Movie News, Reviews, and Discussion Super-Thread

[Polident Hive]

I own two copies of Batman vs Superman on bluray (I know…). One standard FHD from 2016 and recently in 4K UHD from the trilogy package. Mentioning it because the update includes the full IMAX aspect ratio scenes. Goes from 2.39 to 1.43 for scenes. Most, take Nolan movies, stick to 1.78 for IMAX scenes to fill out a 16:9 set. Crazy but kinda awesome. Sitting in a dark room, OLED is a game changer for different ratios.

It’s unfortunate how the director and dop aren’t too involved with the home release. Even Nolan, who you’d think is, has some movies on bluray with incorrect colors.

On remasters, Avatar’s getting one and heading back to theaters. But with Cameron being a crazy person, what does that mean. Wouldn’t put it past him to have updated rendering. Heard the newer copies of Terminator 2 use a CGI head on Arnold’s stuntman.

[Madrun Badrun]

[VomKriege]

Edward Robinson who plays the boss Keyes is soooo good.

I know the dude played a variety of roles to avoid being typecast, but he's pretty much the quintessential gangster archetype

He has that persistent resting sadness emote on photos but he was too Capone, probably.

[Polident Hive]

Don’t like trashing movies, but watching the musician biopics after Bohemian Rhapsody highlights how vapid and dull it was. This is about both Rocketman and Elvis, btw.

There’s never a drought of biopics. Comes and goes when they really get attention. I’d say Straight Outta Compton was the start of this cycle. Decade earlier, Walk the Line and Ray. Bohemian Rhapsody was unfortunately the peak. Now there are Weird Al and Madonna biopics coming, among others.

Anyway, guy who played Elvis is playing Feyd-Rautha in Dune 2. He’s great in Elvis. Never heard of him before it.

[Tasty]

My opinions differ.

Bohemian Rhapsody was not very good.

Rocketman was fantastic.

Elvis was Bahz being Bahz, I can neither classify it as good or bad.

Les Mis and Straight Outta Compton were the first swell, but I think the consensus is the one-two punch of La La Land winning all the Oscars and The Greatest Showman making more money than a weaker MCU film -- within the same year.

Even Joker II (starring Gaga) will be a musical now too.

[Transhuman]

I watched Bohemian Rhapsody with my roommates kid, and halfway through the movie Freddie Mercury coughs blood into a handkerchief, and the kid says to me "What wrong with him?"

[Tasty]

There's a reality in the multiverse where we got Sasha Baron Cohen's R-rated version, and that grass seems a lot greener to me.

Bryan Singer's take is basically Disney karaoke pap (plus egregious editing).

[Tasty]

Anyway, guy who played Elvis is playing Feyd-Rautha in Dune 2. He’s great in Elvis. Never heard of him before it.

I guess he was a Disney Channel star or something but I would have never guessed, never heard of him before Elvis and he absolutely blew me away. Looking forward to seeing him pop up in more stuff, that's awesome to hear he'll be in Dune 2.

[Polident Hive]

Maybe you watched the edited version that removed the barely there gay relationships. Yet another reason Rocketman was better.

BR had its bts drama. I’ll acknowledge that. Singer was preoccupied cruising until schools let out, caused friction with Rami Malek, and another director was brought in. Funny enough, the director replacing him is the Rocketman director. But just a sloppy movie and Rami was bad as Freddie.

[Tasty]

Maybe you watched the edited version that removed the barely there gay relationships.

I saw the initial theatrical release in IMAX, so not sure but probably not?

I remember walking out of the theater for Rhapsody thinking "Wow, there was *slightly* more hints than I thought there'd be" but my expectations were bottom-of-the-barrel, and further reflection (and comparison to Rocketman) just further taints the film the more time passes.

Yet another reason Rocketman was better.

Indeed. I didn't think I'd get one of the most touching gay (non?)romances in a major studio film when I went to see Rocketman.



What a splendid work of film.

Taron is an absolute treasure. Was he as good as the OG? Of course not. But he was good enough and he tried. I still go back to Taron's versions sometimes just because I like them so much.

Rami didn't even try.

[Phoenix Dark]

Nope

I enjoyed everything about this movie except for the actual...revealed sci fi aspect. The setting, the characters, the backstories...all that is well done and interesting. The suspense and mystery of finding out what "it" is is great, but things kind of deflate once you realize what "it" is. There's so much Spielberg-ian personality in the movie outside of that aspect which almost feels like it was tacked on. As if all the other stuff was full fleshed out and Peele couldn't figure out that last part - or maybe tried too hard to do something different and ended up missing.

That being said there certainly are a couple great scenes after the reveal...I just wish...

spoilers

spoiler (click to show/hide)

A living ship is just boring and it has no personality. The scene where it abducts that group of people should have been dope but just felt like...eh. Yea the way it spit out their blood was cool but it almost felt like a scene was cut or something, before that. I wanted to see how it eats...something, anything. Does it just consume flesh and spit out blood? Did it liquify them and spit out whatever it could ingest? I hate to be the "show me more" guy because I tend to hate that guy, but here....

[close]

The Jupe stuff with the monkey, and how he lived off that tragedy while trying to find something else to exploit, was great.

[james]

I love IMAX but the fact that the movies are available for 2-3 weeks top and then you can never watch them in the right ratio again is outrageous

[HaughtyFrank]

Nope

I enjoyed everything about this movie except for the actual...revealed sci fi aspect. The setting, the characters, the backstories...all that is well done and interesting. The suspense and mystery of finding out what "it" is is great, but things kind of deflate once you realize what "it" is. There's so much Spielberg-ian personality in the movie outside of that aspect which almost feels like it was tacked on. As if all the other stuff was full fleshed out and Peele couldn't figure out that last part - or maybe tried to hard to do something different and ended up missing.

That being said there certainly are a couple great scenes after the reveal...I just wish...

spoilers

spoiler (click to show/hide)

A living ship is just boring and it has no personality. The scene where it abducts that group of people should have been dope but just felt like...eh. Yea the way it spit out their blood was cool but it almost felt like a scene was cut or something, before that. I wanted to see how it eats...something, anything. Does it just consume flesh and spit out blood? Did it liquify them and spit out whatever it could ingest? I hate to be the "show me more" guy because I tend to hate that guy, but here....

[close]

The Jupe stuff with the monkey, and how he lived off that tragedy while trying to find something else to exploit, was great.

At first I really liked the idea that

spoiler (click to show/hide)

it's just the ship itself. When I think about these kind of alien movies the UFO itself is often the real star compared to the little grey aliens that sit inside of it, so in that way I thought it was a cool idea to just put all the focus on that. But I also agree that they didn't quite make the most of it and I was for example more confused about how and why it was transforming so much in the final scenes. I think in a more typical movie they would have added scenes were they figure out more stuff about how exactly that thing works, why and how it eats, how it floats etc. and then exploit that to kill it. Instead Peele seemed to focus more on keeping the UFO mysterious and maybe incomprehensible for humans which I think has some mixed results.

[close]

btw. Really loved all the cinematography and actors in this. While Peele's movies often have a focus on a big mystery I imagine he would handle a more typical drama quite well too

[Phoenix Dark]

Nope

I enjoyed everything about this movie except for the actual...revealed sci fi aspect. The setting, the characters, the backstories...all that is well done and interesting. The suspense and mystery of finding out what "it" is is great, but things kind of deflate once you realize what "it" is. There's so much Spielberg-ian personality in the movie outside of that aspect which almost feels like it was tacked on. As if all the other stuff was full fleshed out and Peele couldn't figure out that last part - or maybe tried to hard to do something different and ended up missing.

That being said there certainly are a couple great scenes after the reveal...I just wish...

spoilers

spoiler (click to show/hide)

A living ship is just boring and it has no personality. The scene where it abducts that group of people should have been dope but just felt like...eh. Yea the way it spit out their blood was cool but it almost felt like a scene was cut or something, before that. I wanted to see how it eats...something, anything. Does it just consume flesh and spit out blood? Did it liquify them and spit out whatever it could ingest? I hate to be the "show me more" guy because I tend to hate that guy, but here....

[close]

The Jupe stuff with the monkey, and how he lived off that tragedy while trying to find something else to exploit, was great.

At first I really liked the idea that

spoiler (click to show/hide)

it's just the ship itself. When I think about these kind of alien movies the UFO itself is often the real star compared to the little grey aliens that sit inside of it, so in that way I thought it was a cool idea to just put all the focus on that. But I also agree that they didn't quite make the most of it and I was for example more confused about how and why it was transforming so much in the final scenes. I think in a more typical movie they would have added scenes were they figure out more stuff about how exactly that thing works, why and how it eats, how it floats etc. and then exploit that to kill it. Instead Peele seemed to focus more on keeping the UFO mysterious and maybe incomprehensible for humans which I think has some mixed results.

[close]

btw. Really loved all the cinematography and actors in this. While Peele's movies often have a focus on a big mystery I imagine he would handle a more typical drama quite well too

spoiler (click to show/hide)

One issue with the "incomprehensible for humans" thing is that it operates like an earth based animal, where looking in its eyes triggers aggression. OJ almost immediately recognized this, based on the horse scene at the beginning of the movie. Flip side Jupe, who only survived the Gordy attack because the monkey was looking at him through a table cloth, didn't realize it. That would be cool if this was a movie about some ancient animal/dinosaur that appeared in the west and started eating people. Hard to buy it for an extraterrestrial alien with no other earthly similarities.

[close]

I also loved the cinematography. Music was cool too, especially having cowboy adventure music during a straight up science fiction scene. That was so weirdly awesome.

[Tuckers Law]

 



Leave it to Al to make his biopic a parody of biopics.  I can't wait!

[Polident Hive]

Nope spoilers

spoiler (click to show/hide)

I liked the creature design for how it told a story without explicitly telling it. If that makes sense. Both forms of it, you can infer a history of others who encountered it or others of its species. How’d the flying saucers and tractor beam imagery become cliche. The second form, it resembled the biblical depiction of angels. Can imagine these things being around for thousands of years. The idea it’s alien, insofar as it’s an extraterrestrial, is in contention. Could be an ancient Earth species nearly extinct.

[close]

Anyway, really enjoyed the movie. The sibling relationship is genuinely one of the best I’ve seen in fiction. And like other aspects, it’s shown in their interactions. It says everything it needs to say without dumbing it down.

[Tasty]

https://bloody-disgusting.com/movie/3729455/tusk-2-kevin-smith-reportedly-planning-a-sequel-to-his-whacky-horror-movie/

oh god please no

[Tuckers Law]

Pretty sure at this point Kevin Smith is inhaling more weed than air.

[GreatSageEqualOfHeaven]

Who changed music... Literally

[Tasty]

Report: Warner Bros. Regrets Releasing Zack Snyder’s Justice League

[Nintex]

As related in the report, the lament over the director’s cut of Justice League doesn’t have anything to do with the quality of the film or the rumored $70 million it took to complete. Instead, the studio is said to be dismayed that it failed to satisfy Snyder’s online fans. If anything, the Snyderverse fans are “only further entrenched…in opposition to the leadership at the studio in general and at DC in particular.”

A report in Rolling Stone last month laid out Warner Bros.’ internal belief that Snyder directly mobilized the #ReleasetheSnyderCut movement against the studio. It’s also WB’s belief that over 13% of Snyder’s followers were bots. The story even contended that the studio believes that Snyder and Cyborg actor Ray Fisher worked in conjunction to make WB look bad. Whether those allegations are true is unknown, but that was reportedly the internal belief at Warner Bros. Pictures.

#RestoreTheSnyderVerse

You make yourself look bad with the original cut of Justice League and whatever the fuck that Wonderman 1984 thing was clowns.

[Tasty]

People forget the original Justice League cut was mostly a mess because Kevin Tsujihara was a sex pest and couldn't keep his dick out of the talent nor the films they starred in.

WW84 was the opposite problem where they gave Patty Jenkins too much money and creative control. One of WB's notes was that the double-opening was pretty dumb and should be cut, and she was like "Nah bitch I made Wonder Woman 1, also we're adding cheetah TFing deal with it 🖕😎🖕"

[Tasty]

Also I'm just gonna say it, Ray Fischer is a shitty Cyborg.

Actually I never liked most of the casting...

- When the first Man of Steel promo shots were released in 2011 I remember thinking Henry Cavill looks too evil and mob bossy to be Supes. He's gone up in my book a lot since then but he'll never be a boyscout like Reeves, and that's what I want in my Superman.

- Gal Gadot has also grown on me, strangely I think she's almost too skinny to be Diana, makes her action scenes come off like Victoria Secret commercials a little. Maybe I watched too much WW76 back in the day, Linda Carter was perfect. Gal's accent still throws me sometimes.

- Jason Momoa isn't a great actor but he gets a The Rock pass for being so charming. Otherwise, I don't care about Aquaman and I enjoy what feels like a fresh take on the character.

- I go back and forth on Batfleck. I hate his suit and Batmobile, but otherwise he's probably OK. Not the best choice they could have gone with. RPats is way better obviously, but he had better material.

- Ezra Miller has always come off as this off-kilter weirdo (see also: There's Something About Kevin) and he. Just. Is. Not. Barry Allen. I don't know what the hell he is in that film, but he ain't Barry.

[Polident Hive]

Couple interesting things about that and other articles lately. Pretty transparent that it’s recently fired people trying to hurt the new admins. There was another story of Legendary jumping to Paramount or Sony. It was framed as a result of WBD. But the issues run back to 2020 and earlier. WBD probably sucks ass too but they inherited the debt and problems of the formers.

Also, trying to make Snyder the “Bernie is why Hilary lost” for this shit is kinda insane. If you want an example of how easy it is to please everybody, Momoa saying Affleck is coming back for a Aquaman 2 cameo got more positive attention than everything they showed at comic con. Or go back to when Snyder and Reeves were hyping up each others’ movies. Both ended up being really successful. It’s only a mistake for the same reason as Joker being successful is a mistake: the studio bet against them.

In time Disney will own all this. They know how to do the combative marketing thing. It’s like how some Star Wars fans want Lucas to come back. But they’ve got a well oiled machine and fanboys who’ll pay thousands to sleep in a plastic coffin apartment… ok the prospect of a life sized Batcave attraction where you can sleep behind the giant penny is something I’m not not interested in.

[Polident Hive]

Double posting because I realized this is the movie thread and not cape shit one.

Watched Vengeance the other day. Directed, written, and starring the guy from The Office. BJ something. Pretty good. In a broad sense it’s about This American Life or true crime podcasts from the perspective of the podcasters and listeners. Dark comedy mystery deal. Boyd Holbrook’s great in it and between this and Sandman, it’s cool to see him pop up. Surprisingly good role for Aston Kutcher, too.

[Tasty]

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x68vz90

How have I never seen this before

Holy shit Ratner

[GreatSageEqualOfHeaven]

Also I'm just gonna say it, Ray Fischer is a shitty Cyborg.

He's kind of a shitty character, I think the casting was fine - the original cut had fuck all for him to do in it other than be human internet anyway.
You can see from how much more screentime and actual storyline he had in the snyder cut why he was so pissed.

- Gal Gadot has also grown on me, strangely I think she's almost too skinny to be Diana, makes her action scenes come off like Victoria Secret commercials a little. Maybe I watched too much WW76 back in the day, Linda Carter was perfect. Gal's accent still throws me sometimes.

That she has an accent? It's nice when characters who are not american stay not american in the move to TV / Film.

- I go back and forth on Batfleck. I hate his suit and Batmobile, but otherwise he's probably OK. Not the best choice they could have gone with. RPats is way better obviously, but he had better material.

I think affleck is a great bruce wayne but a not great batman.

- Ezra Miller has always come off as this off-kilter weirdo (see also: There's Something About Kevin) and he. Just. Is. Not. Barry Allen. I don't know what the hell he is in that film, but he ain't Barry.

Barry Allen is a boring character (like Hal Jordan) who has little personality because it was the silver age and you didn't need much character development when you had very little in the actual way of canon and everything was supposed to just be episodic shit for kids who don't care.
The character development other characters got was all post-crisis, and barrys one job in crisis was to get killed off and be replaced with the way fucking better wally west.

Its only because geoff johns has a hard on for his flash and green lantern that barry allen and hal jordan came back, and they just stuck wally wests character onto barry because wally west is way fucking better.

ok the prospect of a life sized Batcave attraction where you can sleep behind the giant penny is something I’m not not interested in.

If I ever make stupid money, I'm hiring Michael Caine to just come to my mcmansion and say "yes, mawster bruce" to questions every so often

[HaughtyFrank]

I was never bothered by Gal Gadots accent but it is pretty funny that they had the entire Amazon Island speak with the same accent to not make her the odd one out

[Polident Hive]

If I ever make stupid money, I'm hiring Michael Caine to just come to my mcmansion and say "yes, mawster bruce" to questions every so often

True story. Back in the early 2000s, when Affleck had the money, he built a secret room behind a bookshelf to be a batcave. Think he sold that house to Kevin Smith at some point.

If I’m ever a home owner, I’m corny enough to do the same.

[D3RANG3D]

[Joe Molotov]

I expected it to look a lot cheaper and stupider, kinda looks like a decent slasher tbh.

[Transhuman]

[Madrun Badrun]

The Black Phone was good.  The tone was slightly inconsistent but I thought the ending was satisfying. 

[Bebpo]

Finally watched Coda. Was good and entertaining and fairly wholesome. Felt kind of like a live-action Disney movie tbh.

[Snoopycat_]

Gentlemen, this may be one of the greatest movies ever made -



Starring Michael Flatley

Directed by Michael Flatley

Written by Michael Flatley

Produced by Michael Flatley

Funded by Michael Flatley

Wardrobe by Michael Flatley

[GreatSageEqualOfHeaven]

I need to know if Michael Flatley wears a black tank top in that film

[Bebpo]

tick, tick...BOOM! was alright. Interesting for sure and Garfield was charismatic. But as a film was a bit boring by the end I thought with some standout sequences.

I never saw Rent though, so it definitely got me interested in checking out the broadway recording of it at some point.

[Bebpo]

The Devil All the Time I remember reviews/word of mouth being kinda down on this, but I thought it was really good? Kinda No Country for Old Men-ish. Tom Holland was kinda decent, whereas he's normally a pretty bad actor. Bill Skarsgard was excellent as always. And this was one of Robert Pattison's weaker performances imo. Was kind of a nothing performance.

Cinematography & directing was really great all throughout.

Yeah, checking out one of the reviewers I follow, they say

Upon its release, Pollock’s novel was compared to Cormac McCarthy’s work so it’s perhaps natural to remark on surface similarities in the movie to the Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men. However, where the Oscar-winning directors found a streak of dark comedy in the heart of an otherwise somber and downbeat narrative, The Devil All the Time is less daring in its approach to this material. The resulting production is engrossing but conventional – a well-told story whose evocative setting and vivid performances combine to produce a grim and lurid tableau.

Yeah, movie wasn't really breaking any ground, but it was just a well made entertaining movie that looked nice and had some good performances and was engrossing, which can be good enough for a 2 hour investment of time.

[Snoopycat_]

I need to know if Michael Flatley wears a black tank top in that film

Look at the angle of that hat. That's elite level jauntiness. You have to train in fedora for decades to reach that level.

[Polident Hive]

https://twitter.com/icemavs/status/1566540099663171584

This man is unwell. A total lunatic.

…

Can’t wait 

[HaughtyFrank]

I did not expect that ending. Totally mad lad.

[Potato]

So, after tossing up whether to watch Dune before I read the book, I gave in and watched it tonight. Damn, that was good. My daughter was annoyed when it ended because she wanted to see the whole story.

[Madrun Badrun]

Glorious was a bit of a let down.  I actually was pleasantly surprised with the horror but let down by the comedy. 

[Tasty]

So, after tossing up whether to watch Dune before I read the book, I gave in and watched it tonight. Damn, that was good. My daughter was annoyed when it ended because she wanted to see the whole story.

That's pretty much how everyone felt lol. But there would be no other proper way to do it honestly. Future generations will have both movies available to watch back-to-back, right now we're in that between-Kill-Bill-1-and-2 phase.

[HaughtyFrank]

https://twitter.com/DiscussingFilm/status/1566555722049019910

I had never heard of "The Whale" and certainly not that it's the latest Aronofsky movie.

Very interested now.

[Tasty]

I heard of it a while back but it kinda fell off my radar hard.

Glad Brendan is getting recognition, it's well-deserved.

[Potato]

So, after tossing up whether to watch Dune before I read the book, I gave in and watched it tonight. Damn, that was good. My daughter was annoyed when it ended because she wanted to see the whole story.

That's pretty much how everyone felt lol. But there would be no other proper way to do it honestly. Future generations will have both movies available to watch back-to-back, right now we're in that between-Kill-Bill-1-and-2 phase.

Except Kill Bill was so bad I actively avoided ever seeing Part 2

[Tasty]

[james]

https://twitter.com/DiscussingFilm/status/1566555722049019910

I had never heard of "The Whale" and certainly not that it's the latest Aronofsky movie.

Very interested now.

I posted about it here I better not be on ignore you coward

[Bebpo]

I'm midway through Sideways for the first time and this movie feels really dated. It's not even 20 years old!

[Bebpo]

Yeah, it was just ok. 2004 was a weird year in terms of oscar noms.

[Cauliflower Of Love]

Nope: lol





fucking: 100% everything

it was just so  boring watching all this dramatics.

[benjipwns]

https://twitter.com/lily_lxndr/status/1566466424717152260

[GreatSageEqualOfHeaven]

Watched Everything Everywhere All At Once and loved it.
Hard disagree with people who think it went on for too long.

Specific thoughts I'm gonna spoiler, because honestly, the less you know going in the more I think you'll enjoy it.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

• Michelle Yeoh is great, and she deserves to get emmy / oscar noms for this but I dunno if its too high concept a film for the academy to consider. A lot of great visual design too
• HOLY SHIT, THATS SHORT ROUND! 
• I really liked the message that nihilism can be defeated by small acts of kindness, which do in fact matter. Its not super insightful as a theme, but it was well sold. The goofiness also helped with that - I'm pretty sure the bagel of doom is a play on the old zen hot dog joke ('make me one with everything'). It was also nice how despite being about, you know, the name of the film, it was actually just about the relationships of a small group of people, which further reinforced that overall theme.
• A lot of creative use of 'super powers' which is what most capeshit is really missing; hotdog fingers paying off in multiple ways as both a means to escape handcuffs and also having extra dextrous feet, or going with a pizza sign slinger
• Tapping into alternate universes by doing improbable things is a neat idea - very Infinite Improbability Drive in the way it was used as well, although I'd have liked the random acts to somehow tie a little more strongly into the alternate universes - for example, telling JLC she loves her should have unlocked hotdog hands, because in the hot dog hands universe, she in fact does.

[close]

[Cauliflower Of Love]

A lot of creative use of 'super powers' which is what most capeshit is really missing; hotdog fingers paying off in multiple ways as both a means to escape handcuffs and also having extra dextrous feet, or going with a pizza sign slinger

Gonna un spoiler this, cause fuck you if like truth.  It's crazy how lazy super heroes films have gotten.

[GreatSageEqualOfHeaven]

Seeing that the guy who made this also made Legion made a lot of things click for me too, both in terms of some of the weirder visuals, the musical interludes and altered perspectives.

Also at the extended Ratatouille joke

[Joe Molotov]

https://twitter.com/lily_lxndr/status/1566466424717152260

The wokies ruining another franchise with their forced diversity hires!

[Potato]

That's a lot of  .


Aside from the "openly French Canadian" thing, "major studio franchise reboot" is some serious 

[Madrun Badrun]

Thor 4 was great.  I can understand the goofy humour not being for everyone but it was a very competent movie and a good sequel to 3.  I don't get complaints about tone inconsistency --the serious moments in the second half were not brought down by the first half having the same tone as the naked gun. 

[Madrun Badrun]

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/barbarian_2022 looks cool