Topic: The Movie Thread

@Ralizah I’ll second (or third) that sentiment regarded E.T. and Tron. I can appreciate what each did for film art at the time, but both do feel dated now.

@LN78 @RogerRoger I’ll be curious to hear how your respective Back to the Future rewatches go. You’re right that the make-up jobs for making the characters appear younger and then older does jar most notably and it pulls you out of the experience. It feels kind of like your watching a school play at times. Biff especially just looks and feels out of place, both as a schoolboy and as an adult. Anyways — I won’t taint your experience too much by my criticism beforehand, and to be sure, there are wonderfully iconic moments that certainly stand the test of time (no pun intended) like the opening sequence in the mall parking lot. There is definitely some enjoyment to be had with the film and if you take it for the 80’s hyperbolic fun that it’s intended to be then it is still worth watching for sure.

@RogerRoger Definitely. It was revolutionary in a number of ways. It was one of the first big shows to popularize arc-based TV storytelling in the U.S., for one thing, paving the way for more complex, long form serialized dramas in the 00's. I think its early seasons 'High School as Hell' metaphor, and its exploration of teenage life more generally, were really well-realized. Particularly... ah, I won't get into spoilers, but let's just say that the way it handles boyfriends, sex, and disillusionment is perfect. It also grows up with its viewers, following its cast of close friends into early adulthood as the characters graduate from high school, go to college, get jobs, and, more generally, get sort of lost in life. And, again, like everything else in the show, there's always a pitch-perfect supernatural storyline or plot device to explore those themes and ideas.

The concept itself is a great translation of the Magical Girl Warrior idea into a form that many Westerners would find relatable (not so much the frilly dresses or girly special attacks, but certainly the exploration of women's issues, women's empowerment, and, on a much more universal level, the idea of struggling with one's destiny). Like Sailor Moon, it caught on because it pitched itself into a landscape starving for relatable female heroes, and, unlike today, where a lot of self-consciously feminist TV and comics writers are afraid to write really complex female heroes, the Buffy writers really fleshed her out and, yes, allowed her to stumble and fall at times.

And it wasn't the first show to feature a gay character, but it was a big deal when a major cultural hit like Buffy allowed one of its main characters to become involved in a long-standing, loving, stable, and realistic lesbian relationship.

There are, of course, a number of episodes that just... they weren't good at the time, and they're worse now. And some metaphors and storylines do fall flat. But I still think it holds up as primo television, and is a fascinating saga overall.

Also, I want to mention that, if you end up liking Buffy, there was a crossover show called Angel that followed a number of major characters after they departed in the third season, and it's also very well worth watching in its own right. There are a few crossovers between the two shows, although both can be appreciated as their own thing.

I think anyone who wants to understand the transition of TV dramas from the episodic classics of yesteryear to the morally complex serials of today need to watch both Buffy and The Sopranos.

@Ralizah Wow, you’ve almost sold me on watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I have never had much interest but it sounds quite solid. I think I’ve always been put off by her being called “Buffy.” If it was “Linda the Vampire Slayer” then I might not have dismissed it as much. 😂

@Th3solution I'd highly recommend it, with one caveat: watch at least the first two seasons before judging it. Seriously. Its first season isn't... terrible, but it also doesn't possess most of the qualities that made so many of us fall in love with it initially. It was, like, half the length of every other season and doesn't show off the penchant for longer-form storytelling or shocking plot twists that define the best seasons of Buffy. Same to you, @RogerRoger

Anyway, the discordant nature of the title is intentional, and was part of the original concept. It's part of the subversion of the trope of the vapid blonde cheerleader who exists to be victimized in horror movies.

I'd also like to briefly mention that I love how unconventional the show was willing to get. I think everyone knows about the self-aware musical episode by now, but it also featured:

(no specific spoilers there, but I spoiler tagged that section in an edit in case anyone wants to be surprised by the episode concepts)

...and so on. The best episodes of Buffy are often unlike anything I've seen in a TV show before or since.

@LN78 Buffy improves over the course of the first five seasons, I'd argue, with an arguable dip in quality with Season 4 (it's still good, but not a flat out classic like the 5th season was).

I've heard terrible things about the remaster. I've just stuck with my DVDs.

@Ralizah I’ve been rewatching Buffy and I’m almost done the third season. I’ve probably seen it all the way through about 4 times because it really is just a fun watch. There are certain couples I just dislike, a certain one involving cheating being the primary culprit but for the most part, the soapy elements work well. I actually think Angel was the better show though, there were so many great episodes and the more mature feel definitely suited it.

@nessisonett I felt like Angel kind of lacked Buffy's larger vision, and I wasn't a huge fan of most of the cast.

With that said, Wesley going full Walter White later in the show was great. 😂 And I'll forever appreciate it turning Cordelia into a decent, interesting human being. It's still a pretty good show, all things being equal.

@Ralizah Cordelia’s my favourite character across the Buffyverse. Now that’s a well rounded character who evolved throughout the course of both shows.

The DC FanDome schedule just leaked and people are already talking about Gotham Knights (the WB Montreal Batman game), but the considerably more interesting thing for me is that Green Lantern Corps (the DCEU Green Lantern film) is on that list as well as another mention of Green Lantern, supposedly for the HBO Max series that got announced a while back

@TheFrenchiestFry I just think it’s pretty hard to not make Green Lantern’s powers look incredibly naff. Still, they managed it with Doctor Strange so maybe this will be the time they get Green Lantern right. Dunno who would make a good Hal Jordan though, Armie Hammer would work perhaps. They could always go down the mentor route and have an older Hal with John Stewart making an appearance.

@nessisonett I think a really cool idea would be a sort of buddy comedy action-adventure film featuring Hal Jordon and John Stewart playing off of each other in a good cop-bad cop relationship while hunting down and interrogating various Sinestro Corps members who lead them closer to apprehending Thaal after betraying them

@LN78 I remember reading Casino Royale for the first time with Bond saying “the bitch is dead” and I was shocked. Then I rewatched the movie and he actually says it even then!

I was only planning on watching the Bond movies from the 80's through Brosnan's tenure, but all this talk about Moonraker makes me want to check it (and maybe some of the other 70's titles out). All I know is that, as shallow as it may seem, I find the 60's entries just too dated to really get into, and I know I disliked one of Moore's 70's outings, where he's up against some sort of drug kingpin in the Deep South US (which made me write off the other 70's entries). Anyhow...

the Wizard (Blu-Ray)

The Premise:

• When young Jimmy Woods is threatened with the prospect of being institutionalized due to developmental issues his parents just can't figure out, his older brother Corey takes him and runs away from home for fear he'll lose his brother. Soon it's realized that Jimmy immediately masters any video game he plays, and with the help of a worldly girl named Hailey, the trio embarks on a crosscountry trip across the desert southwest in order to reach "Video Armageddon", a competition at Universal Studios where the winner takes home $50,000 (it just so happens that their goal takes them to California, a place that Jimmy seems mysteriously obsessed with). It won't be an easy journey though, as the authorities, their parents, and a bounty hunter specialising in capturing runaway children are all hot on their trail.

The Takeaway:

• I wasn't quite sure what to expect going in (other than the fact that I remember it seemed to prominently feature Nintendo), and while it probably wouldn't be categorized as a good movie, I found it to be an overall fun one (especially for the gamers among us). The idea that a group of pre-teens could successfully hitchhike across country while avoiding all searching for them is absurd, but it makes for a silly good time (also, there's no way a film aimed at kids would be allowed to do anything similar today), plus the guy playing the bounty hunter does a terrific job playing the kind of squirrelly bad guy you just love seeing bad things happen to (the interactions between him and the boys' dad are a particular riot). As for the Nintendo/gaming presence, yeah it's pretty constant. After Jimmy gets his first shot at Double Dragon, it seems like you can't go 5 minutes without someone pulling out an NES or walking up to an arcade (and, while I'm not an expert on these things, they seem to feature NES versions of games in the arcade at times), and throughout it's runtime you'll be exposed to classic titles like Mega Man, Metroid, Ninja Gaiden, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Super Mario Bros. 2, the climactic reveal of Super Mario Bros. 3, and more, including a meme worthy scene shilling the Power Glove ("the Power Glove, it's so bad"), or a moment where Corey likens their quest to that of Link in the Legend of Zelda. At times it feels like an overly long commercial for the Big N, and there's definitely a certain charm to that as a gamer. That said it can get surprisingly deep at times (around the halfway point it's revealed that Jimmy's twin sister drowned in front of him, which is the obvious trigger behind his problems that the adults just can't figure out for whatever reason), and I almost started to tear up at the end when it was time for him to put that tragedy to rest.

The Package:

• I've seen some bare packages before (such as Blu-Rays that lack any sort of special/extra features), but this takes the cake, as it doesn't even feature a menu! It jumps straight into the movie like a VHS would (no trailers either), and kicks you back out to the PS4 menu once the credits roll. Granted, that's not really a problem (just more of a surprise at how bare bones it is), and the actual picture quality is fantastic (I'd say it may even look a bit more impressive than a few other older, more popular, films I have).

@RR529 The Sean Connery ones are mostly good, the George Lazenby one is mostly underrated, the Roger Moore ones are mostly silly, the Timothy Dalton ones are mostly 80s, the Pierce Brosnan ones are mostly hilarious and the Daniel Craig ones are mostly filtered. My personal favourites are Casino Royale, OHMSS, Dr No, You Only Live Twice and I have a soft spot for The Man with the Golden Gun.

@nessisonett Dalton is honestly a severely underrated Bond. The Living Daylights was cool but Licence to Kill felt like it could fit right in with Fleming's early material

@RogerRoger It's honestly sad that MK might be Paul W.S. Anderson's best movie in general. Like not just a video game adaptation but just his best film. I have literally no faith in what he's going to do with Monster Hunter since I saw the test footage and it was just Rathalos flying through my city of Toronto of all places

I think I even saw him demolish the Eaton Centre

IGN are doing a documentary about the production history surrounding Darren Aronofsky's cancelled film adaptation of Batman: Year One

It premieres tomorrow

@RogerRoger Yeah not only that but the plot from what we know currently involves the U.S. military trying to stop the monsters in the MH world from trying to invade our world

Which I can assure you, both of those have literally no correlation with the source material

@LN78 Honestly I didn't see much in Event Horizon other than "this looks like a K-Mart version of Gravity mixed with Alien"

I watched The Hunt for Red October and Patriot Games today. They’re all right, pretty hokey now but Sean Connery is hilarious as a ‘Russian’ submarine captain and does his job admirably. Never been an Alec Baldwin fan though. Patriot Games has a young Sean Bean as an interestingly accented IRA member. Harrison Ford is also better suited to the role of Jack Ryan, I feel, and it’s slightly more action packed. They’re probably not movies I’d watch again.

@LN78 Yeah, I noticed so many people in the background that I recognised, it’s a pretty big cast. I did mostly enjoy both the movies, it’s a style you don’t really get anymore.