Topic: The Movie Thread

@JudgeDredd Only the 5?! 😂 Was it something to watch with the better half?

@JudgeDredd Too be fair, I don't think I've ever finished it. I was never a big Whitney Housten fan after on of her songs stayed in the charts which seemed like forever.

I wish I’d liked Wakanda Forever more. There were moments that I could understand their intentions with wanting to pay tribute to Chadwick Boseman but outside of that, the movie just felt a bit aimless. I was left feeling a bit empty at the end, and couldn’t really care less about any of the characters. A shame.

Malignant - A bit of a bonkers premise but a tad too goofy for me.

@CthulhuFhtagn I might be one of the few but I quite liked Dark Fate. Yes, it was a rehash of the first one, but it captured the essence of that movie while having a modern setting. That’s all I can really ask for from those sorts of reboots, which is why so many horror movies get rebooted I guess.

@RogerRoger @CthulhuFhtagn The first Ghostbusters film is one of the few films I watch again and again. Afterlife felt like just a rehash of that film in a different setting but with very little of what made it special in the first place.

But I generally don't enjoy any of the reboots/remakes that I've seen. I'm a bit sick of them tbh and wish the industry would stop dragging the films I grew up watching through the gutter with each new sub standard release.

finished watching The Video Dead on Tubi earlier today.

still have Basket Case 2 and 3 to watch on Tubi

went to a Dollar General store earlier tonight and found and bought a DVD documentary about the wrestler Iron Sheik

Wasn't feeling too well last night (well, all week long TBH), so I sat back and watched Mickey: the Story of a Mouse on Disney+.

Pretty much a light hearted documentary on the evolution of Mickey Mouse & his affect on pop culture (though they did manage to reflect a bit on Walt's outdated/racist elements that worked their way into the older cartoons too, so it wasn't entirely patting themselves on the back).

It was actually pretty interesting, though they acted like my era of Mickey & Co. didn't even exist. From the perspective of the documentary you had Mickey's Christmas Carol in the mid 80's, then a few decades of being nothing more than a corporate icon until he was revived by the modern shorts.

This of course completely ignores Mickey's House of Mouse (which was my go to Saturday morning cartoon for a few years), arguably the entirety of the Goof Troop/Goofy Movie continuity, and his transition to video games (Castle of Illusion, Epic Mickey, and of course the titan that is Kingdom Hearts) to make it's case.

It's really good until then though.

Saw a few movies in the theater recently.

Bones and All, from director Luca Guadagnino, is billed as a "romantic cannibal road film," which ends up being a fairly apt description of what I sat through. It sounds bizarre and potentially exploitative, like a cannibal version of Natural Born Killers or something, but the subject matter is treated with some level of restraint. I mean, there are definitely some rather gross sequences in the film (mostly thanks to Sully, an elderly cannibal our protagonist meets early on who serves as a mentor in the ways of safe cannibalism, if such a thing exists), but the focus of the film is less on the stomach-turning taboo and more how people live their lives while being forced to address, and ultimately accept, a horrifying aspect of their being. In this respect, it's less a cannibal horror film and more of a "cannibalism-as-metaphor" sort of film. Anyway, the bulk of the film's runtime eventually becomes consumed (heh) by the love story at the center of it, which unfortunately didn't resonate much with me. Definitely an interesting blend of genres for people who want something new in their romantic dramas, but anyone who goes in expecting a horror movie is going to be disappointed.

A much more satisfying experience came in the form of director Mark Mylod's new dark comedy The Menu. Ads for the film give you the sense that you're in for a foodie-themed horror flick, which is only partially true. It actually ends up being a rather fun, and frequently funny satire of celebrity chef worship and pretentious upper-crust foodie culture in general. Particular kudos to star Ralph Fiennes: despite the air of civility he maintains throughout his murderous performance, notes of malice and contempt can be detected, which help pull the role together.

Finally, I watched Disney's new film: Strange World. Disney apparently had the nerve to create an environmentalist fable following a mixed-race couple and their unapologetically gay son, but not enough to actually communicate any of this in the advertising, perhaps fearing another Lightyear-style backlash from racists. Actually, the marketing has been pretty light overall, which would suggest Disney sent it out to die. It's certainly losing them a ton of money, considering how poorly it's doing so far, which is a shame, because it's not half-bad when it's exploring father-son dynamics, the various ways in which one can be a man, etc. The film overall does lack that certain something you find in the best Disney films, but it's a solid family film nonetheless.

Tagging @nessisonett for this post.

@Ralizah The fact that Bones and All uses cannibalism mostly as a metaphor and not just as yet another twist on Bonnie and Clyde ‘twisted love’ tropes is a bit reassuring actually. Still not convinced it’s for me but I’ll maybe try it!

Strange World is a movie that I genuinely didn’t know existed until very recently, Disney’s marketing has been woeful at least in the UK. Part of me wonders whether that’s on purpose, burying a movie with diverse characters in order to convince shareholders that they don’t sell!

@nessisonett Why would they want something they've invested in to fail? Surely these greedy shareholders and execs don't really care what makes them money?

Also the evidence is pretty damning that films/TV shows with on the nose political and social messaging don't go down well with audiences who want to be entertained and not lectured to.

@nessisonett It's bizarre. The advertising doesn't even allude to the diverse nature of the characterizations, and has been very thin. The result is that the film is probably going to lose Disney at least $100 million once all is said and done. It sounds like ideal fodder for "anti-SJW" types to crow about, but I've barely heard commentary even from that side of the ideological spectrum, which tells me that the film's downfall is absolutely due to its lack of visibility.

@Ralizah I wonder if this has anything to do with why Bob Iger’s back at Disney. 100 million is a lot of money and Bob Chapek already proved himself to be not exactly much of an ally during the Florida debacle. You don’t often see movies being sent out to die like this, and it doesn’t seem to even be doing particularly badly critic-wise. The only indication I can get about how it’s being received by audiences is the clear sign of review bombing on IMDB. They’ve pushed movies of a clearly lower quality a lot harder so unless it’s just been forgotten about, there’s something going on at Disney. Perhaps it’s more that it coming out during their internal reshuffle has made it fall through the cracks.

@RogerRoger @nessisonett @Ralizah I watch almost no television outside of ad-free streaming services, only use YouTube for looking up an occasional gaming help videos have no engagement in any form of social media, and have ad blockers on my internet browser. I’m almost embarrassed to admit it but Push Square is essentially my sole contact with the greater outside world besides my daily person-to-person contact. …And I’ve seen several trailers and advertisements for Strange World. In fact, I have had much more awareness of its existence than I did for Encanto, Luca, Turning Red, or Soul - for which I remember absolutely no marketing at all and just noticed them popping up on Disney Plus when they each released. Granted those movies were victims of COVID isolation and weren’t in theaters so that’s probably why. I do remember once or twice seeing a trailer for Lightyear.

But yeah, I know there have at least been ads running for Strange World during American Football and NBA basketball, as those are my only live TV consumption. Well, that and part of that US/England World Cup game. (Another embarrassing admission — I didn’t even know the US team won against Iran until last night)

So there has been some marketing for Strange World. I even remember a teaser or two about the movie a year or so ago somewhere. I’ve been aware of its existence for a while.

That said, to your point, the ads don’t have any of the diversity aspects highlighted. Whether this is purposefully deceitful or whether it’s like Rog says and is simply an attempt at normalization, I have no idea. In fact, as further evidence of my relative ignorance of all things current events, I was completely unaware of the whole shake up with executive leadership at Disney.

Anyway, I’m just making note that I have seen promotion of the movie on my end, even in my self-imposed seclusion from society and current affairs. As for anything else about the film and it’s place in the Disney catalog, I don’t know. I’ll take Ral’s recommendation of it being decent as reason enough to watch it. I will definitely give it a go when it drops to Disney+, if not before. I usually don’t miss any of the Disney major releases anyways, but this looks interesting and happy to see some diversity present there too.

@RogerRoger No doubt. There’s clearly different marketing strategies across the world for pretty much all companies with international commerce. And I was thinking about the target audience of these movies (and other products in general) and I’m not sure TV is even a good way to reach people anymore unless they are either very young, very old, or in their prime (is that where I am? 😅) but have reliable niche consumption like sporting events.

Being an advertising executive has to be really challenging nowadays. The rules are all different than they were 10 or even 5 years ago. The marketplace is much more global and the way we interact with media changes nearly every year. Tik-tok was a non-entity a couple years ago and will almost certainly be passé within the next few years. My friends and family think I’m crazy but I have no doubt it will be the butt of jokes at some point, in the same way Facebook is now.

The golden age of TV commercials has come and gone. I think the billboard and free newspaper tactics are good for UK/Europe where I suspect people walk and use public transit more. In the States most cities have negligible transportation services and people drive their own cars and generally speaking don’t walk much. The large metro areas like NYC, Chicago, etc are probably different, mind you — So even within the US, there are vast regional differences. Not to mention there’s large cultural-economic variance within our many communities and so I’m sure that plays a role. I bet that Disney (or any large corporate seller of goods, services, or entertainment) has specific regional data about where their product sells, and so I suspect that factors into where they spend their marketing dollars (or pounds and euros, as the case may be).

So I think there’s something to be said about how Strange World’s anticipated audience needed to be reached. But I also would say (from my armchair CEO critique 😄) that these companies frequently make ridiculously stupid decisions. Even with all their resources, I often don’t understand why they market the way they do. I’m seeing it regularly with video games too. Sony has been known to inexplicably send many a game out to die.

Indiana Jones 5 actually looks really good? Hopefully I don’t end up disappointed but I was impressed by that trailer. De-aged Indy does look a little rubbery despite how impressive it is but it’s a first trailer and they do tend to improve it by the final movie.

@RogerRoger Yeah, I’d say billboards are mostly dying out, in my observation, but are still prevalent in many communities. The advertising and companies utilizing them are often of a specific ilk — things like law firms, casinos, truck refueling centers, and the occasional public service announcements. They typically don’t have up-to-date products or services on things that change frequently or are short-lived like movies, TV, or video games. Depending on the location, I’ve seen some of them blank or with ads that are many years old and probably with out-dated info.

Many communities do have laws and regulations they either limit them or ban them entirely, because yes — they are a total eyesore and largely relics of the past anyways. So in more progressive cities which are concerned about having a clean landscape they prohibit them. Nevertheless when driving on interstate highways where you’re on the road for a long distance, you’ll often see them peppering the roadside.

I have been to a few cities that have very updated billboards, even electronic ones that look cleaner and can rotate their image, but that’s usually going to be in a big city.

And yes, we do drive a lot here. I drive a lot less than many of my friends but it’s not uncommon for people to commute up to an hour each way to and from work on a daily basis. Thankfully my commute is about a fifth of that.

@RogerRoger
"America is still obsessed with giant billboards along highways and whatnot, right? Because everybody is encouraged to own a car and drive everywhere?"

A thing a lot of Europeans don't seem to understand is how large America is in terms of population and land mass. Most of our states alone are as big or bigger than your countries. Therefore unless you live in a major city, you pretty much have no choice but to do a lot of driving as it's the only practical way to get anywhere.