Topic: The Movie Thread

@LN78 Just a follow up to previous conversation. I did finally get around to watching Spielberg’s West Side Story and agree with what you said. It was really well done overall. Not sure if you watched the original movie adaptation from the 60’s yet (I recall you were motivated to do a comparison), but if my memory serves, this new version is quite a bit grittier. It’s been a few years for me since seeing it, but the hatred between the two gangs is much more palpable this go around. In this version the acting feels far superior, the general tone is darker, and the production value seems higher. Obviously this was always going to be a tragic tale, but it’s much more visceral in this new version than I remember from the other.

I still had that initial recoil from the feeling of dissonance when the gangsters start singing and twirling like an episode of “Dancing with the Stars”, but it quickly feels normalized when the acting is on display. This new version does a great job of making the thugs feel like thugs and very unlikable. I think it did a good job making both sides feel like the villains. I could have seen it go very political, but thought it was handled well as a general cautionary tale against all blind prejudice and racism.

Related, the Spanish and Puerto Rican dialogue is much more authentic feeling than I remember from the older version, which I appreciated. I also enjoyed the fact that the cast was mostly unknowns. Besides Tony, I didn’t recognize any of the others.

Overall it’s quite good and I felt emotionally impacted watching it this time, which I don’t think I did when I watched it before.
The delivery of the line “How many bullets are in here?! How many of you can I kill and still have one left for myself?!” was just gut-wrenching.

@Th3solution Weirdly enough my blu-ray copy of the original arrived with the post this morning. Hopefully I'll have time to watch it on Sunday afternoon so I can get back to you with my thoughts if you're interested. In the meantime I'm pleased you enjoyed this new remake as much as I did!

@LN78 Oh yeah, no pressure but I’d be interested to see how you get along with it when you do find time to watch it.

"Deep Water" on Amazon Prime. Put on your "so bad it's good" hat and your "what were they thinking?" T-Shirt and you might have a great time. Gloriously terrible.

Boyz N The Hood. Somehow never seen it before now but was on BBC late night. Absolutely fantastic, especially impressive for a directorial debut. Interesting to see how many tropes started with this one movie but it rises above all that with genuine heart and totally natural performances from the cast. And yes, Furious Styles is both the greatest name and the greatest dad in Hollywood.

Turning Red was surprisingly excellent. It's like Fruits Basket had a baby with A Goofy Movie, yet the end result felt really cohesive and unique.

@Fragile Gattaca is a terrific dystopian film. Alas, as an American, Mike Judge came the closest to predicting where we'd go with his film Idiocracy.

@nessisonett A directorial debut by a 24 year old no less. I think he got an Academy Award nomination for best director as well. Seriously impressive. A real shame he passed away at a such a young age.
PS Cypher Rage wants a word.

@Fragile You're not wrong. While I could find a few redeeming qualities in the fourth film (mainly the performances from the supporting cast) the fifth entry in the series was a complete waste of time and effort for everyone involved except Willis and the writers. They obviously didn't put in any effort at all. Thank goodness Part 6 fell by the wayside during the Disney/20th Century Fox merger.

I have to agree, loved the first three movies, then things went south after that. Most movie series have good entries and ones that are lacking, Die Hard is no exception.

I really enjoyed the 4th Die Hard myself, it was just the right kind of over-the-top stupid action for me. My favorite part was when the guy hacked a satellite by putting the SIM card in his phone the other way.
But yeah, not so great after that.

@Fragile The first three are one my favourite trilogy of films. The 4th was watchable but nowhere near up to the same standard. I don't remember if I've seen the 5th film. If I have, it has been scrubbed from my memory! 😂

@Fragile Totally. I'm not really a fan of the traditional Christmas movie. Gremlins is another one of my faves.

@Fragile I genuinely forgot there was a 5th Die Hard. I’m not sure I got over them calling the 4th one Die Hard 4.0

Never mind, just saw it was called ‘Live Free or Die Hard’ in the US which is infinitely worse.

The fifth Die Hard makes the fourth seem much, much better than it is. I've always broadly approved of the fourth film (both versions) but the fifth blends together in my memory. I think I usually come away from it thinking that I've enjoyed myself, and yet I'm sitting here unable to tell you why. Some of the action isn't too shabby, from what I recall, but that's only if I'm remembering the right big ol' truck chase from the right disposable popcorn flick. Or was that The Expendables 3...?

Just saw "The Matrix Resurrections" on 4K Blu-ray and I'm a little perplexed. Was it an attempt to make a "Wes Craven's New Nightmare" style movie full of self referential meta commentary about the nature of mega budget franchise movie making and the corporate hijack of artistic endeavour? Or was it Lana Wachowski pitching a $100M hissy fit and intentionally torpedoing the franchise because WB were going to make the film with or without her? It's hard to tell on first viewing (and the answer probably lies somewhere in the middle) but what an absolutely fascinating film. The best 4K disc I've seen so far this year in terms of video and audio quality. Definite demo material.

@LN78 Yeah, despite thoroughly enjoying all three previous films, the thing I'm finding myself most excited about is getting to hear The Matrix Resurrections. I can only imagine how phenomenal its audio design must be, given the series' reputation for presentational excellence.

No matter the movie's motivations, at least it seems to have given you something to think about, which is better than simply serving up bland nostalgia for a paycheque.

@RogerRoger I'm probably going to watch it again very shortly in the company of a few friends just to gauge reactions because I'm scratching my head here. It's either mind boggling in it's awfulness or something approaching an actual subversive masterpiece. I can't help but think (especially given the film's abject critical and commercial failure) that a few WB execs (potentially the very same ones that strongarmed Lana into making the picture) ended up with their marching orders. Not to wax conspiratorial, but was that her plan all along?

@LN78 I hear the 4K is supposed reference quality. Apparently it has a 6K and 8K source format. Have you seen Mortal Engines? The film is a nothing to write about, but the the 4K is probably one of the best I've seen. Also stars Hugo Weaving lol.

@JohnnyShoulder You're quite right - the presentation on "The Mortal Engines" disc is phenomenonal. There are quite a few movies with less than stellar reputations that end up with top notch 4K transfers for some reason. My brother has an excellent home cinema with Dolby Atmos and all the trimmings and his go to demo disc until recently (when it was superceded by "Godzilla vs. Kong") was "Aquaman".

I enhanced my Disney + subscription to the bundle to also get Hulu, but they seem to have jack all in terms of interesting movies, and even less when it comes to TV, IMO.

Luckily they do have the two Deadpool movies, but I was hoping it's where Disney was also keeping the Wolverine & Logan since they aren't on D+, but apparently nope (HBO Max apparently has The Wolverine for whatever reason).

I've found a handful of things to add to the que, but most anything else I search for either doesn't show up or requires an even additional subscription (like Starz). Honestly, despite how much I've already watched, there's still more on D+ itself I'm interested in.