Topic: The Movie Thread

@ThereThere At least it’s better than Eternals 😂

@LN78 I dunno. Blood flying everywhere. Pretty fun.

@LN78 Some people find The Human Centipede fun to be fair! I’m not a big horror fan so it’s not something I find fun but I have mates who really genuinely find gory horror films fun. I don’t like rollercoasters though so maybe it’s the whole adrenaline thing.

@LN78 hey, I had fun watching it!

@LN78 30 years will do that to a movie sometimes

@LN78 yeah I think that’s a pretty fun movie too.

@LN78 nice music and scenery, some cool scenes but far from the landmark movie it tried to be. Still, enjoyed it enough to see it a few times and I’ll be watching it again after Resurrection.

@ThereThere Thanks, man. For fans of the genre or subject matter, it’s an easy recommendation. 🫡

Just got back from watching Lightyear in 3D.

I actually enjoyed myself. I could maybe see this as a bit boring for really young kids (in fact the family seated in front of us left during the climax as their kids started getting restless & jumping around on the seats), as it's more of a played straight action sci-fi film that happens to be family friendly (with some humor), rather than a kid's sci-fi film. If you like deep space sci-fi (like I do) it's definitely worth a watch.

However, there was probably no reason to make this a "Buzz Lightyear" movie (it practically has no ties to Toy Story, other than an opening blurb mentioning this as Andy's favorite movie of 1995, and one or two catch phrases), they don't even bother to make it feel retro (in a 90's sense) in any capacity, and it's a modern film through & through. So yeah, if you're wanting to watch this as a Toy Story fan, that's probably not the right mindset to go in with (and probably why the film isn't playing well).

As for the 3D experience I thought it was fantastic. Maybe not quite as trippy as Multiverse of Madness, but the effect was used strongly throughout, and was certainly a better 3D experience than Jurassic World Dominion.

I watched Apollo 13 this morning. It starred Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, & Bill Paxton as the astronauts involved in the Apollo 13 mission & how through ingenious ingenuity (& with help from those on the ground within NASA) they miraculously managed to safely make their way back to Earth after an oxygen leak in their craft.

I thought it was excellent. Some of the CGI effects near the beginning of the film were starting to show their age (like the shots of the surrounding area around the rocket), but it was much more of a character drama & everything within the capsule was believable & edge of your seat tense.

@RogerRoger No problem, man. The release date is October 18, 2022, by the way.

I finally got around to watching Turning Red on Disney+. I’d heard and read good things about it, but have to admit that I wasn’t all they enamored with the movie. It was okay, but not up to the Disney/Pixar standards, imho.

Lately Disney and Pixar animation hasn’t been hitting home runs at their usual clip. But I’ve mostly enjoyed everything they’ve put out in the last few years. Even duds like Raya and the Last Dragon and Onward. Although I was entertained by parts of Turning Red, it was definitely toward the bottom of the pack for me. Perhaps I’m not the target audience

@Th3solution I find it kinda crazy how many people have said the same. For me, Turning Red has more of a heart than any Pixar movie has since at least Inside Out and possibly Toy Story 3. It’s the least Disney movie they’ve made in a long time, which is absolutely a good thing.

@nessisonett I do think you’re right in that Turning Red is unique for the studio; it’s one of the few Disney or Pixar movies that doesn’t rely on the emotional manipulation of killing off the protagonist’s parent(s), spouse, or some other close relative. It does ‘coming of age’ decently enough. And focusing on the dynamic of the mother-daughter relationship in a Chinese-Canadian family is a unique backdrop. Nevertheless, I had trouble relating to the subject matter. Which is fine, as 12-13 year old girls likely have trouble relating to 90% of the movies I like.
Nevertheless, in Pixar’s other movies somehow I was able to really bond with some of their other characters and settings I have little in common with like Up, Soul, or Coco. In Turning Red it was fun to watch the light-hearted mockery of the struggles of a nerdy pubescent boy-crazy tween girl as a fresh subject to explore, but it probably hits harder for those with some sense of what that must be like. Jokes always register best when there’s some life experience that it harkens to. And the same usually goes for the emotional pay-off when the conflict resolution occurs.

Feels a little weird to say this in 2022, but Beavis and Butthead Do the Universe is absolutely my favorite new movie this year. Hilarious from beginning to end.

watching Halloween H20 and Halloween Resurrection.

Been a long long time since i watched Halloween H20 last time in 1999

Finally saw Top Gun: Maverick.

I did enjoy it, but I’d say it’s a hair over-praised. I kept hearing how fabulous the movie is so I decided not to wait for it to drop on streaming. And it was cool to see the action on the big screen, but… the movie isn’t the Citizen Kane of modern cinema that I was led to believe. It’s an issue of unbalanced expectations though, because if I’d have just watched it on a whim then I would have probably enjoyed it better than I did after the hype buildup.

The acting is decent. Tom Cruise does his best Tom Cruise impersonation, and Jennifer Connelly is (like Cruise) still unnaturally attractive for her age. The supporting cast is… okay? The plot is a smidge predictable, even at the end. The best part is the drama related to Maverick’s past and what transpired between the two movies. I like how those details were woven into the movie without excessive reliance of flashbacks or separate fanfare. Having a solid remembrance of the first movie is pretty useful, but one of my friends (inexplicably) went to see it without having ever seen the first movie and he still loved it.

Overall I recommend it, especially if you like planes. Don’t expect to leave with any life-altering experience though.

The new Jurassic World actually wasn't terrible. I liked the concept of dinosaurs integrating into the modern world and humans needing to find a way to live alongside ancient species that are here to stay. They didn't do a half-bad job of integrating major characters from the original Jurassic Park, either. Honestly, the only bits dragging it down for me were the characters and storylines from previous Jurassic World films. Kinda wish this had been developed as its own thing.

Still, nice to go in with a feeling of dread and actually mostly enjoy my time with it.

@XandertheWise H20 is still my favorite Halloween sequel to date. Nothing will ever compare to the original, which is one of the greatest films ever made, but it's one of the few follow-ups that I can watch without cringing.

@ThereThere Yeah, it'll be on some service before long. The family was excited for it, so it was like: whatever, let's go watch the crappy dinosaur movie. Because I strongly disliked the other Jurassic World films (particularly the second one). But I left the theater having had an enjoyable experience. The structure of it is reminiscent of the original film, but not obnoxiously so like with The Force Awakens, and, ironically, the plot is one of the only ones not to function as a bastardized re-telling of the original.

It's, IMO, the best of the sequels. Granted, that's a low bar to clear, and I will always think the original should never have had any sequels to begin with, but, alas, capitalism being what it is, you can probably count on more Jurassic Park/World/whatever movies coming out as long as they're still pulling in decent money.