Topic: The Movie Thread

Lion King 2019. Technically stunning to experience with a great voice cast. Seth Rogen as Pumbaa is ace but I thought Danny Glover was weak as older Simba. The big problem is the animals are all photo realistic, it all looks a bit odd as there is little facial animation. I'm not sure how Disney rectifies this going forward. This is a particular problem with the musical numbers and most of them feel a bit flat. I still enjoyed watching it, but as with Aladdin (which i have more an affinity with) the original is just so much better, with a lot more soul and charm.

Rambo: Last Blood (DVD) - Watched this with the family last night.

After seemingly finally settling down, living his days out at a scenic ranch near the southern US border, the titular action hero must come out of retirement whenever his adopted niece (Gabrielle) is kidnapped by a sex trafficking cartel while on a trip to Mexico in search of her dead beat dad, and he takes it upon himself to kick some butt & bring her back.

If you can get over the fact that the man is in his 60's (70's?) at this point, it can be a thrilling (albiet dark & very gruesome) action flick. Not something that'll win any awards (in fact the critics seemed to despise it, largely due to political reasons based on some I read, with a metascore in the 20's, in comparison to it's user score in the 70's), but it's not a bad way to spend an afternoon/evening inside.

@RR529 To be fair, it wasn’t so much ‘political reasons’ as much as insanely xenophobic portrayals of Mexicans, who were in fact all Spanish which probably shows how little they cared considering they felt that was ‘close enough’. I lasted an hour but I only really liked First Blood anyway.

@JohnnyShoulder The ones I’ve watched so far are Jungle Book, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King. While not great I thought they were still decent and watchable. Can’t beat the originals, though.

I did find it odd that both Simba and Nala sang Can You Feel The Love Tonight during the daytime. lol

@RogerRoger Love that film.

I'll be interested to read your thoughts on Spider-Man 2. Still the best modern superhero movie ever made for my money.

3 isn't great - but not as bad as people make out.

The amazing Peter Parker films are not good... at all

@RogerRoger I love those movies, although I only went to see 3 and the Amazing ones in the cinema since I was (sorry) too young to see them 😂😂

@RogerRoger @KALofKRYPTON Tobey Maguire's still the best Spider-man. Wasn't a fan of Andrew Garfield but Amazing Spider-man 2's classic suit looked great.

Are there any actors you guys thought did such a great job that you can't see anyone else portraying those superheroes? For example, I think Ryan Reynolds's amazing as Deadpool and was born to play the "Merc with a Mouth". Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man is another tough act to follow.

@WanderingBullet I couldn’t see another Wolverine to be honest. Hugh Jackman did border on parody at times but he was definitely iconic.

@WanderingBullet
I think it can really be down to the creative direction of the film as to whether another actor could take any particular mantle.

Maguire for example, would be terrible as the Amazing Spider-Man version of Peter Parker.

Just as Affleck for me is the definitive live action bat, dropping him in to Batman Forever wouldn't really work.

I'm with @LN78 on Reeve though. You could drop him and his Superman in to any other Superman project and make it instantly better.

@LN78 Agreed.

He looks great even though he’s not super ripped like the actors we see portraying superheroes nowadays.

@nessisonett He was good in most of the X-Men films but really great in Logan.

@KALofKRYPTON Good point. I get that they were going for TDK look but did it bother you that Affleck's version was bit on the chubby side?

@WanderingBullet Regarding Reeve: That's what natural conditioning looks like in an era of sensible aesthetics. No steroids required!

I like the look and bulk of Batfleck. He was huge, intimidating and brutal; and the design of the suit and what Affleck managed to do with his physique in BvS nailed that perfectly.

@RogerRoger I actually really liked the dynamics (chemistry) between Stewart's Professor X and McKellen's Magneto.

@KALofKRYPTON Yeah, it didn't bother me either but I that's one of the complaints some people had about his version of Batman. I thought the suit overall was not bad except for the neck portion. It doesn't look good sometimes especially when Affleck's turning his head.

@WanderingBullet I really like the BvS cowl (they ruined it for JL) - and the Burton/Schumacher era cowls too. Very much form over function, but the DK/DKR separate neck just looks horrible.

@KALofKRYPTON Not a fan of the separate neck look either. I prefer the one piece look as well even though they may restrict the actors movement or look weird sometimes.

@RogerRoger I did love Spider-Man 1 & 2 back in the day, but I'm not sure how much of it was due to being at the right generation at the right time, i.e. it's what I grew up with. It's been forever since I've seen them, so it would be fun to rewatch them and see what I think of them now.

Spider-Man 3 was okay, but I wasn't so keen on that one.

@RogerRoger Good write up Rog!

3 stumbles because Raimi really wanted to go one way (which itself, isn't all that great IMO), without including Venom. Sony insisted, so he tried to keep to as much of his original vision as possible while cramming in a charater who deserved a lot more than being 'another villain'.

Narratively - it isn't vastly different that Spider-Man 2 with the amount of threads happening.

As I recall, 2.1 mainly adds in more footage to the train fight. There are a few other bits and bobs, but no major scenes.

@RogerRoger Ah right, the Venom 'talking' to Eddie wasn't really a thing back then. There was always a communicative element to the bonding with the simbiotes, but it was more of an intuitive thing. Spider-Man 3 runs with that.

I actually prefer the original train sequence. It goes on too long in 2.1 and exemplifies my only real gripe with Ock as a villain in the film; Spidey hits him (less tentacle deflections) hard, a lot. 🤔

@RogerRoger Make sure to keep your eyes out for Bruce Campbell’s cameos! Once you watch 3, read up about Raimi’s plans for the 4th one, it makes for some fun reading.

@KALofKRYPTON @nessisonett To this day I still can not work out what they were trying to do with that dance scene in Spider-Man 3! Proper cringe!

47 Meters Down: Uncaged (DVD) - What I'm assuming is a direct to video sequel to 47 Meters Down (which my father thought he was ordering. I'm guessing the Uncaged bit threw him off and he thought it was marketing wording for an "unrated" version of the original, rather than a sequel).

Anyhow it's a shark movie that sees a foursome of teenaged girls decide to get into mischief by scuba diving into underwater Mayan ruins (the father of a couple of the girls is an archaeologist, and they knew where his team left some of their gear), and once an accident closes their way out, they must make their way through the dangerous labyrinthine ruins to find another exit, all the while their air is running out and they're hunted by a shark that calls the ruins it's home.

It's very much a horror b-movie with all that entails (the obviously bad decisions, an extended scene of young girls/women splashing around in almost nothing, albeit with no nudity, a bad CGI shark(s) that gobbles people up in surprise, bloody attacks). While the location is kinda neat, overall it's just okay. The type of thing you'll know whether or not you'll like just based on it's premise/description.