Movie News, Reviews, and Discussion Super-Thread

[TEEEPO]

the best use of time dilation is hideaki anno's gunbuster dont even try to @ me

[EchoRin]

Tigertail – New Netflix original movie about a Taiwanese man who moved to America dealing with his current life as an older gentlemen where various things happening now tie into his past.

I don't give full on spoilers. Still, it hints at various things.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

I was hesitant where this was going first and thought it might be a more cliched tale of first-generation immigrant being a stoic work and money focused parent who thinks their children don’t respect hard work. Turns out it’s not that. Yes, he is a bit of that parent (though his daughter is actually a workaholic), but it’s much more about him opening up and allowing himself to be a better communicator with his daughter. I think his tale of who he was back in Taiwan and then how things panned out for him in the USA were interesting. Some dreams he reached, and others didn’t go his way. But you see why he is the way he is. There is a re-connection later in the film that I think he was hoping to get a little more out of. I really like how that plays out.

The film is maybe a little too brief, but it connects the past well with the present. A film where the director didn’t try to push too hard into complicating things. Perhaps better than biting off more than one can chew. It’s nice to see the film really focus just on the one elder character even though there are other important ones. It’s a family affair, but feels more like it’s strictly his tale. This can be highly relatable to many viewers too. This transcends all cultures. Shouldn’t be viewed as “oh this is an Asian American story, so I won’t get this”. I think that’s a BS take anyway as the relatability goes way beyond ethnicity for crying out loud.

[close]

[Tasty]

There's a reason it basically kickstarted the mid-2000s zombie resurgence.

Also TWD ripped the opening off.

Never saw the sequel.

[Great Rumbler]

the best use of time dilation is hideaki anno's gunbuster dont even try to @ me

[Joe Molotov]

best use of anime tiddies is hideaki anno's gunbuster dont even think about trying to @ me

[EchoRin]

There's a reason it basically kickstarted the mid-2000s zombie resurgence.

Also TWD ripped the opening off.

Never saw the sequel.

The opening of the sequel is great. Having a hard time remembering the rest. Only saw it once over 10 years ago.

A small cut from it. I wish there was a whole youtube clip of I don't know the 5 or or so minutes

[Don Rumata]

There's a reason it basically kickstarted the mid-2000s zombie resurgence.

Also TWD ripped the opening off.

Never saw the sequel.

The opening of the sequel is great. Having a hard time remembering the rest. Only saw it once over 10 years ago.

A small cut from it. I wish there was a whole youtube clip of I don't know the 5 or or so minutes

The opening is the only good part.

[Joe Molotov]

https://twitter.com/Criterion/status/1249758156160487425

"Enter the Dragon", “The Big Boss,” “Fist of Fury,” “Game of Death,” and “The Way of the Dragon.”

[nachobro]

game of death ok criterion

[Madrun Badrun]

I mean it would be weird to have a collection of just 4 movies and exclude it. 

[nachobro]

it wouldn't be that weird to exclude the bad one of the bunch from a collection of "the greatest films from around the world"

[Madrun Badrun]

Depends if you think that's the reason people buy criterion movies or if they they just want a pretty collection of shit they like. 

[nachobro]

i'm just saying game of death sucks and using their own metric

[nachobro]

it'd be more deserving than game of death

[Don Rumata]

it'd be more deserving than game of death

And more deserving than the game, too. 

[Joe Molotov]

Criterion released Valley of the Dolls in order to get the rights to release Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. Sometimes there's give and take.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

They also, apparently under no duress, released multiple Michael Bay movies, but we don't talk about that.

[close]

Anyway, I think Game of Death is included mostly out of historical context. There are some commentaries and interviews about the Bruceploitation subgenre included, as well as a presentation of the original Game of Death scenes that were filmed by Bruce Lee before his death.

[Cerveza mas fina]

It's not even a question.  12 Monkeys is pretty decent but no End Game.

Wut

12 monkeys is a classic

Endgame is just another marvel movie

[Cerveza mas fina]

There's a reason it basically kickstarted the mid-2000s zombie resurgence.

Not to forget Cieran Murphys career

[EchoRin]

Game of Death is included because it's visually remembered for the yellow suit and the last thing Bruce worked on. It's mainly due to historical context. I wouldn't really overthink it beyond that just because of the Criterion label.

 

[nachobro]

i wasn't even gonna buy that physical media trash anyway

[Madrun Badrun]

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/04/behold-dune-an-exclusive-look-at-timothee-chalamet-zendaya-oscar-isaac?mbid=social_twitter

[Don Rumata]

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/04/behold-dune-an-exclusive-look-at-timothee-chalamet-zendaya-oscar-isaac?mbid=social_twitter

Looks quite uninspired. 
Concept art has gotten really fucking stale, but hopefully it'll come together in the final picture.

[Transhuman]

I don't even know why they're still trying to adapt some old-ass sci-fi

[VomKriege]

I don't even know why they're still trying to adapt some old-ass sci-fi

It's too early to remake Lawrence of Arabia without getting laughed out of the room.

[Madrun Badrun]

I'd take a future where is just Lawrence of Arabia remakes all the way down. 

[Transhuman]

Is it bad that I have not seen that motion picture

[nachobro]

I don't even know why they're still trying to adapt some old-ass sci-fi

its honestly a perfect fit. villeneuve is a boring director in charge of an adaption of an extremely boring book. it'll be a very attractive movie that people will fall asleep to in the theater.

[Don Rumata]

Villaneauve is the best director you could have on a project like this, probably.
For better or worse, what this project is, is a mass market oriented blockbuster, so it wasn't going to be particularly filled with personality from the start.
Given these limitations, you couldn't do better than him, though.
Think of Nolan's Batman trilogy, this is the same thing, safe but polished.

Non-safe designs get you the Alien Xenomorph, but also the Cats adaptation, so it's not (by definition) a sure fire hit.

I'm still hyped to see this, but i did hope they'd try to be a tiny bit bolder with their look.

Those armor suits look like generic tacti-cool shit from videogame concept-art #32789356

Far cry, in my opinion, from the designs Lynch's put on screen, as hated as that movie may be.

[Great Rumbler]

I'd trade Villeneuve's Dune for Jodorowsky's Dune, but other than that I don't think we could get anything better than what we're getting now.

[nachobro]

for the people who are already into dune, it seems like a win

[Tasty]

Villeneuve: "I like Dune."

Jodorowsky: "I want to rape Dune."

[Don Rumata]

I'd trade Villeneuve's Dune for Jodorowsky's Dune, but other than that I don't think we could get anything better than what we're getting now.

Sure Jodorowsky's would've been very different, but let's be honest, the mythical aura that has been created around that project is massively inflated, compared to what the movie would've likely been, in actuality.
As it often happens with any cancelled project, doubly so if all the names thrown around (Moebius, Pink Floyd, etc) are involved.

In other words: Jodorowsky's Dune is better than Jodorowsky's Dune would've been. 

Also we got Alien from its cancellation, so i'm good. 

[Leadbelly]

(Image removed from quote.)

This movie was amazing

It was what Primer wanted to be but way less pretentious.

Ryan Lattanzio wrote, "Byrkit brought eight unwitting actors to his Santa Monica home, threw them a few red herrings and set them loose for five days knowing that the film could evolve organically, like great jazz, if he kept his players in the dark. But he and co-storywriter Alex Manugian weren't just making it up as they went along." Byrkit told him that his desire was "to strip down a film set to the bare minimum: getting rid of the script, getting rid of the crew."

Byrkit added, "...instead of a script I had my own 12-page treatment that I spent about a year working on. It outlined all of the twists, and reveals, and character arcs and pieces of the puzzle that needed to happen scene-by-scene. But each day, instead of getting a script, the actors would get a page of notes for their individual character, whether it was a backstory or information about their motivations. They would come prepared for their character only. They had no idea what the other characters received, so each night there were completely real reactions, and surprises and responses. This was all in the pursuit of naturalistic performances. The goal was to get them listening to each other, and engaged in the mystery of it all."

awesome

I have never seen Coherence, so I have decided to watch it. I am only 4 minutes into it and already the cinematography is really starting to annoy me. There is a slight camera shake and people's heads constantly out of frame. You forget that this was a thing a number of years ago. Back then I guess they thought it was stylistic and cool. Now though, it just looks like ass to me. It is more annoying than anything else.

[Joe Molotov]

Yo, Fantasy Island was terrible.

Made it like 40 mins in to Porno and stopped

Might watch Butt Boy tonight.

Are all three of those the same movie?

[Leadbelly]

Just an update: I enjoyed Coherence quite a lot. It gets really dark towards the end of it and you don't really see the twist coming, although it is hinted at throughout the movie. Still hate the cinematography though.

[Leadbelly]

I don't even know why they're still trying to adapt some old-ass sci-fi

The one positive thing at least is that special effects have come a long way. And with the sci-fi genre in particular, it can really enhance the experience. That wasn't always the case with CGI of course.  If you go back a number of years, you had examples where CGI somehow looked worse, or at least dated more quickly, than old fashioned visual effects. Some movies have aged better exactly because of less CGI. The improvements in CGI now though is really starting to change that.

[EchoRin]

[bluemax]

https://twitter.com/ZhugeEX/status/1250947333610770433

[Madrun Badrun]

Now You See Me:  this was a bad movie

[Joe Molotov]

ACAB = All Cop-movies are Blockbusters!

Bad Boys 3, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Harley Quinn all had hero cops saving the day and raking in BIG MONEYS! 

[ToxicAdam]

https://twitter.com/ZhugeEX/status/1250947333610770433

Almost that entire list is funny if it ends up standing.

Still amazed at how poorly Onward did. You would think that movie would just make 150 million on Disney inertia alone.

[EchoRin]

Honestly unable to picture anything about Onward. Not a poster, or actor or... just nada. Is it an animation or live action? Yeah. No clue what Onward is (without cheating and going to Google before this post)

post cheating: Oh it's that movie. The artstyle really turns me off. They were advertising it in theaters for what seems like almost a year.

[Nintex]

Wait, kids don't like this?



How can they possibly not like this inclusive group of police officers if we add sparkles? 

[Great Rumbler]

Still amazed at how poorly Onward did. You would think that movie would just make 150 million on Disney inertia alone.

It got released about a week before all the movie theaters shut down.

[Nintex]

The last movie I watched the weekend before the cinema's closed here was Gentlemen from Guy Ritchie.

Attendance was already down to only about 8 people. Worth it though, great film.
Not to mention I didn't want Bad Boys for Life to be the last film I had seen in cinema. 

[EchoRin]

Only God Forgives – A divisive movie in which Ryan Gosling does his “stare and glare” thing. It’s a basic revenge movie with some interesting use of lighting and colors in this dark representation of Bangkok.

Me, I’m on the thumbs down side of things here. Wouldn’t go as far to say that I hated this, but after 25 minutes I was no longer enthralled by the visual aspect of the film. Nearly all the characters are scum. Especially Gosling’s mother and his brother. Then you have a cop who seems to apply his own rules as to how to deal with crime. Nobody here is likeable except for the stripper/prostitute that Gosling seems to be interested in. On the plus side, you aren’t really all that sad when various characters get what’s coming to them.

What I did like was observing the various power dynamics in this film. How people move about in this world. The women as opposed to the men. How the white people moved around as opposed to the locals. How the police moved as opposed to regular people. I mean it leaves a bad taste in your mouth, but good. It should. You know exactly the hierarchy of social power that the film presents.

The director seems to have a hard on for Alejandro Jodorowsky. Heck he even dedicated the film to him. Well if you ask me, skip Only God Forgives and go watch Jodorowsky’s El Topo. Now that is an incredible film.

Oh almost forgot. Only God Forgives is really brutal with its violence. It’s quite unsettling. A bit much for me at some points. Also, complete lack of character development. 2 out of 5 stars.

Bonus edit: Gosling yelling "TAKE IT OFF" in the one scene... how did that get through? He's screeching like some incel nerd instead of a manly booming kind of way. I think that specific scene was his worst bit of adult acting ever. Easily fixable too. Eh, whatever.

[Madrun Badrun]

Onward was pretty good.

Wait, kids don't like this?

How can they possibly not like this inclusive group of police officers if we add sparkles? 

Why do you think kids wont like this?

[Nintex]

Onward was pretty good.

Wait, kids don't like this?

How can they possibly not like this inclusive group of police officers if we add sparkles? 

Why do you think kids wont like this?

Kids like princesses, cute animals, toys, cool action heroes.
 
It kinda reminds me of Monsters Inc. but it looks far less appealing.
Not sure about todays kids but I never thought about being a slightly chubby cop with an over sized nose.

Hey kids, don't you love Jack Black and his dorky friend *checks notes* with a stick in purple land there's also gnomes and your fathers car


Swamp gas, bad for the environment, get it, swamp, haha we so clever 

Not sure what glue they were sniffing when they came up with the biker fairies. That's some disturbing shit.

[Tasty]

Is it weird I want to revisit Shrek

[EchoRin]

Is it weird I want to revisit Shrek

First one is really good. Sure they do the bullet time joke  and a dance at the end (before it was cool though)

[bluemax]

Only God Forgives – A divisive movie in which Ryan Gosling does his “stare and glare” thing. It’s a basic revenge movie with some interesting use of lighting and colors in this dark representation of Bangkok.

Me, I’m on the thumbs down side of things here. Wouldn’t go as far to say that I hated this, but after 25 minutes I was no longer enthralled by the visual aspect of the film. Nearly all the characters are scum. Especially Gosling’s mother and his brother. Then you have a cop who seems to apply his own rules as to how to deal with crime. Nobody here is likeable except for the stripper/prostitute that Gosling seems to be interested in. On the plus side, you aren’t really all that sad when various characters get what’s coming to them.

What I did like was observing the various power dynamics in this film. How people move about in this world. The women as opposed to the men. How the white people moved around as opposed to the locals. How the police moved as opposed to regular people. I mean it leaves a bad taste in your mouth, but good. It should. You know exactly the hierarchy of social power that the film presents.

The director seems to have a hard on for Alejandro Jodorowsky. Heck he even dedicated the film to him. Well if you ask me, skip Only God Forgives and go watch Jodorowsky’s El Topo. Now that is an incredible film.

Oh almost forgot. Only God Forgives is really brutal with its violence. It’s quite unsettling. A bit much for me at some points. Also, complete lack of character development. 2 out of 5 stars.

Bonus edit: Gosling yelling "TAKE IT OFF" in the one scene... how did that get through? He's screeching like some incel nerd instead of a manly booming kind of way. I think that specific scene was his worst bit of adult acting ever. Easily fixable too. Eh, whatever.

Now take this an multiply by like 10 hours and you have that shitty television show he made next.

[toku]

only god forgives my favorite refn, and I love too old to die young 

[Ghoul]

Fiancé watched step up revolution and it was by far the gayest thing ive ever seen.
I dunno how they did it but god damn it was just a cringe fest and super lame.

Favourite line “become a pro dancer by the end of the summer or work with me in Cleveland”

Now this girl is basically being dance fucked in front of an audience including her dad.

[Nintex]

Sergio

A dramatization about the real life exploits of Sergio Vieira de Mello a Brazilian UN diplomat who managed to mediate in East Timor and Kosovo with success and died in a bombing in Iraq. It is based on a book by Samantha Power.
The latter part is the focus of this film but not entirely. You see Sergio meets Carolina on one of his missions, played by Ana de Armas which means 70% of the footage shot is Ana looking hot and only 30% one charismatic Wagner Moura who played Pablo so well in Narcos. As things spiral out of control in Iraq Sergio finds himself in beneath a heap of rubble and flashbacks tell the story. The movie kind of has a strange structure because of it and it would've worked better if they had just made in a chronological order with a time skip. Ana is great and so is Wagner but they made a movie about a guy mediating in civil wars surprisingly dull. The stakes never seem high. Although I guess it fits with the portrayal of Sergio as a 'dreamer' that they are going for.

Also if you don't plan on watching it anyway:

is this how it happened

not sure how accurate this movie is but.
- First Bin Laden says in a recording that no one should listen to the UN. (strange to focus on since Afghanistan is completely absent from this film).
- Then Sergio arrives in Iraq and has the security of the UN building removed because it looks like a US Military base and that isn't very welcoming to the Iraqi's.
- Sergio is pissed at the bois in Washington so he decides to write a report on the occupation and send it to the UN security council. He doesn't want to do it public because it could jeopardize early elections.
- He meets with the Ayatollah of Iraq and has a diplomatic breakthrough, Our centrist liberal hero is leading the charge and miss Power had to dry her draft as it probably got wet from excitement 
- He meets with Paul Bremer in Iraq, who plans to re-open Abu Graib, bad optics Sergio tells him because those are torture chambers. I don't care Bremer says, we need to put these people somewhere.
- Also Sergio, your diplomatic breakthrough isn't going to happen, no elections on the US watch sir, no we're staying motherfucker until we feel like leaving.
- Returning from his meeting with Bremer he assures his co-workers he will now take it public because Bremer is one bad dude with even worse ideas.
- At this point Power opens up a bottle of wine to give Bremer a kick in the nuts he won't soon forget!!
- Just as he and his GF are finishing this massive report and want to present it (which is literally presented to Ana as a massive binder full of bad things the US did)....
 -BOOM car bomb hits the compound because no troops to keep everyone safe. Screaming, panic, where's Sergio?
- Turns out Sergio is in the rubble, dying. A lone US sergeant finds him and then another comes to help. A rescue squad of two guys and no one is really responding to their calls for help, strange?
- Demello quips: "This is all the strongest army in the world can muster?"
- No worries Sergio, as a pyromaniac observing his own fire Bremer arrives to the scene to give Wolf Blitzer some live updates and promise some whoop ass on the CIA terrorists and then fuck off again.
- When day turns to night and finally help is on the way Sergio dies in the rubble. No rescue for you diplomat man.

You shed a tear for poor Ana and then you wonder, did Bremer set this whole thing up to silence the report and block the elections? 

[close]

The camera guy will have to figure out how to explain to Ben why he filmed his GF with hard nipples floating in a bay or maybe he's a giant dad? 

Movie has a 6 or so on IMDB which seems about right. Without the weird cuts, some more fleshing out of the story it could've easily gotten up to a 7.
Ana deserves a 10 as always.

fin

[Great Rumbler]

more like reassignment amirite lulz

[Transhuman]

only god forgives my favorite refn, and I love too old to die young 

OGF was alluring visually, but you didn't find it boring as shit? Not in an insulting way, but i'd be really interested in what draws you to it. I don't mind slow films, but I didn't even finish that one.

[EchoRin]

only god forgives my favorite refn, and I love too old to die young 

OGF was alluring visually, but you didn't find it boring as shit? Not in an insulting way, but i'd be really interested in what draws you to it. I don't mind slow films, but I didn't even finish that one.

I can understand tapping out because I felt the same way before the movie picks up again. I think when I mentioned that I was over the visuals at the 25 minute mark it's because I started to get bored. But I told myself it's only an hour and half movie. It gets going again with the main revenge plot about 15 minutes later again.

---------

Taxi Driver – Lazy meme take: I’m the Joker baby!

Actual thoughts: The descent of a man who spends too much time in his own head dreams of a cleaner NYC. Things start off innocent enough where our main man Travis joins a cab company where he works long shifts. He’s an odd fellow who seems to have issues with sleeping. Doesn’t seem to have any friends, not the easiest guy to talk to. There is something quite spot on about the one lady he tries to court saying that he’s a “walking contradiction” or something like that. The way that relationship plays out pretty much sums up what she said. It all goes downhill once Travis decides he’s going to become a man of action and change. Noble. Sure. His way of going about it? Well, god dammit Travis it ain’t what you’re doing. The whole gun fascination and fetishism is neat in a disturbing way. His sense of preparation for whatever may come. Building a little slider to move a gun down his arm under his coat. WTF mate.

I like the various symbolism with how he’s obsessed with cleaning up the city and you have the shots of the fire hydrants in poor neighborhoods going off. The 20 dollar bill he gets from the pimp also acting like a sort of lingering stench reminding him of the city’s darkness. His talk with the politician isn’t symbolic, but I like how he once again brings up the whole “we need to clean it up” talk which kinda veers into unsettling territory and the politician can sense it. Part of that goes along with Travis’ racism. He isn’t overt about it, but it’s always there. Mainly shown to us through the camera’s view of various people.

It’s amusing how things pan out for him in the end. A bit of good luck. I guess he was able to do a little bit of his own “cleaning up” of the city. His righteousness paid off for one character at least. What about next time though? We see how he takes care of business. Thinking too much ain’t part of it. Though he definitely thinks too much and spends too much time in his head. Isolated. Thinking up stupid little thoughts. Things could have really turned out differently at the rally scene for example.

So you lucked out Travis. Your heart may be in the right place for some things, but you’re a loose cannon. You need some help mate.

[Momo]

Wow you guys are really down on Dune, I can't be friends with any of you anymore

[VomKriege]

Wow you guys are really down on Dune, I can't be friends with any of you anymore

The salt must flow !

[Nintex]

Wow you guys are really down on Dune, I can't be friends with any of you anymore

I for one can't wait for Dune by the master Villeneuve