Topic: The Movie Thread

I watched the recent The Gray Man on Neflix. It was enjoyable enough and the cast are great, I get the feeling Chris Evans reveled in playing such a scum-bag after so long as Cap. I think these super expert killer films are getting a bit long in the tooth now though, if they weren't already.

Following on from last week, I watched Conan the Destroyer this morning.

It was decent, though I think I prefer the first. It definitely has a bit of a quicker pace (and shorter runtime), which I think helps it compared to how slow the first could be at times, however I think it overall feels more pedestrian. The set up is very run of the mill fantasy fate (steal a magical jewel from a wizard's castle, etc.), they've added more humor (and removed nudity) to maybe make it seem more palatable as a mainstream appeal, and it completely removes the mysticism from the magical elements (most sorcery in this movie boils down to someone quickly waving their arms to lift a door or spark a fire, which is a step down from the elaborate set ups in the first film, such as the snake transformation or the nightmarish scene where spirits were trying to drag Conan to death).

I will say it has a more exciting climax than the original, with a pretty cool monster.

That sucks about Tomb Raider, Vikander was wicked in the role and I would love to watch more Tomb Raider films with her in it. I know that's probably an unpopular opinion 😅

@ThereThere It is worth it to watch Tilda Swinton's performance, which I thought was menacing and hilarious at the same time. Don't think I've seen her put in a bad performance yet.

@ralphdibny @RogerRoger I've still not seen that one yet. I think when it came out I was disillusioned with movies based on video games, so decided to skip it. May give it a watch at some point as whatever I was feeling back then has passed.

@ralphdibny @JohnnyShoulder @RogerRoger I liked Vikander in the Lara Croft role also. The movie was pretty decent, all things considered. It and Ex Machina made me a Vikander fan.

@JohnnyShoulder I hope it doesn't disappoint. The general consensus indicates that it was unpopular but I still enjoyed it and thought that Vikander carried the film.

@Th3solution I think tomb raider is the only film I've seen with her in it. Ex machina has been on the "to watch" list for a while so I should probably give it a go soon!

@Th3solution She was in the film 'IT'?!

But Ex Machina is excellent @ralphdibny. I remember that was my choice to go and watch it at the cinema, so was chuffed when it turned out like it did, as it was a bit of an unknown quantity when it was released.

@JohnnyShoulder I've loved everything I've seen that Alex Garland has written so I should definitely give it a go! Oscar Isaac has made a bit of a name for himself since as well. I remember watching some coen brothers film in the cinema where he plays a guitarist. I can't remember it being that notable to be honest

Just finished up Lupin the 3rd: Jigen's Gravestone. The first in the so-called "Koike" trilogy of Lupin anime films (named after the guy who directed them), that forgoes the sillier/family friendly vibe of most of the series' other anime adaptations in favor of a more serious tone more similar to that of the original manga.

In this first entry, Jigen (the gang's sharpshooter) has his work cut out for him when he finds himself in the crosshairs of an assassin that's purportedly even a better shot than himself. With a fantastic visual style, some thrilling action set pieces, and a few clever narrative twists I thought it was a blast. It was perhaps a bit shorter than I typically expect from a movie (ran for just about an hour), and despite the narrative ultimately centering around Cold War politics they made it take place in a fictional country (a pet peeve of mine in stories that otherwise take place in the real world, which the Lupin series is admittedly a repeat offender), but I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to getting to the next one.

Saw some movies I saw on HBO Max before they left the service. Some quick thoughts.

Stage Fright: B-tier Hitchcock thriller, but even his B-tier films are worth watching if only for the craftsmanship. I thought the plot was engaging and there was a neat twist near the end. Not top 10 material, but I would put it on par with the likes of To Catch a Thief or Family Plot. The best out of the lot I saw. 7.5/10

Captains Courageous: Old MGM family film. Good, although there was nothing about it that particularly stood out. One thing that was a bit odd was the boy that was supposed to be American had an English accent. 7/10

The Asphalt Jungle: Film noir crime film that's about a jewel heist. I've seen this one before and was disappointed that it didn't spend enough time showing the planning and execution of the heist. A few years later, I can happily report that enjoyed the movie more. With that being said, it's more good than great. The screenplay is good, but I've seen other noirs with snappier dialog. I also didn't feel that it was as cynical as it could have been. The movie also takes a more realistic (but not documentary-like) approach which is fine, but it does mean that it's not as interesting as it could be. On the plus side the story is easy to follow and the acting is great, particularly Sterling Hayden. If you want a better example of a noir heist, check out The Killing. 7/10

Killer Klowns from Outer Space: The title says it all. Don't go in expecting high art and you'll have a pretty good time. In a lot of ways it reminds me of Tremors in the way that spoofs '50's sci-fi (although Klowns also leans heavily in the horror genre), though I felt Tremors was funnier. The special effects and especially the clown suits were also great considering the low budget. 7.5/10

The Netflix algorithm for showing you what it thinks you might like is far too narrow in my opinion. I find you get a lot of repetition regardless of what category you are looking at. Anyway, due to watching a couple of documentary series lately I've noticed a few different things and watched Spotlight last night.
I was engrossed by it and thought it was incredibly well crafted with great acting and pacing. It wasn't something I was ever eager to watch but gave it a go and I'm glad I did. I've been impressed by a few films lately and this is definitely one of the best.

@ThereThere And as we were just talking about him the other day, news drops about his next film. I like the sound of that cast!

More movie thoughts (also talked about Star Trek: The Motion Picture, but I posted that in the Star Trek thread):

The Tenant: Psychological horror-thriller about a man who rents an apartment with a troubled past directed by Roman Polanski. Like his other two apartment films, Repulsion and Rosemary's Baby, there's a real sense of paranoia. In all fairness a lot of films from the '70's were infused with paranoia, though Polanski was doing this before Watergate. The acting is good, although I wasn't particularly blown away by it. My biggest gripe is with the pacing. While I don't mind watching a slow burner, The Tenant is a bit too slow unfortunately. That's not to say it's uninteresting, far from it, but there's too much time showing the protagonists life in and out of the apartment before the paranoia really takes hold. Compare this to his other apartment films where the paranoia takes hold much earlier, and neither of those films have a particularly fast pace. Really it all comes down to pacing issues for me. I know I'm probably being a bit too negative (if you're still reading my ramblings), but I did like The Tenant. Despite it's leisurely pace it still kept my attention, which can't be said for other films I've seen that have the same problem. If you are a fan of these slower horror films you'll probably get more out of this than be, but every one else be aware. 7/10

Bloody hell, Batgirl’s been scrapped. They spent $90 million on it and definitely filmed it cause we saw JK Simmonds in town. They’re just not releasing it. Mad. So both Supergirl and Batgirl are basically gone before they’ve even been introduced due to the Flash movie being up in the air too. Really feel for the actresses, this isn’t on them at all.

@nessisonett Yeah with the main actor in The Flash movie going totally off the rails by the sounds of it, I'm not sure if they will reshoot the film or not. Kinda like what Ridley Scott did with Kevin Spacey's scenes in All the Money in the World. Except that wasn't for someone in the main starring role in a super hero movie!

@ThereThere No worries buddy!

@LN78 "The DCEU has been a complete disaster."

I agree and the tragedy is that it could have rivalled the MCU or M-SHE-U as it should now be called (credit to Nerdrotic).

In its earlier films like MoS, BvsS (Ultimate Edition) set a much darker and adult tone which distinguished it from the other. I wasn't really a fan of SS, but this is where it started going downhill. It redeemed itself and more with WW, but it's obvious that the WB execs were impatient and instead of letting Snyder do his job and build a story, they wanted to do what the MCU did with Avengers in half the time.

The scene of the post apocalyptic film at the end of the Snyder cut looked incredible and it's criminal that it'll never be finished and see the light of day.

The DCEU is dead as a narrative, The Joker wouldn't have been half as successful if it wasn't tackling the subject of mental health, was a boring plot, The Batman I thought was very weak overall, so I don't have much hope going forward.

The MCU is also running into a brick wall, boring plots and characters, identity politics taking a front seat and a overall fatigue of the traditional superhero narrative. It should have ended at Endgame, but those franchise cows need to be milked for all they're worth.

I'm pinning my hopes on the upcoming Rippaverse, hoping it makes a huge success by going back to basics and making Marvel and WB execs have a long hard think about what they're doing.

@The_Moose Nerdrotic is a saddo grifter who has realised that tapping into a sexist and homophobic audience will get him plenty of views. It was obvious when his Doctor Who videos steadily became a series of buzz words and crap puns about Jodie Whittaker, calling her a dog and referring to her riding a motorbike as ‘dy*es on bikes’. Bringing up somebody with such abhorrent takes that are clearly done for attention says more about you than the whining about identity politics does. What would you suggest Marvel do instead? Ignore the many characters from their comics over the years which are from backgrounds other than white and male? Because that’s what they did for the first 10 years of the MCU. Interesting how franchises like The Hobbit and Fantastic Beasts are never mentioned when it comes to nerd franchises which failed, yet Star Wars, Doctor Who and now Marvel are bad and that’s all the fault of the black, female and gay people.

@LN78 The reference to the Rippaverse is even more hilarious. It’s literally only known because of Fox News and New York Post articles about a comic company that’s ANTI WOKE and AGAINST CANCEL CULTURE. This all stems from Comicsgate and Gamergate where the big dogs are releasing their own works now… or not. Sargon of Akkad’s video game never actually came out, Ethan Van Sciver’s comic is laughably terrible and even the Comicsgate saddos hate it. Excerpts from Ben Shapiro’s novel are toe-curling, like Jack Reacher if written by a 12 year old who has pin-up posters of Steven Seagal on their wall. I’d stake my life on there never being a single good ‘anti-woke’ bit of media ever. There’s bad media that’s been labelled ‘woke’ of course but there’s definitely a lot of good stuff there. I’m yet to find anything that openly describes itself as ‘anti-woke’ that isn’t utterly dreadful.

@nessisonett "sexist and homophobic audience"

Becoming disillusioned with long time beloved franchises who push identity politics is not sexist nor homophobic.

"What would you suggest Marvel do instead? Ignore the many characters from their comics over the years which are from backgrounds other than white and male?"

No there's space for all of their characters provided the stories are good, coherent and fit into the overall narrative. The reason the first couple of phases of the MCU were so well liked was not because the heroes were white and straight but because the stories were fresh, gripping and fit into the overall narrative.

Those early phases do have weak films as well. In the run up to end game we start to see the wheels coming off and the identity politics taking centre stage. I couldn't believe all the critical hype surrounding Black Panther, it was a dull movie which the critics were terrified to trash because of the subject matter it dealt with. Captain Marvel movie was a stupid idea for the franchise , they created a character who could have destroyed Thanos' army on her own, but no! In the final battle she needs help from all the female characters because we need that girl power moment. They're not just superheroes, they're female superheros!

Endgame got the MCU over the line and was a decent movie, but they couldn't stop there. Throw that in with the poorly written latest films and series it's not going to end well for Marvel.

"Interesting how franchises like The Hobbit"

I didn't mention it because it wasn't relevant to the discussion, but now you have I'm more than happy to say The Hobbit is a terrible trilogy, I'm not really into Harry Potter so couldn't comment on Fantastic Beasts.

"Star Wars, Doctor Who and now Marvel are bad and that’s all the fault of the black, female and gay people."

You're not listening to the criticism if you think I'm saying gay black females have caused the downfall of Dr Who, SW and MCU. I'm blaming the activist writers with an axe to grind who can't help hijacking beloved series to drive their political and social messages home.

If those talentless hacks really want to write about black/gay/female/trans characters then why don't they create their own shows and universes instead of using already established characters and retconning lore so that it fits their agenda?

Characters are well written when they overcome struggle, aren't perfect, grow and mature, regardless of their skin colour or sex.