Random Movie Thoughts Thread

[Totenkindly]

On the heels the previously announced Titanic 25th Anniversary Collector’s Edition, Disney will release new 4K transfers of The Abyss and True Lies as Collector’s Edition Blu-rays on March 12, 2024, and as digital purchases at Prime Video, Apple TV, and Vudu beginning Dec. 12. Aliens will also get the 4K Collector’s Edition treatment (apologies to the other sequels in the “quadrilogy”) in March, while Avatar and Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water will get Collector’s Edition 4K Blu-rays on Dec. 19.

So happy....and they put Ripley and Newt on the cover. This is so beautiful. It's the emotional core of the film.

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

The "Roger Moore is too campy" supercut:

https://www.reddit.com/r/JamesBond/comments/17wpkiw

 

[Totenkindly]

Watched two movies this weekend.

One was the Criterion 4K of "The Others" by Amenabar, that just came out recently. He directed, wrote the screenplay, and composed the music for the film, so the guy is kind of a Triple Play artist. In that respect, the film is excellent. I liked the 4K transfer, and it's all appropriately washed out in terms of color, while maintaining the grain to bring out the kind of hazy existence Grace and the children have been living in. (Did anyone notice how Grace says early on that even the seagulls have gone away, but then you hear them in the last 15 seconds of the film? There's a good reason for that.) Her going into the woods is appropriately creepy.

Considering this film came out within 2 years of another famous film (set elsewhere, time and spacewise) with a semi-similar twist, you might think people would be cued into it, but most people were not, in part because Amenabar does play many of the scenes correctly. In fact I would say he plays anything with Grace and the kids correctly, and you can see her rigidity and denial strategies playing into how she interacts with the kids and staff. None of the revelations later in the film should be shocking.

How the ghost scenes are handled is pretty appropriate, I remembered the piano room in particular, and part of the fun in watching the film knowing all of the story already is watching how these things play out.

I think the film's main "softness" is from the three caretakers working on the estate. I feel like it's a little too on the nose when we get an occasional comment from them. I wish it had been a bit more opaque throughout, until the last 15 minutes of course. It feels like Amenabar wanted to set up later film revelations early and build tension, but I just wish he could have done it a bit more subtly.

The last minute or two of declaration from Grace and the kids is pretty chilling. Also, Chris Eccleston has an appropriately haunted look in his eyes when he comes home from the war. I feel like this is before he got to be a recognizable name in the United States (it predates his Doctor Who run by a few years and until this time most of his work was on BBC TV and film), so it's kind of fun to watch.

The other film I rewatched was The Incredibles 4K. This film still holds up 20 years later and is honestly one of the best entries from The Golden Age of Pixar. The soundtrack got an Oscar nom; the story and dialogue is nuanced yet succinct at revealing character and certain themes/lines echo throughout the narrative; there are actual multiple character arcs (Bob Parr, Helen Parr, Violet Parr, Buddy, and while not an arc at least some character insight into Mirage), I would say Dash is the least fleshed out internally but he's pretty much what he seems to be on the surface; and it's clear they worked and reworked this story repeatedly to get it right before proceeding.

The voice direction is absolutely stellar, there's only maybe 2-3 lines max in the entire film that feel slightly off tonally -- this is amazing considering most of them were operating in booths to deliver these lines. (It's so easy nowadays with all of this CGI and animated fare coming out to find average/poor voice coaching for a film.) The music is perfectly fitted to the visuals of the film and accentuates the plot. The end credits were a bit of a break from Pixar's "outtake" approach, they were creative, represent key scenes of the film, and are fun to watch even if you don't care who worked on the film.

Syndrome is a great villain in concept and as voiced by Jason Lee, and his origin stems directly from Bob Parr's actual character arc -- so he's also a relevant villain. There's at least 2-3 moments in this film that still make me cry twenty years later every time I see them. The character arcs of Bob and Helen are extremely relatable to parents in their mid/late 30's and beyond. The danger feels very real without being graphic. And I think the Kronos/Edna sequence in the film's middle is one of the best cut/edited sequences with music and visuals that I've seen in any film whether animated or conventionally shot.

It's a beautifully creative take on the superhero genre (Golden Age / 50's through 70's) that meshes James Bond stylisms with the superhero concept. (Hey this is even before the real MCU hit.) A superhero film with a unique flavor and vision -- go figure, right? It's a true classic.

It's a shame that I2 was only average (with a few standout set pieces, usually involving Helen), because they just really never got a strong villain or a deeper story in place.

 

[Totenkindly]

I pushed through Incredibles 2 yesterday. The animation quality itself is really gorgeous sometimes, even though the original Incredibles is no slouch. (You're talking 14 years of additional software/hardware/tools development, so you're going to see some improvements.)

Some of the individual segments are just fine on their own, and mostly the stuff around Jack-Jack is actually pretty funny and nicely thought out in terms of the physics and the humor.

It's more a matter of overall end result, and it's interesting coming on the heels of The Marvels, which is another film that had some good elements (like the interplay between the three women leads) but was far more noticeably lacking in other departments.

I2 is actually in the same boat, although it's handled with a higher level of skill around storytelling and execution so it doesn't suffer as much as The Marvels. Basically you have a villain who is really powerful-seeming until you find out who it is, and then their only advantage comes in taking control of other supers through the element of surprise. Once that surprise is lost and the villain starts losing, there is no real threat involved and the villain loses very quickly and has no fall-back position. This is very much unlike the first film, where the threats felt very real and like people could actually die at any time. (The Marvels has a very weak and undefined villain.)

I2 has some other issues.

• A lot of it channels moments/beats from the first film -- sometimes on purpose, but at times it feels derivative, not its own thing.
• There are creative choices that feel like they never cracked a new story (like picking up right at the Underminer sequence, which we never really needed to see); this film supposedly happens right after the first Incredibles and it's just way too soon. Some of these things that occur aren't really as interesting as a new idea might have been, esp after 14 years.
• The Tony Ridinger plotline feels a bit overbaked and detracts from other parts of the film. He's a passing character in the first film. We don't care about Tony.
• I love Bob Odenkirk but at times he feels a little much and on the nose.
• There are way too many characters than the first film, it makes it hard to focus and/or connect.
• This also has a few deep monologues about superheroes (why are people trusting people they actually don't know, just because they were a suit and cape? There's so much about society where if you signal the right appearance/role, people lend you far more credibility than you have actually earned personally) but this film feels like it is working WAY too hard to justify its multiple arcs and plotlines. The first film feels simple yet nuanced; this just feels overworked much of the time.

as noted the good stuff is actually decent -- great craftsmanship, some really nice little character arcs detached from the main story -- but it's the overall end result that is a bit underwhelming due to story problems they never really cracked or even anticipated. The Marvels is just a similar boat but far more extreme, having a lot less going for it. (No one is ever going to look at The Marvels as having "excellent craftsmanship" for example.)

 

[Totenkindly]

So there are some movies getting slammed on RT (or at least coming in lower than expected), one of them being the Disney picture that they've been hyping on and off + not having an embargo on reviews.

Wish (55%, 60 reviews): All of the negative reviews seem pretty consistent about the film's problems. Meanwhile, about 90% of the "good reviews" only give the film 3/5 stars. That's only marginally good, in terms of quality. It sounds almost like they tried to make the film off formula/nostalgia, and the directing team is kind of questionable. This score could change drastically based on a full crowd of reviews (60 isn't a lot), so...

Napoleon (66%, 87 reviews): Joaquin Phoenix is worth seeing in almost everything. I don't really put a lot of stock on ratings of Ridley Scott. Some of his films aren't great, some are really great. I was going to say that The Last Duel tanked at the box office, which did not deserve because the film itself is actually really intriguing with the multiple perspectives -- but RT apparently has updated scores when it went streaming because it's at 85%/81% (critic/audience). It'll be interesting to see if Napoleon gets any steam, but then again I wasn't really asking for a Napoleon film either.

Hunger Games Prequel (62%, 176 reviews): Interestingly, the audience score is a crazy 91%, which is higher than the Marvel's audience score of 83%. A lot of critics were complaining about the ending or just seemed tired of HG franchise. I wonder which ones actually read the book, the ending is ambiguous there as well in some ways and feels a bit abrupt. Collins was heavily involved in the story drafting for the film. My son has read the book, is pretty critical of films, and actually really liked this film. I'll see it on Friday, I'm kind of curious to see how it plays out. The trailers aren't bad.

 

[The Cat]

Napoleon wasnt even asking for a Napoleon film and that's saying something. On an unrelated note it might be fun to look back through the prophecies of Nostradomus and figure out which one of them has been misinterperated to be the end of the world but was really just predicting reality television and then try to convince myself that the dichotemy is more than only a matter of perspective because both roads lead to rome.

 

[Totenkindly]

Napoleon wasnt even asking for a Napoleon film and that's saying something. On an unrelated note it might be fun to look back through the prophecies of Nostradomus and figure out which one of them has been misinterperated to be the end of the world but was really just predicting reality television and then try to convince myself that the dichotemy is more than only a matter of perspective because both roads lead to rome.

Just like Gladiator 2!! Whee, I bet that yet another Ridley Scott film no one asked for will be marvelous as well!

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

Anyone remember Ridley Scott's rant about Replicants and Beavis & Butthead?

 

[Totenkindly]

Who would have ever believed a Saw film actually might scan as a respectable release? They typically don't even invest much in their bluray releases.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Hunger Games Prequel (62%, 176 reviews): Interestingly, the audience score is a crazy 91%, which is higher than the Marvel's audience score of 83%. A lot of critics were complaining about the ending or just seemed tired of HG franchise. I wonder which ones actually read the book, the ending is ambiguous there as well in some ways and feels a bit abrupt. Collins was heavily involved in the story drafting for the film. My son has read the book, is pretty critical of films, and actually really liked this film. I'll see it on Friday, I'm kind of curious to see how it plays out. The trailers aren't bad.

It looks interesting, although I think I know how it ends without having read any of these books, or seen any of the other films.

Snow goes bad because Lucy was never really into him, or something very close to that.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Napoleon wasnt even asking for a Napoleon film and that's saying something. On an unrelated note it might be fun to look back through the prophecies of Nostradomus and figure out which one of them has been misinterperated to be the end of the world but was really just predicting reality television and then try to convince myself that the dichotemy is more than only a matter of perspective because both roads lead to rome.

He felt Napoleon Dynamite captured his essence sufficiently.

As for prophecies, you have to also include the Book of Revelations. Some people make careers out of tying it to current events.

 

[Totenkindly]

It looks interesting, although I think I know how it ends without having read any of these books, or seen any of the other films.

Snow goes bad because Lucy was never really into him, or something very close to that.

That's a good guess, but not quite right.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

That's a good guess, but not quite right.

Fascinating.

 

[The Cat]

He felt Napoleon Dynamite captured his essence sufficiently.

As for prophecies, you have to also include the Book of Revelations. Some people make careers out of tying it to current events.

I grew up studying the Bible. There is a lot happening that feels like Revelations. But most of the people trying to take money from it are gonna be dissapointed if it turns out it is happening, because it doesnt work out for all the fundamentalists who are worshipping the beasts. Trump and Musk fit a lot of the bills for them, but seemingly a lot of people have mistaken themselves for Christians while asking who is like the Beast, who can make war with him?

 

[Totenkindly]

Now you have all hit my second pet peeve with accurate naming. Embarrassingly, I am completely blanking on what the first one is (ROFLMAO), so I am now humiliated, but the second has got to be "Revelations" referring to the Bible book. It is not Revelations; it is "Revelation." It is just one ongoing revelation.

Edit: haha, some other stickler got into the wikipedia entry: "The Book of Revelation, also erroneously called the Book of Revelations, is the final book of the New Testament (and therefore the final book of the Christian Bible). Written in Koine Greek, its title is derived from the first word of the text: apokalypsis, meaning 'unveiling' or 'revelation'."

I grew up studying the Bible. There is a lot happening that feels like Revelations. But most of the people trying to take money from it are gonna be dissapointed if it turns out it is happening, because it doesnt work out for all the fundamentalists who are worshipping the beasts. Trump and Musk fit a lot of the bills for them, but seemingly a lot of people have mistaken themselves for Christians while asking who is like the Beast, who can make war with him?

I kinda gave up on mapping Revelation to today's current news for at least two reasons: (1) There's a good case (and one entire wing of Christian belief) that it refers to events that already happened about 2000 years ago and (2) ever since media got popularized, there have been nuts out there trying to map it to THEIR current events.

This is ongoing. When I was 10, I read Spire comics that dealt with "There's a New World Comin'" by Hal Lindsey, a guy who wrote crappy books selling this stuff, mapping it into events in the 70's. Now they are mapping it into today's current events. When the world does not end, they will map it into the world of the 2070's. And on and on and on.

The Illustrated Rapture: ‘There’s a New World Coming’, 1974

Hal Lindsey's bestselling The Late, Great Planet Earth, originally published by the Zondervan Corporation in 1970, revolutionized the Christian publishing industry and introduced the mainstream to rapture or "end times" terminology and imagery...

wearethemutants.com

The reality is broader -- you can't use this as predictive text, but you can be assured that there will always be those who will fall into the categories described. The church of Jesus seems to really be suckered in nowadays by false prophets, but they always have been, and they ignore the danger. Trump is just in a long line of folks selling the church a bill of goods to fleece them for what power he can acquire from them. He will suck them dry until he falters and/or is ruined, and he will gladly take them all down with them without regard for their well-being.

Also, John's message was supposed to be one of hope: Bad things are coming but it's all leading to a better place if you remain faithful. Nowadays people just obsess over finding demons behind every bush and making money off it.

 

[The Cat]

Now you have all hit my second pet peeve with accurate naming. Embarrassingly, I am completely blanking on what the first one is (ROFLMAO), so I am now humiliated, but the second has got to be "Revelations" referring to the Bible book. It is not Revelations; it is "Revelation." It is just one ongoing revelation.

View attachment 29771

Edit: haha, some other stickler got into the wikipedia entry: "The Book of Revelation, also erroneously called the Book of Revelations, is the final book of the New Testament (and therefore the final book of the Christian Bible). Written in Koine Greek, its title is derived from the first word of the text: apokalypsis, meaning 'unveiling' or 'revelation'."


I kinda gave up on mapping Revelation to today's current news for at least two reasons: (1) There's a good case (and one entire wing of Christian belief) that it refers to events that already happened about 2000 years ago and (2) ever since media got popularized, there have been nuts out there trying to map it to THEIR current events.

This is ongoing. When I was 10, I read Spire comics that dealt with "There's a New World Comin'" by Hal Lindsey, a guy who wrote crappy books selling this stuff, mapping it into events in the 70's. Now they are mapping it into today's current events. When the world does not end, they will map it into the world of the 2070's. And on and on and on.

The Illustrated Rapture: ‘There’s a New World Coming’, 1974

Hal Lindsey's bestselling The Late, Great Planet Earth, originally published by the Zondervan Corporation in 1970, revolutionized the Christian publishing industry and introduced the mainstream to rapture or "end times" terminology and imagery...

wearethemutants.com

View attachment 29772

The reality is broader -- you can't use this as predictive text, but you can be assured that there will always be those who will fall into the categories described. The church of Jesus seems to really be suckered in nowadays by false prophets, but they always have been, and they ignore the danger. Trump is just in a long line of folks selling the church a bill of goods to fleece them for what power he can acquire from them. He will suck them dry until he falters and/or is ruined, and he will gladly take them all down with them without regard for their well-being.

Also, John's message was supposed to be one of hope: Bad things are coming but it's all leading to a better place if you remain faithful. Nowadays people just obsess over finding demons behind every bush and making money off it.

I always like seeing who I can trigger sunday school anxiety when I say Revelations like some two bit faith healer in a tent. And the best part is I know you can hear how I'm pronouncing it with all those old time religion inflections can I get an amen?

Yes when you read through it, it actually does continueally have a hopeful message of working out for everyone, one thing I have to hand it to the Bible, it certainly is the book of a patient long suffering parent diety trying to do their best with the most unruly teenagers, which I mean, it feels on point to me in that regard.

Its actually a weird little thing i pick up onto also, because I'll pay more attention to a preacher who preaches from the Book of Revelation, I might even perk an ear for: The Revelation of St. John. But whenever I hear the book of Revelations, I check to make sure nobody's taken my wallet already.

God I remember being a kid in a christian school having them up my ass in a bad way about being left behind and the rapture, and I get a bit miffed to this day, that I cant enjoy a good story of orcas attacking yaghts, without thinking about scripture reflexively

 

[Totenkindly]

I always like seeing who I can trigger sunday school anxiety when I say Revelations like some two bit faith healer in a tent. And the best part is I know you can hear how I'm pronouncing it with all those old time religion inflections can I get an amen?

I know -- way to trigger my childhood religious PTSD!

To tie this back to films a bit, I still have trouble watching films (and especially documentaries) that too much mirror what I was raised with. It's like a huge curtain on unreality. It's hard enough to talk to my mom who keeps talking about heaven and going there soon and how god will do what he wants so she just accepts everything without challenging the bullshit. But yeah, it's all too close to home.

God I remember being a kid in a christian school having them up my ass in a bad way about being left behind and the rapture, and I get a bit miffed to this day, that I cant enjoy a good story of orcas attacking yaghts, without thinking about scripture reflexively

Some of the crazy shit that went on -- shoulda been a movie.

I remember going to Sunday School and hearing the story of a little girl who was saved but whose daddy wasn't, and her daddy had forbidden her to go run across a big wobbly rock across a ravine near their house because she might die; so she got her daddy to promise that if she died before him, he'd accept Jesus, and when he agreed, she ran across the rock on purpose and fell into the ravine and died; so then her daddy prayed for Jesus to come into his heart and everyone was happy in heaven.

like wtf people. I was like 8-10. They are all insane.

 

[Red Herring]

I know -- way to trigger my childhood religious PTSD!

To tie this back to films a bit, I still have trouble watching films (and especially documentaries) that too much mirror what I was raised with. It's like a huge curtain on unreality. It's hard enough to talk to my mom who keeps talking about heaven and going there soon and how god will do what he wants so she just accepts everything without challenging the bullshit. But yeah, it's all too close to home.


Some of the crazy shit that went on -- shoulda been a movie.

I remember going to Sunday School and hearing the story of a little girl who was saved but whose daddy wasn't, and her daddy had forbidden her to go run across a big wobbly rock across a ravine near their house because she might die; so she got her daddy to promise that if she died before him, he'd accept Jesus, and when he agreed, she ran across the rock on purpose and fell into the ravine and died; so then her daddy prayed for Jesus to come into his heart and everyone was happy in heaven.

like wtf people. I was like 8-10. They are all insane.

Have you read Craig Thompson's graphic novel Blankets?
As someone who grew up in a totally different environment it both touched and fascinated me. It's a very personal and emotional autobiographical story of a smalltown evangelical childhood and coming of age. I think it triggered that whole wave of similarly themed works that followed it. Not sure if there are any plans to turn that into a movie but it probably could be one.

 

[Totenkindly]

Have you read Craig Thompson's graphic novel Blankets?
As someone who grew up in a totally different environment it both touched and fascinated me. It's a very personal and emotional autobiographical story of a smalltown evangelical childhood and coming of age. I think it triggered that whole wave of similarly themed works that followed it. Not sure if there are any plans to turn that into a movie but it probably could be one.

I think I actually recognize that name but haven't read it -- I will have to check it out.

"The Dance of the Dissident Daughter" by Sue Monk Kidd really impacted me when I read it years ago. (A few years later, she really got well-known for "The Secret Life of Bees", etc.) She was even more stepped in evangelical culture when she broke out, she was in the USA South (baptist heartland!), I think her husband was a pastor or associate pastor, and she was a woman's study leader, but it was just so suffocating for her. She's more of my mom's generation in terms of age but I could identify with her words.

I have tried a few times to watch this documentary called "Jesus Camp" (2006) but have never made it through. It's not that it's bad, it's that it is too close to home for me.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Now you have all hit my second pet peeve with accurate naming. Embarrassingly, I am completely blanking on what the first one is (ROFLMAO), so I am now humiliated, but the second has got to be "Revelations" referring to the Bible book. It is not Revelations; it is "Revelation." It is just one ongoing revelation.

View attachment 29771

Edit: haha, some other stickler got into the wikipedia entry: "The Book of Revelation, also erroneously called the Book of Revelations, is the final book of the New Testament (and therefore the final book of the Christian Bible). Written in Koine Greek, its title is derived from the first word of the text: apokalypsis, meaning 'unveiling' or 'revelation'."

I actually saw that in Wikipedia, but I thought "I've never heard it referred to as such, so even if this is technically incorrect, I'll go with the plural". I did not expected to be corrected on it, haha. It's all good. I myself like correcting people on the age of the pyramids and the whole "Columbus discovering the world wasn't flat" thing.

View attachment 29772

I gotta say, that picture makes the rapture look extremely awesome. Imagine surfing on a wave of pure energy (joy?) through time and space. But I guess that's the point, it's awesome for believers, and not-so-awesome for unbelievers.