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MokBa posted:
Spielberg rarely misses. (I am acknowledging the existence of RP1, the BFG, the Terminal, Crystal Skull and War of the Worlds)
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Sep 10, 2023 16:51
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I'm a believer of the theory that Spielberg did the Ready Player One movie to block anyone else from doing it.
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Sep 11, 2023 00:57
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MokBa posted:Tell that to Ready Player One. mycot posted:I'm a believer of the theory that Spielberg did the Ready Player One movie to block anyone else from doing it. RP1 is not a good movie but it is about as good of an adaptation as you could hope to get. I actually watched it in full for the first time earlier this year - I was on vacation and caught it on some resort channel that cycled through the same dozen movies. Given how abysmal the source material is the movie is much better than one might expect; it grinds to a halt any time the actual people are on screen but the visual language and structure are super clear and Spielberg manages to embed some slick sequences in there that have much more coherence and excitement than the vast majority of overwrought CGI nonsense that is out there. Dr. Yinz Ljubljana posted:Spielberg rarely misses. (I am acknowledging the existence of RP1, the BFG, the Terminal, Crystal Skull and War of the Worlds) War of the Worlds owns though.
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Sep 11, 2023 01:55
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War of the Worlds is one of Spielberg's vanishingly few watchable films
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Sep 11, 2023 02:03
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I saw War of the Worlds in the theater when it first came out and completely forgot I had done so a week later. It was just so underwhelming.
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Sep 11, 2023 06:13
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Cade: The Tortured Crossing was the best time I've had in a theater in a long time. What a piece of poo poo though lol.
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Sep 11, 2023 06:40
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It's hard to top the 1953 movie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDnim_yyLug
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Sep 11, 2023 06:41
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Pope Corky the IX posted:I saw War of the Worlds in the theater when it first came out and completely forgot I had done so a week later. It was just so underwhelming. The alien sound trumpets were worth admission alone.
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Sep 11, 2023 07:45
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Jeff Wayne musical version best version.
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Sep 11, 2023 07:55
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Waterloo Pros - the film does a good job of showing the scale and scope of Napoleonic warfare, far too often you see armchair generals with delusions of grandeur talking about how they'd win a battle or campaign without actually understanding the limits and uncertainty the actual commanders would be facing. Cons - The film draws a false equivalence between Wellington and Napoleon that is wholly unwarranted and unearned; to be clear the English swine is unworthy of licking clean the boots of the Emperor much less being considered his equal, in battle, in politics, or in humanity. Wellington barely clinched a win out of a battle in which he chose the terrain, Napoleon was ill, had a quarter of his staff, and had Grouchy loving off not doing his job, and even still he'd have lost if not for Blucher. If Davout, Messana, St.Cyr, Augereau anyone else had been in that role Wellington would have been routed, Napoleon's force turned to face Blucher and him routed as well. Wellington and perfidious Albion set the continent back decades with their "win", crushing liberalism (and I mean that in the positive sense given the alternatives) under the holy alliance and Metternich, ripping self determination from the Italians, the Germans, the Poles, forcing tens of thousands back into regressive semi-medieval forms of government where only the well birthed could thrive. The English should be ashamed of what they did, and all to protect their precious "profits" and their empire of misery that would spread it's odious shadow over Africa, India, and Australia.
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Sep 11, 2023 10:16
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Breetai posted:Jeff Wayne musical version best version. Yeah, but no big fancy-pants Hollywood director has the testicular fortitude to even attempt to adapt it to the big screen. Or the original story, for that matter. OOOOO-LAAAAAAAAAAHHHH
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Sep 11, 2023 12:08
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The creature's cries being "ULLA" because it's an ullulation is such a fantastic loving touch
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Sep 11, 2023 14:01
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Gaius Marius posted:Waterloo Didn't Napoleon kinda turn the Revolutionary government into, well, an autocracy with himself as sole leader?
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Sep 11, 2023 18:42
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i dont think reading napolean as the paragon of liberalism and republicanism is very historically sound but tbh the various revolutionary governments of france were all basically lead by burgeoning autocrats so i dont really think that counts against him in the long view
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Sep 11, 2023 22:12
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Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales - the script for this wasn’t written, it was Yes Anded during filming. What a pointless mess. There was one good forced perspective gag, but not worth sitting through 2 1/2 hours
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Sep 12, 2023 03:06
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Fast X (2023) An overstuffed, unfocused mess. Jason Momoa is the only person not going through the motions, but even his efforts don't produce an actual character or compelling villain, just a lot of directionless energy. A couple of the martial arts scenes are solidly executed when taken in comparison to everything else the movie tries to do, but not at a level to justify a watch. Multiple sequel hooks, which with how crowded the cast is, the promise of even more characters returning for future movies is baffling, though it's entertaining that half Gal Gadot's career now seems to be brief appearances in charmless cameos. A bad movie on every level.
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Sep 12, 2023 23:15
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Maxwell Lord posted:Didn't Napoleon kinda turn the Revolutionary government into, well, an autocracy with himself as sole leader? He was a progressive monarch that rationalized the government, promoted equality of the law, and embraced a kind of meritocracy. A bourgeois monarchy, so liberal in that sense. The republic was dead by the time he was made consul, so realistically an enlightened despotism was probably the best France could have hoped for. You could say he was the synthesis brought about by the dialectical process.
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Sep 13, 2023 11:16
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Oppenheimer: All of the discourse was accurate. The 47 seconds of titties absolutely ruined this film. I'm jk, this was great. Nolan did a great job of making a really complicated guy seem really complicated. I was intimidated by the run time, but I don't think there's much fat to trim there, other than maybe a bit of the story towards the end. Which is generally the problem with Nolan's films I guess, but unlike his other works this didn't have me fidgeting in the final 20 minutes waiting for him to wrap it up.
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Sep 13, 2023 14:10
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i guess i liked Theater Camp, it was certainly funny and contained a surprisingly not-obnoxious ben platt, but as someone who's been in the arts camp circuit i wish the movie went deeper than prepackaged messages about the nature of camp as home-away-from-home and safe-space-for-the-downtrodden
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Sep 15, 2023 04:00
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Maxwell Lord posted:Didn't Napoleon kinda turn the Revolutionary government into, well, an autocracy with himself as sole leader? The thing you have to remember anytime you read anything about Napoleon is that half the great powers of the world, including France itself in certain times, has a great interest in building up Napoleon as a tyrannical madman in order to cover up for their own rapacious conduct. They will criticize Napoleon for violating neutrality of smaller countries; England for decades considered any trade with the French to be illegal, even if the ships doing it weren't English and they'd regularly enter neutral ships and seize their cargo on suspicion, when Russia joined a league with the Danes and Sweden to oppose this England destroyed the Danish fleet without provocation and had the Tsar assassinated and replaced with his son. They also regularly sent Emigre agents to try to assassinate Napoleon or engage in other terror tactics, in some cases killing innocent people just going about their day. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plot_of_the_rue_Saint-Nicaise Pitt also created a vast secret police and spy network to insure that anyone attempting to turn public opinion against the psychotic and money wasting war was dealt with before they could be effective. For Russia all you need to know is that upon the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo, in the negotiations the Tsar personally wrote out a treaty calling for a Holy Alliance that would create a unified Christian army that would put down all liberal and leftist revolts at the point of the sword, said document was so unhinged even Metternich considered it insane. It did eventually pass although changed leading to the so called Conservative Order https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative_Order For everything you can say about Napoleon, where French armies marched people were freed from serfdom, aristocratic privilege was abolished, freedom of religion was protected, Jews were let out of the ghettos, a standard and just set of laws was imposed. Napoleon's Empire might not have been Free, but it was Freer than drat near any other nation on the earth at the time, and despite every single major power on the continent trying to turn back the clock it was impossible to erase the legacy of the man who rose from a backwater island to humble kings and emperors. It's also worth pointing out that Napoleon's Autocracy wasn't as autocratic as most people think, Cambacérès was effectively the head of state whenever Napoleon was on campaign, and Napoleon himself fully intended to walk back his own powers and utilize the senate of France when he was restored to power, for obvious reasons he didn't really get the chance. Deep Cover I love Fishburne in this, but really don't think Goldblum works. I get what they're going for, but seeing him dressed in the leather jacket when he's fully "Broken Bad" is comical not dark. Otherwise it's a pretty standard but good condemnation of the State Dept and the War on Drugs, harsher than New Jack City....Until the very end when Fishburne gets to walk off with a win instead of the legendary ending of NJC where the detectives did all that work for nothing and an elderly black man has to sacrifice his own soul to punish Nino. Really, both could've and should've dropped the white leads, although Goldblum actually does poo poo in this movie unlike the dude in NJC. King of New York is still the GOATed 90's drug epic. It is one of the few movies I sat through the credits for though. The Unknown Country Very Sundance Indie core, but still a great time watching Gladstone wander the roads of the mid and southwest, from diners to hotels and gas stations. The long shots of her driving alone with barely audible but obviously terrifying radio chatter is inspired. The ending leaves a lot to be desired, very telegraphed and not done in a particularly interesting way. Movie gets an extra star because the first woman profiled, the waitress, reminds me a lot of my mom.
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Sep 16, 2023 03:03
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Can't wait for Scott's Napoleon. Wish it was 6 hours.
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Sep 17, 2023 18:22
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In Training posted:Can't wait for Scott's Napoleon. Wish it was 6 hours. i have carefully considered when i am going to pee during it and its probably the battle of the nile
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Sep 17, 2023 19:47
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i watched the wailing last night. i typically don't like horror movies bc they're tropey and rely too much on jump scares (yes they startle me so they're "effective" but i think it's cheap and frustrating and not the experience i want) so i'm glad this movie didn't have any and relied more on pure atmosphere. i liked it but i didn't love it sadly. here's what i wrote on letterboxd: even if it's a really well done horror movie, it still falls victim to a lot of standard horror movie tropes that bug me and prevent me from loving the genre. beautiful cinematogra phy with strong performances and procacative imagery all around. i love the attention to detail and commitment to the bit with themes of the occult and demonic posession. that stuff is right up my alley. however, it's definitely too long andi found myself getting detached and bored a few times throughout where i wound up pausing and checking my phone periodically. the plot overall is fairly obtuse even after seeing it all the way through and knowing what's going on. it's a "mystery" only bc the characters lie or misdirect for the sake of telling a spooky story, not because the movie gives you anything to speculate about or work out for yourself. it also unfortunately includes common horror tropes of spooky little kid drawings and ominous third act exposition... *sigh* it's imaginative, gory, foreboding, and an obvious labor of love nonetheless so would highly recommend this over most other horror movies. 3/5
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Sep 17, 2023 20:18
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In Training posted:Can't wait for Scott's Napoleon. Wish it was 6 hours. I saw a synopsis that said it was Napoleon's life framed through his relationship with Josephine. That sentence makes me incredibly hesitant, an Englishman shouldn't be telling the story in the first place and to do so in such a bizarre and truncated way is borderline irresponsible. Now if Tony Scott was working on it, then we would be talking
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Sep 17, 2023 21:48
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Sweet Smell of Success (1957) - holds up well and looks fantastic. There's just something about New York in black and white. Tony Curtis is great as a slimeball press agent and Burt Lancaster is terrifying as a columnist with a poison pen. Along with The Apartment and Sunset Boulevard this is a great example of a classic movie that still feels snappy and watchable.
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Sep 17, 2023 22:42
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Gaius Marius posted:Now if Tony Scott was working on it, then we would be talking Why settle for a Tony Scott movie about Napoleon when you could have a Tony Scott movie about Toussaint Louverture?
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Sep 17, 2023 23:11
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Gaius Marius posted:I saw a synopsis that said it was Napoleon's life framed through his relationship with Josephine. That sentence makes me incredibly hesitant, an Englishman shouldn't be telling the story in the first place and to do so in such a bizarre and truncated way is borderline irresponsible. Now if Tony Scott was working on it, then we would be talking thats crazy bc i didnt really get that impression from the trailer at all. i agree with you mostly but im interested to see in spite of it bc their relationship was a hot mess
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Sep 17, 2023 23:39
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just watched the greta gerwig little women. watched the 90s one a few weeks ago. the winona one is way better! the greta one has some pretty terrible editing and was pretty hard to watch.
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Sep 18, 2023 00:39
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Watched Boogie Nights for the first time last night. It's kind of crazy to think it was directed by the same person who directed There Will Be Blood. It was super entertaining, but that was kind of the problem. Like, it's jarring to go from Julianne Moore fighting to see her kid to Marky Mark and John C. Reilly covering a Transformers song. Also, the shocking moments don't really play because of the largely comedic tone of the movie.. I liked most of the performances, but it really felt like some of them could have been cut. Don Cheadle's entire arc felt out of place and Philip Seymour Hoffman felt like he was only in the movie to be mocked. I know a ton of people love the movie so I'm not gonna argue, but it felt kind of immature, which is a shame because there's a ton that could have been done with the concept.
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Sep 18, 2023 02:28
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Biff Rockgroin posted:Watched Boogie Nights for the first time last night. it's been so long since i've seen it. in my head i still like it but my experience with film as a whole has evolved so much since i was a kid when this first came out that idk if a rewatch would hold up. there will be blood and phantom thread are basically perfect movies to me so going back to rewatch pta's second movie would be interesting. i should do it sometime. i just always remember how tense and hosed the whole drug selling scene is lol.
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Sep 18, 2023 04:41
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i just watched titane and i have no reaction except what the gently caress
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Sep 18, 2023 06:10
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It's rare that I am so impressed by a more-or-less random streaming movie picked for a Sunday night, so I have to give a big shoutout to How to Blow Up a Pipeline, an indie suspense thriller about a group of would-be eco-terrorists trying to pull off the titular action. The heist-like plot is tense, the flashbacks revealing each conspirator's background and motivations are surprisingly effective, and the performances from the cast of mostly-unknown young actors are excellent. Low-budget suspense is tough to pull off, and taking on such a politically charged subject could be offensive if handled clumsily, but everything works here. Highly recommended.
Chicken Butt fucked around with this message at 11:54 on Sep 18, 2023 |
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Sep 18, 2023 11:38
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Hitchcock's Black and White classic The 39 Steps. Just brilliant, witty, exciting and tense with plenty of twists and turns I know it's "One of his best", but even still I had just the most fun time.
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Sep 18, 2023 11:41
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Finally watched Annabelle this past weekend, and after watching The Conjuring... it's not a BAD horror movie, it's just nowhere near as good as The Conjuring, and outright feels like a different movie that had a few minor changes made to shoehorn it in as a prequel. The entire time we were watching it, we kept asking "wait, how do the other people end up with it? Didn't they say the one woman's mom gave it to them?" It just kinda dragged on, and when it finished, we just kinda shrugged and went "that was a thing".
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Sep 18, 2023 12:14
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Annabelle is funny because 1, that doll is horrible looking why does anyone gift it and 2, the whole idea is we never see the doll move. So camera and effects and characters have to do a lot of work to tell you that stationary doll is doing something scary.
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Sep 18, 2023 12:29
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checkplease posted:Annabelle is funny because 1, that doll is horrible looking why does anyone gift it and 2, the whole idea is we never see the doll move. So camera and effects and characters have to do a lot of work to tell you that stationary doll is doing something scary. I guess the implication is that it's some rare vintage doll, to the point where finding one is worth picking it up, and if they had gone with the original Annabelle doll, no one would watch the film because Raggidy Ann dolls are horrifying. As far as "Spooky poo poo happens around the doll", I'm fine with that, because they said in both films that a demon is inhabiting the doll, so, sure, we never see it move on it's own, that's fine... except then you have to ask just what the range is on the demon, because it's at least 6 floors away that it can still gently caress with Mia. Edit: Also, that the film takes place so shortly before The Conjuring just bugs me. They couldn't have set it in the late 50's/early 60's? Other than a news broadcast about the Manson Family cult that doesn't tie into the plot, there's nothing requiring the film to be set right before The Conjuring, but instead you have all of the film, the doll being sold to another person, her giving it to her daughter, and then the events that led to the recording at the start of The Conjuring all happening in a very short time span. I'm not saying its impossible, just that it feels way too short of a time span. Randalor fucked around with this message at 14:22 on Sep 18, 2023 |
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Sep 18, 2023 12:48
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Following (Christopher Nolan, 1998) Watched the new 101 Films Blu-ray release of this (first time on BD in the UK). Really enjoyed it, very tense burglary scenes and great use of the limited budget with the borrowed on-location sets. Nice snapshot of late 90s London, but of the types of places regular people would live and spend time in, rather than the tourist spots or high end bars. Some of the acting didn't quite land but it was mostly his mates from uni and the uni film society. Also you know it's a Chris Nolan film because of course the mad lad had to include split timelines in what was his first feature length film. I'm surprised the actor who played Cobb (yes, Cobb) didn't act in anything else after this - his performance was the strongest of the cast - reminds me of Tom Burke - but he became an architect instead.
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Sep 19, 2023 04:14
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Johnny Mnemonic: I'm not sure this movie 100% works- I could follow the basic story but the hectic editing doesn't really draw me in either to the action or the characters, and I can see fragments of subplots and deeper material floating around like they couldn't quite figure out how to make it all fit together. Reeves is uneven too, he has some good moments and the character's supposed to be a little stiff I guess, but he hasn't quite got it down. But still, it's impossible for me to dislike a film like this, full of insane weird moments and so sincere in its attempt to bring cyberpunk to the masses. Also Dolph Lundgren is a violent Jesus freak assassin and Takeshi Kitano also graces us with his presence. Dina Meyer is a cute alt bodyguard! The whole thing's gaudy and garish in a way I kinda miss. Bottoms: I'm glad a pure goofball comedy like this is finding an audience. Happily sacrifices plot and character in favor of the funniest take, like it's not completely bereft of these things but you can tell the filmmakers have priorities. Fortunately it is very funny, well-acted, and loaded with blink-and-you'll-miss-it gags and details. And also, yes, who figured out that Marshawn Lynch was a good comedy actor? How did he end up in this movie and why does he fit so well?
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Sep 19, 2023 09:46
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Blackhat There is one serious misstep with this film that is going to be rectified when Arrow releases their directors cut next month. Let me tell you, if you were like me and had been scared off by the supposed lack of quality of this film do not be. Just like they had it wrong with Miami Vice they had it wrong with this. Mann takes his trademark for following the process and applies it to a new type of deeply impersonal and international cyber crime. Unique for a Mann movie the film never tries the two sides of a coin thing with the cops and criminals, the cyber criminals in this are portrayed accurately as absolute impersonal psychopaths willing to kill thousands with the stroke of a key just to increase their own hoard of wealth. If you're looking for a film to compare it to, look at Manhunter.
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Sep 21, 2023 20:29
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Gaius Marius posted:Blackhat There is one serious misstep with this film that is going to be rectified when Arrow releases their directors cut next month. Is this about how the first attack in the movie is blowing up a nuclear plant, and the second one is...manipulating soy prices, which (while it arguably could lead to greater immiseration and death worldwide) is a bit of an anticlimax after watching a literal atomic meltdown? Always thought that played a little weird. Sweet movie though, the gunfight after Hemsworth's Chinese buddy gets blown up is a fav
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Sep 21, 2023 21:54
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