Topic: The Movie Thread

watching Umma on Netflix. Not bad for a horror movie involving Korean boogeyman folklore or whatever.

Just finished watching The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and thus I've wrapped up the LOTR trilogy of movies. It was a really good movie but just like with the other ones, it's so long lol. I often wonder how the franchise would've been perceived if it started out as a TV show with 30-40 minute episodes instead. I guess that's why they decided to make a TV show now! It's honestly a better format considering how much content that needs to be shown.

Anyway, one thing I love about the last movie, and the other movies as well, is how well done the battles are. They're absolutely epic and brutal, I've never seen a movie/show portray battles with such a high production quality and level of scope. Not even the battles in Game of Thrones could top them. They were incredible and definitely the highlights of the movies.

All in all, I'm glad that I've finally experienced these classic movies. While a bit long for my taste, they were certainly worth watching to the end. Now I think I'll take a break from this series and save The Hobbit movies as well as the TV show until a later date. I've definitely had my fill of LOTR for now lol.

Bit late to some of this chat - I loved BR2049 and Dune in the cinema. Both absolutely beautiful films with huge powerful visuals and sound. Less impressive at home (to me), but still great films.

Watched PETERLOO (Mike Leigh) yesterday. Interesting film, focusing on the working classes in Manchester of the early 19th century. It’s about a shocking incident I was totally ignorant of. Really well-made and interesting if you like listening to people talking for almost two and half hours. The main issue for me was the script, which had a bit too much exposition and was as guilty of painting the characters as good vs evil as any trashy action flick. The magistrates are heartless monsters and the common folk have more knowledge of politics than a politics major.
7/10 for me.

Films I watched over the weekend.

Blonde (Netflix)

A, highly speculative, journey behind the stardom of Marylin Monroe, exploring her troubled past & how those around the star used her.

It's a highly difficult film to watch, with some scenes being hard to stomach & other decisions being outright odd (and some will say exploitative), but it's also highly accomplished from a technical standpoint, with some of the most mesmerizing visuals I've seen in some time (I personally enjoyed the way it played with aspect ratios & color).

Trailer:

Raw Deal (Tubi)

Schwarzenegger vehicle that sees him in the role of a small town sheriff who goes undercover in a Chicago Mafia family for a chance to get reinstated back into the FBI. It naturally gets to the point where he straps various firearms to his person & transforms the scenery into swiss cheese.

It's not a great movie, but there's some cool action to be had.

Trailer:

Canadian Bacon (Tubi)

Political satire that sees the president (Alan Alda) trying to start a cold war with Canada in order to mask his poor approval ratings (he can't blame his failures on the Soviets any longer), and a small border town sheriff (played by John Candy) takes the whole situation a bit too seriously.

It's not a classic, but it elicited a few chuckles from me.

Trailer:

Saw See How They Run earlier. Honestly, the writing and British Sam Rockwell are worth the price of admission alone.

@RogerRoger, not really.

Sign up is easy & free (though they have an ad free "pro" tier). Just search for movies (& shows) via the search function (though they have categories for what's "hot" & so forth you can browse too).

Once on a movie's page (which has info about it, and reviews from other users which you can like & comment on), you have the option to add your own review (choose between 1-5 Stars, including half Stars, a Heart icon to click if you "Like" it, the date you watched it which defaults to current day until you change it, the space for your main body of text, then two icons at the bottom to click, the first indicates it's a film you've rewatched, the other spoiler tags your review).

Only issue I've ran into is I haven't yet figured out how to indicate I watched a movie in a previous month. When you click the date section a little calendar of the current month appears where you can pick a different day, and by clicking the year you can change that too, but I haven't figured out how to change the month (clicking the current month doesn't bring up any options).

@LN78 I've seen it mentioned by a couple of youtubers i watch on a semi regular basis, and wondered the same thing. Doesn't sound like something I'll sign up to in all honesty.

@LN78 The service I use to rent discs kind of has the same thing, where you can leave reviews and 5 star ratings. I've never done the former but always do the latter.

@LN78 I have an almost morbid curiosity to watch it now, and my expectations are quite low for the film, so who knows I might actually get some enjoyment from it.

@LN78 I wanted to like Blonde. I get the intention and it’s adapted from a book written by an actual woman so the charges of it being inherently sexist as a concept don’t wash with me. That being said, it was a bloody slog. Utterly miserable and this is coming from someone who likes The Painted Bird. I lost it at the scene with the CGI foetuses (foeti?) getting annoyed at Marilyn, who never actually had an abortion. Bizarre, especially given recent events in the US.

@LN78, sorry for the late reply (regarding Letterboxd), but I think it's presented mostly like a film diary of sorts (you can go back & review movies you've seen in the past, but it seems geared towards cataloging them as you watch).

There are some social features (again, you can read/like others' reviews, and I think you can even make & share lists & stuff, though I haven't looked too deep into it, & some aspects may be locked behind the "Pro" subscription).

@RogerRoger, it does let you switch months, I was just being dumb.

Since you change the year by clicking on it I figured it'd be the same for the month, but instead you have to slide your finger up or down on the calendar to "flip" to the next page. I thought I had tried that already, but I must have only tried left to right which didn't work.

Well I found something out today...
So I've seen all of the original Halloween films and sequels (including 3- Season of the Witch whatever's going on with that!!) and I've seen the recent reboot Halloween (2018) and the sequel to that 'Kills' and looking forward to the next one of them.
But after reading an article about Rob Zombie films it seems there was another reboot Halloween (2007) and sequel and I have no idea how they passed me by ... although there is a slight chance I did see them but have forgotten in the interim.
So will probably be looking out for them in the near future.

@sorteddan I recall watching the first Rob Zombie Halloween film years back. It's the same sort of white trash slasher movie as most of his other material. Not my sort of thing, although it is unironically still significantly better than the majority of Halloween sequels (including Halloween Kills, which is probably the worst film in the franchise; well, Resurrection is probably technically worse, but it's so bad that it ends up being hilarious to watch in an MST3K sort of way).

Chris Pratt’s Mario voice is one of the worst voices I’ve ever heard. And I’ve heard Bill Murray’s phoned-in Garfield voice. It’s bizarre that they didn’t just hire an Italian-American, or even just someone from New York. Instead we have Chris Pratt with one of the most ambiguous ‘not quite sure where the voice is supposed to be from’ in a good long while.

@nessisonett Need to hear more to be honest, He uttered two lines.

@LN78 I also skipped the first two when I rewatched them last month. I’d agree the third is the best one, everything comes together with a much darker narrative and visual style. Shame they’ve been so ruined for me, they were a big part of my childhood. Bloody Rowling’s been at it again today as well.

@RogerRoger @LN78 I’m beginning to think that the only reason I like going to London is that I haven’t been to basically any other city in England! I guess I’ve been to Middlesbrough which was alright, basically just like anywhere in Scotland though. Everyone kept saying ‘you alright’ as well, which must be some sort of local greeting 😂

@RogerRoger Proof of soullessness as well as a small fortune to even have the chance to grab a bedroom in a communal flat!

@nessisonett Chris Pratt's acting aside, I really enjoyed Jack Black's performance as Bowser, and even Toad's new voice too.