town folks obviously aware Tora is not a real priest but he's funnier and a good sport so...

This is two-third of the way into the episode count now.

[VomKriege]

Some Youtuber had a video about how 4:3 aspect ratio is trending back (notably through A24) and I must say Paul Schrader's First Reformed looked interesting... Has someone seen it ?

[Bebpo]

My brother's been pushing me to watch Sonic The Hedgehog saying it's good, so I finally watched it.

It was not good 

Just felt really boring as an adult. Like super kids movie and all the jokes are lame. Robotnik was just annoying, Sonic was annoying. Music choices were pretty bad. I think the movie as it exists is fine since it's a kids movie for kids, but I don't understand how adults really like this. Detective Pikachu and even Uncharted were way more entertaining videogame movies. The writing in this was just bad and the plot logic is nonsense the whole time since Sonic has Flash time-stop powers.

Don't see any reason to watch Sonic 2 outside Idris Elba.

[Madrun Badrun]

Hard disagree.  It's a tightly crafted kid's movie but also by-the-numbers.  It's very competent for what it is, a kid's movie. 

[Polident Hive]

Hiroyuki Sanada
Donnie Yen
Marco Zaror
Clancy Brown

[Bebpo]

Hard disagree.  It's a tightly crafted kid's movie but also by-the-numbers.  It's very competent for what it is, a kid's movie.

I think I just can't watch safe by the numbers kids movies anymore. Just feels like a waste of time. Not for me.

[Madrun Badrun]

Ya, that's valid.  I watch them for the same reason I watch a lot of dumb shit -- just nice to turn my brain off.  So I guess for me the point is to waste time. 

[Bebpo]

Looking for a good interesting comedy tonight. Another Round or Worst Person in the World?

[Bebpo]

Ended up watching The Worst Person in the World. Was a good drama, main actress was excellent, some good music choices. A bit relatable.

[Bebpo]

I'm still thinking about how good Promising Young Woman was. What an ending. Gonna stick with me.

That and The Worst Person in the World were both pretty interesting films about very modern social problems.

[Nintex]

https://twitter.com/DiscussingFilm/status/1550666144691920897

 

[Cauliflower Of Love]

Sonic 1 and 2 are masterpieces.

[VomKriege]

Follow up to the Netflix discussion :

https://twitter.com/DiscussingFilm/status/1532008425860866049

[Madrun Badrun]

Looks good.  I liked the first one a lot. 

[Bebpo]

Sonic 1 and 2 are masterpieces.

 

The greatness of this film just passed over me. And a lot of other people too it looks like, since it only has 63% RT and 47% metacritic
https://www.metacritic.com/movie/sonic-the-hedgehog

There must be something in the human DNA that makes them either a sonic fan or not.

To be fair I think the Sonic game franchise sucks too (outside of the music) and had zero interest in the movie from the start.

Also have zero interest in this upcoming Mario movie and I actually like those games. These are not franchises I give one shit about the characters or story.


Come at me when we get a live-action Xenogears movie.

[HaughtyFrank]

The Gray Man

I'm seriously surprised this got so middling reviews. Of course it's a typical action movie, so don't expect any deep story but the action itself was really nice and well shot. Basically if you liked what the Russos did in Winter Soldier you'll like this too. Cast is also pretty solid with Gosling doing his lowkey thing and Chris Evans hamming it up to the heavens. Can recommend it.

[Joe Molotov]

I was at the theater today and they turned off the lights for the Oppenheimer trailer, that’s how you know it’s kino.

[Polident Hive]

Some Youtuber had a video about how 4:3 aspect ratio is trending back (notably through A24) and I must say Paul Schrader's First Reformed looked interesting... Has someone seen it ?

It’s good. If you’re familiar with the movies he’s written, you know what you’re getting from it. The Card Counter is good, too. Not 4:3 but it plays with aspect ratios.

Getting an OLED TV was a game changer for content presented outside 16:9.

[chronovore]

Looks good.  I liked the first one a lot.

Me, too, and this sequel looks great.

[Bebpo]

The Virgin Suicides - Gonna have to ruminate on this one a bit. Wasn't feeling it much for a while, felt like that Wes Anderson/Baumbach quirky but kinda empty. Got more on board about halfway and overall enjoyed it but gonna read up on it a bit and see if it changes my mind. I think the only Sofia Coppola movie I ever watched was Lost in Translation. Never saw this or Somewhere or Marie Antoinette. Always felt like her movies scored like 60-70% RT stuff outside Lost in Translation and the reviews didn't grab me. Only checked this one out finally since Criterion just dropped it in a new 4k print.

Also kind of weird when you watch an older movie with teen actors and you look them up on IMDB to see where their careers went and outside Dunst and Harnett a bit, none of the kids went anywhere.

[Pissy F Benny]

Follow up to the Netflix discussion :

https://twitter.com/DiscussingFilm/status/1532008425860866049

Its still also the best film they've produced by a long distance

[Tasty]

Yup.

I think in the talent industry you'll find it's easier to just pay the talent.

[Lonewulfeus]

The Gray Man

I'm seriously surprised this got so middling reviews. Of course it's a typical action movie, so don't expect any deep story but the action itself was really nice and well shot. Basically if you liked what the Russos did in Winter Soldier you'll like this too. Cast is also pretty solid with Gosling doing his lowkey thing and Chris Evans hamming it up to the heavens. Can recommend it.

Yea another solid action movie from Netflix, I honestly don’t get the complaints.  Old Guard, Extraction, Triple Frontier, all enjoyable action movies to me.

[Bebpo]

Read up on the novel/film on The Virgin Suicides, checked out the AIR album of the soundtrack and I dig it. I was feeling like the detachment of the characters felt like a Baumbach/Linklater movie that just isn't up to chops in character stuff, but the detachment is the point of the story in that it's an abstract glimpse at the life of these teenage girls through the eyes of others in snippets and how people see what they want to see but no one really understands.

[Bebpo]

The Coen Brothers are some of my favorite directors of all time, but I've never got around to watching Blood Simple and Raising Arizona. I got into them with Millers Crossing/Barton Fink.

Just watched Blood Simple. Was...ok? The origins of their weirdness are in there and Sonnefield as cinematography does a lot of nice lighting shots while the Coens do some cool camera stuff that feels like a horror film Raimi-ish. In terms of debut films, it didn't feel like a Hard Eight or Reservoir Dogs or Badlands, but was alright.

I should probably watch Raising Arizona at some point soon for completion. I always avoided it because it's about a baby and I hate baby movies. But I do love Nic Cage movies.

[chronovore]

You are judging Blood Simple but not recognizing the era in which it was produced. An independent noir in the mid ‘80s?  Having such an accomplished, tight movie on a shoestring budget, and having it hit that hard was noteworthy.

Raising Arizona is one of the best movies ever made.

[Bebpo]

Fine, I'll watch the baby movie next.

[Tuckers Law]

Yeah, you’re doing yourself a disservice if you don’t watch Raising Arizona.  Even with their long list of great movies afterwards, I still think it holds up as one of the best by the Coens.

[VomKriege]

I love Blood Simple, amazing script where it always feels like the story could take a few directions every scene.

[VomKriege]

Watched Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping from the Lonely Island / Adam Samdberg and it's great fun. As usual the music is really good and you wish more of it was in the movie where it is chopped up / shortened around the narrative needs, but you can find most of the full tracks in YouTube.
Last third goes from parody of self serving music documentary to a more stock redemption storyline but that's inevitable.

[Tasty]

Fuck Bin Laden is an all time great.

[Bebpo]

I love Blood Simple, amazing script where it always feel like the story could take a few directions every scene.

Yeah, I didn’t dislike it. I just wasn’t blown away. The slimey PI is great. Some good dialogue. The body removal bit is great. But also very 80s and shot like an 80s horror flick half the time so it felt pretty dated to me.

I find the historical significance of it as their first film more interesting than the movie itself.

[Cauliflower Of Love]

The Gray Man

I'm seriously surprised this got so middling reviews. Of course it's a typical action movie, so don't expect any deep story but the action itself was really nice and well shot. Basically if you liked what the Russos did in Winter Soldier you'll like this too. Cast is also pretty solid with Gosling doing his lowkey thing and Chris Evans hamming it up to the heavens. Can recommend it.

Fell asleep trying to watch this.

Rereading this post, and i missed the winter soldier comment. Had i seen it properly I'd have skipped the movie.

[GreatSageEqualOfHeaven]

Watched Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping from the Lonely Island / Adam Samdberg and it's great fun. As usual the music is really good and you wish more of it was in the movie where it is chopped up / shortened around the narrative needs, but you can find most of the full tracks in YouTube.
Last third goes from parody of self serving music documentary to a more stock redemption storyline but that's inevitable.

Just the idea of writing a diss track on how over rated the mona lisa is is fucking hilarious, let alone how well executed it is

[Madrun Badrun]

Doesn't look as good as X

[Joe Molotov]

Mia Goth is really good as creepy girls.

[VomKriege]

Watched Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping from the Lonely Island / Adam Samdberg and it's great fun. As usual the music is really good and you wish more of it was in the movie where it is chopped up / shortened around the narrative needs, but you can find most of the full tracks in YouTube.
Last third goes from parody of self serving music documentary to a more stock redemption storyline but that's inevitable.

Just the idea of writing a diss track on how over rated the mona lisa is is fucking hilarious, let alone how well executed it is

I thought all the tracks were great, and they cut out a couple of them entirely (Fuck Off, a profanity laden saccharine Disney Channel anthem).

I'm deffo trying to see The Unauthorized Bash Brothers Experience next.

[Bebpo]

I was so disappointed with X that I'm entirely uninterested in a prequel. I guess I just don't care for modern Ti West. Oh well.

[GreatSageEqualOfHeaven]

Watched Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping from the Lonely Island / Adam Samdberg and it's great fun. As usual the music is really good and you wish more of it was in the movie where it is chopped up / shortened around the narrative needs, but you can find most of the full tracks in YouTube.
Last third goes from parody of self serving music documentary to a more stock redemption storyline but that's inevitable.

Just the idea of writing a diss track on how over rated the mona lisa is is fucking hilarious, let alone how well executed it is

I thought all the tracks were great, and they cut out a couple of them entirely (Fuck Off, a profanity laden saccharine Disney Channel anthem).

I'm deffo trying to see The Unauthorized Bash Brothers Experience next.

Yeah, a lot of the tracks are legitimately good as well as being funny - I particularly like Sick Glenda (either get better or fuck you) as an old skool beasties style riff, but also humble, legalise it, hunter the hungry gon eat and equal rights.

Unauthorised bash bros is sadly not as conceptually funny, and the tracks aren't as good as popstar or some of their album stuff, but YMMV

[james]

Look what the monsters did to Brendon Frasier

[Bebpo]

So I guess I'm gonna be a film producer now.

Have family and friends of family in some indie film stuff and one of the guys is making a new movie and getting that investor money and I got asked if I was interested/willing to put some real money down. You'd recognize the writer/director's most famous film, but not their name. This new one is a small budget thing making its money off streaming rights and whatnot, it's no $750k budget shot on 35mm Blood Simple.

Not really my kind of movie, and just investing for the experience and to potentially make some money (or lose a bunch). Will watch the finished product. I always thought producers were just hollywood types who have millions of dollars to throw around but the more I watch interviews on indie stuff about how it came together I guess a lot of stuff is just financed in a lot of smaller pieces from dozens of people with some cash sitting around to invest.

[Tasty]

That's awesome bebps! Lemme know when/where it premieres!

[Cauliflower Of Love]

George Lucas?

[Bebpo]

Finished up all the extras in the Criterion release of Blood Simple. Probably some of my favorite behind the scenes stuff. Basically like a 3 hour doc on Coen Brother's getting started and making their first movie along with Barry Sonnenfield and their composer and actors. The new 4k transfer on the 2k disc looked real good too. At some point they'll probably re-release this as 4k w/HDR and I'll probably double dip and give it a re-watch. The lighting and colors really standout and all the tight close up shots will look even better in a 4k release in terms of detail.

George Lucas?

Damn. Didn't think people knew his name, just his movies.

[Bebpo]

Raising Arizona - I feel like I probably saw this a long time ago but didn't remember any of it. The zaniness was good and it was one of the more zany Coen Bros films. Nic Cage was legendary with his facial expressions and best ever hair styles. Holly Hunter was probably my favorite Holly Hunter performance. The Mad Max biker's pretty funny.

But it's very much a goofy baby movie and I really hate baby movies so was just ok and probably why I've forgotten the whole thing over time. Don't really like the Goodman/Forsythe bank robber duo in this, kinda annoying characters. I recognize it as a good/great movie, but probably bottom three films in their filmography for me.

[Bebpo]

For films they wrote (original story & screenplay) and directed, my picks for top 3/bottom 3 of their film history is:

Top3: Miller's Crossing, The Big Lebowski, Inside Llewyn Davis, (pretty hard to pick a top 3, there's at least like 6-8 that are top-tier)

Bottom 3: Raising Arizona, The Man Who Wasn't There, Ballad of Buster Scruggs

[GreatSageEqualOfHeaven]

Hudsucker Proxy is probably my favorite 'underdog' Coen Bros film, and The unnecessary Ladykillers remake my least favorite

[HaughtyFrank]

I'm a sucker for Andrew Dominik so I'll definitely watch this. Apparently it's based on a fictional novel though and is far from accurate which I guess is good to be aware of

[Bebpo]

Hudsucker Proxy is probably my favorite 'underdog' Coen Bros film, and The unnecessary Ladykillers remake my least favorite

Yeah, Hudsucker Proxy is great. Same with Burn After Reading, Fargo, No Country for Old Men, Barton Fink, etc...

I'm not huge on any of their remakes. Ladykillers was unnecessary, True Grit was fine, Macbeth was fine. Their original stuff is more interesting for sure.

[Bebpo]

Just finished re-watching Miller's Crossing to continue this trek through Coen's bros early films in chronological order. Always loved the movie and glad it still holds up really well. It's a good tight script, really well directed (the forest scenes), Byrne and Turturro are REALLY GOOD, the musical theme is fantastic, set and costumes designs are great. It's just a very well done prohibition crime tale.

Helps that's more of a genre I dig than ....goofy baby antics genre.

Definitely think it might be my favorite film of theirs. Also kind of a shame the 2022 Criterion release is a brand new 2k digital master. Someone said it's probably a combination of lost/damaged originals and/or movie isn't financially big enough to secure a brand new full 4k restoration of the original 35mm. It's a shame because it's a beautiful looking film. If it's a money thing then maybe someday...

Gonna dive into the extras on the Criterion disc.

[Bebpo]

I never realized how bad Miller's Crossing bombed in theaters at the time. Budget was 14 Million and it only made 5M at the box office.

[Tuckers Law]

Miller’s Crossing is a fantastic movie (doesn’t hurt when your starting point is the legendary Yojimbo), but I’ll not suffer this libel against Raising Arizona.  Don’t you go giving me the high hat.

[Bebpo]

babies are gross!

I will agree that Nic Cage has the best hair of all time in the film though.

[Tuckers Law]

Yeah but he was wearing jammies, they had yodas n’ shit on them.  He needed his dip-tet shots.

[VomKriege]

Unauthorised bash bros is sadly not as conceptually funny, and the tracks aren't as good as popstar or some of their album stuff, but YMMV

I liked The Unauthorized Bash Brothers Experience well enough but indeed it's not as strong as #Popstar if only for being more of an extended sketch than a film. The songs are not as good too. But it's a funny premise to use the steroid icons to hang some absurdist, unrelated and pastiche humour (Lonely Island has a keen eye to parody visual trends) on it. It also tried to tell something about that story and those characters despite being a more unconventional narrative though I don't know how much of it really works if you don't have at least a passing familiarity with that bit of baseball infamous history.