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Random Movie Thoughts Thread

Totenkindly

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From wiki: "In June 2020, it was announced that a reboot, titled V/H/S/94, is set to come. The reboot is said to take the franchise to a different direction."

Uh, whut? I didn't really see any difference in the VHS 94 release from what came earlier. It just seemed to be a less-good part of the franchise.

That first V/H/S is up there with Creepshow 1 and 2 as classic anthology horror for me. I liked Ti West's short best and found it most chilling and realistic of them all, though the succubus part was pretty fun and crazy. West is good at establishing unease and his felt the most "slice of life" to me.
Oh yeah, Second Honeymoon. I forgot about that one, it was easily one of the best in the series.
 
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Doctor Cringelord

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From wiki: "In June 2020, it was announced that a reboot, titled V/H/S/94, is set to come. The reboot is said to take the franchise to a different direction."

Uh, whut? I didn't really see any difference in the VHS 94 release from what came earlier. It just seemed to be a less-good part of the franchise.


Oh yeah, Second Honeymoon. I forgot about that one, it was easily one of the best in the series.
Yeah, it did a good job setting up a sense of dread or impending danger

Now the horror anthology thing is becoming popular I guess. A part of me prefers this to full length horro
 

SD45T-2

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Since Sean Connery's death I've been slowly working my way through his Bond movies chronologically. I just watched You Only Live Twice and got a kick out of how some of the ninjas were wielding Gyrojets - not just the pistol but both rifle versions too! :p It's a perfectly '60s choice in the sense that it seems to have been devised be somebody on acid.

"Who doesn't need a rocket gun, really?" Ian "Gun Jesus" McCollum :cowboy:


 

Totenkindly

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Showed my kid Angel Heart last night. In hind sight I think it's Rourke's best performance alongside "The Wrestler" which happened much later when he appears as a ruined wreck of a man. It's a descent into madness that alludes to similar films of the time period like "Jacob's Ladder" (which we'll watch some other time this month), and Rourke is just exuding pure emotional agony by the film's end.

There's some really nice camera work / framing as well, and just an underlying sense of brooding uneasiness due to the sound/music cues and editing. The 4K from StudioCanal is just excellent, since pretty much all the prior home releases were visually awful, and it even cleans up the eye effect at the end of the film so it stops being laughable and at least becomes presentable. Angel Heart also does better when viewed years after all the social drama, when Lisa Bonet was still taking flak for leaping from "The Cosby Show" to this (she brings far more to this part than was probably requested, a real vulnerability) and everyone was freaking out about what needed to be cut from a near-end sequence to make the R cut.

Like Ridley Scott, Parker typically cut across genres in his work output, and some of his other films had more public acclaim (I remember when "The Commitments" was really big). But he was capable of films from various genres, and probably the occult and film noir have not been wedded together so successfully as this.
 

Doctor Cringelord

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exorcist iii is pretty fucking cool, and i think i prefer it over the first movie.


we won't speak of exorcist ii.
 

Totenkindly

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Interesting interview with AMH, film ops he passed up and disappointed John Hughes, etc.

I still tend to call them a brat pack to represent a particular era and type of film, but he clarifies how few of them he actually spent time with.

Disclosure: AMH is about six months older than me (so we might have gone to school together aside from geography), Andrew McCarthy is literally six years older than me. So I can totally see them not meeting.
 

Doctor Cringelord

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of course Rich Evans listed Big Trouble in Little China as his #1 Carpenter film.

Though I'd probably agree and myself think it's his most technically proficient and exciting film. Yes, better than The Thing and They Live.
 

Totenkindly

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My son and I watched Jacob's Ladder (1990) and Dead Ringers yesterday. He said he enjoyed both immensely and he won't shut up about Dead Ringers and has been reading a lot of reddit stuff about the film, lol.

I had rewatched Jacob's Ladder earlier in the year but the rewatch (now that I had a fresher memory of the film) was even better. I view it as a similar story to one made infamous by Bierce, in terms of timeline, but the gist is still the same regardless of how long you think Jacob Singer needs to get through the events of the film. I also absolutely adore Elizabeth Pena in this film; it's still disappointing to remember she's been dead now seven years (as of this past Oct 14). Just a sad end to a talented actress. There's so many other familiar secondary cast members in this film as well, even a Jason Alexander with some hair left before he moved on to Seinfeld. The editing is crazy good in the mad/psychedelic sequences, esp the party.

Dead Ringers, I had not seen since the late 90's, and my son had never seen. It is now perhaps his favorite Cronenberg film -- a story about two identical twin gynecologists (both played by Jeremy Irons) who spiral into addiction, mental illness of sorts, and/or wrestle with the difficulties of maintaining separate identities as part of a set of twins. (They are not cojoined twins, but there's many references and Eng and Chang Bunker who were physically connected, comparing Elliot and Beverly Mantle to them -- and emotionally and professionally the two brothers are seemingly irrevocably intertwined, which causes complications when one does things that ruins his career and also what happens when one wants to have a relationship with a woman, making an awkward three-way triangle that the other resents.)

The music is also beautiful -- Howard Shore, pre-LOTR, and I hear hints of The Silence of the Lambs soundtrack (which he also did just 2-3 years later). The soundtrack is on Spotify.
 
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Doctor Cringelord

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why are so many male actors so short? it seems like there's always some handsome, chiseled face actor but then you see their height and it says 5'5" or something in the manlet zone. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but there seem to be a lot of below average height male actors working.
 

Doctor Cringelord

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My son and I watched Jacob's Ladder (1990) and Dead Ringers yesterday. He said he enjoyed both immensely and he won't shut up about Dead Ringers and has been reading a lot of reddit stuff about the film, lol.

I had rewatched Jacob's Ladder earlier in the year but the rewatch (now that I had a fresher memory of the film) was even better. I view it as a similar story to one made infamous by Bierce, in terms of timeline, but the gist is still the same regardless of how long you think Jacob Singer needs to get through the events of the film. I also absolutely adore Elizabeth Pena in this film; it's still disappointing to remember she's been dead now seven years (as of this past Oct 14). Just a sad end to a talented actress. There's so many other familiar secondary cast members in this film as well, even a Jason Alexander with some hair left before he moved on to Seinfeld. The editing is crazy good in the mad/psychedelic sequences, esp the party.

Dead Ringers, I had not seen since the late 90's, and my son had never seen. It is now perhaps his favorite Cronenberg film -- a story about two identical twin gynecologists (both played by Jeremy Irons) who spiral into addiction, mental illness of sorts, and/or wrestle with the difficulties of maintaining separate identities as part of a set of twins. (They are not cojoined twins, but there's many references and Eng and Chang Bunker who were physically connected, comparing Elliot and Beverly Mantle to them -- and emotionally and professionally the two brothers are seemingly irrevocably intertwined, which causes complications when one does things that ruins his career and also what happens when one wants to have a relationship with a woman, making an awkward three-way triangle that the other resents.)

The music is also beautiful -- Howard Shore, pre-LOTR, and I hear hints of The Silence of the Lambs soundtrack (which he also did just 2-3 years later). The soundtrack is on Spotify.
My favorite pre-LOTR Howard Shore score is probably The Fly.
 

Totenkindly

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My favorite pre-LOTR Howard Shore score is probably The Fly.
I should rewatch it and take pains to listen -- I haven't consciously focused on the score itself in my prior viewings of the film, but it obviously supports the movie well if it just meshes into my overall perception of the film.
 

Doctor Cringelord

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I think Shore is really good at doing window dressing scores that sound good without intruding too much on the visuals. LOTR an obvious exception because the various themes and motifs had to play such a vital role.
 

Totenkindly

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I rewatched The Silence of the Lambs on Sunday (Criterion version bluray) after quite a long time of not watching it. It really is a beautifully made and acted film and deserves its kudos I think. It doesn't really do anything flashy, honestly -- just simple, interesting film making.

Lots of close zooms on face, esp in the conversations between Lecter and Starling. I think this is even more effective at their last face to face meeting, where Lecter is nailing Starling's feet to the floor relentlessly about her backstory about the lambs. Clarisse is framed I think more of an angled shot, but Lecter is zoomed in each cut to him, filling the whole screen... he's like God or her conscience, demanding utter truth and inescapable.

But there are lots of shots elsewhere also framing Clarisse's vulnerability throughout the film.

There are also some nice visual timeline edits (to Clarisse's backstory with her dad and back to present).

Honestly, there's not much action in this film. Even the shootout at the end is relatively action free -- the lights go off, and there's just Gumb following her in the dark when she can't see. But everything connects, including character behavior. For example, in the dark, he could have just shot her... but he doesn't, because (as we know) he covets ... and he wastes time almost reaching out to touch her because he just can't help himself. But it's dramatically powerful. We see Starling actually checking her corners (after earlier in the film, she misses this during training). And so on, things follow and people behave as they are and based on what they've learned.

Demme also makes the scenes interesting (like Lecter's escape) -- not only is that 2 minutes of the actual breakout horribly violent without showing much (it's emotionally violent), but the whole sequence of how the police react during the actual escape is shot interestingly, only showing you what you need to know, and logically tracking everything that would get done in the process. It's something where the police aren't being stupid, everyone is being smart... but Lecter is smarter. About the dumbest person is Chilton... and his failings are obvious from his first appearance and it's due to his insecurity and need to recognition, which leads to carelessness. He's played up as what little comic relief is in the film, without ever seeming like a fake person.

Of course then you have the acting, which is great from even minor characters.
 

Totenkindly

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I think Shore is really good at doing window dressing scores that sound good without intruding too much on the visuals. LOTR an obvious exception because the various themes and motifs had to play such a vital role.
Agreed.

I also rewatched The Cabin in the Woods last night, and noted that David Julyan did that (who did Nolan's first few films + "The Descent" by Neil Marshall). Julyan is similar, except with even less theme-work than Shore. It's interesting because that is a comedy-horror film, so why select Julyan? He actually gives mood and gravitas to the films more serious moments, especially with the deaths of some main characters (like the Merman sequence) but also as they are pondering letting humanity die and the old gods reclaim the planet. It's a kind of bittersweet and contemplative ambiance, which Julyan is great at despite not being much into motifs or themes musically.

I think Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford are great, they're just super-funny while still maintaining the seriousness of their task in mind. It's really a nice script, dialogue wise.
 

Doctor Cringelord

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I rewatched The Silence of the Lambs on Sunday (Criterion version bluray) after quite a long time of not watching it. It really is a beautifully made and acted film and deserves its kudos I think. It doesn't really do anything flashy, honestly -- just simple, interesting film making.

Lots of close zooms on face, esp in the conversations between Lecter and Starling. I think this is even more effective at their last face to face meeting, where Lecter is nailing Starling's feet to the floor relentlessly about her backstory about the lambs. Clarisse is framed I think more of an angled shot, but Lecter is zoomed in each cut to him, filling the whole screen... he's like God or her conscience, demanding utter truth and inescapable.

But there are lots of shots elsewhere also framing Clarisse's vulnerability throughout the film.

There are also some nice visual timeline edits (to Clarisse's backstory with her dad and back to present).

Honestly, there's not much action in this film. Even the shootout at the end is relatively action free -- the lights go off, and there's just Gumb following her in the dark when she can't see. But everything connects, including character behavior. For example, in the dark, he could have just shot her... but he doesn't, because (as we know) he covets ... and he wastes time almost reaching out to touch her because he just can't help himself. But it's dramatically powerful. We see Starling actually checking her corners (after earlier in the film, she misses this during training). And so on, things follow and people behave as they are and based on what they've learned.

Demme also makes the scenes interesting (like Lecter's escape) -- not only is that 2 minutes of the actual breakout horribly violent without showing much (it's emotionally violent), but the whole sequence of how the police react during the actual escape is shot interestingly, only showing you what you need to know, and logically tracking everything that would get done in the process. It's something where the police aren't being stupid, everyone is being smart... but Lecter is smarter. About the dumbest person is Chilton... and his failings are obvious from his first appearance and it's due to his insecurity and need to recognition, which leads to carelessness. He's played up as what little comic relief is in the film, without ever seeming like a fake person.

Of course then you have the acting, which is great from even minor characters.
That scene with the lights out felt real in a way that most big budget action featuring shootouts with heroic fbi agents do not feel real. Most gun fights are short and brutal. Things happen fast and a lot of it boils down to luck. Sure, her training saves her, but it's also her luck that he didn't shoot first. There are no slow motion heroic moments in real life gun fights

I thought No Country For Old Men and The Departed also did a great job of deglamorizing gun fights. Both feature brief, intense firefights that are over in a moment, or abrupt shootings that defy conventions of what we usually see (particularly in scenes where protagonists are injured. DiCaprio doesn't get to go out in a blaze or get a heroic last word, it's just BLAM a shot in the head and over)

Scorcese is good at gun fights feeling real. I remember when I first saw Taxi Driver, that final shootout scene was so dirty, fast and messy. I hadn't seen anything like that before
 
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Julius_Van_Der_Beak

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Agreed.

I also rewatched The Cabin in the Woods last night, and noted that David Julyan did that (who did Nolan's first few films + "The Descent" by Neil Marshall). Julyan is similar, except with even less theme-work than Shore. It's interesting because that is a comedy-horror film, so why select Julyan? He actually gives mood and gravitas to the films more serious moments, especially with the deaths of some main characters (like the Merman sequence) but also as they are pondering letting humanity die and the old gods reclaim the planet. It's a kind of bittersweet and contemplative ambiance, which Julyan is great at despite not being much into motifs or themes musically.

I think Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford are great, they're just super-funny while still maintaining the seriousness of their task in mind. It's really a nice script, dialogue wise.
I think my favorite exchange is "But I'm not a virgin." "These days, we take what we can get."
 

Totenkindly

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That scene with the lights out felt real in a way that most big budget action featuring shootouts with heroic fbi agents do not feel real. Most gun fights are short and brutal. Things happen fast and a lot of it boils down to luck. Sure, her training saves her, but it's also her luck that he didn't shoot first. There are no slow motion heroic moments in real life gun fights

I thought No Country For Old Men and The Departed also did a great job of deglamorizing gun fights. Both feature brief, intense firefights that are over in a moment, or abrupt shootings that defy conventions of what we usually see (particularly in scenes where protagonists are injured. DiCaprio doesn't get to go out in a blaze or get a heroic last word, it's just BLAM a shot in the head and over)

Scorcese is good at gun fights feeling real. I remember when I first saw Taxi Driver, that final shootout scene was so dirty, fast and messy. I hadn't seen anything like that before
I agree, American gunplay tends to be an elaborate fantasy. Maybe it's why I get bored with gun films that are in the middle -- I either like quick and brutal (because it feels real) or things that actually acknowledge it's just an elaborate choreography and plays into it that so it's basically fantastical gunkata that is almost an artform in itself.

I really liked that SotL came down to a minor sound made by a gun cocking and just three seconds of wild blasting. There's a reason why NCfOM and TD are viewed as pretty brutal. That whole bit with DiCaprio is shocking because of how real and final it is. I'm still stunned just by recalling it. I saw a meme earlier today too discussing "cover" in films -- that desks and chairs/tables that people often hide behind are not very effective in blocking gunfire, you'd do better ducking behind a bookcase or something with more density.

I think the longest fight I still enjoyed is the LA fight operating as the central skirmish in Heat -- it still feels real in what happens when LA police are outgunned and a few skilled shooters are loaded with heavy armaments. I think the excess is that most of the bullets simply turn police cars into swiss cheese, but there's at least one quick notable death (don't bring a shotgun to a street fight with automatic fire -- ironically, small tie there to SotL). There really isn't a lot of direct fire because much of it is just spraying down the cars to push back the police line. The few real direct encounters are over in a shot or two.

I guess that sequence also has the realistic justification of how it played out in real life, based on the 1997 shootout (which happened two years after Heat came out). The gunfight lasted probably 40 minutes (?) overall but had several minutes of actual shooting at the cops with automatic weapons. THe biggest difference was that the real-life crooks had body armor that police gunfire could not penetrate until they were able to acquire heavy weaponry themselves; in the film, they were wearing vests but not really to the degree of the real-life thieves.
 

Totenkindly

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I think my favorite exchange is "But I'm not a virgin." "These days, we take what we can get."
Yeah, I LOL'ed when she said that.

Also did that with the "railroad coming through soon, that should change things for you" said to Mordecai, plus his complaining to HQ about, "AM I ON SPEAKERPHONE?" twice...
 

Totenkindly

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Watched Old by Shyamalan today. OMFG.

Frankly, some of the shots are beautiful (because of locale), and also there are a few scenes later in the film where the drama speaks for itself and carries itself. There are things he obviously wanted to talk about (how ever clumsily) and these things were the scenes around which the rest of the film was developed.... but geez, he didn't care about the rest of the film.

The problem is the bulk of the film is running off a terrible script / dialogue. Like, it's one of the worst -- it's like he wrote it on the back of some toilet paper in a bathroom stall while taking care of business. I laughed and laughed and laughed at most of the script. It's so hard to believe this is the guy who labored over and wrote The Sixth Sense, which is so much better written and crafted.

Another flaw is where I would blurt out something about what I thought was happening next, and about five seconds later there was a line or something happened that was exactly what I had just said. It was so predictable much of the time.

The directing (of the actors) was generally not good. There are many many bad line reads by good actors in the first half hour of the film. It's embarrassing. It's like they didn't understand what the story was or what they were supposed to delivery. The successful reads seemed to be based on the natural talents of the actors in question (like Rufus Sewell).

Of course Shyamalan feels the need to insert himself into his film needlessly. he shows up three times in this film, I wish he would just go away / keep himself out.

And of course it's all the "omg there is a predictable conspiracy driving all of this, but in the end the forces of good prevail by doing the bare minimum and just voicing their values because the machinery of society works as it should." It is very much in the vein of the end of Glass, where supposedly uploading a video to the Internet will somehow change the world -- where the reality is that something of interest might get a lot of hits for two days but most people will view it as deep fake and they will quickly move to the next thing.


Overall: This was a film with potentially interesting ideas, however we all know Shyamalan does not take input and is firmly convinced he enact his vision without someone to review/polish his scripts or provide suggestions. It all scans as a film that could have been much better if he simply had stepped back, let someone else polish his script and dialog, and/or also provide more direction to his actors.
 

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Yesterday watched Black and Blue. Really, really good...also featured a 1970 Chevelle SS 454 which fit the character perfectly. Holly 4 barrel Carburetor like John Wick's1969 ford mustang boss 429 but said mustang's engine falls short of the 70 Chevelle SS in torque/horsepower.

'66 Shelby Mustang Gt350 from American Gangster was another good one until it got blown up.
 
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