Movie Discussion Thread

Discussion in 'Random Thoughts' started by sphinxvc, Dec 29, 2015.

Tags:
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. crenca

    crenca Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    May 26, 2017
    Likes Received:
    3,829
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Southern New Mexico
    I was able to watch the 1956 sci fi "Forbidden Planet" on Netflix the other day. Obviously a pioneering film, as much as "2001: A Space Odyssey" was, even though it took effort at times to look past the 1950's pretty girl pool hall kitsch. The core plot around the "Krell" was true/classic sci fi. The electronic music soundtrack really jumped out at me and itself was pioneering in several ways. Tidal has the soundtrack and Roon will give you a bit of the background to it.
     
  2. allegro

    allegro Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Nov 4, 2017
    Likes Received:
    637
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Location:
    Florida
    Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice now for rent or purchase on Amazon Prime streaming. If you love her music you will dig this. She does some of the narration with interviews of everyone from J.D. Souther to Don Henley and Dolly Parton talking about Linda, her music and career. Lot of poignant moments like Emmylou Harris talking about Gram Parsons. I saw almost everyone I loved to listen to on vinyl in the seventies in this documentary.

     
    Last edited: Dec 14, 2019
  3. Prydz

    Prydz Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2015
    Likes Received:
    210
    Trophy Points:
    63
    Location:
    Norway
    Ford v Ferrari

    Very enjoyable sunday movie. I dident really know the story, except for the obvious, but I still feel like they skipped ahead and left some out.
    The way they portrayed Ford was good, as I was worried the patriotism would ruin it.

    8/10
     
  4. Hrodulf

    Hrodulf Prohibited from acting as an MOT until year 2050

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Sep 28, 2015
    Likes Received:
    4,276
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Watched The Lighthouse the other day. Insanely good.
     
  5. kkl10

    kkl10 New

    Joined:
    Nov 25, 2019
    Likes Received:
    6
    Trophy Points:
    3
    Location:
    Portugal
    So much to watch, so much to listen, so much to do, so much lazy.

    sigh...
     
  6. BillOhio

    BillOhio Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Mar 3, 2017
    Likes Received:
    2,396
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Location:
    Glendale CA
    Home Page:
    Recent Movie Viewings:

    Michael Bay's 6 Underground. Adria Arjona is gorgeous, also... If you enjoy Michael Bay's Transformers except for all the robots, then this might just be the movie for you...

    Ford vs. Ferrari. Caitriona Balfe is gorgeous, also... An enjoyable watch. A very good movie to watch a movie to. I enjoyed my time watching this movie then forgot it immediately and there's nothing wrong with that.

    Knives Out. Ana de Armas is gorgeous, also... This sets up as a murder mystery that you'll initially feel like you're supposed to figure out 'who done it' but that all gets turned on it's head pretty quickly, although the 'who done it' tone remains in an enjoyable way. Pretty quickly on I decided 'You know what, instead of trying to figure out what's going on here I'm just going to sit back and watch this thing play out'. I very much enjoyed and was impressed by the way it played out. What the characters were doing on screen was enjoyable but the real enjoyment came from the craft that went in to the writing. That this was created by the same guy who wrote/directed The Last Jedi is very very strange to me as, of every movie I've seen in the last two years, these two movies might absolutely represent both ends of the spectrum of well written and shittily written movies.
     
    Last edited: Dec 20, 2019
  7. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Jun 16, 2016
    Likes Received:
    6,226
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Austin, TX
    Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker NO SPOILER review. There will be NO SPOILERS!

    The Rise of Skywalker (RoS) is the worst Star Wars movie ever made. It may in fact be the worst movie of the year. It is definitely the worst movie I've seen all year.

    Yes, it is worse than any of the prequels. Yes, even worse than Phantom Menace. Yes, I'm serious. No, this is not hyperbole.

    On a pure storytelling level, it is offensive. While Phantom Menace had kind of a shit overall narrative, it was at least coherent. You could understand what was going on from moment to moment and it was never confusing. It seems that JJ Abrams and his co-writer could not even get this right. RoS is, from top to bottom, so confusing I barely remember anything about the plot. Halfway through I thought to myself "I have no idea what's going on". And the film's relentless ADD pacing never gives you time to play catch up. This happened to a certain extent in Force Awakens, but not nearly to this degree... it is jacked up all the way past 11 here. This isn't a roller coaster ride. Those are fun. This is an out of control hell ride because the ride is broken and there is no one at the wheel. And you're going way faster than you should be and you're definitely going to crash and burn.

    The film is basically a relentless, endless stream of scavenger hunting, where characters need to find some gizmo to find another gizmo, to find some dude with another gizmo so they can find Emperor Palpatine or some such nonsense (who is back for some inexplicable reason). I can barely even recall enough to write a proper review. That's never happened to me with a Star Wars movie.

    The main problem is, the film completely ignores the previous entry (which I also hated, but not nearly this much) and starts from scratch. As a result, the film is constantly throwing exposition at you to the point where your brain can't take anymore (which came at about halfway through for me) and I just sat there slackjawed trying to enjoy the visual spectacle at least. But even that is so blazingly incoherent it barely registers. The camera is constantly moving, always tracking, pushing in, bobbing, weaving, even at inappropriate times of non action. I've never seen a Star Wars movie this determined to leave the audience behind. I don't know who this movie was made for beside your average sugar addled ADD afflicted 5 year old who doesn't need a story. And even they may not be able to handle this. Star Wars has never been solely for children. It was always resonant (and coherent enough) enough for people of all ages. But this is just... a children's cartoon... on acid. The film never calmed down enough to allow me to decompress, so everything rushed by in a blur.

    The character portrayals are abysmal. Everyone is constantly bickering at each other and throwing out one liners like your average 80s Schwarzenegger movie. What happened to the witty banter of the previous entries? The ribbing was always good natured and never overdone. And usually felt appropriate for the situation, which resulted in an organic, pleasing chemistry between the characters. Here it is just to fuel the relentless go-go-go nature of the plot... again, it is another thing the filmmakers felt the need to dial past 11.... and it feels wildly inappropriate, only adding to the film's feeling of clumsiness and incoherence.

    The only thing that threatens to become interesting is the Rey/Kylo relationship. It is kind of the heart and soul of the sequel trilogy. But like everything else in RoS it is convoluted and clumsily executed, and as a result, I felt absolutely nothing. Ultimately that story thread is wasted by hacky filmmaking and bad narrative choices. The choices themselves are about as bad you could imagine. Like bad fan fiction. Stuff I would expect to see in a no budget YouTube fan film... and they may actually have better ideas. Rey's finally revealed backstory seems thrown together and hackneyed. I have serious reservations about that aspect being in the cards from the beginning. And it seems purely something made up to save face after the extreme backlash to Last Jedi. In fact, that's probably the movie in a nutshell. Purely a panicked desire to win the fans back... but with the worst choices you could possibly imagine and put together in the worst way possible.

    And they continue to do a huge disservice to Finn. Who started out as my favorite character and someone I thought was going to lead the series along with Rey. But he continues to be relegated to a bumbling side character... in this movie reduced to constantly yelling shit and being worried about Rey, instead of taking some kind of leading role in this series. In Force Awakens, he and Rey are setup as having a strong bond. And they had great chemistry. None of this chemistry exists with Rey and Kylo. And their storyline is mildly interesting only in the fact that Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver do the best they can with thankless roles and poor character beats. One can't help but wonder how much better these movies would be if Finn had been given more to do. What happened to the former storm trooper who weilded a lightsaber against the mighty Kylo Ren and not only survived, but got a good lick in??? Where is that sequel? I personally think Boyega has a lot more charisma and charm than Ridley, who is really not that great and has been kind of a blank cypher in this trilogy... her journey as a result feels worthless. Not even close to the pathos you felt with Luke's arc and the tragedy of Anakin. Poe doesn't fair much better... from what I barely remember about him in this movie, he just sort of barks orders and shoots stuff. Gone is the character development he was given in the previous entry. It's like they just gave up on these characters and wanted to get it over with.

    Continuing to do a disservice to the Star Wars name, RoS keeps pulling random, made up force powers out of nowhere. And the rules for these powers are inconsistent. And they rarely make any sense. And they invalidate things in the previous films as a result. Wait, how can a force ghost do that? Wait, why didn't she just do this when she did it in that other scene? Wait, how is this possible, we've never seen it before! Wait, did she just?! What?! Why?! That makes no sense! Did he just?! And then he just...?! What the f**k?! You'll know what I mean when (if) you see it. And the final confrontation is so over the top ridiculous and nonsensical that it's laughable.

    The third film in a trilogy or even the 9th film in a saga is supposed to benefit from a huge amount of backstory, using it to stick the landing... but this film throws most of it away and just pretends like none of it ever happened. JJ Abrams basically said "Star Wars doesn't exist". Or rather "it kind of exists, but only certain aspects. I'm basically going to start over and make my own version. Sorry George. Sorry fans." For all of Last Jedi's bizarre narrative decisions, it never seemed like it was starting from scratch. And at least attempted to pay some respect to the previous films as misguided as it felt at times.

    The Last Jedi's problems were in the woefully inappropriate narrative and character choices it made, but I actually think it's extremely well made on a technical level, and it was actually coherent. RoS makes even worse narrative and character decisions and is a dumpster fire on a technical level. The only thing you could maybe admire about it is how pretty some of the FX and locations are, but get a good look, because everything happens so fast you may not remember. This is shameful filmmaking. Instead of ending the Skywalker saga on a worthy note, it pretty much takes a big fat diarrhea shit all over it. Literally ignoring important things the previous films set up. These aren't even fan boy complaints. I stopped being a fan after Last Jedi. This is purely from a detached point of view who stopped caring. The only reason I saw it was because it was free and I had nothing better to do.

    I can't possibly imagine how anyone could like this. It's not for fans. It's not for casuals. It's not for anybody. It's horribly put together. It's not concerned about the other movies. And it's got nothing to say. I suppose it could be one of those so-bad-it's-good flicks, but even those (like Con Air, Panic Room, Rocky 4, etc) are well made in a technical level.

    I had a feeling RoS would be disappointing but I never imagined it would be this catastrophic.

    EDIT: I should clarify in that I understand how people might enjoy it, because anything can be enjoyed. But in no way shape or form can this be called a good movie.
     
    Last edited: Dec 20, 2019
  8. ultrabike

    ultrabike Measurbator - Admin

    Staff Member Pyrate MZR
    Joined:
    Sep 25, 2015
    Likes Received:
    8,960
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Irvine CA
    Folks wanted a movie with a well written script, direction and excellent editting, from the leadership of JJ Abrams + random Disney execs. That's an unreasonably high expectation.

    Blame the fans.
     
  9. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Jun 16, 2016
    Likes Received:
    6,226
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Austin, TX
    Yeah but the fans can't control who gets hired. Blame Disney. Kennedy, Abrams. All the decision makers. These seem to be people who fundamentally don't understand Star Wars. Or are incapable of doing it justice. Why not hire actual visionaries who aren't going to shit the bed (Abrams) or subvert the franchise beyond all recognition (Johnson).

    One can't help but wonder what people like Nolan, Villeneuve, Favreau, etc could've done with it? On the other hand, maybe nobody could've done these movies justice. The only person who seems to "get" Star Wars is the guy who created it.

    Shocker.
     
  10. Psalmanazar

    Psalmanazar Most improved member; A+

    Pyrate Slaytanic Cliff Clavin
    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2015
    Likes Received:
    5,345
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Hollywood ‘movies have been in decline for a while. There’s total group think and no taste at major studios. The audience’s brains have been in decline for a couple decades too.

    Brainless 80s movies like Commando and Top Gun are better written and shot than major studio movies now. Twister is a better movie than every Marvel movie except for Blade 1, the first 2/3rds of Iron Man 1, and Punisher Warzone. Those movies didn’t have every aspect of their production green lit by multiple committees of retards exactly like the recent Marvel and DC comics. Hollywood is so far up the ass of political correctness they cast Tilda Swindon as a Tibetan character to not tick off the CCP. They made the Mandarin a white guy mad scientist with a douchebag dragon tattoo. Even the color timing in the marvel movies sucks because some committee decided that they all have to look like shit 10 years ago. Maybe they thought it looked surreal because they’re high and playing with play-dough like the mental eight year olds they are. No, surreal was Kurosawa in color. Modern Hollywood is as surreal as a Coors Light commercial.
     
  11. RobS

    RobS RobS? More like RobDiarrhea.

    Joined:
    Feb 21, 2019
    Likes Received:
    1,419
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Location:
    .
    Twister...that 90s tornado movie with Bill Paxton? Dude I love that movie. I wanted to be a storm chaser when I was a kid and I can't tell you how many times I watched that damn movie.

    And Commando is awesome. If Hollywood dares to remake that movie, I will chain myself to the set to make sure it doesn't happen.

    I agree, it was surreal watching Ran and Dreams for the first time knowing they were Kurosawa films in color.
     
  12. Psalmanazar

    Psalmanazar Most improved member; A+

    Pyrate Slaytanic Cliff Clavin
    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2015
    Likes Received:
    5,345
    Trophy Points:
    113
    They remade Robocop and Point Break dude as pg13 seizure inducing crap. No Kurtwood Smith or Gary Busey either.

    Samuel L. Jackson played the Miguel Ferrer part because he said motherfucker in the original X rated movie but Samuel L Jackson couldn’t even say it!
     
  13. RobS

    RobS RobS? More like RobDiarrhea.

    Joined:
    Feb 21, 2019
    Likes Received:
    1,419
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Location:
    .
    LOL that's ridiculous. I haven't seen the new Robocop, but I'm willing to bet it doesn't have the satirical depth of the original.

    Yeah I can't believe there's a remake of Point Break. And speaking of Swayze, I heard rumors of a Road House remake which killed me but I hope that shit is cancelled. It is one of the greatest bad good movies ever made. Another movie I have seen way too many times. I'm glad the Coen Bros liked it as much as I do to crib some of it for Big Lebowski.
     
  14. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Jun 16, 2016
    Likes Received:
    6,226
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Austin, TX
    It's what happens when movies have to play to everyone in every corner of the planet, because the budgets have gotten out of control... they need to recoup a higher amount, which means pleasing more and more people.

    So you end up with glorified marketing schemes masquerading as cinema. A movie becomes a series of boxes that need to be ticked in order to avoid offending anyone and with maximum thrills even the most demanding of short attention span idiots can't resist.
    Good cinema has always been about a specific point of view. How can you have a point of view if your goal is to not offend anyone? I'm actually amazed they let Rian Johnson do what he did with the previous Star Wars film, with that high of a budget. Ultimately Rise of Skywalker comes off as a giant apology for anyone who was offended by the last one... so filled to the brim with (bad) fan service. It's a 2.5 hour marketing pitch. It's really the poster child for what Hollywood "filmmaking" has devolved into.

    Scorsese was right.
     
  15. Psalmanazar

    Psalmanazar Most improved member; A+

    Pyrate Slaytanic Cliff Clavin
    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2015
    Likes Received:
    5,345
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Scorsese has remade Goodfellas a dozen times though.
     
  16. OldDude04

    OldDude04 Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    May 17, 2018
    Likes Received:
    1,452
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Location:
    United States
    This is the most recent news I can find on the Road House remake (Nov 2018) and it sounds like an impending train wreck:

    "The Patrick Swayze favorite was pegged for a remake back since at least 2013. More recently Ronda Rousey--the UFC fighter who popped up in Furious 7 and the Entourage film--nabbed the lead role. We also know that Michael Stokes had penned a screenplay for the new film, and that Rob Cohen, of xXx and The Fast and the Furious, was set to direct at some stage. All parties then departed, however, and Nick Cassavettes (The Notebook, Alpha Dog) was the last director attached. With that said, Cassavetes wrote a screneplay with Cassie Pappas (Tyrant), so the project might still be developing. "
     
  17. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Jun 16, 2016
    Likes Received:
    6,226
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Austin, TX
    Out of 26 features (not counting documentaries) Scorseses has made exactly 5 gangster movies in the last 45 years, which is a great average. And while they all deal with various aspects of the mob, they are all stylistically and tonally different. Mean Streets is a meditation. Goodfellas is a drug trip. Casino is a mythical epic. The Departed is a straight genre flick (a remake of Infernal Affairs). The Irishman kind of loops back around to Mean Streets but is far more solemn. A reckoning. Scorsese doesn't make another mob movie and makes the same movie over and over, he has something different to say with each one.

    These are head and shoulders better than anything Marvel has attempted.

    And regardless of how many mob movies he's made, he's still not wrong.
     
  18. RobS

    RobS RobS? More like RobDiarrhea.

    Joined:
    Feb 21, 2019
    Likes Received:
    1,419
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Location:
    .
    LOL. Scorsese is arguably the most overrated Hollywood director ever.
     
  19. Za Warudo

    Za Warudo Acquaintance

    Joined:
    Sep 29, 2015
    Likes Received:
    48
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Ozu made dozens of families comedies often with similar plot and actors, yet all of them are great/masterpieces. The premise/plot is not that important, it's what you do with it.

    some recent viewings:

    Parasite - very well crafted and solid film. I prefer Bong's other films especially Memories of Murder due to the characters in it being not as well written as his others. Also last year's best film Burning handled similar themes more effectively.

    Lady Bird - another recent film that deals with the class divide, though it's mainly focused on the relationship between mother and daughter, which was portrayed with a lot of care and nuance.

    Cold War - nearly every frame of this can be hung in a photo gallery, and the attention to detail of the post WWII setting is impeccable. Music make up a huge part of the film, so much that it's almost a musical. Tony Rayns compared it to Platform in that it uses musicians to show the changing of history and political climate. However I feel that it's too brief and lacking in detail to have the same impact.

    Hale County This Morning, This Evening - undoubtedly one of the best documentaries of the decade. At times it has the fly-on-the-wall feel of direct cinema, at times the filmmaker actively interacts with subjects of the film in the tradition of cinema verite, and sometimes it has the fragmentary film-diary feel of a Jonas Mekas film. The result is an intimate, empathetic, and lyrical documentary that feels more like a poem. It's not surprising that Apitchatpong Weerasethakul worked as a creative advisor.
     
  20. Tchoupitoulas

    Tchoupitoulas Friend

    Pyrate Contributor
    Joined:
    Aug 17, 2019
    Likes Received:
    3,711
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Location:
    PA
    It’s a shame to hear all that about RoS - but good to be forewarned, thank you. The lackluster trailers didn’t quite follow the “long trailer = pants film” rule. But they did fail to generate much excitement or intrigue - certainly nothing like the arresting first glimpse of the Force Awakens, with some unknown, out-of-breath guy in a stormtrooper’s uniform freaking out for some unexplained reason in the middle of the desert. Now, we get an out-of-breath Rey who can do a jedi back flip. Great. I’m glad all that training from Luke Islandlurker worked out. It’s okay, though, now we get the return of that crusty, enfeebled, already-vanquished old emperor and a bunch of random action sequences that flit meaninglessly from one not-so-impressive backdrop to the next - a lightsaber fight on a scrapheap promontory! a star destroyer surfaces like a u-boat! Holy shit!!

    (And re. the long trailer = pants film, see this one for 1917:

    The first 50 seconds are great, the remaining minute and a half? Not so much. I might skip it now).

    [edited for formatting]
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page