Topic: The Movie Thread

@RogerRoger I'm honestly kinda burned out now on these franchises that I decided to subscribe to Netflix instead to spice things up. I haven't used it since July so I have tons of new shows and seasons to watch: Arcane, Squid Game, The Witcher, Lost Space, Arrow, Riverdale, Locke & Key, DC Titans and so on. Going to be watching a lot of TV shows in other words! But I might check out some movies that are only on Netflix as well. I was hoping that the MCU Spider-Man movies would be on there, but apparently they aren't. Although the two Amazing Spider-Man movies are on there, would you say they are worth watching?

One thing that bugs me is that Netflix only have some of the movies from certain franchises. For example, only Terminator 2 and Rambo 2 and 3 respectively are on the service. So I guess I'll have to find another way to watch them. At least the first four Jurassic Park movies are on there, so I'll definitely be watching those for the first time!

It feels kinda nice actually to be switching between subscription services. Right now I'm alternating between Netflix, Disney+ and HBO Max. It's honestly quite refreshing to have this approach as I'll have something different to look forward to.

@LtSarge I’m answer to your query, I’d say yes — watch the 2 Amazing Spider-Man movies. Don’t mind all the naysayers about Garfield’s depiction of Peter Parker; I thought he was fine and the movies were entertaining enough. He’s still not as good as Holland and Macguire in the role, but I think it’s as much an issue with dealing with a weaker script as it is the actor himself. Either way, I enjoyed them both enough to have watched them each a couple times over the last few years.

As far as your comment about Netflix only having partial series, I have to agree that it’s an annoying thing. In my obsessive-compulsive brain I like to watch a whole set of movies if possible and unless the first movie is awful, I prefer to start at the beginning of a series. I was recently wanting to watch all the Craig Bond films and they are just scattershot around rather than all being on one streaming service and it has been an obstacle to wanting to start them, since I know I’ll have to probably rent one or two of them. It seems like HBO Max is the best about carrying entire series beginning to end.

Speaking of, does anyone recommend the arduous task of watching all the Matrix films? (Especially tagging @PhhhCough here) I’ve only seen the first one and then maybe part of the second one. When the quality seemed to drop off I didn’t bother with continuing the series, but now with the new movie available on HBO for a month, I’m tempted to watch them, but not sure I want to invest the time it would take to go through all of them, especially if this new one isn’t really worth it. It would need to be really awesome for me to feel it worthwhile to dump the 8-10 hours it will take. Thoughts?

@Th3solution the first matrix holds up well. The reliance on cgi isn't as prevalent as in the sequels. Just saw matrix reloaded. It's alright. I'm cutting the bs parts of the movie, by gaming during the slow parts(yay, second screen). I don't recall the third one, as much. May pay more attention. Then on to the fourth.

I feel it's all subjective and agree with @RogerRoger If you didn't enjoy the movies when they first came out, I don't think time will help. And forcing yourself through it, to watch the fourth, just to be apart of the "watercooler talk", just doesn't seem worth it. Life is short, do what makes you happy(so long as it isn't detrimental to others).

@Th3solution The new Matrix film assumes familiarity with the entire trilogy, so multiple characters and events from the second and third films are relevant for the new one. If you want to watch Matrix 4, I'd highly recommend watching the trilogy first.

@PhhhCough @RogerRoger @Ralizah
Thanks, friends. I’ll probably skip the series then. I’ll focus on those Craig films instead. 😄

@Th3solution @RogerRoger Awesome, I'll give them a watch then!

Just finished watching the first Bad Boys movie. Surprisingly, I've never watched it before despite growing up with movies like Blue Streak, which has Martin Lawrence, and shows like Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which has Will Smith. I love both of those a lot, so I highly enjoyed Bad Boys as well. I definitely needed a funny movie to watch now after all the serious ones I've watched lately. Still holds up quite well even though it's stupid in a lot of ways. But yeah, will definitely be watching the other two movies as well. Didn't know they released a new one just last year! It's going to be interesting to see how that one differs compared to the first two.

Went to see Spider-Man and thought it was fantastic. Didn’t go too far down the gimmicky route and left things in a very exciting place for the future. They basically fixed most of what I disliked about the effects MCU-ification has had on the character.

Saw No Way Home the other day and enjoyed it. It was an interesting film; unique in many ways. More of a rumination on what it means to be a hero or a villain than an actual superhero film. I thought Alfred Molina was brilliant in it. Whenever conversation turns to my favourite actors, I never think to mention him, but he's superb

Catching up on the thread, it's nice to see No Country for Old Men getting a mention. One of my favourite ever films, for its unwavering devotion to the source material. The Road was similarly respectful towards the novel. Maybe it's a McCarthy thing.

Finished watching Bad Boys 2 and overall, this is not a good movie. The biggest issue with it is that it's too damn long! It's 2.5 hours long and that's way too long for this kind of movie. The first one was 1.5 hours I think, so I don't know why they felt like making the sequel almost twice as long. There's just so much padding, I can think of plenty of parts that they could've cut out and it would've made the movie much better. I mean, it took me multiple days to watch through it! It just didn't have the same appeal as the first movie.

@RogerRoger Ouch, that sucks man. By any chance, have you watched the third movie yet or are you purposefully avoiding it in order to prevent another ruined relationship?

Just finished watching Spider-Man: Homecoming. I was so surprised to see it on Netflix today, apparently it was just added and I had to watch it immediately. It was a great movie! I loved the more relaxed tone of this Spider-Man compared to the Maguire trilogy. It was so refreshing considering I grew up with those movies. And once again, I like that it's part of the MCU because it makes it feel like a part of something bigger. Being able to see Iron Man in the movie and Tony Stark being Peter Parker's mentor was really cool. I don't think I would've enjoyed the movie as much if it weren't part of the MCU.

Here's hoping they'll add Far From Home on Netflix soon too!

@LtSarge I love both original Bad Boys films and I've also watched the new one. Worth watching and worth watching soon after you've seen the first two just because there are loads of references/recurring jokes.

I'm Mike Looooowwwwwrrryyyyy

@LtSarge I really liked Homecoming. I’m a big fan of the franchise so it’s hard to be objective, but Homecoming was such a pleasant surprise. They could have really messed up the Spider-Man integration with the MCU and I thought they nailed it. The Michael Keaton Vulture reveal was exceptionally well set up, and a real highlight. Keaton did an awesome job overall.

I think you’ll like Far From Home and No Way Home if you liked Homecoming. They are all very well produced.

@ralphdibny Haha. Alright, I think I'll give it a shot once I'm done watching Arrow season 8. Got so much stuff to watch now!

@Th3solution Yeah I've been so excited to watch these movies because they've eluded me due to them not being on Disney+. So as soon as they get added to Netflix I'm going to watch them.

And honestly, I think I like Tom Holland as Spider-Man. I've been contemplating replaying Marvel's Spider-Man on PS4 after having watched the movie since I still haven't played the DLCs but my save file was lost years ago as you well know. But then I remembered that Tom Holland is only in the PS5 version of the game, which is too bad.

Finally got around to Ralph Breaks the Internet. Not as good as the first, but as someone who grew up watching Reboot I always liked the concept of cyberspace being represented by some sort of futuristic cityscape, so I still mostly enjoyed it.

I do think it started to lean a bit too much into the stereotypical girl power theming that dominates a lot of core Disney's animated films these days, and while there's nothing inherently wrong with that, after the Frozen duo, Moana, Raya, & presumably Encanto, that seems to be more & more their thing this past decade (though admittedly this isn't taking Pixar's output into account).

@Kidfried I think Bard Boys is actually just the Bristol remake of Bad Boys.

Just finished watching Jurassic Park for the first time and it was a great movie! I really like the concept of humans trying to play god by reviving dinosaurs and trying to control them, even if it is for entertainment purposes. I thought they explained the resurrection of the creatures well too, i.e. mosquitos preserved the blood and therefore the DNA of the dinosaurs and were fossilised in amber, which made it possible for scientists to extract it and thus clone new dinosaurs. The cloning process obviously isn't realistic but who knows, maybe we'll get there one day! Anyway, I thought the dinosaurs looked really good and there were lots of different species to see. Didn't care that much about the characters but it was cool to see Samuel L. Jackson and Jeff Goldblum in this movie. So overall, I really enjoyed watching Jurassic Park and I'm excited to watch the sequels in the near future.

@LtSarge I've seen the movie so many times, but, for the life of me, I can't remember Samuel L Jackson in it. Guess I need to rewatch it again.

Jurassic Park was, and is, a marvel of practical special effects. Frankly, the dinosaurs in that film are still vastly more convincing than the majority of CGI monsters you see in films even today.

Definitely the 90s blockbuster that has aged the most gracefully overall.

@Ralizah @LtSarge Yeah, me too — I can’t remember Samuel L. Jackson’s role in Jurassic Park. 😅 Glad I’m not the only one.

@Ralizah @Th3solution He's one of the guys who's working on the computers. Don't know how you guys could've missed him, but at least @RogerRoger remembers him lol.

@Ralizah One of my problems with watching old movies is that a lot of the times, they just don't hold up in terms of effects. For example, I didn't enjoy the original trilogy of Star Wars at all, the effects were just awful and it ruined the immersion. But I was genuinely impressed by how the dinosaurs looked in Jurassic Park.