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What have you watched recently? 3D!

johnny_ultimate

You people just keep on watching films, don't you?

We have reached the contractually-mandated 10,000 post limited in thread 2, so here's another one. It's like the first two, but with gimmicky 3D added and a no-name director taking over from the well-known one who directed the first two.

Here's the first thread: https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055488699
And the second: https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056732038

So... what have you watched recently?

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El Gato De Negocios

Mr Crispy wrote: »

Both created by Rick Baker, of course. Have the "Ultimate Edition" 4K Blu Ray of AWIL coming next month

That the one from Turbine?

Looks a lovely set, I managed to dissuade myself from pre-ordering it as i have the Arrow blu ray special. This year has been massively expensive in terms of shiny releases. Friday the 13th set from Scream Factory, Second Sights 4k Dawn of the Dead, Flash Gordon 4k alone cost nearly €300 never mind all the stuff from the likes of Arrow, Eureka, 101.

Even being selective in what I buy I have still spent alot this year.

AMGer

Mr Crispy wrote: »

Both created by Rick Baker, of course. Have the "Ultimate Edition" 4K Blu Ray of AWIL coming next month

Thanks for letting me know about this! I didn’t know this was coming out.

The last edition of AWIL I got was the Arrow boxset from last year, a really nice edition.

FullBack Jam

A Most Wanted Man

Very suspenseful film. Great entertainment for 99% of the film. One of those where you’re trying to guess how it will end. But then completely let down by an anti-climatic ending. Just went nowhere.

Mr Crispy

El Gato De Negocios wrote: »

That the one from Turbine?

Looks a lovely set, I managed to dissuade myself from pre-ordering it as i have the Arrow blu ray special. This year has been massively expensive in terms of shiny releases. Friday the 13th set from Scream Factory, Second Sights 4k Dawn of the Dead, Flash Gordon 4k alone cost nearly €300 never mind all the stuff from the likes of Arrow, Eureka, 101.

Even being selective in what I buy I have still spent alot this year.

Yeah, I just chanced upon the announcement on a horror website. It was a spur of the moment purchase made on the back of pre-ordering a PS5, my first foray into 4K movie territory. I can see it getting pricey alright.

AMGer wrote: »

Thanks for letting me know about this! I didn’t know this was coming out.

The last edition of AWIL I got was the Arrow boxset from last year, a really nice edition.

No problem!

pixelburp

Project Power (2020)

A good idea, setting and execution in need of a script doctor, an editor perhaps - both probably: the conceit was interesting but underused; the New Orleans setting unique, with a mention of the fallout from Hurricane Katrina suggesting a topicality that never came; while the execution spent most of its running time establishing the premise, before hastily wrapping up the story at the last minute. So it was all a bit slapdash, yet I still found myself enjoying some of the constituent parts. The performances were good, the FX competently grisly in places, and the constant splash of reds across shots gave scenes a hellish vibrancy; it just needed to do more with what it had. Overall, still better than many of these Netflix B Movies with an A Tier cast, but not by much either.

Game Night (2018)

There are few genres more flaccid and lazy at this stage than the Hollywood studio comedy. Yet every now and again, someone remembers to add a little panache & not just point the camera at a SNL washout shouting bad improv. So we have Game Night. At times I had to remember what I was watching: genuinely creative compositions, choices and flourishes like the various tracking shots made this adventure stand out. Of course, it helped that the comedy itself was also solid, passing Mark Kermode's "6 laugh test" pretty early on, the script avoiding Hollywood's tendency towards sarcastically telegraphed vulgarity. While the game (hoho) performances came from a bunch of solid comedic actors, while Jesse Plemons committed to a truly deranged, standout role. So, yeah. There's always hope for studio comedy, even if it felt like the exception proving the Paul Feig Rule.

ButtersSuki

pixelburp wrote: »

Project Power (2020)

A good idea, setting and execution in need of a script doctor, an editor perhaps - both probably: the conceit was interesting but underused; the New Orleans setting unique, with a mention of the fallout from Hurricane Katrina suggesting a topicality that never came; while the execution spent most of its running time establishing the premise, before hastily wrapping up the story at the last minute. So it was all a bit slapdash, yet I still found myself enjoying some of the constituent parts. The performances were good, the FX competently grisly in places, and the constant splash of reds across shots gave scenes a hellish vibrancy; it just needed to do more with what it had. Overall, still better than many of these Netflix B Movies with an A Tier cast, but not by much either.

Game Night (2018)

There are few genres more flaccid and lazy at this stage than the Hollywood studio comedy. Yet every now and again, someone remembers to add a little panache & not just point the camera at a SNL washout shouting bad improv. So we have Game Night. At times I had to remember what I was watching: genuinely creative compositions, choices and flourishes like the various tracking shots made this adventure stand out. Of course, it helped that the comedy itself was also solid, passing Mark Kermode's "6 laugh test" pretty early on, the script avoiding Hollywood's tendency towards sarcastically telegraphed vulgarity. While the game (hoho) performances came from a bunch of solid comedic actors, while Jesse Plemons committed to a truly deranged, standout role. So, yeah. There's always hope for studio comedy, even if it felt like the exception proving the Paul Feig Rule.

What’s “The Paul Feig Rule”? Genuinely curious!

I quite liked Game Night.

pixelburp

ButtersSuki wrote: »

What’s “The Paul Feig Rule”? Genuinely curious!

I quite liked Game Night.

Not any kind of Rule beyond one made up in my head, but he's a terrible filmmaker; as can be often the case with writers moving to direct their own work. And 'cos of his success seems to inform broader Studio Comedy. So his films have a really flat, TV sitcom look and never show any kind of authorial flourish.

Watch a Paul Feig movie, then watch something by Edgar Wright - or indeed Game Night, and it's night & day in terms of energy.

barrymanilow

octonauts the caves of sacactun

7/10

Left me wanting to be honest ,neither this nor anything since has lived up to the writing of the stand out second season and I felt the chemistry between Captain barnacles and Shellington didn't translate well into the longer format. Plot felt just like a skeleton to hang flashier Graphics on although the environmental themes were present and nicely woven in.

p to the e

pixelburp wrote: »

Project Power (2020)
Game Night (2018)

There are few genres more flaccid and lazy at this stage than the Hollywood studio comedy. Yet every now and again, someone remembers to add a little panache & not just point the camera at a SNL washout shouting bad improv. So we have Game Night. At times I had to remember what I was watching: genuinely creative compositions, choices and flourishes like the various tracking shots made this adventure stand out. Of course, it helped that the comedy itself was also solid, passing Mark Kermode's "6 laugh test" pretty early on, the script avoiding Hollywood's tendency towards sarcastically telegraphed vulgarity. While the game (hoho) performances came from a bunch of solid comedic actors, while Jesse Plemons committed to a truly deranged, standout role. So, yeah. There's always hope for studio comedy, even if it felt like the exception proving the Paul Feig Rule.

"Meth" Damon playing straight for laughs was the best thing about this movie. He should do more comedy. I think we even got a Bateman wink or two in the film

Mad_maxx

Joker

found it really disturbing , not sure how great i think it was , it was certainly good but a tough watch

Plode

Starship Troopers (1997)

Fun piss-take of American exceptionalism.

If you liked Team America: World Police, you may enjoy this also.

With hindsight, Alex Jones should have been in this – thinking it was a documentary.

Del.Monte

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

Both of "The Equalizer" movies on Netflix.
Starring Denzel Washington as the mild mannered vigilante who cleans up assorted scumbag crime figures with panache. If only the real world was like this. 10/10

Harry Palmr

Get Out (2017) Dir Jordan Peele.

Urban black bloke goes to meet the suburban white girlfriends parents.

Seriously, I cannot understand the hype, it was okay and well acted by the leads esp Daniel Kaluuya, Catherine Keener, and Lil Rel Howery for concerned comic relief but it wasn't a grisly satire about respectable folks er dark side - watch Society by Brian Yunza if you want a good example of that while as a potentially interesting science fiction concept re Sunken Place/immortality it was barely explored - just a McGuffin really.

FullBack Jam

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Get Out (2017) Dir Jordan Peele.

Urban black bloke goes to meet the suburban white girlfriends parents.

Seriously, I cannot understand the hype, it was okay and well acted by the leads esp Daniel Kaluuya, Catherine Keener, and Lil Rel Howery for concerned comic relief but it wasn't a grisly satire about respectable folks er dark side - watch Society by Brian Yunza if you want a good example of that while as a potentially interesting science fiction concept re Sunken Place/immortality it was barely explored - just a McGuffin really.

Didn't think it was up to much either. Just a little better than Us - a type of follow up film. I don't get the hype for the 2 movies. Unless I am missing something fundamental in both.

ButtersSuki

flasher0030 wrote: »

Didn't think it was up to much either. Just a little better than Us - a type of follow up film. I don't get the hype for the 2 movies. Unless I am missing something fundamental in both.

That’s because you’re not #woke and don’t have enough white guilt. Apparently.

Likewise I was disappointed with both, and that’s before you even go into the hype around them.

[Deleted User]

Burning 2018

To be honest I found this to be over-rated considering how some gush over it. The opening half of the 148 minute running time really drags in parts imo and doesn't achieve much at times. Sure there is some nice cinematography and directorial flourishes and there are some interesting themes present but overall I was disappointed. I really do think that this one was blown up too much - probably the fact that it's adapted from hipster-darling author Marukami (although I really like some of his stuff) short story kicked all this off.

[Deleted User]

flasher0030 wrote: »

Didn't think it was up to much either. Just a little better than Us - a type of follow up film. I don't get the hype for the 2 movies. Unless I am missing something fundamental in both.

There is undeniable exaggeration going on with Peele.

"Get Out" was ok but "Us" was poor imo.

Tony EH

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Get Out (2017) Dir Jordan Peele.

Urban black bloke goes to meet the suburban white girlfriends parents.

Seriously, I cannot understand the hype, it was okay and well acted by the leads esp Daniel Kaluuya, Catherine Keener, and Lil Rel Howery for concerned comic relief but it wasn't a grisly satire about respectable folks er dark side - watch Society by Brian Yunza if you want a good example of that while as a potentially interesting science fiction concept re Sunken Place/immortality it was barely explored - just a McGuffin really.

Agreed. One of the most overrated movies of the decade.

Frankly, I'm not getting the fuss over Jordan Peele either. His recent 'Twilight Zone' reboot was mostly pants too.

ButtersSuki

Tony EH wrote: »

Agreed. One of the most overrated movies of the decade.

You'd want to be very careful saying that in fron tof the #woke crowd!

I like a lot of Peele comedy; but as you say, he's sriously over-rated. If a white director had produced "Get Out" I doubt there'd have been half the fuss.

johnny_ultimate

ButtersSuki wrote: »

If a white director had produced "Get Out" I doubt there'd have been half the fuss.

A white director didn’t make Get Out. A black director did, and made a film from a distinctly black perspective. It’s part of the very fabric of the film. It doesn’t make the film good or bad in itself, but it’s impossible to separate Jordan Peele from the film he made because he’s an integral part of its DNA (ditto the cast).

For what it’s worth, I think Get Out is a very funny comedy film and smart social satire mixed with a fairly bog standard horror film, but was a pleasure to laugh along with it in the cinema. Us bit off more than it could chew thematically and conceptually, but represented a marked improvement in Peele’s visual sensibilities and has much more impactful horror moments (alongside some laughs). Nyong’o turns in one of the greatest performances from any horror movie, mind.

Tony EH

'Get Out' was an ok...black comedy and relatively entertaining. But it certainly wasn't deserving of all the lavish praise it received, that's for sure.

pixelburp

ButtersSuki wrote: »

You'd want to be very careful saying that in fron tof the #woke crowd!

I like a lot of Peele comedy; but as you say, he's sriously over-rated. If a white director had produced "Get Out" I doubt there'd have been half the fuss.

The whole point of the film was to be a borderline Black Mirror approach to American racism. If that's not your bag or interest then that's ok, but don't think it requires being an àss towards those who did enjoy it for what it was trying to be, or trying to say. It had a subtext and one born (presumably) from personal experience of Peele himself.

And that's speaking as someone who didn't really think much of it either. It was all right, but didn't grab me. I could see what it was wanting to say but it's "Horror" was kinda limp on a visceral level. I enjoyed the actual mystery box aspect of the plotting. The whole subtext I understood fine and appreciated but ... Yeah.

This is the problem with hype. Eventually it just underwhelms.

pixelburp

North by Northwest (1959)

Not much to add about this all time classic of cinema, though two things amazed...

1. The film took a mere 5 minutes for its inciting incident to occur. Funny when people complain about modern movies' pacing.
2. Drunk driving in 1959 incurred a $2 fine.

CastorTroy

Don't Look Under the Bed
A 90s Disney Channel film in the vein of Goosebumps or Are you Afraid of the Dark. Even made me think of Eerie, Indiana.
Basically about the Boogeyman. Enjoyable for what it was. But no Hocus Pocus

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

pixelburp wrote: »

The whole point of the film was to be a borderline Black Mirror approach to American racism. If that's not your bag or interest then that's ok, but don't think it requires being an àss towards those who did enjoy it for what it was trying to be, or trying to say. It had a subtext and one born (presumably) from personal experience of Peele himself.

The funny thing about the reaction to Get Out is that a lot of people don't seem used to the simple idea that a highly successful and mainstream film was not made for them. People seem unsure about how to react to it if they don't enjoy it, and you get people going to both ends of the spectrum when discussing it.

mikhail

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

The funny thing about the reaction to Get Out is that a lot of people don't seem used to the simple idea that a highly successful and mainstream film was not made for them. People seem unsure about how to react to it if they don't enjoy it, and you get people going to both ends of the spectrum when discussing it.

I haven't seen it yet, but you seem to be simultaneously saying that this is mainstream and niche.

I don't like how the stink of the ugly, polarised, US culture war lingers around the discussion of that movie. It's visible even in the limited discussion in this thread and it makes me want to steer clear. I expect I'll enjoy it a lot some day when it's already half-forgotten.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

mikhail wrote: »

I haven't seen it yet, but you seem to be simultaneously saying that this is mainstream and niche.

Mainstream as in had a wide release, which not all films get.

pixelburp

mikhail wrote: »

I haven't seen it yet, but you seem to be simultaneously saying that this is mainstream and niche.

I don't like how the stink of the ugly, polarised, US culture war lingers around the discussion of that movie. It's visible even in the limited discussion in this thread and it makes me want to steer clear. I expect I'll enjoy it a lot some day when it's already half-forgotten.

Part of the problem IMO more comes down to how the film was marketed; primarily as this horror hit, which it really isn't. Not in the mould of mainstream horror anyway, which tends towards jump scares ala The Conjuring. The lurking itch of something not right in an otherwise idyllic setting is a classic horror setting for sure , mind you.

Watched as an off-brand Twilight Zone episode - which would be apt given Jordan Peele revived that later on - it works better in that context. A blackly comedic thriller with a horrofic premise, if not a genre execution. And yes, written with a very nakedly transparent "commentary" on race in America. And because it's 2020 that's the bit people disappointed in Post Hype viewings latched onto. Aside from anything else it's just bloody rude to dismiss others' opinions in that fashion

ButtersSuki

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

A white director didn’t make Get Out. A black director did, and made a film from a distinctly black perspective. It’s part of the very fabric of the film. It doesn’t make the film good or bad in itself, but it’s impossible to separate Jordan Peele from the film he made because he’s an integral part of its DNA (ditto the cast).

I'm not sure if you're being facetious or sarcastic here or not tbh. Of course I'm aware that a white director didn't make the film. My point being that had the exact same movie been made by a white director I doubt it would have been subject to the same hype, reception, or critical appeal.

My opinion is that it is very much an over-rated piece of work; and pales in comparison to much/most of the early work of other black filmmakers, for example Spike Lee (note: I found Black KKKlansman disapointing too tbh, which also involved Peele). I'd be a huge fan of most of Lee's work. If I had to sum up Get Out in one word I found it "smug".

And I'm no Peele hater, I really liked Key & Peele, and Keanu!

I looked back for my reviews and scores of Get Out and Keanu respectively. I gave Get Out 4/10 after seeing it in the cinema, and Keanu 6.5/10.

Though I have it on Blu Ray, I've yet to watch Us.

Fysh

But a white director wouldn't have made the same film, which is Johnny's point. It is notable for the fact that it is a mainstream "horror" film that had an explicitly black perspective in the writing and direction. Whether the resultant film works for you is a different matter, but asserting that it's only well-received because of some sort of audience equivalent of Affirmative Action is a bit silly at best, IMO.