Topic: The Movie Thread

I have a sound bar and sub, look you get what you pay for but for £200... it’s honestly alright. I thought it would be a stop gap to something better, but I’ve stuck with it.

The thing is, you need forgiving neighbours (as suggested) or better yet no neighbours, and also you really need to build your room around the set up, which isn’t always possible, especially if you’re not in a place you expect to be in for many years.

I’ll have my dream cinema/gaming room one day, oh yes!!

@LN78 The portability of a soundbar is really appealing because chances are, I’ll be abroad next year for my placement so I’d really like to ship as little bulky objects as possible!

Deathstalker II (Amazon Prime Video) - The sequel of the low budget fantasy affair, Deathstalker (itself I watched about a month ago). In this entry, the warrior is lured by the promise of fame & fortune after a seer he rescues promises he'll receive them if he manages to defeat a wicked sorcerer who rules a far away land (what she doesn't tell him is that she's no seer, but the displaced princess of said land).

It's still ultimately a rather generic budget fantasy tale, but it is an improvement upon the original in a few areas. A new actor is called in to play the titular role, and while he was previously a brute of few words who was just as likely to assault the women he "rescued" as the bad guys were, here he's been changed to a more Indiana Jones like depiction (not always the biggest guy in the room, he's more likely to get into rough & tumble brawls, not adverse to throwing some dirt in his opponent's face in order to gain an edge, all with a bit of a smart mouth), and he never forces himself onto any of the film's women (there is one scene of attempted sexual assault, but it's by a group of minor baddies who are killed by a band of warrior women). While Deathstalker puts on a macho front and says some questionable things, as it goes on you get the impression he's not quite as bad as he lets on. Also, the film is a lot more tongue in cheek than the humorless original, even including a scenario where Deathstalker finds himself getting caught up in a fight to the death that takes the form of a pretty modern professional wrestling match, including ring & mid round ring girls. Also, while it clearly hasn't been remastered, the picture quality was much more consistent here than it was in the original.

It's still a pretty forgettable film, but if you're really into cheesy 80's fantasy, it's an okay source of swords, sorcery, & mostly guilt free nudity.

@kyleforrester87 @nessisonett I've got a soundbar and a wireless woofer too. I did have a 5.1 surround sound system but the speaker cables kept breaking and I was sick of the damn things trailing everywhere. It is quite a beefy sound and I've had to turn the sub down quite a bit as it was a bit too boomy for my neighbours lol.

@JohnnyShoulder Hm, yeah I’m in a semi-detached but at the same time, the neighbours do our bloody heads in with the treadmill against the shared wall (I hope) making that thumping noise so maybe I’d get one just to spite them hahaha.

@nessisonett Yeah I live in a block of flats but not had any complaints for a few years. I think the person that lives below me is a bit deaf though and no one lives in one of the flat next me where my sound bar is. I have a crazy Polish couple living in the other flat next to me and there are always playing their music really loud sometimes early in the morning. If I can hear it over my tv or when I've got headphones on the other side of my flat, it is too loud!

Watched The Rise of Skywalker and Detective Pokemon with the kids. Wasn't expecting a great lot from either (particularly after The Last Jedi left me cold) but I was entertained by them both. Detective Pokemon was especially trippy

@Gremio108 After having no interest in Detective Pikachu, I surprisingly
had a sudden urge to watch it. So I've added it to my rental list, along with Sonic the Hedgehog.

The Call of the Wild (2020)

Jack London’s classic novel The Call of the Wild holds a place near and dear to my heart. As a young kid it was one of the few books I actually read and enjoyed. Although I went on to read London’s White Fang and enjoyed it, no other nature based fiction novel ever caught my fancy as much as the story of Buck’s journey of self-discovery in the Klondike. Few other novels have stuck with me like this one. The Call of the Wild along with The Hobbit, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and The Harry Potter series would constitute my own personal Mount Rushmore of youth reading.

So with such a vaunted place in my memory, the movie adaptation had large shoes to fill. I watched Harrison Ford’s newest outing with expectations of disappointment. Novel to movie translation, as we know, is a very ‘hit-or-miss’ exercise — and mostly ‘miss.’ The movie White Fang was pretty mediocre, as I recall, and this being no less than the 5th attempt (!) at adaptation of Buck’s classic journey (with heavyweights of Hollywood such as Clark Gable and Charlton Heston being involved in previous ventures no less) made me feel like perhaps this story could never be a decent movie. Some novels just can’t be converted to the big screen. Still, it worked for most of the Harry Potter films and for Lord of the Rings (not so much for The Hobbit nor the Narnia books) so I felt it was worth an attempted viewing. Besides, I’ll watch pretty much anything that has Harrison Ford in it.

My first impressions of the movie were mixed. The animal CGI and facial animation was actually disappointingly cheesy at times. The running and movement of Buck was mostly accurate appearing, but the gesticulation and showing of emotion by the dog was frequently fake appearing. Having recently watched the live-action versions of The Lion King and Dumbo, I can see the Disney animation polish was missing from this 20th Century Studio production. Otherwise the movie is shot decently when the CGI isn’t present. There are some beautiful images of the Yukon and it seems a passable period piece relaying 1890’s Gold-Rush Alaska.

It’s been many years since I read the book, so I was going in fresh. As far as storytelling goes, the first half if the movie seemed relatively accurate to my memory. The taming of Buck by the man with the club was obviously toned down to be more family friendly and to not disturb animal lovers’ sensitivities, which was fine by me. I don’t think a movie needed to portray with accuracy the harshness of Buck’s suffering both at the hands of men and from the grueling trials of Mother Nature. Jack London was a pioneer in animal rights activism and I believe his intent would be to show the story as a triumph of will and although part of his message and theme in the book is one of ethical treatment of animals, I think the movie did just enough to vilify those who abuse animals for personal gain without being gratuitous. The few good relationships that Buck comes across with humans is manifested in the film as a little bit romanticized and ideologic, but again, this is targeted at families and children. I can forgive some of the ‘rainbows and butterflies’ charm that I don’t remember feeling when reading the book, which is more a tale of self discovery.

And on that subject, toward the end the plot started to feel more and more unfamiliar to me. The story beats and characters didn’t resonate in my memory of the novel. And after watching the movie I read an online summary of the book as a refresher and found that my memory of the book betrayed me slightly yet there were definitely large liberties taken with London’s original plot. The second half of the movie is really only a shadow of the original tale.

Inaccuracies notwithstanding, it was an enjoyable film. I’d say it was a middling affair. I wished for a movie more true to the original source material, but if you go in cold with no knowledge of the book, you’ll come out with a decent experience. Harrison Ford is Harrison Ford, and that’s a good thing. The supporting cast is fine, if forgettable (outside of Omar Sy who was charming as Perrault). If you’re wanting a nature story, a feel-good dog movie, or an interesting peek into a late 19th century historical setting, then give it a go, even though it’s a vestige of the seminal novel by the same name. If you’re looking for a life-changing introspective experience, read the book.

@JohnnyShoulder Yeah, it was fun enough. In a way it felt like what Sonic should have been

Is A History of Violence worth a watch?

@Arugula I had a look at the trailer, it did look good. That’s Friday night sorted!

@Th3solution I took a look at the trailer, the CGI looks so bad. I couldn’t watch the whole thing.

Can’t believe the Snyder Cut’s happening. HBO Max are really stepping up their game.

@LN78 I actually really enjoyed Batman vs Superman on a second watch, you can tell that if he wasn’t bound by the studio then it would have been a winner. I think this has some great potential, especially if they go down the miniseries route because 4 hours is rather long and it worked for The Hateful Eight.

@RogerRoger As an animal lover, I’m sure you’ll get some enjoyment out of it. So don’t avoid the film if it seems to interest you. Like I say, it’s worth a watch. But it’s the type of movie that would be a good stream on a lazy weekend when it inevitably lands on Netflix, Disney+, Amazon, or Hulu. I couldn’t wait for that so I paid the $2 rental fee and it was definitely worth that just to see Ford.

My biggest concern about the Snyder Cut is how it will impact my Push Square profile picture. If this becomes the defacto version, people will forget 'tache Supes and that would invalidate my whole online persona.

@Th3solution Whoa, $2 did say? Watch you don't go too crazy there with such an extravagant purchase!

Apparently the 4K blu ray is supposed be something special, but I can only get it on a peasant blu ray, so i think it is one of these titles that is only available on 4K on import.

@LN78 I can only think it is a similar issue with something like Hustlers in that the distributor for the film has decided not to release the 4K blu ray to these shores.

@Rudy_Manchego Your Avatar can be a permanent reminder of what happened, and the very least of the problems with that film.

@JohnnyShoulder Problem? Moustache gate was the best bit. Makes me feel better about buying the blu ray.

If the new cut turns out to be worse then I will change my avatar to that!