Film and Episodic Content Discussion Thread

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

  1. perogie

    perogie Facebook Friend

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    Inception was the last film of his that I truly enjoyed but the only movies that he has directed/written that have any replay value for me (a personal indicator of my having truly appreciated the movie) are the Dark Knight and Momento and that may be more due the scope of certain acting performances. I kind of wonder if Inception was even that good or if I just got wrapped up in the spectacle, I own a copy but have never actually watched it outside of it's initial theatrical release.

    Maybe I secretly know that I'll lose whatever fondness I had for it.
     
  2. Pharmaboy

    Pharmaboy Friend

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    Here's a Sci-Fi film that succeeds by being slow, deliberate, highly visual and minimally verbal. It's ANON on Netflix. The well-matched stars are Clive Owen, who seems incapable of a bad or even just average performance; and Amanda Seyfried, an actress I never liked before this performance.

    It's not huge; not a spectacle. Instead, it's intense, visually compelling, well paced, and thought-provoking. The point of the plot, delivered in the final line by Seyfried, has great resonance today.

    I've seen it twice, and it holds up well...
     
  3. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

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    Inception suffers from the same "too cerebral" thing, just not as much. Tenet is absolutely beyond the pale here. It kind of collapses under the weight of its lofty concepts.

    And the inaudible dialogue is actually hurting the story now. I shouldn't need subtitles to understand what's going on. And nearly everyone has the same complaint. When almost everyone is complaining about something, you should think about changing your strategy.
     
  4. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

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    Paranoia, bleakness, nihilism, dread... all things we're currently struggling with as a culture was predicted in John Carpenter's 1982 masterpiece, and its the subject of my latest video. Join me for a deep dive into the madness of the end of the world.

    New video every Wednesday at 12 noon central.

     
  5. Pharmaboy

    Pharmaboy Friend

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    This video is unusually insightful, above even your own usual standard. That's because it does so much to explain generic cinema vs inspired, immersive cinema; visual story-telling vs dialogue-driven story-telling; and genuine character mystique vs the mere telegraphing of superhero "brand."

    I bring my own baggage to the BLADE trilogy, as we all do. I am pre-configured to love these films because:
    • The vampire myth never loses its dark hold over me--any and every film and book that comes along with something real to say about vampirism will thrill me to no end
    • I see Wes Snipes and Blade as heroic, mythic black men onscreen, in the great tradition of SHAFT, Easy Rollins of DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS, Sam Jackson in PULP FICTION, Chadwick Boseman in several films (not only BLACK PANTHER). The allure of black heroes, at least for me, is less about ethnicity and culture than mythic gravitas, fearlessness, physical prowess in the service of ideals. Blade is an exceptional hero for our troubled times
    • I'm also a fan of great martial arts, and this is a thing that this star and this director brought into BLADE with great impact & realization. A quasi-vampire with magnificent martial arts skills? Genius!
    There's a moderately entertaining podcast called THE REWATCHABLES. The tone & execution are uneven, with perhaps too many bro-isms for my comfort. But the central idea--that certain films are endlessly rewatchable in ways others just aren't--is dead-on accurate in my experience.

    BLADE is very high on my list of rewatchable films.
     
  6. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

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    Appreciate the comments. It's a pet peeve I have with Hollywood storytelling in general. But their goal is to make money, and when you're not creative, you do that by trying to please as many people as possible with as generic of an idea and method as possible. So they encourage bland, flat, disposable visual and narrative styles, presenting as much information as possible through dialogue and simple visuals so no one is confused at any point. It's basically destroyed mainstream cinema. Movies are more like television now. You have outliers like Nolan, Spielberg and Tarantino and the occasional A Star Is Born (way more moody and cinematic than Bohemian Rhapsody), but the vast majority is forced to play by the rules or be fired. The interesting stuff is being done in independent realm, but they often don't have the budgets to fully realize their visions, and they often fall into the same traps of aping things that have already been made. You do have some talented mavericks though like Ari Aster, Ana Lily Armipour, David Robert Mitchell, etc....
     
  7. squishware

    squishware Friend

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    Just finished "The Patriot" (2000). Powerful Film. I was moved to tears more than once (which never happens). I grew up near Valley Forge, PA and have a deep disdain of redcoats.
     
  8. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

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    I was let down by two Mars themed Tv shows this week. Both on Netflix. MARS and AWAY. Both really intriguing setups, destroyed by stupid writing.

    AWAY basically took anything interesting about the logistics of a first manned mission to Mars and saddled it with soap opera shenanigans. It's a problem that happens with alot of these space shows. Characters who wouldn't be let near an oil rig let alone a Mars mission... people with psychological profiles totally unfit for space travel, and certainly not long, complex missions to new planets. The writers have to create drama, so they do it by betraying any authenticity in a space crew... fights, bickering, betrayal... and this was ALL IN THE FIRST EPISODE! They hadn't even lifted off for Mars yet (they were on the moon base) and there's no f'ing way NASA wouldn't scrap the mission with these people as crew.

    MARS nailed the science, and actually had a really interesting cross cutting pattern between present day (or at least 2016) where real world engineers and scientists were preparing for a Mars mission (courtesy of Elon Musk's Space-X) and a fictional manned mission to Mars in 2033. 2016 - we get to see real world deep dives into what it would take to launch, travel and settle on Mars, including all the pitfalls, and for each topic we cut to 2033 and witness the fictional crew essentially acting out the fantasies of the real Space-X planners. Really cool. Except something really REALLY stupid happens in Episode 5 that made me cease watching:
    A massive dust storm engulfs the area for months, obscuring the solar panels and forcing them on reserves... and we see the crew start to disintegrate psychologically... the worst is a botanist, who becomes so delusional, just as the dust storm ends and everyone is celebrating... hallucinates that he's back on earth at his old house as a kid, and goes and opens the front door... except he's still in the Mars habitat and actually opens a door in the greenhouse THAT LEADS DIRECTLY TO THE MARTIAN ATMOSPHERE! That's right... no airlock. Nope. Just a single f'ing door that can be opened by anyone and jeopardize the lives of everyone in the base. Before he is able to open the door, they monitor him from the cameras and are able to evacuate the area except for one poor guy who gets sucked out into the Martian atmosphere. All because the geniuses at NASA decided to put a single door leading directly outside, with no safety measure... no override button, no airlock... nothing.

    f**k YOU, SHOW.
     
  9. Pharmaboy

    Pharmaboy Friend

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    Well, I'm into 2 new Netflix shows that are not letting me down at all. Rare that I could say that:
    • EVIL: The topic seems overly familiar--demonic possession and emissaries of the Catholic church struggling to distinguish real phenomena from mundane events. But it's delivered with a snap and verve that disarm the viewer. Mostly that's because the actors are so good: the always intriguing Mike Colter, Aasiv Mandvi as the resolute tech skeptic, Katja Herbers (terrific here--never saw her before) as the psychology expert, and Michael Emerson (so good in PERSON OF INTEREST) as a resourceful demon. But it's also because each episode takes unexpected turns and leaves things messy. I'm 3 episodes in and thoroughly charmed.
    • SONG EXPLODER: This new series is by the originator of the acclaimed podcast of the same name, and for those interested in music & music-making, it's a must-see. The first episode is a deep dive into Alicia Keyes' "3 Hour Drive." This is not a song I'd heard before, not one I love. But the passion and inspiration of the 3 collaborators is compelling. Apart from the fame & glitz in the music business, at heart these are highly creative, vulnerable people who make a living by plumbing their feelings and memories for musical inspirations. Any show about creative inspiration and craft is for me.
    There are many wrong turns and dead-ends in streaming content, so when I finally land on a couple shows that thrill me, life is good.
     
  10. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

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    Funny enough I got a few glasses of wine in me tonight over Netflix's YOU and I'm impressed. Netflix shows generally teeter between horrid and not so horrid, but YOU is one of the first that I didn't want to punch incessantly. It's an interesting meta / modern take on the Travis Bickle archetype, and the lead character somehow makes being a creepy, stalking psychopath actually endearing. Yeah, it's another anti-hero show, and there's way too many, but it works.
     
  11. gixxerwimp

    gixxerwimp Professional tricycle rider

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    Just finished Doom Patrol S2. WTF ... I hate it when they leave you danglling and not even a date for the continuation. I would have just waited for S3 before starting if I'd known. Great viewing otherwise.
     
  12. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

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    Requiem For A Dream is the best anti-drug PSA I've ever seen, and as a film it's full of symbolism and subtext.... my latest video deciphers the various layers of Darren Aronofsky's uncompromising breakthrough.

    New video every Wednesday at 12 noon Central.

     
  13. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    They’re making another Batman movie? Why why why. Well money obviously but why?????!! Christopher Nolan’s trilogy was a f'ing masterpiece. Best superhero movies ever made and I’m confident will ever be made. Quite profound actually.

    lay it to rest. Jesus the American people used to not be interested in remakes for decades. Or at least the studios had some kind of sense of shame and so waited. Spider-Man what, less than a decade after the first trilogy and the remake added nothing. Now more Batman. porkers.

    I’m personally sick to death of superhero superpower movies and won’t watch them anymore or series. I think the God awful Flash series was the nail in he coffin. I really want to punch that dumbass “tech geek” who was constantly giving people stupid names and was so transparently unintelligent.
     
  14. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

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    Alan Moore is right there with you:

    https://deadline.com/2020/10/alan-m...superhero-movies-blighted-culture-1234594526/
     
  15. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    Awesome interview that guy has his head on straight. I agreed with everything he said. Some great insights I hadn’t thought of too.
     
  16. iFi audio

    iFi audio MOT iFi Audio

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    What I pity the most is how The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen ended on the big screen. Such a cool idea for a great flick, but so poorly executed. Still I have a soft spot for this one and I've seen it probably more times than I should.
     
  17. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    lol I think I walked out of the theatre on that one. But I totally agree on the concept. I bet the comic was great. Though I don’t like comics.
     
  18. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

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    JJ Abrams' Star Trek was a hard pill for me to swallow despite being fun and engaging. I feel like it strayed too far from Trek's original "core values" so to speak. But the bigger takeaway is Abrams' background and style as a filmmaker, which informed the choices he made for his version of the beloved franchise. All this and more in my latest video.

    New video every Wednesday at 12 Noon Central.

     
  19. Pharmaboy

    Pharmaboy Friend

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    After a couple years of Netflix as my only streaming outlet, I finally signed on to Prime Video last week. The main impetus for this was my urge to see BOSCH (I'm a huge fan of the Michael Connelly books upon which the show is based).

    Early results after 6 episodes of BOSCH:
    • The show is excellent--everything I could have asked for. The first season is based in my favorite of the books (nice). I'm impressed by the deep lineup of solid character actors here--they're all character actors, some I've never seen, including Jamie Hector (I never watched THE WIRE, thus missed him).
    • Titus Welliver as Bosch is not a trad leading man. Still, he's a fascinating casting choice--the camera loves his face; it has no bad side or angle . He does much subtle face acting, which I appreciate; that's especially good because this is not a "talky" drama where dialogue explains feelings and motives. And that's realistic because cops aren't the most garrulous people out there.
    • Jason Gedrick as Raynard Waitz is very creepy. He somehow manages to underplay a sociopath who kills a new victim every day or two.
    Not so good are my impressions of Prime Video as a streaming platform. There's much content here, but the onscreen features and organization fall far short of Netflix, IMO the standard bearer. It took a full 6 episodes of BOSCH for Prime's AI to realize I'm watching this show and should be presented by the next episodes; it was also slow to let me start wherever I left off watching in a given episode. These are things Netflix does seamlessly.

    No matter. I'm sucked in & binging, which is the whole point.
     
  20. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

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    Prime Video is pretty awful on the UI front. Worlds beneath netflix, who have it down to a science.
     

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