Topic: The Movie Thread

Saw The Green Book recently. It was alright: the sort of schmaltzy film about the topic of racism that doesn't ask any hard questions and ends with the racist lead character becoming more accepting of black people after watching the man who hired him be consistently exposed to a carnival of horrors (as usual with this sort of film, the southerners are ignorant and disgusting, but as soon as they start getting up around the East Coast, people magically become much more tolerant). It's less about Don Shirley's own experience with the world and more about how the abuses inflicted on him contribute to make Tony the Lip a slightly more sympathetic human being. Because, in 2019, when making a film about racism, it's novel and brave to filter the subject, yet again, through the perspective of someone white. It's very soft, liberal filmmaking: the sort of film "tolerant" white people go to watch and then pat themselves on the back afterward about how much of a shame it was that some people 'are like that.'

There's an absurd scene where Tony informs Don Shirley that he is 'blacker than him' because Shirley speaks with proper diction and doesn't listen to black artists.

There's a scene where Tony, and I can't believe I'm even writing this, helps Don Shirley discover the joy of fried chicken via KFC. The scene is incomplete, though: presumably Tony should have ended his lesson on Proper Blackness by purchasing a watermelon for the good doctor to help wash down his fried chicken with.

Also, the ending is kind of abrupt. It just sort of ends suddenly.

OK movie, but not Best Picture material, imo.

I refused to see the movie (I thought Jurassic World was awful, and I've heard this is even worse), but my sister did, and she told me about this random horrifying bit in the movie. Now I'm even more glad I didn't see it: I can't stand animals suffering or enduring violence. Even the relatively tame dog scene in Alita really bothered me. It's the biggest reason I've never bothered watching the John Wick films (when the original first came out, I'd heard about the dog killing scene and told that same sister that I wasn't watching it as a result. She dismissed it with a wave of the hand, saying "how bad could it be?" Cue later, she's talking about how horrifying the dog scene was and how it depressed her for the rest of the film. Hahaha.)

@Ralizah That's probably why I connected with it so much; there's a very clear "save the dinosaurs" narrative theme and message behind the film, and I loved that because that's kinda why I was showing up (it certainly wasn't to see Chris Pratt again). After watching it, I continued playing Dragon Age: Inquisition and actively backed out of a side quest which tasked me with killing a wyvern mother and its two babies. I don't enjoy stuff like that in games anyway, but this felt particularly icky, so I just ran away and found something else to do.

I doubt I'd ever be interested in watching John Wick anyway, but I'll definitely avoid it now. I love dogs way too much to risk that. Thanks for the warning!

I enjoyed the last mission impossible film. The main bad guy was a bit lame I thought, but apart from that it was a good watch. The recent films have kinda merged all into one in my head, apart from Tom Cruise do an amazing standout stunt, they all seem to be doing the same thing. Which is fine, because they do it so well.

@RogerRoger but... Phil Collins...
Disney Tarzan is OK.

If you're ever at a loose end, try and track down a copy of Greystoke!

@RogerRoger Being a fan of horror movies, 'dog scenes' are the bane of my existence. It's a common thing in lazy horror movies to officially signal "something is very wrong" with the killer or monster killing the family dog before it finally comes after the family proper. Because, y'know, the dog is just a stupid animal, so it's not really important, but people are attached to their animals and will get angry and scared if the dogs start getting killed.

Thankfully, those usually happens off-screen. I don't want or need to see a puppy slowly and graphically dying on screen so that Keanu Reeves has moral clearance to kill hundreds of people over the course of three films.

These scenes are actually worse in "dog movies." I won't go to see "dog movies," because they always invariably end with something horrible happening to the dog in question. I made two exceptions. Both cartoons. Isle of Dogs and The Plague Dogs. They're both good movies, but I won't be rewatching them.

I'll still play Monster Hunter, but I rationalize it by concluding that my character is a terrible sociopath who likes to wear the creatures she murders as a suit. Also, being a mammal, I have more of a moral investment in the lives of dogs than giant lizards. That sister I mentioned can't play these games, by the way, because the animals writhing on the ground after she killed them really disturbed her.

@Ralizah Some advice — avoid “Where the Red Fern Grows” and “Old Yeller” at all costs.

@JohnnyShoulder I agree that bringing back the previous villain perhaps hurt M:I Fallout a bit. I guess they were going for "legacy" and whatnot, but his new scheme seemed a little left-field and tame compared to what he'd been before. He was less threatening somehow.

@KALofKRYPTON How could I get a copy of a small Cumbrian castle town?

@RogerRoger erm.... Puzz3D perhaps? Are they still a thing?

@Ralizah Ah, see, yet another reason for me to actively avoid horror films. I can imagine some of the sudden shocks involving animals (regardless of whether they're in full close-up or happen off-screen; it's just never nice, especially when they rely on sound alone).

When I have dabbled in more mature content, I've often been uncomfortable with violence towards animals. It's a game example, but the latest Wolfenstein opened with a sequence where you (in first-person) are forced to shoot the family dog. I did not like that one bit, and left the game on pause whilst I quickly looked up whether I actually had to or not.

Whenever I'm scrolling through my partner's Amazon Prime account, we keep getting recommendations for those live-action films where they animate the dog's mouths with CGI to make them talk (we watch a lot of Disney and childhood favourites like Pingu and Duck Tales, just in case you were wondering why). I find them cute at first glance, but then my head quickly goes to "they had to put the dogs in these sets, and make them do all this" and I suddenly find them creepy and cruel instead. Plus, as you say, most film storylines have a moment where something goes wrong, and I don't think I could stand to see a puppy with a CGI-enhanced sad expression.

In games, my rule is "if it's trying to kill me, I'm gonna kill it" and that's how I rationalise playing things like Tomb Raider, but I won't hunt down and kill fifteen rabbits to craft a slightly bigger ammo pouch. Dragon Age is walking the line with some quests ("retrieve this much-needed artefact that just happens to be where a dragon has made its nest, through no fault of its own") but I'm grateful for it being such a large game, because I can be more selective about what I get up to.

And yet I still kinda hate both of those examples because, when you're forced to defend yourself against wolves and / or Mabari war hounds, they whimper and whine when you kill them. So I can totally empathise with your sister's reaction to Monster Hunter.

@KALofKRYPTON Probably in places like The Works, yes.

@RogerRoger Good horror films don't need to lean on the crutch of animal violence to raise the stakes of what's happening (I'll give a pass to something like Pet Sematary where the animal death is well-integrated into the broader concept of the story). Actually, while I can still appreciate a good bit of horror violence, I've grown increasingly sensitive to such material as I've gotten older (quite a contrast from my teens, when I'd seek out the nastiest exploitation material available; by the way, since you have issues with animal violence, I feel obliged to mention that the film Cannibal Holocaust has actual and pretty grotesque animal violence in it, so you should probably avoid that film at all costs, if the name alone wasn't enough to steer you clear of it). Thankfully, tasteful directors can imply or suggest something awful without throwing it at your face, and without making you wallow in misery.

Another good call: I told my family I wasn't willing to see A Dog's Way Home (I think that was the name) because of reports of animal misery in the film. We looked further into it, and it turns out there's a scene where a puppy is chained to a corpse and almost dies of dehydration. So none of us saw it!

I finally watched Aquaman last night and I was disappointed. I don’t know how I could have let myself become disappointed since it received such lukewarm reviews, but I guess I was subconsciously hoping for more.
I know it’s been detailed on this thread before, but I couldn’t find some of the early comments on the film since it’s been a while. I’ll try to avoid too much repetition though by keeping it short (for me short is 5 paragraphs instead of 10 😛)
Mamoa is pretty good. Charming, dashing, and magnetic - it’s surprisingly how competent he is acting when all you may have seen of him is playing the rather simplistic role of the brute Drogo in GoT. He seems capable of carrying an entire film and series, but the script seems to have given him little to work with.
The other supporting actors are average to poor, imo. Even Kidman and Dafoe were pretty underwhelming.
The whole thing suffered from pacing issues, and over reliance on spectacle and action scenes. The early fights were fun to watch, but eventually it just became too much fighting and battle, and not enough advancing the story. Both main villains were also ‘meh’ although Black Manta has potential, it just seemed tacked on.
I don’t know much about Aquaman in the comic, but based on a very small amount of exposure to the old TV show it seems like they weren’t real true to the source material. I always thought Aquaman’s main superpower involved the ability to communicate with and call on the sea creatures for help, but this seemed an afterthought (although I know that skill ended up making the difference in communication to that big monster guarding the trident and helping defeat the armies, but still)
The production value was pretty good, but like I’d read, there were times when the effects looked pretty fake. I’ve become increasingly intolerant of movies that have fantastic CG and digital effects, then have costuming and props that are clearly plastic and cheap appearing. A lot of movies do this though.
Overall, the movie was average superhero fare. I felt similarly when I watched Black Panther. I will say, in this movie’s defense, that I was pretty tired after a long day and some of my lack of enthusiasm may have been affected by my mental state last night. I’ll give it another go in a few months.

Joysticks (Amazon Prime Video) - 80's comedy centering around a video game arcade. It's the typical youth culture versus the establishment yarn, as the city's teens band together to keep the arcade safe from the mechanations of a stuck up parent's plans to try and shutter the place for being a "den of moral decay".

You have all the cliches present such as the jock, the nerd, and of course the gaming addicted slob, and it didn't skimp on the very gratuitous female nudity, which is only matched in prevalence by Pac-Man iconography. While other notable titles get some screentime, Pac-Man is so prevalent that I'm almost willing to guess there may have been some sort of marketing/licensing deal in place (it even climaxed with a "the Wizard" Super Mario Bros. 3 style jumbotron showdown, with Super Pac-Man).

I wouldn't say it's a good movie, but as someone who enjoys the occasional 80's cheesefest, along with being interested in what it would be like as one of the earliest Hollywood attempts at tapping into gaming culture (it came out 5 or 6 years before the Wizard), I'd say I overall enjoyed my time with it.

Just got our End Game tickets. Going to pull the kids out of school an hour early to beat the rush release day. So excited to see how they wrap this story up!!!

@redd214 Thankfully the release falls in half-term here, so most of the kids will have seen it by the end of the week.

Think I'll go for a gentle Sunday showing

@KALofKRYPTON yeah they had Infinity War spoiled for them (and me lol!! ) by some kids at their school cause we waited a week to go see it. Don't want it to happen again!

@redd214
Ha, I'm pretty easy on when it comes to spoilers for these things - it's only Marvel after all

Goin' to watch Shazam today.

Also, the new Joker teaser trailer is out.

Enjoy Shazam, it looks like it’ll be a lot of fun. Yeah, that trailer for Joker is really good, and hopefully the movie will be awesome.
Talking of awesome, have my fellow film enthusiasts seen this?.....

Shazam on Saturday!

Joker looks pretty much as I expected. Can't say I'm all that interested. Looks like a fairly pedestrian take on various elements of the several Joker origins out there.

I'm sure it's a decent enough film though.