Random Movie Thoughts Thread

[The Cat]

I really loved the first one, I spent a lot of time growing up wishing I could find something to turn me into an immortal talking cat or Sarah Sanderson...One can't help but wonder though, how they'll account for the aging of the cameos...they've been dead since the first movie...I know I know we're supposed to suspend disbelief in life to make it livable...but I wonder if they'll hang a lantern on it, or have some sort on reasoning. Either way, I'm just stoked to see Bette Midler in almost anything, especially if she gets a chance to sing...That will be frusterating if there's not a decent witch singing scene in this movie as that is really imho the only real thing that is nessesary to "do right by the source material." As much as I would like to see a return of Binx, I do hope they let him RIP...though this is disney and they havent let any remotely marketable angle rest in peace...so who knows. If Disney were a BBEG, they'd definitely be a necromancer, cause tbh I did not see this property coming back from the dead.

I guess that means Nightmare before Christmas II: Jack's Regifting. is only a matter of time...
Once upon a time I was passionate about movies and cinema, and believed in the sequel as anything other than just an inevitablity...​

 

[Totenkindly]

Watched Morbius finally.

I was hoping it was hilariously bad. It was a bit amusing but mostly just bad, in a variety of ways.

• The script dialogue was really terrible, lots of confusing or empty or meaningless lines.
• The plotting was really flat.
• It would have been easy to have even BASIC character arcs but there really were not any. Like, how hard is this?
• The color palette was washed out and flat much of the time, although the vampire special effects were fun.
• No characters were really that interesting, even the cop duo was pretty lame.
• The edits were bad, it's like they didn't even have enough film in the can to properly track movement, and sometimes characters would just end up in completely different locations from where they had just been. This happened repeatedly. A very confusing film in this regard. There's also some plotting where characters show up where they couldn't possibly be. Like somehow Morbius shoots up inside a 20-story building at lightning speed to escape two cops shooting at him, ends up on the roof, rockets to the edge of the building -- and somehow the cop is there pointing a pistol at him. [Side Note: Morbius' first awakening, he takes out like 10-15 guys with machine guns effortlessly, but now he surrenders to a copy with a measly handgun.]

The only saving grace to the fill literally were the two leads -- Jared Leto and Matt Smith. Smith had fun chewing up the scenery, you could tell he was enjoying himself; and somehow Leto was able to carry much of the film on his own back despite really terrible dialogue and plotting.

Worse, they ruined another film in the process. The Vulture from the first spiderman film (Michael Keaton) suddenly ends up in this universe and gets together with Morbius I guess to do a Sinister Six? But the post-credit scene is as shitty as the entire film preceding it. Like, really? This is where such a great character with some depth actually ended up as a cheap cross-marketing ploy?

These terrible writers ended up getting to do the Madame Web movie next year as well.

 

[Totenkindly]

Way to promote your new film, lol....

Andrew Dominik calls 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes' a film about 'well-dressed whores'

'Blonde' director Andrew Dominik called Marilyn Monroe's 1953 hit 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes' a film about 'well-dressed whores.'

ew.com

I still have been planning a long time to watch the Jesse James film...

 

[Totenkindly]

Finally watched Zack Snyder's 300 last night. What a spectacle! it was also pretty wild to recognize Frank Miller's framing/silhouette style splashes in a movie format.

Also... a lot of famous cast members. This was Michael Fassbender's first film, although he'd done TV & stage work before. Also, I didn't realize Lena Headey was in it; I recognized her voice before her face. Also Rodrigo Santoro, who I felt looked nothing like himself whatsoever; I was wondering if they did CGI on him to make him look like a different person but apparently there was both that (for his size) and also extensive makeup work done:

Santoro was cast as Persian emperor Xerxes in the film 300, based on the Frank Miller comic of the same name, in 2006. The role had many special requirements, such as intensive workout for the physicality of the role (Santoro had lost 24 pounds to work in a Brazilian miniseries), extensive CG work to portray the 6'2" Santoro as the 7-foot God-King, a four-and-a-half-hour makeup application process and the complete removal of Santoro's body hair first by waxing and then by shaving when that proved too painful.[10] His eyebrows were kept intact, however, covered over with prosthetics and drawn in rather than being shaved.[11]

I really became acquainted with Santoro when he played Hector on Westworld years later. But I had forgotten he played Paulo on Lost, rofl. I guess that TV series wasn't really fated for him in the stars, the fan base hated Niki and Paulo so much. They must have really modded his voice around too. I did not recognize him in the film, just from the cast listing.

Of course, Dominic West from "The Wire" and also David Wenham (Faramir from LotR, etc). And others.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

A movie way ahead of its time.

And it speaks to the angst of the age.

Imagine this film redone but set in modern America between battling street demonstrations as police lose control of places like New Orleans where they are having to recruit civilians on the force to help.

 

[Totenkindly]

I had a stack of films for eldest to watch (with or without me), so we ended up watching The Grey last night. I tried to give him films he wouldn't have heard of and/or hadn't seen. The Grey (directed by Joe Carnahan, although Ridley & Tony Scott were involved in the production) might be Carnahan's best film -- I know he has said it's the most satisfying one for him.

it was marketed a bit wrong, leading people to think it as an action picture where Liam Neeson punches wolves in the face a lot. Not really, but I understand the difficulty in marketing it -- how do you market a film that seems bleak at least on a superficial level and doesn't provide a tangible action payoff? This is really more in along the lines of "The Edge" -- they are both survival films that are almost more philosophical in nature, in terms of humanity's orientation towards nature and an indifferent universe.

Neeson is just amazing in this film and I can't help but think about how the tragedy that rocked his life a year before filming this impacted his performance deeply. It feels like it is tapping into the same kinds of feelings of helplessness, hopelessness, the universe's indifferent, and trying to discover or create meaning in a world devoid of it.

(This film also reminds me of "The Descent," which is a bit more horrific and unnaturally bloody, but (1) a uni-gendered group, so you see particular dynamics play out, and (2) things feel pretty bleak / no one is going to intervene to save the protagonists, and (3) the whole film, music, image, and locale, is saturated to evoke particular feelings of sadness/loss, longing, and unmet desire.)

It's got one of the most harrowing plane crashes I have ever seen in a film, srsly, helped by foreshadowing it with the signals of temp/electrical failure, and then the crash itself.

There's a number of small decent performances in the film, and I love how they are actors who MIGHT be recognizable but you probably can't quite recall their names. The two most noticeable (and who have the best parts beside Neeson) are Frank Grillo (Diaz) and Dermot Mulroney (Talget). Every survivor of the crash has their own way to view life and death, and these form the basis of their interactions and dialogue as they try to escape the wilderness, harried by wolves who seem to believe the men have encroached on their territory (so they are not willing to back off).

Meanwhile, there's the mystery of Neeson's character (Ottway), whose opening scenes seem to jar with his later behavior, and determine what his backstory is and how that has impacted his worldview.

There's a nice parallel between pack leaders (the wolves but also the men), with similar dynamics playing out -- maybe we're not so different after all. But also the film gels with where my own life experience has led me, I can identify with Ottway deeply.

There are numerous theories out there about how real the film is, or whether Ottway is imagining it, or whether it's symbolic in other ways (often tied to the word "grey"), but I tend to take it just literally, especially near the end where Ottway looks into the sky for meaning and gets no response except for what he must provide himself. It is very much an absurdist movie (why do some men die in the crash and others do not, especially if the ones who miraculous survive then die in more horrific ways later? Is this a joke? Or why is a man like Ottway in charge of keeping others alive? And so on.) and a film that acknowledges uncertainty about the meaning of the universe, and where that leaves us as people if we still need to quell that feeling of emptiness and loss.

The music is really evocative even if simple, and the sound palette / edits are really great. The film even manages to work around much of the issue with using animatronic or CG wolves by shooting the film with the necessary tricks even without the wolves present.

I know with the marketing that some are disappointed with the ending, but I don't see how it could have ended differently. If you sit through the credits, you're left with a bit more, although everything remains ambiguous. This is a case where the film is consistent with itself but expectations were improperly set by advertising.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

I watched the King last night with my Dad when I went over to help him Hurricane proof the family house.

Excellent film, great pacing, great cinematography.

I have a minor gripe about the end but its minor.

Dad loved it. The fights are fucking realistic for once, making the violence feel serious and dangerous.

FUCK MARVEL I WANT MORE OF THIS.

 

[lorarobson]

Watched The Gray Man ( Netflix ) yesterday. I'd give the film 7/10. It's said to be action and thriller, but for me, there was a lack of both. But in general, the film was good, the actors played well, and the plot was also not bad. If you have no idea what to watch - try that film.

 

[ceecee]

I had a stack of films for eldest to watch (with or without me), so we ended up watching The Grey last night. I tried to give him films he wouldn't have heard of and/or hadn't seen. The Grey (directed by Joe Carnahan, although Ridley & Tony Scott were involved in the production) might be Carnahan's best film -- I know he has said it's the most satisfying one for him.

it was marketed a bit wrong, leading people to think it as an action picture where Liam Neeson punches wolves in the face a lot. Not really, but I understand the difficulty in marketing it -- how do you market a film that seems bleak at least on a superficial level and doesn't provide a tangible action payoff? This is really more in along the lines of "The Edge" -- they are both survival films that are almost more philosophical in nature, in terms of humanity's orientation towards nature and an indifferent universe.

Neeson is just amazing in this film and I can't help but think about how the tragedy that rocked his life a year before filming this impacted his performance deeply. It feels like it is tapping into the same kinds of feelings of helplessness, hopelessness, the universe's indifferent, and trying to discover or create meaning in a world devoid of it.

(This film also reminds me of "The Descent," which is a bit more horrific and unnaturally bloody, but (1) a uni-gendered group, so you see particular dynamics play out, and (2) things feel pretty bleak / no one is going to intervene to save the protagonists, and (3) the whole film, music, image, and locale, is saturated to evoke particular feelings of sadness/loss, longing, and unmet desire.)

It's got one of the most harrowing plane crashes I have ever seen in a film, srsly, helped by foreshadowing it with the signals of temp/electrical failure, and then the crash itself.

There's a number of small decent performances in the film, and I love how they are actors who MIGHT be recognizable but you probably can't quite recall their names. The two most noticeable (and who have the best parts beside Neeson) are Frank Grillo (Diaz) and Dermot Mulroney (Talget). Every survivor of the crash has their own way to view life and death, and these form the basis of their interactions and dialogue as they try to escape the wilderness, harried by wolves who seem to believe the men have encroached on their territory (so they are not willing to back off).

Meanwhile, there's the mystery of Neeson's character (Ottway), whose opening scenes seem to jar with his later behavior, and determine what his backstory is and how that has impacted his worldview.

There's a nice parallel between pack leaders (the wolves but also the men), with similar dynamics playing out -- maybe we're not so different after all. But also the film gels with where my own life experience has led me, I can identify with Ottway deeply.

There are numerous theories out there about how real the film is, or whether Ottway is imagining it, or whether it's symbolic in other ways (often tied to the word "grey"), but I tend to take it just literally, especially near the end where Ottway looks into the sky for meaning and gets no response except for what he must provide himself. It is very much an absurdist movie (why do some men die in the crash and others do not, especially if the ones who miraculous survive then die in more horrific ways later? Is this a joke? Or why is a man like Ottway in charge of keeping others alive? And so on.) and a film that acknowledges uncertainty about the meaning of the universe, and where that leaves us as people if we still need to quell that feeling of emptiness and loss.

The music is really evocative even if simple, and the sound palette / edits are really great. The film even manages to work around much of the issue with using animatronic or CG wolves by shooting the film with the necessary tricks even without the wolves present.

I know with the marketing that some are disappointed with the ending, but I don't see how it could have ended differently. If you sit through the credits, you're left with a bit more, although everything remains ambiguous. This is a case where the film is consistent with itself but expectations were improperly set by advertising.

I can see how many people would find this a completely plausible plot. I mean Liam Neeson started making one movie long ago and it just continues with a different name every so often.

 

[Totenkindly]

I can see how many people would find this a completely plausible plot. I mean Liam Neeson started making one movie long ago and it just continues with a different name every so often.

Pretty much. I miss him doing interesting stuff like Rob Roy.

Eldest said he had never seen Neeson do anything but Qui-Gon. I was like, uh, we need to remedy that.

 

[ceecee]

Pretty much. I miss him doing interesting stuff like Rob Roy.

Eldest said he had never seen Neeson do anything but Qui-Gon. I was like, uh, we need to remedy that.

The Gangs of New York, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs or even Widows - these were all much better than Taken by some other name. I wish he did more of them too.

 

[Totenkindly]

The Gangs of New York, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs or even Widows - these were all much better than Taken by some other name. I wish he did more of them too.

Oh yeah -- forgot to toss Widows and Buster Scruggs in there. (Haven't watched Gangs yet.)

Widows is SUPER-underrated and sadly mostly ignored. Another great Steve McQueen film, with great turns by the cast esp Viola Davis and Elizabeth Debicki.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Pretty much. I miss him doing interesting stuff like Rob Roy.

Eldest said he had never seen Neeson do anything but Qui-Gon. I was like, uh, we need to remedy that.

Rob Roy has a dope sword fight.

 

[Totenkindly]

Watched The Gray Man ( Netflix ) yesterday. I'd give the film 7/10. It's said to be action and thriller, but for me, there was a lack of both. But in general, the film was good, the actors played well, and the plot was also not bad. If you have no idea what to watch - try that film.

It was okay. I think the disappointment was that it was the Russos. From an average film maker on Netflix, it might have been standard. But they have made better films in that genre (better humor, better action, better writing), so this was kind of a step backwards for them sadly... But it can pass two hours away well enough if as you said, someone doesn't know what to watch.

Armas was good. She deserves better films. People seem to be ripping into Blonde as well (not her acting, but the film itself).

 

[Totenkindly]

Watched The Black Phone tonight (Scott Derrickson -- too bad he didn't make Dr. Strange 2).

Strangely satisfying, 7/10 territory, I got kind of teary at the end. I'm going to read the short story it's based on (by Joe Hill, aka Stephen King's kid). Damn, he looks just like his old man too:

I found the film less scary and more of a thriller and with a bit of an inspirational character arc for the lead kid. Also his kid (and psychic) sister has some hilarious vulgar one-liners, damn.

 

[Totenkindly]

Watched Censor tonight. Still trying to determine how I feel about it. It's definitely evocative in terms of all elements working together to create a particular ambiance and mood, it just kind of becomes meta and surreal by the end and I'm not sure if I am satisfied by it. definitely lead Niamh Algar devolves through the film, moving from overly controlled and buttoned up to slowly unraveling. Some interesting camera format changes throughout, and there's a lot of claustrophobic moments by design.

 

[The Cat]

Gonna be watching Storm of the Century this week. Born in Sin come on in. Born in Vice say it twice.

 

[Lexicon]

Gonna be watching Storm of the Century this week. Born in Sin come on in. Born in Vice say it twice.

You mean the 1999 movie? Or is there a newer one I somehow missed?

 

[Totenkindly]

You mean the 1999 movie? Or is there a newer one I somehow missed?

well, TV miniseries. But I'm not aware of any other versions. Is it on Hulu now?

 

[The Cat]

You mean the 1999 movie? Or is there a newer one I somehow missed?

the 1999 network miniseries event.

Andre Linoge... Either him or Leland Gaunt would be my second wish.​