Film forum off topic/random chat thread

pixelburp

So. Many. Cuts.

Must be an age thing, or maybe distance from the screen, 'cos while I saw that in the cinema I don't recall being so nauseated as I was there now watching it on the laptop monitor.

Though it's no Taken 3, for sheer number of superfluous cuts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCKhktcbfQM

Tony EH

Sonics2k wrote: »

Shamelessly stealing this one from Reddit, but not sure if this is quite worthy of it's own thread.

Some movies just have fantastic opening scenes and 28 Weeks Later is up there with the best of them. Video below is obviously NSFW

While the movie itself wasn't nearly as good as 28 Days Later, I remember seeing this one in the cinema and the opening really got my heart racing.

One of the best openings to a horror film I've seen.

Pity the rest of it was rubbish though.

Tony EH

pixelburp wrote: »

So. Many. Cuts

Somewhat forgivable in the scene from '28 Weeks Later' as it actually aids the tension.

But, yeh. The half millions cuts per minute penchant that some film makers have these days is irritating for sure.

Dades

pixelburp wrote: »

Though it's no Taken 3, for sheer number of superfluous cuts

Ha - what the hell was going on there?! Makes that daft scene in Bohemian Rhapsody look polished.

Sonics2k

pixelburp wrote: »

So. Many. Cuts.

Must be an age thing, or maybe distance from the screen, 'cos while I saw that in the cinema I don't recall being so nauseated as I was there now watching it on the laptop monitor.

Though it's no Taken 3, for sheer number of superfluous cuts

Generally I'd absolutely agree with you, jump cuts are often extremely lazy. However, when it's done right it can really add to the tension of a scene, mostly in horrors/thrillers.

pixelburp

Dades wrote: »

Ha - what the hell was going on there?! Makes that daft scene in Bohemian Rhapsody look polished.

The conventional "thinking" with quick cuts is that it adds a sense of chaos and immediacy to action. So idiots like Olivier Megaton use it in all the wrong places without understanding why or how it works.

Elsewhere, in the land of video essays, the usually entertaining Lindsey Ellis dropped a new video, unpacking the cynical and superficial attempts by Disney to 'modernise' its live-action remakes with empty "woke"ness. Her material is always pretty nuanced and rational, with some decent academic perspectives brought to pop culture entities:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU1ffHa47YY

Tony EH

^
Yeh watched that this morning. She's bang on the button in many respects.

pixelburp

Tony EH wrote: »

^
Yeh watched that this morning. She's bang on the button in many respects.

Ellis is a highly underrated "YouTuber" IMO, and really marries the flippant pop-culture with some balanced, thoughtful views on gender, race, political ideologies etc. - without coming across like a demagogue. She clearly knows her onions, with a good sense of humour to carry the material as well.

If you look at anything else of hers, the series on Transformers should be watched: it's a 9 part deconstruction of the franchise & Michael Bay in general, and despite what you're probably thinking, is a fascinating piece. It won't change your mind about Bay, but really delves into the "whys" of his noted prejudices and tropes.

Tony EH

Yeh, I've seen a few things from her and she seems to have her tongue in her cheek, while tearing apart the likes of Disney and other big studio productions, without the need to push some sort of obvious, cheap, politics.

Haven't seen the Transformers stuff.

The Black Oil

McQuarrie tends to delete all his messages after a while, so read while you can. Nothing terribly surprising, really.

https://twitter.com/chrismcquarrie/status/1187023381251670017

FunLover18

The Black Oil wrote: »

McQuarrie tends to delete all his messages after a while, so read while you can. Nothing terribly surprising, really.

https://twitter.com/chrismcquarrie/status/1187023381251670017

He's done spoiler special podcasts with Empire for the last two MI films and they're great!!

johnny_ultimate

****ing Disney, man.

https://twitter.com/mattzollerseitz/status/1187482142391046145?s=21

Fysh

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

****ing Disney, man.

https://twitter.com/mattzollerseitz/status/1187482142391046145?s=21

But it doesn't matter because now we can have the x-men in the same universe as the avengers. (I wish I could say the joke is self-evident but there seem to be plenty of MCU diehard fans who seemingly think Disney/Marvel can do no wrong...)

Sad Professor

Die Netflix die.

https://variety.com/2019/digital/news/netflix-variable-playback-speeds-test-1203383583/

Fysh

Sad Professor wrote: »

Die Netflix die.

https://variety.com/2019/digital/news/netflix-variable-playback-speeds-test-1203383583/

I don't mind this so much, actually. Given how some shows are bloated to longer length or higher episode count than merited by the material, I can see this maybe being a useful counter - and on the flipside for foreign language material the slower playback could be useful for viewers struggling to keep up.

pixelburp

Weird one, but not an uncommon occurrence. I've heard of folks watching digital copies of shows on 1.5 speed, especially for those with a needlessly lugubrious pace.

In fact, cards on the table, I watched Walking Dead at 1.5 speed for a time, because of its non existent pace or plot, until I realised the show was a miserable & pointless waste of time.

Mind you, our "smart" TV is locked to a very old version of the app, so we won't have that setting haha; don't even have the option to play trailers.

CastorTroy

Did I miss something? Why would the option be a bad thing?

mikhail

CastorTroy wrote: »

Did I miss something? Why would the option be a bad thing?

Because watching something at 1.5x speed isn't 'real' TV watching.

/s

There are so many better targets of even a flicker of irritation.

Electric Nitwit

https://twitter.com/WreckinRod/status/1190248990782062592?s=19

pixelburp

Damn. Still to this day, that intro gives me chills. Such pure cinema.

Vangelis' soundtrack really did marry so well with Scott's eye.

Arghus

Any thoughts on the IMDB and Box office mojo redesign?

I think they look terrible the new BOM is a travesty. The original design was simple and straightforward.

MfMan

pixelburp wrote: »

Damn. Still to this day, that intro gives me chills. Such pure cinema.

Vangelis' soundtrack really did marry so well with Scott's eye.

"Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it?"

Without wishing to reopen another debate, I really think it would be the ultimate in ambiguity were Deckard to also be a replicant. "How can it not know what it is?"

The sequel wasn't exactly terrible, but I felt it was overlong, lost focus of what it was meant to be about somewhat and was trying too hard. No real complement to the towering original.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Could have done with that faster playback option when trying to watch Peterloo on Amazon Prime this past week.

mikhail

MfMan wrote: »

Without wishing to reopen another debate, I really think it would be the ultimate in ambiguity were Deckard to also be a replicant. "How can it not know what it is?"

I've come to peace with the fact that Scott has fairly definitively answered that with a yes. I've always felt it was better uncertain.

It's November 2019, the perfect month to give BR another spin.

The Black Oil

Handy little tool here from the New Yorker re mapping the gross of franchises.

https://projects.newyorker.com/story/hollywood-franchises/

Agent Coulson

The Black Oil wrote: »

Handy little tool here from the New Yorker re mapping the gross of franchises.

https://projects.newyorker.com/story/hollywood-franchises/

Bit strange that it counts all Bond films but only 7 of the MCU and 5 of the X - Men films and not the rest of films in either franchises.

mikhail

Agent Coulson wrote: »

Bit strange that it counts all Bond films but only 7 of the MCU and 5 of the X - Men films and not the rest of films in either franchises.

3 transformers, 6 star wars ... I assumed it was just out of date until you mentioned the Bond films.

The Black Oil

Ah this is heartbreaking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9lXXYEn5n8

p to the e

pixelburp wrote: »

Damn. Still to this day, that intro gives me chills. Such pure cinema.

Vangelis' soundtrack really did marry so well with Scott's eye.

That drum bang. Shivers

I went looking for the Blade Runner soundtrack a while back just for that intro and I didn't realise the history of how messy the soundtrack was. The original didn't have that drum bang intro.

There's several versions and bootlegs and the definitive one seems to be the "Esper" edition which I believe is the version linked below.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner_(soundtrack)

Esper Edition

El Duda

I'm going to see Bladerunner with a live orchestra next year. I have goosebumps already.