Topic: The Movie Thread

Boyz N The Hood. Somehow never seen it before now but was on BBC late night. Absolutely fantastic, especially impressive for a directorial debut. Interesting to see how many tropes started with this one movie but it rises above all that with genuine heart and totally natural performances from the cast. And yes, Furious Styles is both the greatest name and the greatest dad in Hollywood.

Turning Red was surprisingly excellent. It's like Fruits Basket had a baby with A Goofy Movie, yet the end result felt really cohesive and unique.

@Fragile Gattaca is a terrific dystopian film. Alas, as an American, Mike Judge came the closest to predicting where we'd go with his film Idiocracy.

I have to agree, loved the first three movies, then things went south after that. Most movie series have good entries and ones that are lacking, Die Hard is no exception.

I really enjoyed the 4th Die Hard myself, it was just the right kind of over-the-top stupid action for me. My favorite part was when the guy hacked a satellite by putting the SIM card in his phone the other way.
But yeah, not so great after that.

@Fragile The first three are one my favourite trilogy of films. The 4th was watchable but nowhere near up to the same standard. I don't remember if I've seen the 5th film. If I have, it has been scrubbed from my memory! 😂

@Fragile Totally. I'm not really a fan of the traditional Christmas movie. Gremlins is another one of my faves.

@Fragile I genuinely forgot there was a 5th Die Hard. I’m not sure I got over them calling the 4th one Die Hard 4.0

Never mind, just saw it was called ‘Live Free or Die Hard’ in the US which is infinitely worse.

@LN78 I hear the 4K is supposed reference quality. Apparently it has a 6K and 8K source format. Have you seen Mortal Engines? The film is a nothing to write about, but the the 4K is probably one of the best I've seen. Also stars Hugo Weaving lol.

I enhanced my Disney + subscription to the bundle to also get Hulu, but they seem to have jack all in terms of interesting movies, and even less when it comes to TV, IMO.

Luckily they do have the two Deadpool movies, but I was hoping it's where Disney was also keeping the Wolverine & Logan since they aren't on D+, but apparently nope (HBO Max apparently has The Wolverine for whatever reason).

I've found a handful of things to add to the que, but most anything else I search for either doesn't show up or requires an even additional subscription (like Starz). Honestly, despite how much I've already watched, there's still more on D+ itself I'm interested in.

Turning Red really is brilliant isn’t it? Probably the best Pixar film in a good long while due to finally getting rid of the tired ‘let’s go on an adventure’ structure they’ve been bogged down by. Incredibly relatable on so many levels, and I can only imagine how much more relatable it is for whole groups of people in the way it tackles Asian-American expectations, ‘generational curses’, attitudes around periods and coming of age stories involving teenage girls. It’s just a great movie. There are so many influences ranging from Studio Ghibli, Ranma 1/2 and Scott Pilgrim to Teen Wolf. The soundtrack especially definitely has a hint of Joe Hisaishi to it.

@nessisonett It's an early favorite for being my film of the year.

With that said, as someone who is sensitive to secondhand embarrassment, a few scenes with the mother early in the film made me want to die. Which was the intent, of course, but I do imagine I looked rather goofy watching portions of the film with my head tucked down into my shirt.

@Ralizah Oh god yeah, the cringe levels induced were very well done. The whole movie actually did that, because 13 year olds are inherently cringey and so it was nice to see that embraced instead of how kids in movies tend to be adultified due to the movies being written by adults.

@HallowMoonshadow I was so disappointed by Soul. I loved the opening bit until the actual story started, but then it all fell back into Pixar’s exact same structure of ‘let’s go on an adventure’ while meeting characters along the way. I found the whole ‘Tina Fey possessing the body of a black man’ a bit uncomfortable as well. It could have been a great movie but it felt a bit like they didn’t know what to do after the first 40 minutes.

I enjoyed Soul, but I feel like its interesting existentialistic themes are betrayed a bit by the film's goofy metaphysics. I broadly agree it would have been better as a short film. Still one of their better flicks, though.

Inside Out is D-tier for me. On the same level as Cars 2 and The Good Dinosaur. Then again, I've never liked the idea of anthropomorphizing human emotions. I don't feel like it's an insightful way of viewing human psychology, and the emotions are, by design, very limited in their characterization.

@Ralizah I quite like most of Inside Out but it’s another one hampered by the exact same structure. Plus Sadness is inherently terrible as a character. She’s frustratingly terrible and I get why, it just doesn’t make for a fun movie. I was a lot more invested in Riley’s life than the other story revolving around Joy and Sadness going from point A to point B.

Apparently the Oscars goody bag includes a plot of land in Scotland along with a meaningless title. Lovely. So we can’t afford a bloody house but nah, here you go Breckin Meyer, take a square foot of land.

movies Im watching this weekend

Courage Mountain
Breakin 2
the bonus features of the old Collectors Edition DVD of Star Trek V
rewatching Halloween 2018 and watching Halloween Kills extended version dvd

Free Guy - Comedy set within a GTA like video game where NPC Guy (Ryan Reynolds) becomes self aware. Nothing remarkable, but it was a fun time IMO.

X-Men: the Last Stand - I haven't read the comics, but I thought this was fine (I certainly didn't enjoy it particularly less than the first two). That said, they definitely seemed to write themselves into a corner by effectively ending the stories of multiple characters, so I'm interested in seeing how they retcon some of it. I think they bring back a few killed characters due to a butterfly effect in Days of Future Past if I recall correctly, though Xavier ends TLS in a new body and I think he starts out (DoFP) still in "Patrick Stewart's" body before that takes effect, so I'm not sure if that's ever explained.

the Shape of Water - Probably the most unconventional take on a "Beauty & the Beast" style narrative I've ever encountered (I really kept thinking, "did they really just go there!", lol). That said I liked the period piece sci-fi/cold war espionage angle & thought it was a very interesting watch overall.

At a mystery movie marathon at a cinema since 10pm, we’ve done Harvey, What’s up Doc?, Live and Die in LA and the insane Miami Connection 😂 one left!!

@LN78 nope, completely random. They finished with Mars Attacks which was a bit of a let down. Harvey and Miami Connection were both really enjoyable! Off to bed I go 😴😴😴