|
Sought out To Live and Die in L.A. due to all the William Friedkin chat. There are so many cliche's it's impressive. I'm sure this movie probably established some of them, but it's hilarious seeing them now. The biggest I remember at the moment: "I'm getting too old for this poo poo" Cop gets killed two days before retirement The music in this movie so horrendously bad it feels like an SNL parody reel, but it's all played 100% straight and hilarious. John Pankow is an awful actor, which is a bad thing when he's like the second lead of the film. Dafoe is easily the best of everyone and elevates every scene. Every single cop in this movie is absolutely awful at their job, especially the main guy. It also felt like nearly every scene was ADR, specifically every word Dean Stockwell says. The movie is overall gorgeous though and has some great sequences with lovely 70's/80's cars racing through traffic. Overall I was hoping for more detailed counterfeiting scenes but the stuff in the beginning was real good.
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2023 02:42
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 23, 2024 19:06 |
|
|
Apologize to Wang Chung, now
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2023 02:48
|
|
|
Enter the Dragon - Saw this at the theater today, which kicked a ton of rear end and had impeccable vibes. I think they showed the new 4K version WB just released, which looked great. Would have given this movie five stars if Jim Kelly's character hadn't just been killed off. If he had survived somehow and shown up during the final battle it would've been awesome. Still a great, fun time, and it's so funny how between Way Of The Dragon and this movie you can see the basis of almost every fighting game ever made. Now I just have The Big Boss and I guess Game of Death and I'll have seen all of Bruce Lee's "big" movies.
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2023 03:13
|
|
Gaius Marius posted:Apologize to Wang Chung, now
|
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2023 04:35
|
|
|
Just saw Landscape with Invisible Hand and enjoyed it! It's a great vignette-y film about being an artist, living under (literally) capitalism, and also aliens. It swerves around being lighthearted to bleak to goofy to very bleak, but those shifts serve the film as a whole. There's one frustratingly short bit, the return of Adam's father, that hinted at either a schedule conflict or some sort of adaptation clunkiness, and I wished Finley had used that time to flesh out one of the other plots a little more. Really great production design and scoring too.
|
|
#
?
Aug 15, 2023 04:53
|
|
|
Ghost in the Shell (1995) - this didn't live up to the hype at all for me. The animation and art were nice enough and I enjoyed some of the mood bits (panning over the cops before the final showdown was particularly good). The characters, less so, the leads were fine although mostly because they fitted into standard archetypes cleanly, the antagonist on the other hand made little sense to me, his motivations are just explained to the audience in a speech at the end out of nowhere and seem kind of random (why would he want to die and reproduce? why are these solely possible through a cyborg body?). The philosophy in the film, also entirely told through expository dialogue, was not interesting enough to be thought provoking and too vague to feel like more than idea Calvinball. Lots of reviews on Letterboxd suggest I'm totally wrong about this though! I don't normally get that fussed about the male gaze in films but this one reached extraordinary levels without any thematic or story justification afaict. distortion park fucked around with this message at 08:03 on Aug 15, 2023 |
|
#
?
Aug 15, 2023 07:44
|
|
|
Carpet posted:Gran Turismo (Neill Blomkamp, 2023) Do they mention at all that Jann is actually the third person who came from the GT Academy competition?
|
|
#
?
Aug 15, 2023 09:31
|
|
|
distortion park posted:Ghost in the Shell (1995) - this didn't live up to the hype at all for me. The animation and art were nice enough and I enjoyed some of the mood bits (panning over the cops before the final showdown was particularly good). The characters, less so, the leads were fine although mostly because they fitted into standard archetypes cleanly, the antagonist on the other hand made little sense to me, his motivations are just explained to the audience in a speech at the end out of nowhere and seem kind of random (why would he want to die and reproduce? why are these solely possible through a cyborg body?). The philosophy in the film, also entirely told through expository dialogue, was not interesting enough to be thought provoking and too vague to feel like more than idea Calvinball. Lots of reviews on Letterboxd suggest I'm totally wrong about this though! I bounced off it really hard the first time I saw it but a few years later I appreciated it more. It felt really stylish but really empty the first time around.
|
|
#
?
Aug 15, 2023 10:23
|
|
|
Midjack posted:I bounced off it really hard the first time I saw it but a few years later I appreciated it more. It felt really stylish but really empty the first time around. Same, I think it’s an oddly paced film, so the ending comes faster than you realise. The spider-tank fight doesn’t read as the climax, so the scene after it feels like a lead in to the next plot beat, and then suddenly the credits are rolling and 
|
|
#
?
Aug 15, 2023 10:34
|
|
|
Ghost in the Shell is a great-looking and very important film with a lot of big concepts introduced and explored that has also to me been outshone in almost every way since. I respect it for how it laid the groundwork and inspired tons of people (and I think it's extremely cool that Siskel & Ebert reviewed it positively when it played in US theaters) but the pacing is too odd for me to want to revisit it.
|
|
#
?
Aug 15, 2023 10:52
|
|
|
Erin M. Fiasco posted:Ghost in the Shell is a great-looking and very important film with a lot of big concepts introduced and explored that has also to me been outshone in almost every way since. I respect it for how it laid the groundwork and inspired tons of people (and I think it's extremely cool that Siskel & Ebert reviewed it positively when it played in US theaters) but the pacing is too odd for me to want to revisit it. e: previous comment was not useful. I think I just missed all the big concepts in it. There's some hardcore dualism but the rest eludes me entirely. The characters make a lot of assertions but without anything actually being shown outside the exposition it was hard for me to either emotionally invested in the world of the film or take it as a meaningful thought outside of the film distortion park fucked around with this message at 11:50 on Aug 15, 2023 |
|
#
?
Aug 15, 2023 11:33
|
|
|
Erin M. Fiasco posted:Ghost in the Shell is a great-looking and very important film with a lot of big concepts introduced and explored that has also to me been outshone in almost every way since. I respect it for how it laid the groundwork and inspired tons of people (and I think it's extremely cool that Siskel & Ebert reviewed it positively when it played in US theaters) but the pacing is too odd for me to want to revisit it. I think it works a lot better on a repeat viewing as you take the foreknowledge of the different parts of the movie and where they would fit into a traditional story framework.
|
|
#
?
Aug 15, 2023 12:59
|
|
|
Yeah GITS took a couple watches to grow on me. The first time I remember shouting "Wait THAT'S IT??" at my SD computer screen / kissanime webpage. Now I think it's a stone cold classic and I wish both Stand Alone Complex seasons had an even an ounce of the same atmosphere, but it’s still 20 minutes too short.
|
|
#
?
Aug 15, 2023 13:58
|
|
|
The_Doctor posted:Do they mention at all that Jann is actually the third person who came from the GT Academy competition? I did have a draft post written up until the app swallowed it, but yeah this film changes the timeline around - it's set in the present day, not 2011, and it's the first GT Academy so everyone's job is on the line if it fails. I believe David Harbour's character was invented for the film as well as a rivalry with the other academy drivers. Also, bizarrely, all the drivers are shown sharing a dorm at the race track where the competition takes place.
|
|
#
?
Aug 15, 2023 14:03
|
|
|
Teknolust this is very bad production of a very good film. Tilda Swinton plays 4 characters (fortunately, because the rest of the cast sucks), 3 of them have to drink cum tea to survive. Features an incredible meet-cute and is so dense with weird little details that you can probably read anything into it that you like. e: this is like the complete opposite film to GiTS, glad criterion encouraged me to watch them back to back
|
|
#
?
Aug 15, 2023 22:58
|
|
|
John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023) None of the Wick sequels are bad or as good as the first, given this is neither a world nor a character that called for being expanded on. My main takeaway here is that I need to watch Donnie Yen in some movies that actually star him because his physical performance, the distinctiveness of how he moves, is head and shoulders above everything else in this film. Otherwise, while I could watch a fifth, seems like it would be a fine place to leave things.
|
|
#
?
Aug 15, 2023 23:44
|
|
|
Dazed and Confused First off this movie is just twenty years later American Graffiti, which is fine because I love that movie too. I don't understand how it is that Linklater manages to capture the spirit of people just walking around shooting the poo poo and hanging out as well as he does. Even being born twenty years later my own highschool experience was drat close to the poo poo they were up to excusing that we cut our semi nomadic parties with Lan parties and absolute timewasting Runescape adjacent activity. The little kid can't act for poo poo but it almost works with how unsteady and unconfident the little lad is for the first half, and Floyd having that charisma to slide his way into and out of any clique, but forced to confront the fact that much as he hopes it's not, this might be it for him. I don't think the movie is meant to be depressing like that, but I knew a few Floyd's and one at least is dead by his own hands. The Eight Mountains Male friendship movies is a genre that is unfortunately lacking, but when they hit they hit it out of the park. One of the best movies I've seen this year. Pillow Talk I'm surprised they let them get this risque in the code era. Rock Hudson's plan is insane, poorly thought out, and very immoral, but it is funny as hell to watch him play this stupid shell game against his supposedly nagging rival turned romantic partner and his neurotic friend. Doris Day herself was perfect in this movie, as was the costuming and set design. I miss that era of hollywood when they weren't afraid to make everything disgustingly opulent. The Illusionist If I'd seen it back in the day I'd probably be one of the Contrarian's stanning this instead of the Nolan film. Not to say I hate that one, quite the opposite, it's twist is objectively better and it's more exciting as a film; this film though is so straight up about the twist that you can really appreciate the work going on in the film rather than spending your cerebral cycles concertizing plot elements into sensible chunks. Love a good love story, and I love it more when you know it's going to work out, but you don't know how.
|
|
#
?
Aug 15, 2023 23:45
|
|
|
Gaius Marius posted:Dazed and Confused First off this movie is just twenty years later American Graffiti, which is fine because I love that movie too. I don't understand how it is that Linklater manages to capture the spirit of people just walking around shooting the poo poo and hanging out as well as he does. Even being born twenty years later my own highschool experience was drat close to the poo poo they were up to excusing that we cut our semi nomadic parties with Lan parties and absolute timewasting Runescape adjacent activity. The little kid can't act for poo poo but it almost works with how unsteady and unconfident the little lad is for the first half, and Floyd having that charisma to slide his way into and out of any clique, but forced to confront the fact that much as he hopes it's not, this might be it for him. I don't think the movie is meant to be depressing like that, but I knew a few Floyd's and one at least is dead by his own hands. I must watch this although reliving high school like that sounds pretty painful
|
|
#
?
Aug 16, 2023 00:08
|
|
|
Bergman Island (Mia Hansen-Løve, 2021) I've never seen an Ingmar Bergman film (although I have got the 4K of The Seventh Seal sitting on the shelf) but I did see Hansen-Løve's One Fine Morning a few months ago and for me she's now two for two. Loved this, it was beautifully shot and I think unlike some I enjoyed the film within a film within a film framing in the second half. I need to get OFM on Blu-ray along with some of her earlier films, plus a ferry to Fårö. Oh, and I should probably also watch some of Bergman's own films.
|
|
#
?
Aug 16, 2023 03:14
|
|
|
The_Doctor posted:Same, I think it’s an oddly paced film, so the ending comes faster than you realise. The spider-tank fight doesn’t read as the climax, so the scene after it feels like a lead in to the next plot beat, and then suddenly the credits are rolling and Part of that is because it's bit of adaption induced oddities - it's a pastiche of pieces from a comic book that had a very different tone, and the 'main' story they built it around is the comics final arc. So despite being something that will be many peoples first experience of GITS, what you're watching is an ending, and a number of it's set pieces originally weren't related to the story it was telling. (The live action adaption compounds on this by taking this same basic story and turning it into an origin story)
|
|
#
?
Aug 16, 2023 03:51
|
|
|
Three Colors: Blue it’s easy to forget movies can look this good. I’ve seen versions of tbis plot before, but none have looked or been directed as well as this. There’s so much unspoken that is just felt. Grief of course is a major emotion here, but there’s also this optimism in finding life again. Also love the score. Fantastic film, and soon I’ll have to watch the other colors.
|
|
#
?
Aug 16, 2023 03:52
|
|
|
distortion park posted:I must watch this although reliving high school like that sounds pretty painful I honestly had a good HS experience, Middle School was the one that I was all angsty about, but I can imagine if you had a poor one you might feel different about the film. checkplease posted:Three Colors: Blue it’s easy to forget movies can look this good. I’ve seen versions of tbis plot before, but none have looked or been directed as well as this. There’s so much unspoken that is just felt. Grief of course is a major emotion here, but there’s also this optimism in finding life again. Also love the score. Lot of people will tell you Blue is the best, and from an objective pov I might agree, but goddamn did Red hit me like a ton of bricks. You also gotta see Kielowski testing Sugar cubes, very funny but also shows just how much work went into the project only for it all to feel so effortless. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-k6sIN-2K4
|
|
#
?
Aug 16, 2023 05:06
|
|
|
Gaius Marius posted:I honestly had a good HS experience, Middle School was the one that I was all angsty about, but I can imagine if you had a poor one you might feel different about the film. This is good stuff and on the criterion release I think. Lots of good extras there.
|
|
#
?
Aug 16, 2023 19:36
|
|
|
To Live And Die In LA - The BALLS on this movie. The cool factor... the culture... I feel like doing manly things. My hands are too soft. I am drinking a HARP and downing an oven-crisp frozen pizza as I type. Also lol gently caress cops / lawyers / every govt employee
|
|
#
?
Aug 17, 2023 00:08
|
|
|
Paradise (2023) on Netflix. Throw in a few trolls, mages, and soycrisps and you've got yourself a decent Shadowrun campaign here.
|
|
#
?
Aug 17, 2023 05:42
|
|
|
The VVitch - this was all kinds of hosed up. Impressed at the restraint to leave a lot of stuff dimly perceptible or just unseen in order to amp up the feeling of dread. Kid actors were pretty solid. You don't get many horror movies this good that keep it to a tight 90 minutes anymore. Midnight Mass - Mike Flanagan needs a loving editor, this could've been an all time great with 3-4 fewer monologues and some tighter plotting. As it is still decent and probably the best Salem's Lot adaptation we're ever gonna get. The priest was the standout but good performances all around, in the sense of conveying people clearly over their heads and having very human reactions to it.
|
|
#
?
Aug 17, 2023 12:35
|
|
|
Mat Cauthon posted:The VVitch - this was all kinds of hosed up. Impressed at the restraint to leave a lot of stuff dimly perceptible or just unseen in order to amp up the feeling of dread. Kid actors were pretty solid. You don't get many horror movies this good that keep it to a tight 90 minutes anymore. Been a few years since I watched it, but yeah I'm actually surprised that it's 90 minutes. In my memory it seems longer but I think it's just due to the tension and dread that lingers. Great flick. The Lighthouse is really good, too.
|
|
#
?
Aug 17, 2023 15:23
|
|
|
Zack Snyder's Justice League - Kicked rear end. I think DC superheroes suck but Snyder did a great job with the material. I watched through Man of Steel, BvS and Justice League over the span of the past month or so, and it was all worth it. I'm bummed we won't ever get a follow up. I think I'm kinda done with DC properties after all that.
|
|
#
?
Aug 17, 2023 15:25
|
|
shoeberto posted:Zack Snyder's Justice League - Kicked rear end. I think DC superheroes suck but Snyder did a great job with the material. I watched through Man of Steel, BvS and Justice League over the span of the past month or so, and it was all worth it. I'm bummed we won't ever get a follow up. I think I'm kinda done with DC properties after all that. Yeah, they should have just let Snyder do his half-dozen movies and finish his story, then completely rebooted everything. Trying to save this or that bit (Momoa's Aquaman, Robbie's Harley Quinn) while throwing out everything else has turned DC into a horrific Brundlefranchise that should be put out its misery with a shotgun. On the other hand, it did play a crucial role in getting Joss Whedon to gently caress off forever, so there's that
|
|
|
#
?
Aug 17, 2023 16:50
|
|
|
Part of me wants to know how bungled the theatrical Justice League was but I also feel like it's just gonna be annoying and feel like a waste of time. The Snyder cut has flaws but there's not a whole lot that could be trimmed without the whole thing falling apart.
|
|
#
?
Aug 17, 2023 17:21
|
|
shoeberto posted:Part of me wants to know how bungled the theatrical Justice League was but I also feel like it's just gonna be annoying and feel like a waste of time. The Snyder cut has flaws but there's not a whole lot that could be trimmed without the whole thing falling apart. I was one of the reflexive Snyder-haters through MoS and BVS, and the sheer awfulness of the theatrical JL cut is what made me re-evaluate things. I suppose it might be interesting to watch it again now I've seen the Snyder cut, but life's too short
|
|
|
#
?
Aug 17, 2023 18:24
|
|
|
Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999) The local independent had this on and as I've only seen it once, about 15 years ago, I went and watched it again on the big screen. The first half felt a bit like the teenage boy edgy fantasy of telling your boss to go gently caress himself that it's got a reputation for, but I felt like it hit its stride once it got into the second half. The reveal came sooner than I remembered, I could recall the garage fight scene as seen on CCTV, but not much else, and it definitely works not having it right at the end. Kicking score as well.
|
|
#
?
Aug 17, 2023 22:29
|
|
|
The Super Mario Bros Movie (2023) it’s a kids movie that didn’t really have anything of interest for me and about 5 needle drops too many. I’d place it around Robots (2005) on the scale of cgi kids movies.
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2023 03:48
|
|
|
The Daytrippers One of the most 3 star movies I've ever seen. The mother as domineering matriarch is a suitable villain so you can keep up the mystery until the end, and see how both ladies ended up in unsuitable relationships, and Posey is fantastic as she is in everything, Schreiber as well as a puffed up psuedointellectual. The main drama just isn't that interesting though, forcing me to relive flashbacks of miserable car trips and a bunch of less than interesting side jaunts isn't all that entertaining. The fact is there are better examinations of familial and spousal relationships, and there are better films about people running into a bunch of kooky bullshit after getting sucked into a strange city. Save yourself a mediocre watch and see Afterhours or Under the Silver Lake instead. Also the blonde woman looks like Julie Delpy, and I couldn't help but wishing I was watching Before Sunrise instead. Gaius Marius fucked around with this message at 02:03 on Aug 19, 2023 |
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2023 01:57
|
|
|
Gaius Marius posted:The Daytrippers One of the most 3 star movies I've ever seen. The mother as domineering matriarch is a suitable villain so you can keep up the mystery until the end, and see how both ladies ended up in unsuitable relationships, and Posey is fantastic as she is in everything, Schreiber as well as a puffed up psuedointellectual. The main drama just isn't that interesting though, forcing me to relive flashbacks of miserable car trips and a bunch of less than interesting side jaunts isn't all that entertaining. The fact is there are better examinations of familial and spousal relationships, and there are better films about people running into a bunch of kooky bullshit after getting sucked into a strange city. Save yourself a mediocre watch and see Afterhours or Under the Silver Lake instead. On my understanding you're meant to be going "wow that's so new york" all the way through or something
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2023 08:16
|
|
|
The Quick and the Dead A standard portion of "movie" with extra zooms on top
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2023 21:35
|
|
|
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed Documentary about Nan Goldin, her life, her art and her modern day fight to take down the Sackler family. Beautiful and tragically sad at times, as a photographer hobbiest I absolutely loved it, but I think even if you're not into photography this is a superb documentary and well worth a watch. Would make an excellent companion piece to Paris is burning as both cover the LGBT scene in the 80s.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2023 21:50
|
|
|
Eyes Wide Shut It’s been maybe 7 years since I’ve seen this film. Decided to give it another go after it popped up on The Rewatchables podcast. Tom Cruise gets so much mileage out of smiling and laughing in women’s faces. I can’t imagine what its like to be that good looking, but god drat it must be fun. I don’t really buy Bill going so far off the deep end upon learning his wife, gasp, had a horny dream. But then again earlier in the film he’s incapable of admitting he thinks Alice could ever cheat on him because ‘he’s confident of her’. So I guess if you were at that level of narcissism it would maybe break your psyche. But like, he decides to just walk into a street walkers apartment and almost gently caress her was wild. I suspect that was necessary for the film to show just how close Bill had been flirting with death when you find out later what happened to Domino. The costume party is great, and I think I believe Victor regarding the sacrifice being a silly game because otherwise A. How did that women know who he was and that he didn’t belong there, and B. Why would she sacrifice herself for him? Who was the couple on the second level of the party that nodded at Bill while he was in costume? Had that been enough time for the doorman to discover his rental receipts with real name, and then socialize that info around? I suppose, but then why nod at him at all without giving him advice to gtfo? I guess the ultimate question is was this Bill dreaming? Every women Bill even comes into contact with is beautiful, and they all are ready to drop everything and gently caress him at a moments notice. Or is that just Bill’s life? They mention this in the podcast, Nicole Kidman really is almost an alien in this film. She’s just loving stunning. And Kubrick ruins their relationship irl to make the movie lol Sydney Pollack is amazing, and for some reason I could just watch him talk down to Cruise in his giant game room for hours. A++ would watch again.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2023 21:50
|
|
|
Haptical Sales Slut posted:And Kubrick ruins their relationship irl to make the movie lol I'm sorry? Can you summarize this because I thought Cruise's marriages were always doomed from the beginning, due to Cruise being Cruise.
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2023 16:33
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 23, 2024 19:06 |
|
|
It's tabloid bs
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2023 16:45
|
|