Movie News, Reviews, and Discussion Super-Thread

[VomKriege]

At last managed to get my ex to see Symbol from Hitoshi Matsumoto. Still holds up great to me (that's my... 3rd viewing ?) and she liked it a lot. You know she was in sync because every question she had was answered by the film 2mn after.

[Mr. Nobody]

Absolutely loved The Irishman. If Scorcese/Pesci/Deniro/Pacino never do this again (which 100% seems to be the case), they went out on a very high note.

This, however, is fucking jokes:

spoiler (click to show/hide)

It's time to go home Robert

[close]

[Tuckers Law]

Yeah, there’s a few moments where you can see a bit of “old-man shuffle” and it stands out in particular there.

Awesome movie regardless, I still chuckle thinking on the various obits describing violent ends that Scorsese puts up throughout the movie, and then shows that well-liked guy, “Died of natural causes in 2002.  Was well-liked by everyone.”   

[Occam]

The Last Jedi was actually good though. I hope Knives Out makes people realize that.

No, and since this goes both ways, Last Jedi didn't make the prequels better, either, they will suck forever*.

*Well, unless an adult completely rewrites them and then remakes them. You know, without robot armies, midi-chlorians, slave-Anakin, Naboo, C3PO, R2D2 etc.

[Momo]

The Last Jedi was actually good though. I hope Knives Out makes people realize that.

[EightBitNate]

It was as good as any other blockbuster garbage. Basic story structure could’ve been stuck on a Marvel movie and the internet would have drooled over it. I didn’t grow up watching Star Wars so I wasn’t as bitchy at Luke being a NEET as everyone else.

[Tuckers Law]

Basic story structure could’ve been stuck on a Marvel movie and the internet would have drooled over it.

Flawed as it is I still enjoyed Last Jedi, but this is not the compliment that you think it is.  Most Marvel movies are also flashy trash.  They just have the benefit of at least having more of some interesting characters acted well enough (albeit nearly all missing any kind of character growth).

[EightBitNate]

Basic story structure could’ve been stuck on a Marvel movie and the internet would have drooled over it.

Flawed as it is I still enjoyed Last Jedi, but this is not the compliment that you think it is.  Most Marvel movies are also flashy trash.  They just have the benefit of at least having more of some interesting characters acted well enough (albeit nearly all missing any kind of character growth).

My point about Marvel movies isn’t to say Marvel movies are great-just that they never receive so much ire. TLJ was a perfectly normal blockbuster movie.

[Tuckers Law]

Fair enough 

I’m probably one of the few that actually liked Luke’s arc in that movie.  The writing was shit, mind, but so was the rest of the movie, and I do enjoy seeing Star Wars fans get bent out of shape over their space Jesus not being what they wanted.

[paprikastaude]

I rewatched Casino recently, so going to The Irishman felt like going from Pulp Fiction to Jackie Brown. mattdamon_privateryan.gif the movie.

[TVC15]

Disney makes Art

[TVC15]

Only Disney could make a movie where children are described as “bred for action” and receive widespread mainstream positive attention for it.

[BlueTsunami]

Imagine spending years working on your craft, starting as a passion born as a child, taken through school and a university only to land on the production of that. I guess it could be likened to menial retail work in the media sector. It's so depressing.

[TVC15]

Imagine spending years working on your craft, starting as a passion born as a child, taken through school and a university only to land on the production of that. I guess it could be likened to menial retail work in the media sector. It's so depressing.

It’s worse today than ever. Even during Tim Burton’s lean and hungry Disney years, the garbage he got to work on was leagues better than this. Our culture has degenerated beyond the point of salvation—what was lowest-common denominator 40 years ago now seems illuminated in comparison. The only solutions will be long-term massively destructive before they bear any fruit. There will be many years where no thanks are given.

[Ghoul]

The Irishman is just beautiful

[Madrun Badrun]

It was as good as any other blockbuster garbage. Basic story structure could’ve been stuck on a Marvel movie and the internet would have drooled over it. I didn’t grow up watching Star Wars so I wasn’t as bitchy at Luke being a NEET as everyone else.

This is just silly.  Marvel movies have a generic story structure that is generally sound and well executed.  The Last Jedi was neither sound nor well executed. 

[Ghoul]

Watching ready or not now. Trash so far

[Ghoul]

Yup good old trash

[Madrun Badrun]

The Joker was good.  The beginning gave me massive anxiety though. 

[TVC15]

I just watched Corky Romano and it was better than Endgame.

[TVC15]

Child’s Play 2019 - F-

Chucky looked like a My Buddy or Cabbage Patch doll. No parent would ever let this monster near their kids.

[TVC15]

I’m now 28 minutes into Child’s Play 2019 and I am in the process of revising my score.

The boy seems to be able to command the doll to do his bidding. I like this. I keep pausing to fantasize. He’s more reluctant to use it to it’s full capacity than I’d be. It’d be terrible if someone gave me one of these as a child. I’d be in prison forever before I hit adulthood. Now, though, if I had this doll’s power now, I’m wiser and old enough to resist using it recklessly.

[TVC15]

I know you’re thinking I’d use this to kill, and maybe I would, but I would be abstract and highly conceptual about it. I wouldn’t say “kill so-and-so” or simple things like that. There’d be a philosophical edge to it. I may, for example, ask Chucky to “deliver me BlueTsunami’s bounty” and see what instructions it derives from that. It could bring me his wallet, his dick, his eyes, whatever its AI determines his very literal “bounty” is based on its dictionary.

[TVC15]

“Find filler’s buried treasure. * marks the spot!”

[TVC15]

But people shouldn’t live in fear. Most of my Chuck’s time would be spent proactively making my life easier. There’s be little time for pleasure. For example, I’d have the seat removed from my chair so I can just urinate and defecate without ever getting up. This single simple life improvement means my Chucky won’t be able to leave me for more than 10 or 20 minutes at a time.

[team filler]

"Chucky, daddy made another yucky!"

[TVC15]

Okay, that didn’t quite wake the dragon, but it was okay. It was acceptable up until they ripped out Chuck’s heart and disposed of him but everything after was dumber and boring. Always a big minus for not killing the kid in these pictures, but at least we got a nice shot of a screaming little girl being sprayed with arterial blood where she sounded authentic enough. C- it wasn’t a complete waste of time

I need another movie. Something that will get my head going

[team filler]

[TVC15]

I could watch ET. It will be a whirlwind. I’ll talk about how great the kids are, and how I can remember seeing it when I was little sorta, and how my dad hung up a poster of ET in my room that probably traumatized me into my current sleep problems, I’ll talk about my ideas on ET’s “trunk” region and explore immediate possibilities, I’ll eventually go on about how much better Close Encounters is and how Spielberg never touched it again. ET doesn’t strike me as a movie that will inspire violent thoughts, but I’m sure some will spring to mind.

[ToxicAdam]

You should watch Problem Child and think of it as a live-action Chucky movie.

[bork]

Hustlers (2019): Didn't know much about this movie going in, apart from it being based on actual events and that it would have lots of ass.  Thought it was going to be some kind of comedy plot where strippers find ways to rob dudes, and it is that, but it's got a lot more drama than I would have expected.  It's kinda weird saying that a movie about strippers has a lot of great acting, especially from J-Lo, but...yeah.  They did a really good job here of portraying the sleaziness of the stripping 'biz and the clientele, plus an equal measure of heart and ruthlessness from the main characters.  It's also hard to believe that J-Lo is nearly 50 years old in this movie, gat-DAYUM.  And Constance Wu did a fantastic job, but I just could not unsee her as the mom from Fresh Off The Boat.   

[Mr. Nobody]

Hustlers (2019): Didn't know much about this movie going in, apart from it being based on actual events and that it would have lots of ass.  Thought it was going to be some kind of comedy plot where strippers find ways to rob dudes, and it is that, but it's got a lot more drama than I would have expected.  It's kinda weird saying that a movie about strippers has a lot of great acting, especially from J-Lo, but...yeah.  They did a really good job here of portraying the sleaziness of the stripping 'biz and the clientele, plus an equal measure of heart and ruthlessness from the main characters.  It's also hard to believe that J-Lo is nearly 50 years old in this movie, gat-DAYUM.  And Constance Wu did a fantastic job, but I just could not unsee her as the mom from Fresh Off The Boat.

J-Lo's entrance 

[TVC15]

Watched Alita last night and it went through me like water. It's been about 18 hours and I remember absolutely nothing about it--that'd be impressive even for a Marvel movie.

[EightBitNate]

Watching the Irishman. The de-aging isn’t so noticeable, but the color grading on the deaged faces looks so off. Why are Deniro’s eyes so blue?

[Transhuman]

Where's is Peter Jackson when you need him

[Madrun Badrun]

Watching Dira the Explorer while high.  Enteraining so far.  Could do without all the Spanish shit though. 

[Madrun Badrun]

30 mins until there was a white person on screen.  That beginning gave me massive anxiety. 

[Madrun Badrun]

O wait, might have just been f.lux.

[TVC15]

I saw the live-action Dora movie tile on Amazon and I was like "yep, filler's tugged to this"

[team filler]

 

[Mupepe]

Watched Dora on a flight to Amsterdam. It was pretty funny. The beginning reminded me of the Brady bunch movie.

[Tasty]

O wait, might have just been f.lux.

[chronovore]

Seen Videodrome for the first time. I kind of couldn't stand James Woods' face, but everything else was right up my alley. I wonder if younger audiences could relate to any of this, considering so much relies on understanding outdated forms of media    Even if the general theme of virtuality vs. reality is still relevant (or rather, more than ever). Either way, love me some well done surrealism. I also prefer these kind of bigger themes compared to Lynch movies, in which relationship problems often seem to be root of each nightmare.

Yeah. It is why David Cronenberg is one of my favourite directors.

In terms of whether it is outdated, I think eXistenZ is kind of an updated version of it. However that was made in 1999 so maybe that is outdated also. And eXistenZ isn't as good as Videodrome in any case. eXistenZ is still worth a watch though if you haven't seen it.

Rewatched eXistenZ earlier this year. If anything, it has gained relevance and quality. Fabulous.

Yeah. I have to say the overarching story is good, but the one thing that bugs me about the movie is, it would make for a terrible video game. Too much random shit happens without any perceivable relationship to what came before it. It almost seems like what someone who doesn't play video games thinks video games are like. I think part of the reason it was done that way was to distinguish something that is not real, i.e. a video game, with what is real. However, it turns out distinguishing what is real from what is not real isn't so easy to do, which obviously is the point, so...

I dunno, I've played plenty of games where the dialog tree is so stunted and rudimentary that it makes me wonder why they don't just do a cutscene? For me, the parts where it made the least sense were later explained by the twist in the end of the film.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

The concept was that the players will influence the game's content, so the fact that the test players were actually anti-game terrorists made the story skew so far off into weird territory that it made no sense.

[close]

The last Cronenberg movie I watched was Map To The Stars and it was fucking trash.

Yay?

[TVC15]

The last Stro post I read was written by someone with more WCW Thunder knowledge than good sense.

[EightBitNate]

Just watched the ‘94 Little Women for the first time

Jo did Laurie dirty >:(

[TVC15]

Just watched Wax Mask on Shudder. That was almost classic. It’s pretty great. Highly recommended for Italian horror fans. It was supposed to be Fulci’s last movie. He and Dario collaborated on it but Fulci died before it could be filmed, so one of Dario’s SFX people directed it. Came out pretty great. Would’ve been very different for a Fulci film, but there’s a lot of late-80s-but-still-good Argento-y stuff in there. Kind of has a nice gothic vibe to it. Soundtrack is nothing special.

[Nintex]

Got around to watching The Irishman

The weirdest thing about it is that De Niro's acting is kinda stiff. The digital de-aging works on his face but through his mannerisms and how he walks you can see he's clearly not a 40 year old.
Pacino however, doesn't have that problem. He's still as animated and flamboyant as ever. Pesci looks old despite the de-aging but he doesn't have a lot of physically demanding scenes so it's not as jarring as with De Niro.

Other than that, a great film. After the first 30 minutes or so I was completely absorbed in the story and setting.

A wonderful example of the art of film making and an Oscar worthy performance by Pacino.

10/10 would paint houses again 

[Pissy F Benny]

lol shit sux, no one can fly and there was 0 planets blown up, just a load of old whyte people driving and talking, who the fuck talks to people these days anyway 0.5/10

[Nintex]

https://twitter.com/WechsbergJunior/status/1200024078666653696

 

[Mupepe]

Ad Astra was terrible. Like really fucking awful. Planes can make almost anything entertaining but even staring at the overhead bins started to become distracting.

[TVC15]

Ad Astra was indeed terrible. I really have no clue what people saw there. It was so by the books. It was babby’s first sci-fi. There’s absolutely no creativity or ambition.

[Sman]

My kids and I saw Farmaggedon. They loved it more than the first Shaun the Sheep movie, but as an adult, I thought it was merely midrange Aardman fare (superior to First Man, inferior to most Wallace and Gromit flicks).

At least I didn't have to sit through Corgi, Paw Patrol or Addams Family. 

[Mupepe]

Ad Astra was indeed terrible. I really have no clue what people saw there. It was so by the books. It was babby’s first sci-fi. There’s absolutely no creativity or ambition.

Exactly. I was really surprised considering the praise I’d read. It’s like someone skimmed through an astrophysics text book, chose a few sciencey sounding words and proceeded to write the most dull adventure movie. As much flak as something like Interstellar gets, some of it legitimate, at least it tried to stand out and took risks.

[TVC15]

Oh yeah, for as much as I’ve openly shit on Interstellar here—I hate it, it’s terrible, I watched it and Da Vinci Code on the same day and Da Vinci Code is by far a better movie—Interstellar is a better movie than Ad Astra.

[OnlyRegret]

https://twitter.com/TheLonelyPhoton/status/1199927525469806592

[Nintex]

Yep it's a really fun movie to watch. Which is why I think I'll actually watch it a couple times more.
I like how it's just a movie, a self-contained thing. No cinematic universes, no spiritual sequels or anything else.
Even the actual plot is ever so loosely connected to the main characters.

Everything and anything goes and it works.

[Tasty]

It's crazy to think all of Villeneuve's Dune (part 1) has been done filming for months and we're basically just waiting for a teaser. I still keep thinking of the movie as vaporware. (The movie is still a year off so anything could happen, but the fact remains they shot all that footage...)

*And* the HBO Max TV spinoff prequel is actually really probably happening too.

Maybe if you wait around long enough, there will be a faithful (enough) adaptation of any celebrated work... I mean, you also have His Dark Materials, that new Series of Unfortunate Events, etc.

Wheel of Time stans, you'll have your day I'm sure. 

[Tasty]

Doesn't look nearly as flashy/stylish as Skyfall or Spectre, let me check the DP... ah damn, no Deakins or Hoytema...

Linus Sandgren, who they got instead, did La La Land and First Man, which were pretty good looks-wise, but yeah, not nearly the same level.

Anyways this is just a critique on the cinematography, since that's really all I can comment on from this teaser-teaser. Looking forward to the trailer, and I hope the movie's a good send-off.

[ToxicAdam]

Anyone watch Knives Out yet? I almost went Sunday but fell into an NFL vortex that pinned me into a couch.

[EightBitNate]

Anyone watch Knives Out yet? I almost went Sunday but fell into an NFL vortex that pinned me into a couch.

I saw it. It was good but it wasn’t some insane twist on the genre or anything. Basically just a neat little Clue/Westing Game style movie.