Topic: The Movie Thread

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Generally I do love Tarantino movies, but dislike movies based on Hollywood stars, so I was unsure how much I'd like it. Thankfully it was an enjoyable watch.

The story was decent enough. Where the movie really shone with its production values, particularly with the excellent acting.

National Lampoon's European Vacation (Blu-Ray) - The first of the Vacation sequels, that sees the accident prone Griswald family bumble through a game show to win a "deluxe" European vacation.

Ultimately it tries too hard to one up the first film (many of the scenarios feel a bit too zany & unorganic), and Audrey's film long whine about her Stateside boyfriend, Zack, never goes anywhere & is never funny, but the film as a whole still has it's funny moments (such as when Clark fumbles his way through a traditional German dance & turns it into a brawl) & is overall a fun time (still better than 98% of whatever modern Hollywood is churning out in terms of comedy). I will say I enjoyed the overall world travelling theme of it as well.

Looks like Will Smith's streak of bad movies continues. Gemini Man not getting good reviews on both Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes.

Godzilla 1984 "the Return of Godzilla" (Blu-Ray) - An attempt to get the franchise back on track after the sillier fare of the 60's & 70's, it positions itself as a direct sequel to the 1954 original, with a more serious tone that references the nuclear danger posed by the cold war between the US & Soviet Union. This was the uncut Japanese original, and not the version first brought over to the west.

My brother used to have this on VHS (the Americanized version, I'm sure), so it's one I watched quite a bit as a kid, but it's been years since I've seen it so it was practically brand new to me (the only things I remembered about it were Godzilla's temporary defeat due to the Cadmium weapons, and being forced into a volcano at the end). I have to say I really enjoyed it. The story had just enough oomph to it to keep me intetested in that angle of it, and while the effects are showing their age, you can tell they put a lot more care & effort into the whole thing compared to the usual "Godzilla VS [insert monster here]" flicks of the time (I actually was pretty impressed with the practical effects work when Godzilla fought the Super X).

Watched a fair bunch of stuff over the weekend.

Inspired by another thread, thought I'd give Spider-Man: Far From Home a go.
It did very little but confirm my dislike of MCU Spider-Man. It all looks fine, Mysterio was well realised, but it's still just all 'Tony Stark' this, and 'next Iron-Man' that.

The overarching narrative that for 'reasons' Tony Stark has actually decided that 16 year old Peter Parker is absolutely the best choice to lead the Avengers/replace Iron-Man makes very little sense in-universe. We've certainly never seen MCU Spider-Man do anything particularly worthy of getting the keys to the castle. It's a bit of character positioning that steers the film in to a never ending sense of being an origin film, despite this being MCU Spidey's 5th outing.

All that considered - I won't even start on the ending (not enough eye rolls in the world to appreciate the narrative disconnect) - other than that during a particular scene, something hit me like a ton of bricks; it's something that with hindsight, is possibly part-responsible for that underlying 'meh' feeling MCU Spidey gives me - the first time that we really see him casually/joyfully webswinging through NYC. It's really brief - but I think even Homecoming didn't particularly make much of a show of Spidey just having fun being Spidey.

Anyway. Didn't like it, it didn't do much to add to or improve the MCU Spidey characterisation, or any of the other characters involved really.

Also saw Midsommar - which was a very slow burn, but quite satisfying to watch.

And new Hellboy - which is the epitome of 'meh' film making and definitely not as good as the 2004 film.

@RogerRoger That would be easier to swallow if it was a 'coming in to powers' sort of thing - but it just feels forced and hobbling to what could've been a really good film. It feels like a BvS move actually.

It's worth watching just the for Mysterio stuff, and would've been really something if it was Spidey, in New York, fighting Myserio.

I can see it being a Sony/Disney direction though - it feels very 'we need to keep the Avengers $$$ coming in'. Probably more a Disney decision than a Sony one. Spider-Man is top tier, ready-made, and massively popular. Stick him front of the Avengers rather than try to further develop another c-lister makes financial sense. Since the obvious options are off the table and they clearly (my cynicism is showing) have no actual faith in having better developed, experienced characters who have been team leaders in the comics like Falcon or Black Panther lead the team.

I think the Spidey deal has been sorted now.

@RogerRoger I agree on Spidey's positioning. Unfortunately he really hasn't had any growth over the course of his arc apart from being given better technology that warrants a leadership position within universe. As I say, every appearance so far has been hitting the same 'coming of age' beats that should really have been dealt with in Homecoming.

@LN78 I don't think I know ANY Trek fans who regard TFF as the best one (which is The Undiscovered Country).

@LN78 @RogerRoger Lol, well if it’s any consolation, as an American reading Push Square daily I have picked up some British idioms, so it goes both ways. I’m tempted to say that I’m “chuffed” about something in my regular conversation but I know I’ll likely be met with very quizzical looks at the least, or at worst - a report to HR for inappropriately vulgar language in the workplace. 😅

Actually, on the subject of American vs. British versions of English (and to keep it slightly on topic) — I actually pondered the following question in my mind after my recent rewatch of Spider-Man Homecoming:
Which is easier - a British actor playing a role requiring an American accent (ex. Tom Holland), or and American actor trying to do a British accent (Angelina Jolie, Peter Dinklage)? Or we could throw in the occasional Australian actors also (Hugh Jackman).
For me listening through American ears, I think Dinklage’s British accent sounds pretty awful. Johnny Depp sounds more serviceable, although still not quite right. Jackman sounds pretty spot on to me, as does Holland. So I think the UK actors acclimate to American accents better, but I don’t know.

@RogerRoger Well, see — that’s how I know you aren’t truly Americanized yet. You should have been choking on your Root Beer. 😜

@Th3solution I think it just comes down to the actor most of the time. Some are great at it, some not so much.

The more puzzling thing is how they continue getting cast as being from whatever region while being unrelentingly terrible at the accent.

I quite Dinklage in GoT - though the majority of the voice-craft can be easily dismissed thanks to the fantasy setting. Depp is somewhat passable but never gets beyond caricature for the majority of his roles that require it. I think if needed to do a any particularly regional British accent, the majority would struggle without extensive rehearsal as most seem to be varying scales of RP in one way or another.

I recently finished watching Preacher, and have to say that Dominic Cooper and Ruth Nega (to me) sound pretty fantastic for a Brit and a sort of Brit!

@LN78 Haha, very true. We give more leeway sometimes to the famous and established actors.

Sometimes the actor’s accent comes out sounding like some hybrid version that resembles a colloquial no man’s land (see Viggo Mortensen, or as we noted earlier - Elizabeth Olsen’s weird attempts at a Russian accent). I would think big budget movies would employ a native speaker as an on-set consultant for whatever accent is being attempted.

Picked up the John Wick boxset and boy are those great action flicks!

#Disclaimer: yet to watch the 3rd one but loved 1 & 2.

@KALofKRYPTON And on the flipside Karl Urban's and Simon Pegg's accents are terrible in The Boys!

@Th3solution not just big stars, I reckon it's still mostly a 'face fits' game.
I submit for evidence: Charlie Hunnam. He was terrible when he started, he was terrible in his bigger 'breakout' roles and remains a thoroughly terrible actor who's awful with accent work. Yet, work keeps piling in for him. 😂

Joaquin Phoenix deserves to be nominated for an Oscar for his performance as the Joker. If that happens and he wins the award it'll be second time an actor wins for playing the Joker.

@LN78 Oh yeah, I absolutely loved the sound design and especially the cinematography as well. It looks like initial reviews for The Irishman are great so I'm looking forward to that as I like Al Pacino.

Joker was great, the most controversial part was when They played a Gary Glitter tune!

Octopussy (Blu-Ray) - The second of the 80's Bond flicks I've picked up. When another "00" is killed for discovering that the Soviets are seemingly in the business of smuggling knockoff priceless artifacts, Bond is sent in to find out the truth behind the matter.

• It started off really strong with Bond infiltrating a military facility of an unnamed(?) Latin American dictatorship, but never really climbed back up to those hights again (though the big climax in East & West Germany was pretty good too). Most of the film took place in India, which just wasn't that interesting of a locale IMO.
• I want to give props to the opening chase (loved him pulling out that small plane), the cool (albiet very brief) car chase in Germany, and the ending plane scene (especially with the stunt doubles climbing on the outside of the craft while airborne).
• Interestingly, it's the first time I've seen full nudity in a Bond film (for a brief moment or two when "Octopussy" is getting out of the pool in her introductory scene. She's just far enough away from the camera that they probably thought the resolution would ever be good enough to see anything).
• Even as someone who enjoys the more campy elements of the older Bond films, it really kind of pushes it in the final moments of the raid on the villain's lair (you have a small army of women warriors raiding the place in JRPG levels of bikini armor, and James himself arrives in a Union Jack patterned hot air balloon of all things).

Overall pretty decent, but not one of my favorites.

Does anyone have any recent experience oif using the digital codes in the UK found in blu rays? I know most probably throw them away or ignore them, but I've recently purchased a UHD tv but have a OG PS4.

I've streamed a couple of UHD films through Google Play Movies & TV and I'm happy the quality. But the choices of films available in 4k is very limited. I'm fully aware that the best quality is to play the discs but I've no way to play UHD discs at the moment. I might get a cheapish UHD blu ray player and i assume PS5 will have one, so if do buy the discs they will not be wasted. There are a few films I've got my eye one (Alien 40th Anniversary Edition for example).

The problem is that the service you used to load the codes up to, Ultaviloet, is dead. You can still use the codes but I think it depends on the studio on which streaming service you can use to redeem them, from iTunes, Google Play and Amazon prime. Movies Anywhere is cool, where if you redeem the code on one service you can then watch it on any of the other services. But that is only available in USA at the mo.