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I did not like Monkey Man very much but Dev really directed the poo poo out of it and it's clearly a genuine passion project so I'm excited for whatever he does next.
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Apr 11, 2024 17:21
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I heard the action is pretty well directed and brutal? Did it give you John Wick vibes would you say? Guess I'm probably gonna moviepass it anyway
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Apr 11, 2024 17:27
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I really liked Monkey Man, although it felt like a fable with occasional action rather than an action movie per se. I thought from the trailer that there would be more of the fighting ring. Agreed you could tell that it was made with love. There were also a couple of pretty funny scenes.
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Apr 11, 2024 21:51
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Monkey Man was almost more of an art film (I use that term VERY loosely) than an action film. There actually is not a ton of action in it, but every shot throughout the movie feels like Dev putting everything on the table. The movie very much operates on *~v i b e s~* as it slowly reveals his background/motivation. I wasn’t a big fan of the shaky cam/editing during the first big action sequence, even if it served a narrative purpose. I just kept thinking Bourne/Taken and wasn’t really enjoying the action. I’m glad it didn’t stay like that during the climax, but I’m still not really convinced Monkey Man was successful as an Action Movie, but I also just might be spoiled by so many good movies that really upped the genre over the last decade. That said, I still really loved it, and I think it’s a phenomenal film, especially as a first effort. Dev was like “okay, Hollywood won’t cast me as an extremely cool, sexy action hero, so I’m just gonna do it myself” and I gotta say, he was cool and sexy as anyone in cinema history. My main complaint (moreso than the action) was I think the editing could’ve been significantly tighter. They kept cutting back to the same flashbacks over and over and over, and things like the sequence where they steal the wallet and it passes through like 20 different hands ended up being kind of laughably silly — and I’m not sure whether that was intentional. It’s just hard when you see something that’s so close to being one of the greats, but doesn’t quite hit the mark. I’m really excited to see what Patel makes in the future, and here’s hoping he gets to do more action. (And here’s hoping that people go back and watch The Green Knight, which I consider a masterpiece.)
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Apr 13, 2024 20:35
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MokBa posted:things like the sequence where they steal the wallet and it passes through like 20 different hands ended up being kind of laughably silly — and I’m not sure whether that was intentional. I did think that was very long when I was watching it, but it's a very artfully made set piece and once I got to the end of the film I got a better sense of how it underlined the themes of the film. The idea being that there's a large community of people within the city that Dev Patel could be in communication with, but he's so myopically focused on his own personal goals that he can only see them as a means to an end. Much like the dog that he uses to bring him the gun and then abandons, or the middle manager whose loyalty he uses and then... basically forgets about. I thought that character was a big loose end tbh, though it was nice that they showed him alive after the manhunt even though he's now a wanted fugitive.
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Apr 13, 2024 20:55
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I didn't mind the way the action was shot & cut. Maybe it depends on where you were in the theatre but from the back I could make out everything happening. It's definitely not a widely shot, pulled back stage play kind of shooting that more expert martial artists may do but I never felt like it was something Greengrassian where I was only capturing the essence of the moves or something. If anything my complaint was the lighting. If I was watching at home I probably would have turned the brightness up a notch or two. Agreed on the amount of action and the ~vibes~ leaning more artfully. There were points where I felt the length of the film and I wouldn't say that the movie was ever bad but I'd say maybe it didn't know quite what it wanted to be? Or that it spent too much time retreading the same ground without adding new info or insights or motivation. The painful vision quest part was unnecessary and that took a good chunk of time.
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Apr 13, 2024 23:05
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Hello Action Movie thread. My kids have expressed interest in watching a Fast & Furious movie. Which one should I show them? (I haven't seen any other than the first one myself). I think I remember 5 or 6 being discussed as the best ones?
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Apr 15, 2024 01:12
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Gotta start from the first. Them's the rules. You need to see the entire arc of FAMILY in order to appreciate it all. (Yeah 5 is considered peak and 6 is really good too. I liked 7 a lot but from there onwards opinions start to get divided)
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Apr 15, 2024 01:28
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5 through 7 are a good trilogy, but I would still start with 1 at least. You can probably skip to 5 afterwards, but you can stop over on 3 to watch the introduction of the best character and the scene that is referenced/shown in like half these films (3, 6, 7, 9?).
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Apr 15, 2024 03:36
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The first film is old enough that it might as well be from the 1940s to modern kids from a cultural standpoint. 5 is a good start.
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Apr 15, 2024 12:50
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Start with 5 and then if they have any desire to get into The Lore, watch the older ones.
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Apr 15, 2024 13:02
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Lets talk about iqiyi, the app that streams mostly chinese direct to video movies (and also Inside Man for some reason). They have a free tier which probably shows some of the movies I list below, but I pay the  for the full service. Their action section is filled with DTV movies no one has ever heard of. This is a shame, since a small minority are pretty drat good. I would say the success rate on chinese dtv action is about the same as american dtv action, which is pretty low in general but much higher if you focus on some names that consistently deliver. The best ones I've found star Hong Kong veteran Tse Miu, who is not a good actor, but is very good in the fight scenes. Basically if you see Tse Miu's name, that is a sign of probably quality action. Eye For An Eye 1 & 2, directed by Yang Bingjia, these were both 4 stars out of 5 for me. Tse Miu plays a zatoichian blind swordsman, which is always a good premise for an action movie. There aren't a ton of clips on youtube, but this one from the first movie will give you a sense of the action. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF5Gi8LtTFg Fight Against Evil 1 & 2, directed by Qin Pengfei, again both 4 stars for me. Tse Miu plays a cop who's out for revenge or trying to protect someone or something, who gives a poo poo. The fights are again very good, occasionally veering into great. The first one is also on the youku youtube channel with very lovely subtitles, here is the link timestamped to one of the fights. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYTqAJFWMJ4&t=2845s Hunt The Wicked AKA Hunt Against Evil. Drug cops vs drug dealer. Directed by Chris Huo. Timestamped fight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtAGFBYjr7A&t=996s Chris Huo is another name I keep an eye out for. He also directed Blind War. A blinded former cop has to defend his daughter from an old enemy. This one is available for free. The Comeback. Simon Yam vs. Andy On. This is very hong kongy. King of Snipers AKA The Sniper (2021). Something about the sniper hero going after a human trafficking ring. Those all got between 3-4 stars from me. There are literally dozens of sniper movies in the app, but the rest are garbage. Other good(ish) movies: Lamb Game (2023). A woman and a blind old man are trapped in a building with a bunch of thugs. Luckily she works at an archery store and he is a martial artist. Desperado AKA Thug In A Suit (2024). A street clown in full makeup wants revenge on someone for something, I forget. He fights while wearing the clown makeup, this is not played for laughs. Ghost Sniper (2023). A groundhog day situation results in a team of soldiers repeatedly attacking the Ghost Sniper, getting killed each time, before waking up in the past and trying again. I am a SWAT woman AKA Female Special Police Officer (2022). Literally a remake of Die Hard. This one is available for free. Those are all 3 to 3.5 movies for me. I will also mention youku, another app that distributes these kinds of bottom feeder movies. I have watched one good movie on their youtube channel, and a bunch of extemely lovely ones. Fierce Cop has action scenes that looked like elevated previz fights shot by stuntmen, which is very much my thing. dokmo fucked around with this message at 15:09 on Apr 15, 2024 |
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Apr 15, 2024 14:50
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Thanks all, we watched 5 and a good time was had by all. We learned about the importance of family. Also, The Rock is very sweaty in it, but no one else is for some reason.
pthighs fucked around with this message at 15:20 on Apr 15, 2024 |
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Apr 15, 2024 14:51
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It feels like literally every streaming service has Inside Man for whatever reason
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Apr 15, 2024 15:19
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pthighs posted:Thanks all, we watched 5 and a good time was had by all. We learned about the importance of family. Also, The Rock is very sweaty in it, but no one else is for some reason. He just runs hot, ok? Also, what age are your kids? My perhaps unpopular opinion is that 2 is the best of the bunch before Fast Five but it could be a little too gross or disturbing with the rats-in-a-bucket stuff the bad guy does. Other than that it's a fun as hell buddy movie and Roman is never better than in that one. Lobok fucked around with this message at 16:03 on Apr 15, 2024 |
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Apr 15, 2024 15:59
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dokmo posted:Lets talk about iqiyi, the app that streams mostly chinese direct to video movies (and also Inside Man for some reason). They have a free tier which probably shows some of the movies I list below, but I pay the Thanks. I've been looking for Fight Against Evil 2 for a while. A lot of the direct to streaming Asian movies are shockingly hard to find on :files: so it might well be worth a $10 sub now and then when I really want to get into the genre. It looks like Baby Assassins 2 Babies is finally out on Hoopla which is nice, but I haven't seen it yet. Instead I'm up to my 5th rewatch of Hundreds of Beavers because my kid keeps going nuts for it.
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Apr 15, 2024 17:10
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Lobok posted:He just runs hot, ok? Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. They are middle school aged so can reasonably handle stuff, but neither are particularly into violence that veers into anything graphic. For example they close their eyes during the seppuku scenes in Shogun. They found Roman very funny so it's good to know he shines in that one. On a related note I had been thinking maybe I should watch Saving Private Ryan with them. I hadn't seen it since it came out, but I just re-watched it on a plane flight and lol nope that would be a bad idea and unnecessarily traumatic. It has Vin Diesel in it though!
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Apr 15, 2024 19:34
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In general the Fast & Furious series is more plot heavy than you might expect. Like, generally each movie leaves the characters in a place where you might be slightly confused at the beginning of the next one if you don't have the background info. For example with Fast Five it starts with Dom on that prison bus and Brian and the crew have to break him out. Or by the end of Fast Five they're all now international fugitives and if you didn't see Fast Five you wouldn't know why. Not that any of it would be a real issue that would really confuse anybody or stop them from enjoying it but it's definitely not like classic Bond films where every movie is 99.9% self-contained.
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Apr 15, 2024 19:44
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pthighs posted:Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. They are middle school aged so can reasonably handle stuff, but neither are particularly into violence that veers into anything graphic. For example they close their eyes during the seppuku scenes in Shogun. They found Roman very funny so it's good to know he shines in that one. Oh ok, cool, then the rats stuff shouldn't be an issue. It's not actually shown on screen but as it's happening the concept could be disturbing for sensitive/younger viewers.
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Apr 15, 2024 19:49
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dokmo posted:Hunt The Wicked AKA Hunt Against Evil. Drug cops vs drug dealer. Directed by Chris Huo. Timestamped fight:
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Apr 15, 2024 21:22
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Baby Assassins 2 Babies was sadly a bit of a letdown. Good buddy comedy stuff, but the action was a step back instead of a step forward. The two main antagonists got plenty of screen time but still felt undeveloped The final fight had solid choreo as expected and some very unexpected moments that I quite liked, I just didn't get the same adrenaline for it as I have in sonomoras other work I'm pretty sure I've seen a final fight fakeout like that before, but I might be gaslighting myself. Especially for as drawn out as it was, and then the transition back and the fantastic "morning" line. I really, really liked that, as well as the impact of the two kicks prior, and the guy doing what looked like a press handstand to get out a choke trevorreznik fucked around with this message at 04:54 on Apr 16, 2024 |
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Apr 16, 2024 04:47
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saw Warriors of Future on Netflix. It was compact fun that didn't overstay its welcome. Nothing much to say really. Are there more HK films with powersuits/mecha I wonder? Thinking of seeing the Knights of the Zodiac live action film but it seems like it's super bad? Which sucks because I read the Saint Seiya manga a year or two ago and really liked it. I suppose I could just watch the 90s anime but that's a lot of investment. I feel like the Netflix catalog is really lacking in terms of action films (I was looking up the Mark Dacascos Drive movie, I wouldn't even mind the other one with Gosling, but neither were on and instead there was some similarly-named Indian film in the top results). Is Prime any better? I don't really watch much and my partner isn't too into action, so I'm on the fence about it.
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Apr 16, 2024 08:11
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Lily Catts posted:I feel like the Netflix catalog is really lacking in terms of action films (I was looking up the Mark Dacascos Drive movie, I wouldn't even mind the other one with Gosling, but neither were on and instead there was some similarly-named Indian film in the top results). Is Prime any better? I don't really watch much and my partner isn't too into action, so I'm on the fence about it. have you used a streaming service before? they're all terrible and the odds of you finding a specific movie on one is incredibly low there was a time that netflix streaming had a pretty good back catalog of older movies available, but that was ten years ago before every studio decided that their streaming rights were valuable I have 6 different streaming services and when I google a random older movie I'd like to watch they're only available on one of them about 20% of the time tubi has a lot of older content but it's fully ad supported and I hate dealing with ads, if they offered a paid subscription I'd be very into it if you don't mind ads I just checked and tubi does have the mark dacascos drive
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Apr 16, 2024 08:45
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trevorreznik posted:Baby Assassins 2 Babies was sadly a bit of a letdown. Good buddy comedy stuff, but the action was a step back instead of a step forward. The two main antagonists got plenty of screen time but still felt undeveloped Guy who has only seen Baby Assassins, watching his second movie: "Getting a lot of Baby Assassins vibes from this..."
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Apr 16, 2024 11:18
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Lily Catts posted:saw Warriors of Future on Netflix. It was compact fun that didn't overstay its welcome. Nothing much to say really. Are there more HK films with powersuits/mecha I wonder? They're all over the place. For example, recent Indian action: Tiger 3, War, Pathaan (all bollywood), kgf 1&2 (kanada): all on prime Fighter (starring the lead from War), Jawan (starring lead from Pathaan), RRR, Bahubali 1/2: netflix Even stuff like Adkins' best are all over the place. Avengement on netflix, Ninja 2 on prime, one shot hulu, universal soldier day of reckoning nowhere. I will say that Hoopla has a surprisingly good library of east asian action, I catch more there than anywhere else. The search is awful, and some of the selection doesn't show up correctly on sites like justwatch, but it's often there.
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Apr 16, 2024 16:12
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TIP posted:there was a time that netflix streaming had a pretty good back catalog of older movies available, but that was ten years ago before every studio decided that their streaming rights were valuable The last time I really looked into it the only movie from the 60s Netflix has is The Professionals which kicks all kinds of rear end. They seem to rotate old men-on-a-mission movies into and out of their cataloge one or sometimes two at a time. They had Guns of Naverone (not great, so so much terrible 1960s day-to-night photography) a few months ago and Kelly's Heroes (whips, Eastwood has a Western style shootout with a tank) last year. High Warlord Zog fucked around with this message at 21:14 on Apr 16, 2024 |
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Apr 16, 2024 21:07
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Inglourious Basterds was Tarantino's homage to the WW2 men-on-a-mission genre, but I'd much rather watch the real thing - Navarone (and even its sequel), Heroes of Telemark, Dirty Dozen, and the GOAT, Where Eagles Dare. Day-for-night photography and all.
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Apr 16, 2024 21:52
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TIP posted:have you used a streaming service before? they're all terrible and the odds of you finding a specific movie on one is incredibly low Usually I just illegally download something so no biggie. I torrented Reacher and Wheel of Time lol. I've just gotten lazy over the years. I actually enjoy a lot of Netflix-produced slop, sometimes I watch a movie and just morbidly wonder wtf the execs were thinking
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Apr 17, 2024 03:08
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In terms of convenience, Prime Video is the service where you can access the widest range of stuff at any given time, it's just that you have to be willing to pay for individual rentals and the quality is hit or miss.
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Apr 17, 2024 03:29
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Warriors of the Future and Shanghai Fortress are...not good but they do evoke the feeling of an extremely coked up film executive watching other movies and screaming 'I want one of those' about every single one to a series of bewildered PAs. That feeling is sorely missing from modern hollywood.
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Apr 17, 2024 09:04
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Just rewatched Ronin and drat those two major chase sequences still hold up so well.
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Apr 17, 2024 11:13
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Sagacity posted:Just rewatched Ronin and drat those two major chase sequences still hold up so well. If you love this movie you owe it to yourself to watch John Frankenheimer's Grand Prix which defines the modern film grammar for vehicles in motion, cars especially, but also the cutting between exterior and cockpit shots in films like Star Wars and Top Gun
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Apr 17, 2024 12:59
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Monkey Man was solid movie and good first outing in directing by Dev. Hopefully he’ll do more movies.
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Apr 17, 2024 22:58
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High Warlord Zog posted:If you love this movie you owe it to yourself to watch John Frankenheimer's Grand Prix *Uncrosses movie from list*
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Apr 17, 2024 23:48
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Gatts posted:Monkey Man was solid movie and good first outing in directing by Dev. Hopefully he’ll do more movies. Yeah, felt nice and lean and tight to me, and while Dev Patel is a British guy of Ugandan Indian heritage, him directing and starring in a film where he literally murdered his way through a thinly-disguised version of India's current fascist governing party felt pretty loving brave. Dude might actually, genuinely get Hindutva death squads after him for this.
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Apr 20, 2024 02:04
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Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare was very good. The reacher dude (as my wife put it) was a terrific sociopath, and Henry Cavill was great. Guy Ritchie made another great one, and it was less than 2 hours long. Look at this film makers, you can do more with less!
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Apr 20, 2024 03:53
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Eric Jacobus just put up an uncut 4K remaster of 2006s "Contour", an action-comedy directed by him and starring a bunch of stunt people: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv_79Y7Kj0M I admit I don't think I'd even heard of it but I am certainly intrigued, anyone seen it?
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Apr 20, 2024 12:10
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I saw it years ago, it totally rules. The action is incredibly good. E just gave it a rewatch, the action totally holds up, timestamped fight here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv_79Y7Kj0M&t=2075s dokmo fucked around with this message at 21:37 on Apr 20, 2024 |
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Apr 20, 2024 12:54
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The Fall Guy is out in Australia already and I gave it a watch, and ehhh, to be honest if Hobbs & Shaw didn't exist, this is easily David Leitch's worst movie. It's not awful mind, but it is less than the sum of it's parts. It's got Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt and ATJ playing an rear end in a top hat and some stunts filmed on actual locations and it just doesn't add up to anything. I'm honestly very surprised at the positive reviews it's gotten. It's problem is that the through-line is the Gosling/Blunt romance, but for some reason in the story construction, Blunt is kept totally separate from Gosling's "find the movie star" plot for like 80% of the film. So in this action comedy, when Gosling is following leads and having action scenes and, you know, doing the movie, he is doing it with Teresa Palmer, Winston Duke, Stephanie Hsu and a dog, while talking to Blunt on the phone in between car chases, so the chemistry just doesn't work. Usually you'd put your two leads together in the action stuff in your action movie, but not here. I think it's actually intentional as they do a split screen thing early in the film talking about the divide between the characters, but acknowledging the gap doesn't erase it. But the biggest crime is this is an action movie with real stunts, whose underlying message is that stunt people are the loving coolest and deserve respect and they save the day in the end, that edits and frames the action in such a way that lessens it's impact. The b-roll in the credits of the stunts is better than those same stunts in the movie, I don't understand how they managed that. There is a big car jump at the films climax that is ok in the film, but then it's in the b-roll from a stationary camera a ways back and it looks more impressive because you get the distance of the jump, whereas in the movie with the angles they choose and the editing, it seems shorter and less dangerous. The movie has a plot and I feel bad for mentioning it, but we spend a lot of time with Gosling trying to find ATJ and I think most viewers will have gotten the gist of what's happening long before it's explained on screen, like it's a bit The Nice Guys (to mention a better Ryan Gosling action/comedy) in that there is a bit of mystery, but it's not at all mysterious and most viewers will have a good sense of the baddies long before it's explained. Maybe it's intentional too, but if you think about it, there is a roughly 0% chance the bad guys scheme would have worked, as they seemed to forget all the holes like the security footage showing Gosling leaving the hotel room was taken before he took the cop back there who found the empty bath tub, which fucks the whole time-line of Gosling's framing and Stephanie Hsu being a big old witness and the car chase across the Sydney Harbour Bridge with all the damage and witnesses , but maybe that was the point, that the evil plan was never going to work and this is just the specific way in which it failed. Also, Australian police officers do not give Miranda warnings. 
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Apr 25, 2024 04:34
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I appreciate that action comedy not based on any IP or franchise is a thing again but I also feel like The Fall Guy would work better with the same central concept, a stunt double has to hunt down the star he's doubling in the Hollywood underworld, would work better as a neo-noir thriller.
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Apr 25, 2024 05:24
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