Film and Episodic Content Discussion Thread

Just got back from seeing Dune 2 in IMAX. I liked it. I'm assuming that there'll be another one from where this one left off.

 

Watched Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves last night. What an enjoyable movie. Chris Pine is a delight throughout. The script gives him a lot to do and he is just killing it the whole time.

Special effects were also great for once. The creature and spell CG looked expensive and fun. CG stuff had real weight and mass. It reminded me of the Pirates of the Carribean films. Except for one thing: tiny Bradley Cooper was obviously faked and not great.

Fight choreography was top notch too. Michelle Rodriguez is doing some amazing stuff throughout. There’s a particular gag with a bow that is f'ing great. Almost Jackie Chan level of surprise and physical storytelling.

Highly recommended!

On the other end of the spectrum, I rewatched Marathon Man. What a masterpiece. I love a movie that just slowly unfolds and is patient enough to let the story emerge.

Also the tension! This movie is stressful. All the violence is intimate and personal, high stakes. If you haven’t seen it lately, worth a rewatch.

 

Second any votes for Netflix 'The Gentlemen." The proposition of any Guy Ritchie movie is that the world is made of pure evil, so the only question is if the intelligent can survive the stupid.

 

Just learned that Season-2 of EVIL is now available on Netflix, where I saw Season-1 a couple years ago. And Season-3 is apparently available on Prime. So now I can continue watching this very strange, entertaining series.

The god vs devil dichotomy of the plot bores me (I somehow overcame Catholicism and generally don't find entertainment in demonic possession narratives). But the cast of this series is exceptional:

• I'd watch Mike Colter read the phone book. He's magnetic here, somehow flourishing despite the many lines of liturgical mumbo-jumbo the scripts burdens him with
  
• I'd never seen the Dutch/American actress, Katja Herbers, before this show. She's a real winner, equally adept at drama and sly comic material (this show has plenty of both). Her alliance with (and attraction to) Mike Colter's character is the core of the story
• All four actresses who play her children are very good. I like how this show uses them as a charming little peanut gallery/Greek chorus. They're either being menaced, or acting silly like little girls, all the time in the show (charming)
• And Aasif Mandvi, who plays the resident religious expert and tech expert, does excellent work here. Though he has little in common with the religious goings on, he exemplies goodness of character, which pretty much guarantees he's going to be bounced around something wicked in future episodes

EVIL is one of those shows where just when you think it's a light-hearted spoof, something evil & bloody happens. The frequent appearance of dream imagery, replete with different/contrasting cinematography and lighting, is very imaginative. I'm a sucker for the visual depiction of dreams and the subconscious.

Glad to be starting Season-2 of this enjoyable series.

 

Why is nobody posting here? I love this thread!

OK, I'll do the honors (again) ...

Just watched the first 15" of RUN LOLA RUN, the (ahem) runaway indie hit of 1998. It had so much buzz. I saw it in a theater in NYC when it first landed here.

I had totally forgotten how frantic and inventive this film is. Every camera trick in the book (and a few besides) is employed here within the first few minutes. The POV and camera positioning flip constantly, with animation sequences woven in and over the film. It's so kinetic that when the view defaults to a relatively standard pan shot of Lola running, it feels like the film is standing still, melting in the sprockets.

Pretty sure this was Famke Potente's 2nd film, with a bunch of German TV work in between. The 2nd time was obviously the charm: she received international exposure and acclaim for this role, which launched her career (more like being shot out of a cannon ... it's that kind of film). The next few times I saw her were BOURNE films, in which she was wonderful. I really need to track down some of her later work.

Anyway, more viewing ahead. But the first 15" of RUN LOLA RUN is quite a rush.

PS: This is my favorite Famke quote from IMDB:

"I said, 'Wouldn't it be great if Matt Damon's character fell in love with a girl with a real butt?' They were like, 'Yeah sure, sure - here's your personal trainer.' "​

 

That was a great film. I liked it so much I remember getting the OST. The music was really good and added to the frantic pacing. One of the best indie films I’ve seen.

 

I’ll add something:

The Expanse series was one of the best scifi I’ve seen in the last year (it’s been out for a while). The first several episodes were slow, but the story and characters really developed quickly. Is the future like Star Wars, or Star Trek? My take is that it will be like the Expanse with resource grabbing, class disparities, entitlements, bureaucracies…things we have today and throughout civilization.

 

Yeah, I forgot to mention the music. That plus the simple computer animation of Lola running made the film jump right off the screen.

 

Brit Marling has a real mystical presence onscreen. She has the vibe of someone who is dreaming the story we see her in.

Years ago I saw her in ANOTHER EARTH, a haunting story. Her backstory is amazing: she worked on Wall Street, somehow co-wrote this script, then starred in it in 2011.

I couldn't really follow OA, but whenever she was onscreen, she was compelling; with that same tentative, preoccupied presence.

I'll have to see this film. Thanks for mentioning it.

 

Not a movie, it's a mini series on Hulu. It's been recommended to me a couple of times as well, will have to watch.