Topic: The Movie Thread

@RR529 sounds good, might have a look.

@Arugula You are on a bad run recently! Yeah Hangman wasn't great, I probably enjoyed it a smidge more than you. But only a smidge.

I watched Election tonight because it was on the BBC and it was really good. It does a really good job of making you detest basically every character, which is impressive in its own right. Reese Witherspoon is an absolute monster and plays it well, everyone knows that one try-hard student and Matthew Broderick is equally good as a petty, despicable excuse for a teacher. It’s pretty similar to Rushmore and not quite as good but it’s definitely worth a watch.

Saw Joker last night. Thought the actual film was only ok but my lord what a performance by Joaquin Phoenix, fully deserving of his oscar win. Anyone expecting a traditional comic book movie is going to be in for a surprise and share more resemblance to something like Taxi Driver. Don't understand what all the fuss was about when it got released, I didn't think it was overly violent or anything.

@JohnnyShoulder I went to see Joker at the local indie cinema on 70mm reels and the noise and aspect ratio added to the experience so much that I couldn’t imagine watching it on my TV. I did find some of the violence slightly tacky but I’m a bit of a wuss and looked away during the scissors scene. I also felt a bit mixed about the movie, it definitely felt like it was a decent movie held back by Todd Phillips’ direction and only really held together by Joaquin Phoenix’s performance, which was brilliant.

Watched Casino Royale last night. I had low hopes for this James Bond movie, and suffice to say it wasn't great. It might have been a tolerable movie at the time, but it hasn't aged well. The story was messy, and much of it could have easily been cut out. It tries to be a comedy, but a lot of the jokes fall flat, and the movie is a drag at times.

The story revolves around respectable former agent Sir James Bond. He is forced out of retirement as secret agents around the world are disappearing. He is helped by others, who are also given the 007 James Bond nicknames in order to confuse the enemies. Together they must defeat Le Chiffre at a high stakes game of baccarat, and stop SMERSH's leader Dr Noah from his evil plan.

This 1967 movie was created by a different production company than the usual Bond producers Eon Productions. The producers of Casino Royale didn't think they could complete with Eon Production's next James Bond movie, so instead they decided to turn Casino Royale into a parody. It had a troubled production, and had mixed to negative reviews, but was a financial success.

I watched it mainly just because I was curious what this satire movie was like. Overall, I can't recommend it, not unless someone has an unyielding curiosity about this Bond movie. It'll be much better to watch the 2006 Casino Royale movie or Austin Powers instead.

@nessisonett I saw it on 4K UHD blu ray and thought it was stunning. I'm not overly keen on film grain, on older movies I can tolerate it because there it is not much you can do about, but not so much on new films. Especially when Joker was shot digitally, so this is how it was intended to be shown by the filmmakers.

@RogerRoger @Arugula It is a very well made film, but not one I enjoyed a great deal. I much preferred it to the recent DC films however and hope The Batman has a similar tone.

@crimsontadpoles Oh dear, I thought you were talking about the ace 2006 one! Yes, that movie is truly terrible, especially if you’ve read the book which is a really great spy thriller.

@JohnnyShoulder Joker looked incredible with the film grain as it totally captured how grimy Gotham is. I feel that a cleaner picture would make the film look slightly more modern, which imo wouldn’t do it the same justice of capturing 70s Scorsese.

@nessisonett Yeah not a fan of it, i always turn it off in a game if given the choice.

I watched the extended version of The Two Towers last night. Very enjoyable and the extra (almost) hour of footage was most welcome, better than the extra footage in the first film which was itself good. Particularly enjoyed Treebeard talk about the Entwives, and how they lost them and can’t remember what they looked like. What a way to go.

The stew scene with Aragorn was laugh out loud funny on par with the Terminator 2 smiling scene, and I enjoyed Gimili’s “he’s twitchin’ coz he’s got ma axe EMBEDDED IN HIS NERVOUS SYSTEM!” delivery.

Still, the entire film is almost ruined again by the Legolas surfing on a shield scene. God I hate that scene 😂

@LN78 nice will take a look at that

@LN78 haha, highly doubtful. I know The Hobbit movies were not that well received, I am not sure if I saw them all in the end either although I’ve seen the first one a couple of times. I agree it’s not great. I also really don’t like Martin Freeman for some reason.

I watched Alita: Battle Angel. It wasn’t terrible and I loved the styling of it, some of the characters really captured the early 90s anime style and the violence was brilliantly gory at times. It kinda dragged and the dialogue was a bit goofy but it had a certain charm and I’d probably watch it again.

@nessisonett that film needed to be an 18 with the violence cranked up to 11. I don’t know if it was toned down from the manga but I’d have preferred it to have taken a leaf out of Dredd’s book! I thought it was way to tame. Like the Hunger Games movies or something.

@kyleforrester87 I can totally understand that, the few moments of violence were great but it’s Robert Rodriguez, I’m sure he would have revelled in an 18 certificate. I just don’t think it would have made the money in the cinema with that age rating though, it would have eliminated a pretty big chunk of their target audience.

@nessisonett oh yeah I can see why they did it. Doubt it would have been made otherwise. Bummer though. I wish they could do an 18+ cut or something lol

@Arugula I think the main problem is that James Cameron has been wrapped up in his Avatar sequels for so long. It’s supposed to be a trilogy, adapting the whole manga but I reckon we’ll be waiting a while.

@nessisonett It seemed to work out ok for Logan, Deadpool and Joker.

@LN78 Is Atmos the real deal? After I've got a PS5 I'm thinking of updating my sound system. I see more and more units are coming on the market, so hopefully by the time im ready to buy one they will be a bit more affordable.

@LN78 My TV speakers have a real problem with bass, the sound judders and booms for no reason so I definitely need to grab a soundbar at the very least. I have a couple of bookshelf speakers for my turntable but would you say it’s better value for money getting an Atmos soundbar or building my own speaker setup?