Topic: The Movie Thread

I heard Mulan 2020 Live action was a Mess. 😕
Well, i will play one funny moment from Mulan 1998 animation.

@JohnnyShoulder

https://ibb.co/Gvv6xC9

The Tri-Wizard Tournament!

Yeah, Hufflepuff is the silliest name ever and literally the most spare and forgettable of all 4 Hogwarts houses.
It’s also humorous that if a person doesn’t know the HP universe then I can see how the terms do sound like the ramblings of a madman - Hufflepuff, Dumbledore, Slytherin, Muggle... 😂 It’s all gibberish.

@Th3solution Yeah it sounds like you totally lost it! 🤣

So Black Widow’s been bumped to May 2021, a full year after it was originally scheduled. Crazy times. Still not sure I really give a toss though, I’d have rather they brought back Mockingbird from the SHIELD show 😛

@nessisonett Honestly I'm not a huge Marvel movie fan but I am really looking forward to Black Widow. Still, a delay won't kill me. Nothing could smart like the Netflix cancellation of Daredevil anyway.

@RR529 Halloween is one of my all-time favorite horror films. Just a pure work of art. Curious to hear what you thought about it!

@Wavey84 Suspiria is brilliant, love both the movie and the crazy good soundtrack. I did enjoy the remake but it’s a different sort of movie and I appreciated different aspects.

@Wavey84 Yeah, the remake was sort of post-ironic to be honest, it revelled in the silliness that is seen in a lot of classic giallo movies. One movie that I never see discussed but is actually pretty good is Eyes of Laura Mars, the only proper American movie done in the classic giallo style I can name. It was John Carpenter’s first movie he wrote which probably explains the Italian influences I’ve heard Halloween has, a movie I really need to watch and so will probably do that this Halloween!

@Ralizah, I just got it in so I haven't watched it yet. It'll probably be a few weeks to a month before I get to it.

@Wavey84

I've intended to watch Martyrs and Inside for years, but just never got around to it. I'm really slacking on my French New Wave stuff.

I can respect preferring A Nightmare on Elm Street. Lovely surrealistic imagery, wonderfully paced, and probably my favorite genre slasher overall (Halloween doesn't really count, since it effectively established the predominant standards of the genre). I think my favorite sequel in that series was Wes Craven's New Nightmare, which brought back the series' edge and also helped pave the way for Scream with its fixation on meta horror.

I've never been able to get into the italian horror/thriller films I've watched. I checked out a few of Argento's giallo films (Deep Red and The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, I believe) and was bored to death. They're well-constructed films, and I respect the director's influence on cinema, but they're not fun watches, IMO.

I've also watched a few Lucio Fulci films, and... I don't understand what people see in his work. The Beyond was one of the worst films I've ever seen in my life, and I couldn't even make it through all of City of the Living Dead. His gore effects are gross, but hardly convincing or impressive, especially compared to films like Dawn/Day of the Living Dead, which employed the amazing talents of Tom Savini to spectacular effect.

Do you watch Japanese horror cinema at all? In terms of atmosphere and thematic elegance, I've yet to watch a horror film as excellent as Kiyoshi Kurosawa's apocalyptic ghost story Pulse. In terms of pure imagery, I really took to the insane, layered Suicide Club.

As for horror-comedy, I think my favorite film has always been, and will likely always be, Return of the Living Dead. It's an awesome mix of absurdity, quippy dialogue, and some surprisingly disturbing imagery. Although some traditional zombie fans hate it for normalizing the idea that zombies only want to eat the brain of their victims. 😂

@Ralizah Have you seen many Cronenberg movies? Scanners and Videodrome are two of my favourite ‘horror’ movies despite not traditionally being lumped in with your Halloweens and Nightmare on Elm Streets and the like.

@nessisonett I saw Scanners as a child, although I don't remember much of it, and I've seen The Fly and The Dead Zone many times over the years. I've unfortunately never seen Videodrome, although it has been on my to-watch list for years. As has Crash (that one's not horror, but a film about car crash fetishists just sounds irresistable).

@Ralizah Cronenberg’s Crash >>>>> that movie which won all the Oscars back in like 2004

I know I swore off Fulci, but I just learned today that he made a terrible giallo film about a serial killer who sounds like a duck. I'm SO tempted to watch this. 😂

@nessisonett You're seriously the first person I've heard mention that movie since it came out. I don't remember much about it other than feeling an overwhelming sense of self-aggrandizement from the marketing.

@Ralizah I went through a phase of watching Best Picture winners to see what the fuss was about. I think the Academy must have been snorting something that year. Up there with How Green Was My Valley for worst winner of Best Picture.

Last weekend I watched Aliens (Blu-Ray)!

The Premise:

• Set after the events of the first film, Ripley's escape pod is finally found by other humans and after recovering back at Earth she learns that it's been decades since the events of the first film (she had put herself in suspended animation), and anyone she's ever known (most devastatingly her daughter) has long since died. To make matters worse it seems as if humans have begun to colonize the planet on which her crew encountered the vicious Xenomorph, and with when Earth loses contact with the fledgeling settlement, she is sent in with a small military attachment to exterminate the alien species if it indeed is responsible for the lost contact. Given the name of the film, I suppose the answer to that should be easy to guess.

The Takeaway:

• It's a lot more action heavy than the first film, but no less tense, as our small detachment, while well armed, is vastly outnumbered and soon finds themselves on the defensive. It's a somewhat different feel compared to the original film, and while I'm not super enamoured with either one (possibly as I really didn't grow up watching them), it's undoubtedly an expertly crafted film, and it's easy to get immersed in the sci-fi world presented, which is really impressive given it's age (I was even left in awe with some of the early set pieces). It (and the original) are definitely films you should watch if you're into future sci-fi.

The Package:

• No complaints on this end. It features the theatrical & extended cuts (I opted for the latter, which made for a nearly 3 hour long film), and of course director commentary. I don't think there were any extra features on the disc itself, but the package itself came with some physical goodies which I haven't bothered with (like art cards & I think a comic).

@RR529 My second favourite film behind.... Alien. I'm hoping for a 4K release to tie in with the 35th anniversary next year, but with Disney scaling all of that back, I'm sceptical.

@JohnnyShoulder I thought it odd there doesn't seem to be a 4K bluray for Aliens. I've got Alien on my list of films I might rebuy in 4K but would want Aliens too. Hopefully your right about the 35th Anniversary edition, there is a 40th edition for Alien.

@BearsEatBeets Alien comes highly recommended as it is an excellent transfer. There is some film grain which is pretty much unavoidable with films of a certain age. And of course the film is one of the best which helps.

@JohnnyShoulder Was watching The Godfather in 4K recently and it looked nice but definitely grainy. Though honestly I can't imagine some films without it, The Godfather being one of them.

A 4K Alien set would be sick. Love the first two obviously (and really hate Scott's recent attempts to demystify the lore) but I also think the third is underrated, while the fourth is, uh, watchable enough.