Topic: The Movie Thread

@kyleforrester87 No bother, I love a good recommendation. Even if you end up thinking the movie’s sh*te 😂😂

@LN78 Makes sense given most of the classic Westerns were originally samurai movies! That’s actually really cool they did one the other way and I should definitely check it out.

@kyleforrester87 I can recommend Good Times too. Although don't be miss lead by the title. I can reccomend the following also:

You were never really here
Crawl
Hustlers
The Peanut Butter Falcon
Come to Daddy

@RogerRoger Haha, yes indeed. Glad that I finally watched it and honestly I never would have if you and others hadn’t suggested it and it was so easy to just click it on a random evening while browsing Disney+. In the opening minutes I did start to question my theory about every Disney movie having the death of a family member, usually a parent, to be a central plot point. “This kid has two loving and healthy parents?! No way that this lasts.” ...and then, just like clockwork, we have the tragic death of the father. So Yeah, the recipe isn’t changed but the creativity and execution of the world and characters is what makes it so fun to watch. ...🤔 ya know, it’s kind of similar to Marvel’s Spider-Man in that regard. The formula isn’t groundbreaking but it’s all in the care of the execution.

GoldenEye (Blu-Ray) - Next up in my Bond journey is the first entry of the 90's (and the first with Pierce Brosnan in Bond's shoes).

In this entry, Bond must track down a criminal organization that has stolen a powerful Soviet era satellite weapon that fries all electronic devices in it's attack range, and his search leads him to a surprising culprit.

It's noticeably an evolutionary entry for the series, but I think it strikes the perfect balance of modernization & tradition. In terms of action it's generally more high octane than past outings, with Bond & foes alike spraying machine guns everywhere, a destructively fun car chase involving a tank, and an impressive leap of faith off a mountaintop airfield in it's opening moments, though it also remains true to traditions in terms of offering a decent array of gadgets (nothing too campy, but it does feature a grappling belt, lazer watch, and a narratively important explosive pen). This balance of old & new also extends to the women in Bond's life, as although he's still as flirty and persuasive as ever, it's now balanced out by the fact that Judy Dench plays his no nonsense boss "M". Likewise, while the film's "Bond Girl" has a couple sultry scenes, she also comes across as a capable & necessary computer hacker (I personally would have preferred to see a bit more "cheesecake", but by this point the ratings scale was a bit more solidified, and they couldn't push the PG/PG-13 rating quite as much as they could in the late 70's & 80's, and I can't deny it still strikes a nice balance). Overall a nice first outing for Brosnan.

@RR529 That's a nicely written summary. Overall I think Goldeneye is very good, it has a lot of great moments. I do really like the main villain in it.

@RR529 Goldeneye’s still one of my favourite Bond movies. It only sits underneath Casino Royale, Goldfinger and You Only Live Twice for me.

Just saw it and I’ll give Daniel Craig credit for the effort on the Louisiana/Cajun accent in Knives Out, but it was just bad enough rendition of the regionalism to be distracting in an otherwise good film. I would have preferred him to just speak in his normal British accent; the Cajun dialect added nothing of importance to the character that I could see. Although it was a funny joke when someone referred to him as Foghorn Leghorn there toward the end. 😆

Watched Once Upon Time a Time in Hollywood last night, and whilst it is beautifully shot and finely acted, it felt I was watching an extended version of the film with all the deleted scenes edited in. There are large chunks (and a certain character) of the film which could have been left on the editing floor as they serve no purpose to the overall narrative of the film. I've enjoyed QT's previous films, but felt this was too self indulgent.

@LN78 I get all that but personally I need a bit more meat on films. It's strange cos I heard similar complaints about The Hateful Eight but I really enjoyed that film, same with The Big Lebowski. I may like it on repeated viewings, as I wasn't fussed on Intolerable Bastards initially. I can remember falling asleep during the cafe scene, but I was very hungover! I'm in no rush to watch Once Upon Time a Time in Hollywood again though.

@LN78 Now I’m not sure whether to watch OUATIH when it releases on Sky Movies next week or wait for the Netflix miniseries version!

Just watched The Elephant Man again. It’s one of those movies I swore I would never watch again but it was on BBC One and I got sucked in. Yeah I cried like a baby and it’s one of a very few movies that have that effect on me. It’s honestly so heartbreaking and Lynch handles the subject matter incredibly well. Lord, I shouldn’t do this to myself, I’m just not good with movies like this and One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.

@nessisonett Elephant Man is tough to watch, but really excellent. Definitely not for everyone though given the subject matter.

After digging around their catalog, I decided to start a 30 day free trial of Amazon Prime Video, to check out the anime films & cheesy 80's B-Movie fantasy & horror films they have (mostly stuff I wouldn't have bought anyways, in fact some of it isn't even available in HD, but who knows, maybe I'll uncover some gems). Naturally, I've already made use of it this morning.

Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer (Amazon Prime Video) - Mid 80's anime film based on the slapstick shonen comedy manga, Urusei Yatsura, which was mangaka Rumiko Takahashi's breakout hit (she'd later go on to produce other popular series such as Ranma 1/2 & InuYasha).

I was quite impressed by the film. While it expectedly had it's fair share of comedy, it was surprisingly deep too. While getting ready for a school festival, some members of the cast come to the realization that they're living the same day over and over again, and the further they get to the truth, the more people vanish (to the point it's just the core cast left) & the more dilapidated their town becomes. The effect of the mystery is heightened by the seriousness they handle it with, and the fact that the film has absolutely stunning animation & detail, resulting in some impressive imagery, particularly the almost haunting lighting effects during nighttime scenes (it's in HD too, which is a plus). The biggest barrier to entry would probably be the fact that you'd need some pre-existing knowledge of the series to fully appreciate it (luckily, being a big fan of Ms. Takahashi's later works, I had read some of a fan translation of the manga a number of years ago, so I was already somewhat acquainted with the core players), but overall it was a pleasant surprise.

@nessisonett @LN78 I watched Ready or Not over the weekend, it was good - felt kind of like I was watching the Purge initially (which I hated) but the film got into a groove and the comedy/horror balance worked out nicely. The goat pit was particularly grim. My girlfriend really enjoyed it.

Also watched Unforgiven, not a film I’d ever really paid any attention to frankly. Wasn’t sure what to make of it but it’s grown on me a lot in the past couple of days.

Thanks for the recommendations!

@LN78 Only One Cut of the Dead 😂 seriously it is a lot of fun. But no don’t sweat it, you know your movies so I will be asking for some more recommendations before long.

Oh, I also watched Stripes - I’m not sure I loved it but Bill Murray was good. John Candy left no impression unfortunately. Anyone reckon I should try Caddyshack?

@kyleforrester87 Glad Unforgiven’s growing on you, it’s quite an understated movie so I wasn’t sure if you’d like it! I’m a big fan of revisionist Westerns and neo-Westerns so it was right up my alley but I’m sure it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.

@kyleforrester87, I watched Stripes myself not too long ago. I think it's pretty good, but not one of my favorite comedies from the era.

I remembered liking Caddyshack too, but it's been awhile since I've last seen it.

Deathstalker (Amazon Prime Video) - An early 80's budget "sword & sandal" film that's obviously trying to cash in on the success of Conan the Barbarian. It stars a muscular blond swordsman named "Deathstalker" (because why not), whom after running across a man who claims to be an evicted king & an old witch, is sent off to collect a magical sword and use it to rid the kingdom of the immortal sorcerer Munkar, who rules with an iron fist.

It's all very by the numbers stuff, including all the low budget gore, and barely dressed women (it makes sense with Munkar's personal harem, but most hilarious is a warrior woman who is first believed to be a man until her cloak opens up and it's revealed she's wearing absolutely nothing except a loincloth underneath. It's almost hilarious how straight it's played when she has further sword fights and it's seemingly no big deal that she's bouncing around topless). Despite all the cheesiness though, I found the experience as a whole quite dull however. It certainly isn't helped by it's picture quality which looks like it was ripped from a VHS release (it wouldn't surprise me to learn if it was a straight to video release back in the day), compounded by the fact that it was blurrier in some parts than in others (maybe due to inconsistent quality in it's original production, maybe due to a cheaply done digital conversion, or maybe due to some picture buffering on the part of the streaming service, though that last one would be kind of sad). Quality mostly dipped during action scenes, so I'm going to guess it's a cheap digital conversion though (there were a few times I rewound a bit and the quality fluctuated in the exact same spots, so that probably backs that theory up). It wasn't a huge commitment at just over an hour, and it does have a sequel that was made a few years later so I'll probably try it out eventually to see if they improved it at all.