Film and Episodic Content Discussion Thread

Discussion in 'Random Thoughts' started by purr1n, Jan 8, 2020.

  1. ogodei

    ogodei MOT: Austin AudioWorks

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    'Shawscope Volume One', new blu-ray transfers of 12 Shaw Brothers wuxia classics, has finally been released. I've had this set ordered since forever.

    https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Shawscope-Volume-One-Blu-ray/294876/#Review

    I watched 'King Boxer', AKA 'Fists of Fury' tonight and the picture is superb, leagues better than the old DVDs and bootlegs Ive been watching for years. I can see the action in the alley scenes ! The movie itself is of course excellent. If this transfer is any indicator of the others this is a dream come true. Lots of extras as well. Two frickin bonus soundtrack CDs !

    Anybody who's a fan should consider picking the set up.
     
  2. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

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    Oh, The Matrix Resurrections was terrible.
     
  3. Rockwell

    Rockwell Friend

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    Boba Fett was meh. Some cool ideas but a little ham fisted overall and the character lacked the gravitas he had in the Mandalorian series. I'm open and optimistic but the series is going to have to win me back a little at this point.
     
  4. Gazny

    Gazny MOT: ETA Audio

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    I agree, it felt too meta for meta sake. It was disrespectful to me and the source material. I don't need to know the lore. But sure if you gotta remind everyone what happened and how it is all somehow important to the current story. It wasn't.

    • Imagine a movie with more nostalgia clips than new content
     
  5. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

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    It felt like it was made as an obligation rather than a necessity. I know WB was going to make a sequel regardless so the Wachowski sibling probably just wanted to be involved out of a sense of ownership but had no actual story to tell.
     
  6. haywood

    haywood Friend

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    I saw a tweet that said the Wachowskis had been shown a pre-release version of Dark City and borrowed liberally from it. I’ve seen both and don’t know if I would have made that connection but it would explain why the follow up movies have been so terrible.

     
  7. YMO

    YMO Chief Fun Officer

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    Reminder: Until tomorrow if you haven't sub to Criterion Channel before you can get an one year subscription for $89.99. Normally it's $99.99. I might be spamming a bit but I can't stress the value you are getting from their services.
     
  8. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    I had low expectations, so I rather liked it. It was missing an old Han Solo though, oh wait, wrong movie.
     
  9. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Best shows of 2021!
    • WandaVision: Didn't watch it, don't care
    • Loki: Didn't watch it, don't care
    • The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: Didn't watch it, don't care.
    • Coming 2 America: Watched a few minutes, was confused if this was Black Panther for a minute, walked away
    • Cobra Kai: Watched two episodes, entertaining
    • Bridgerton: After the Crown, taking a break from British shows
    • Shadow and Bone: Watched two episodes, it this supposed to be like Airbender and GoT combined, but worse?
    • Mortal Kombat: Watched it through, was amused but don't remember the plot
    • Godzilla vs. Kong: I liked this one, but somehow I don't know how I forgot Alexander Skarsgard was in it.
    • Jupiter's Legacy: I tortured myself through this, don't know why
    • Black Widow: I don't know what the f**k this was supposed to be about
    • Zack Synder's Justice League: I profusely apologize for calling you a hack. You took some risks and more things worked than not. Obviously Josh Wheldon tried to f**k you over
    • Space Jam: I actively try to avoid LeBron brands
    • Suicide Squad: When John "I'm sorry for saying Taiwan is a country, I love the Chinese people" Cena is in it, I need to see because I need a break from The Rock.
    • Shang-Chi: Couldn't tell if this was Kim's Convenience or Shang-Chi. Didn't know WTF those rings were supposed to be (skipped the end-credits - seriously FU with this end credits stuff Marvel). Anyway, the best Disney show of the year despite its flaws
    • Spiderman: going this afternoon
    • Squid Game: inspired kids to make Korean sugar candy and play paper flip game so they could slap each other. Massively entertaining
    • Dune: too much said about this in another thread, hope Dune II gets cancelled, willing to sign change.org petition if someone starts one
    • No Time to Die: rotated out of local movie theater too quickly before I could catch it. Seriously MGM, make a streaming deal with someone. It's 2021, not 1970.
    • West Side Story: why did they do this? the original was kind of boring outside of two scenes with outstanding choreography dance and song, don't see the point of bringing it back more woke
    • Eternals: self gratuitous piece of shit. I don't like watching ugly and botched people being superheroes when the characters have no chemistry, the story is sucks, it's six hours long, and more woke than necessary
    • Discovery (season 4): the writers are doing a disservice to wokeness because viewers will associate wokeness with shitty conversations and ugly people, or actors with thick British lower-upton accents which are barely intelligible and have no acting range. Also, aren't people in quasi-military Starfleet required to pass physicals? I'd OK with chubby. I'm not OK with grossly obese. This is the 30th century. They have pills for this. I know what the writers are trying to do, they just need Ang Lee.
    • Last Duel: by the time I found out about this film, it already bombed. Ridley Scott is right, millennials hate history but love Instagram
    • Cowboy Bebop: God dammit. Malfoy? Seriously? Signed the change.org petition to keep it cancelled.
     
    Last edited: Dec 30, 2021
  10. ogodei

    ogodei MOT: Austin AudioWorks

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    A list of things you liked would be more appreciated.

    Did anyone watch "The Last Duel" ? Could be interesting but Ridley has let me down so many times...
     
  11. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    LOL, I didn't like much in 2021.

    The stuff I liked were discoveries of old stuff: Warrior TV series (2019) and A Girl Walks Home At Night (2014). The latter film's slow pace and lack of dialogue helped me prepare for Dune and Eternals. Otherwise I would have walked out.
     
  12. Tchoupitoulas

    Tchoupitoulas Friend

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    I just saw the latest Bond flick, Die Die Die Die. It was pants. Daniel Craig was emoting so much you’d think he was straining for an Oscar nomination. Lea Seydoux seemed heavily medicated. The new 007 wasn’t given a particularly interesting role. She just harrumphed around with too little to do. (It’d been great if she was charismatic or a man-eater or if she’d given Bond a damn good spanking). M was a nincompoop. For all the claims about the film giving space for female agency, Moneypenney was reduced to mere secretarial duties. Q did a decent job of hacking computers but should be fired for phoning in the gadgets. And neither villain was particularly villainous, but then again, few Bond baddies are these days. (Rosa Kleb’s the best, Robert Shaw, Goldfinger was awesome, as was Christopher Walken, and then there was Cowabunga, or whatever his name was, the dude with the three nipples.)

    Anyway, there were some redeeming elements to Die Die Please Die. The action sequences weren’t interminably long or boring. Jeffrey Wright was always a welcome presence in the franchise; too bad his appearance was so brief here. The scenes in Cuba with Ana de Armas were far and away the best thing about the film; they had some good action sequences, a few decent jokes, and a bunch of dastardly mischief. And it was cool to have a Dr. No island for the final sequence.

    Now Time for the Franchise to Die.
     
  13. Pharmaboy

    Pharmaboy Friend

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    What a bizarre year 2021 was! After not going to theaters for 16 months, I finally went to see the unheralded, unacknowledged winner of the year in my book: Bob Odenkirk's break-out "...a very particular set of skills" role in NOBODY.

    Sure, my judgement is off: it was like getting laid after a couple years in solitary. Still, I liked the movie a lot & appreciated that my 1st film after so long was this one.
    • Apparently I'm the only talking about NOBODY. You can rent/stream it on Amazon.
    Another terrific move, the best I streamed all year, was A GIRL WALKS ALONE HOME AT NIGHT, a stylish Iranian vampire story, director Ana Lily Amirpour’s excellent debut feature. I loved the verve and experimental vibe of this film. It felt like I was watching NIGHTS OF CABIRIA (with fangs).
     
  14. Pharmaboy

    Pharmaboy Friend

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    ...and yes, THE ETERNALS really sucked. It was the movie equivalent of a lengthy kidney dialysis session in an uncomfortable chair, complete with headache, itching, and local discomfort.

    I love seeing Richard Madden again--but please, in something else, not this!
     
  15. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    That was the standout for me this year, even though it was made many years ago. The skateboarding scene was great, so was the end with the guy frantically pacing going WTF WTF only to decide f**k it. All of it was great.

    Thank you for saving me money and most importantly time.

    LOL, director had no idea WTF she was doing. Superhero films a lot different than weird lady from Fargo pretending to be a nomad in a van. I did the premium lounge seating deal (first theater movie since pandemic), so at least I was physically comfortable.

    I also don't know how they made Rob Stark kind of ugly. I'm convinced that the director was trying to the Nomadland look for everyone.

    ---

    I think it's safe to say: expect more shit.

    There is a dearth of good writers because of streaming. Also because of streaming, shows that don't need to be stretched out get stretched out to fill the number of episodes quota (especially true for Amazon shows).

    I am looking forward to Strange New Worlds on the strength of Anson Mount's performance (add Peck and RR too) in Discovery two seasons ago. I just hope it doesn't turn into Woke New Worlds.

    Lower Decks >> Discovery
     
    Last edited: Dec 30, 2021
  16. roshambo123

    roshambo123 Friend

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    I fear what will happen with the next Bond. The franchise only exists so it can pretend to stumble into the woke crowd's wicker man so they can burn it for the gods of progress.
     
  17. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

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    To be fair, most films are almagamations of other films to some degree... some more than others and everybody steals from everybody else. Need I mention Tarantino? The key is to be stylistic different and bring some kind of unique technical flair. Or as Roger Ebert once said... A movie isnt about what its about, its about HOW it's about it.

    But the first Matrix is too well written and directed to be framed as some kind of rip off. The W's clearly had their own take on the ideas. I also think the sequels sucked more because they did not have much time in the writing phase.... as the studio wanted sequels immediately and they were shot back to back.
     
  18. rott

    rott Secretly hates other millenials - Friend

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    As crappy as most of the movie content was in the past year, I have a huge Mads Mikkelsen man-crush and enjoyed Another Round and Riders of Justice (though both were released in 2020).
     
  19. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

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    Yeah Bond kind of sucked. And Craig dying at the end was uber dumb. This is a franchise about a man who specializes in the last minute escape. And Bond is returning anyway, so what's the point of killing him?
     
  20. Pharmaboy

    Pharmaboy Friend

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    I love Mads--he's terrific in everything he does.

    Never heard of RIDERS OF JUSTICE...will see it on Amazon. Thanks!
     

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