Topic: The Movie Thread

@Gremio108 @Th3solution I really like Signs, The Village, and Unbreakable. So there was a time he had a fairly solid record with me but I just haven't really enjoyed anything since those.

@Tjuz well I didn't finish and I'm not sure where I left off. I think I was on season 3 but can't remember if I finished it or not. Idk it started out really good but I lost interest as more and more weird things happened.

@LN78 That was on BBC a while back and I had fairly fond memories of it being a decent, well, Saturday daytime BBC movie but it’s just rubbish. Alan Rickman aside, so much of it is just dire. I remain confused about how Kevin Costner got a career.

@LN78 The Untouchables is a movie that I think was probably good but can’t really make my mind up. Like elements of it were great but the way it’s filmed and presented is so uniquely dated that I couldn’t really connect with a single character. Probably De Palma’s directorial style to be fair. Costner being a bit wishy-washy is one thing but even Sean Connery being Sean Connery has been done better in other movies. Not seen Field of Dreams but I have seen the other Shoeless Joe Jackson movie that came out around the same time, Eight Men Out, which is really great and not as beloved. JFK is basically nonsense and insanely long but they showed us it in school and it was probably the best movie we got shown there along with In The Heat of the Night. We got a loooot of crap movies thanks to it being Catholic school. Not even like Passion of the Christ or The Last Temptation of Christ (understandable) but more like really low budget films about Jesus with Trevor from Eastenders or vaguely European movies about John Paul II.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (theatre)

A part of me is kinda over these movies that want to be both your epic blockbuster & your comedy (something about Maverick, Avatar re-release, & Avatar 2 last year made me realize how much I missed relatively straight faced immersive blockbusters), but on the other hand this was still tons of fun & managed to strike that balancing act between action & comedy much more effectively than last year's Thor movie did.

It managed to both make me laugh & tear up at different points, and the big action set piece in the hall towards the end was a particular delight. I only regret not being able to find the time for a 3D showing.

InuYasha the Movie 3: Swords of an Honorable Ruler (Blu-Ray)

On my way through the franchise on Blu-Ray, I've now arrived at the point where I can fit in the third movie.

A lot of fans consider this one the cream of the crop when it comes to the film adaptations, and while I don't quite rate it that high (it has nothing that comes close to "that" moment in movie 2), I definitely understand the praise.

Granted, there's nothing here that'll make you a fan if you aren't already into the franchise (the same can be said of all the movies), but it shines a light on some background lore that the series proper barely touches upon and has probably the most exciting climactic set piece battle in any of these films.

Suicide Club (Blu-Ray)

Japanese film that follows a police investigation into a rash of mass suicides seemingly driven by mysterious online culture.

It starts off really strong with an engaging narrative and a jarring amount of gore (a couple wonky CGI effects are counterbalanced by some genuinely sickening practical effect gore), but it goes absolutely bonkers in the last third and kinda lost me.

I'm sure there's some sort of poignant cultural critique at play in here somewhere (something maybe about internet/youth culture being disengaged from reality?), but it's probably more apparent if you're more familiar with Japanese society than I am (especially the Japan of the era it was made in). Glad I gave it a go though.

watched the old Burt Reynolds movie The End on Tubi last night. i remember watching it one time for a VHS rental back in the early mid 1980s. it was kind of funny back then but watching it now these days, old Burt Reynolds movies make him look like a sexist mean jerk lol

i swear Tubi is starting to run out of good old horror movies to watch.

Now all theyve been having are really old comedy movies that i used to watch on HBO back in the day like Goddess of Love and Nice Girls Don't Explode

@LN78 Yeah, we did the assassination in history when we were like 14 and they put on that movie of all movies. Didn’t even give us a little warning about the fact that it’s basically nonsense!

@RR529 Suicide Club was neat. There are elements of intense social analysis as well as eastern mysticism in its multilayered imagery and frankly daffy plot.

Definitely not your go-to traditional horror film, though.

@Ralizah, yeah, it was certainly an interesting experience.

It's part of Discotek's new "Nihon Nights" label, which they release HD remasters of old live action Japanese movies under (I previously got their Female Yakuza Tale & Shogun's Samurai releases, and am looking forward to the live action Golgo 13 release next month), and I wanted to add more Japanese films to my collection outside of anime & Godzilla so I've been looking into it.

They mostly specialize in remasters of retro anime though. They're releasing the entirety of the Gunbuster OVA on Blu-Ray at the end of the month & I'm pretty excited about that. They're also in the process of releasing the entirety of the OG Urusei Yatsura remastered as well.

@RR529 Gunbuster is a masterpiece. Probably the best thing Gainax has ever made, or at least second to Evangelion. If you've never seen it, you're in for a massive treat.

@LN78 Those movies probably skirted closer to the truth than some of the religious movies we got shown though 😉

@Ralizah, I streamed the condensed movie version of it a few years ago and thought it was very interesting (particularly the time dilation stuff), so I'm excited to be able to see the full thing.

I think Sentai had released the movie cut on BD years ago & I thought about picking it up but decided against it in the hopes that the full series would be remastered someday, so I'm glad my hesitance paid off.

@RR529 I've never seen that version, but the OAV was already such a tightly-told story. Basically zero filler. Which makes me wonder what ended up on the chopping block in a version that probably loses a ton of footage.

Little Mermaid live action movie is on next week.
I cannot wait to watch the movie.
I will watch on Sunday, 28 May 2023 according to my plan.

Transformers (2007) and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) (both 4K UHD)

So, I recently upgraded my kit to the 34'' Samsung Odyssey G8 screen and the Denon AVC-S660H surround receiver, so for the first time in my life I own a proper 4K HDR enabled setup.
To properly test this shiny new kit I borrowed all of my mate's Transformers 4Ks and set my PS5 to the task of spinning them.

I have to say, these two movies are simply fantastic!

No, wait, that's not accurate. Let me amend that to read "fantastic at showcasing great visuals and audio". That's better, for the movies are... not good.

Revenge of the Fallen is aggressively offensive and has absolutely no redeeming features whatsoever. Scrounging for something positive to say about it, the only things I can come up with is that Tony Todd has a cool sounding voice and Megan Fox is hot. This is without a doubt Michael Bay's second worst movie (even this can't match the lows of the atrocity that is Pearl Harbor)

The first one fares a tiny bit better, though. I remember seeing that at the cinema back when it first came out and at that time I was both impressed and somewhat excited by it. I did, after all, grow up watching the cartoons on Fun Factory and spending all my allowance on the toys, so that first showing really brought joy to my inner 10-year old. Now, not so much. I mean, it's not completely hopeless, but it doesn't have all that much going for it either.

So, Michael Bay can be counted on to deliver an audio-visual spectacle, but not much more.
I will attempt to suffer through a couple more of these to see if they improve at all (I have seen Bumblebee before and remember liking it somewhat), but I'm not hopeful. Part of the plan for borrowing these movies were to see if I'd be interested in seeing the latest one in IMAX, but so far it doesn't look it (new director, though, so I'll look for some reviews)

@FuriousMachine nah Pearl Harbor is a perfectly enjoyable watch, I don't care what anyone says. So is Costner's "I'm too good for accents" Robin Hood.

@FuriousMachine Mad Max Fury Road is a good one to show off the 4K goodness.

Black Hawk Down is a good test for your sound system, as is Jurrasic Park. I've not got an Atmos setup, so can't vouch for any of that stuff.

Gemini Man and Mortal Engines are probably the best looking movies I've seen on 4K blu ray, but I didn't rate them that highly in terms of the actual films. And Gemini Man looks so odd with the higher frame rate.

@LN78 @JohnnyShoulder I've started building my 4K disc collection and I've already ordered Black Hawk Down, Pacific Rim and Fury Road (and will get Jurassic Park later), so that will be good. I'm not really all that into war movies, but Black Hawk Down is still one of my all-time favourites and I've seen it probably close to a dozen times . Looking forward to seeing it in its 4K glory (my old Yamaha AV receiver did a proper job with the surround on my blu-ray, but I'm expecting the Denon to kick it up a notch)
Haven't seen Gemini Man or Mortal Engines, but will give them a rent and they sound like movies that would belong in my physical collection if I like them

@zupertramp I really loathed Pearl Harbor when I watched it on release and I've no intention of subjecting myself to that again to see if I may have changed my mind (same with Avatar), but more power to you for liking it I won't pass judgement on Robin Hood just yet, as I do intend to give that a rewatch and I really hope I still like it. This thread has given me lower expectations, though (which may help)

@FuriousMachine Same here with war films, but Dad watched loads of them when I was a kid so I think I've become sick of them. Occasionally I'll watch one and really enjoy them, with Black Hawk Down and The Hurt Locker being my faves of the more modern ones.

There is still a bit of film grain on Black Hawk Down, but I didn't mind it so much as it adds to the dirtyness of the film. It was on of the films I always used to show off on my old 5.1 surround system, but only have a soundbar with a separate sub woofer these days.

@FuriousMachine lol, it's certainly not the best and certainly doesn't hold a candle to Black Hawk Down but I feel people are way too hard on Pearl Harbor. I don't know if it's the multi-quadrant storytelling or what but it's imo, fairly benign.

Robin Hood on the other hand isn't that good but my nostalgia keeps me from getting tripped up on its many flaws. Plus, like, Alan Rickman is a delight.

And in another minority opinion, I hated The Hurt Locker. Go figure.

At least we can all agree on Black Hawk Down. That, Saving Private Ryan, and The Thin Red Line make up my holy trinity of war movies.