Topic: The Movie Thread

@JohnnyShoulder No worries, mate. It's nigh impossible to determine nationality in here anyways. Considering that the site is UK based I default to assuming everyone on here are from the UK as well, which, to be fair, gives me a fairly decent hit-rate

I keep a subscription to quite a few streaming services; quite possibly more than I actually need, but it's just very, very convenient And, as I mentioned, most movies are available to rent digitally and mostly in good quality (there are only two streaming services that are woefully poor: SkyShowtime and TV2 Play. Neither of them offer anything other than stereo sound and the latter, which is Norwegian, is also egregiously expensive, poor quality, charges extra for renting movies on top of the monthly fee and won't offer better than HD... if you can get past all the buffering).

Additionally, I have buddy who's such an avid collector of discs that it borders on hoarding, and he let's me borrow his discs whenever I need.

Glad to hear that Fincher is readily available over there as well

@FuriousMachine glad to see some positive thoughts about the flash there. I very much enjoyed it. I did have a feeling that the whole middle section was a bit pointless based on the ending but meh, who cares, it was a fun movie. I didn't have a problem with the CGI really because I assumed that within the story of the movie, that is what events look like when a character looks at them from outside of time, a bit animated and unreal. It's kind of set up from the first time travel sequence so I didn't have an issue when the other worlds were depicted similarly.

I did think it was funny how our Barry was way less annoying than the past Barry. Made me laugh to see him be the "responsible" one.

@PixelDragon I really liked the book Into the Wild although the movie was good also. I’d read the book first so that has a tendency to spoil the movie. Still, it was a fair adaptation.

I’ve always been fascinated by survival stories and ‘human vs. nature’ conflicts, and really enjoyed the more pressing ‘human vs. themself’ core conflict as well.

@FuriousMachine Sounds like SkyShowtime is similar to what Now TV is over here, their streaming service which only offers upto 720p as part of the subscription, and only 1080p when you pony up.

Unfortunately they have most of the Premier league football games and most of the HBO shows too. I've cut back on paying to watch as many games and just go to pub more often. The majority of the HBO shows are on my rental service, so aim to watch of the TV series I missed out on.

I'd say Now TV sounds more like TV2 Play. They purchased exclusive rights to Norwegian football and wall it behind their most expensive subscription, so football fans uninterested in watching their movies and tv shows in poor quality still have to pony up a pretty penny. Additionally, many movies, you'll have to pay to rent on top of that, still only in stereo and HD. SkyShowtime at least realises that their offering is subpar and has the decency to have the cheapest subscription on the market over here (they also claim that they're considering adding 5.1 audio, so maybe they'll be worth it one day).

Glad to hear that your rental service carries the HBO shows you're interested in. Weird that they don't offer Max over there, though. I guess existing rights agreements are even more tangled in the UK than they were over here when they launched HBO Nordic way back when. Things were messy. Now, though, there's almost parity between Max in the US and here (well, when it comes to their originals, at least. Licensed content is a different kettle of fish altogether)

@ralphdibny Completely agree with you there. And the movie was simply a good, enjoyable time at the cinema, something I'll always prefer when it comes to the superhero stuff

Urusei Yatsura: Remember my Love (Blu-Ray)

After the gang gets caught up in bizarre shenanigans while visiting a newly opened amusement park, Ataru & Lum's relationship is tested when she vanishes shortly after he's transformed into a hippo. Has she really given up on him or is there something else at play?

Feels like they were trying to replicate the magic of Beautiful Dreamer, just to lesser results.

It's still a fine watch in and of itself though, and I'd say I still liked it more than Only You.

National Lampoon's Vacation (Blu-Ray)

Probably overrating this due to nostalgia, but it is such a comfort food summertime movie for me.

Rewatch it every summer if I get the chance, and just so much of it reminds me of the summer road trips my family would take when I was a kid (although they never went off the rails to this degree, lol), and it just feels oh so very much classic Americana (& I know I've been to at least two of the roadside attractions pictured in the postcard montage at the beginning of the film).

That said it can still deliver some laughs as well. I perhaps find the conclusion of the Aunt Edna subplot more & more distasteful everytime I watch it, but otherwise it's largely good stuff.

That new Luca Guadagnino movie is written by the Potion Seller dude from like 2010 YouTube. Incredible.

Watched a few more movies lately:

Transformers: Dark of the Moon (4K UHD BluRay)
So, I really want to like these movies, i really do, but.. well, at least I didn't hate this one, like I did the previous entry. The movie was just a big nothing-burger for me, basically, and I did find the Witwicky character rather obnoxious in this one. Ditto with Turturro's character, but he was supposed to be obnoxious, I guess. Anyway, I had better luck with

Transformers: Age of Extinction (4K UHD BluRay)
This one I actually kind of liked. It was waaaay too long and while Mark Wahlberg's never managed to excite me on any level, he was perfectly fine here. I did like the scrappy young lad who was dating his daughter, though (I forget his name) and said daughter was good too (though Bay's lingering dirty old man gaze is getting a bit cringey at times). Titus Welliver is always a welcome addition to any movie and so is Stanley Tucci, especially when he's playing this particular kind of amoral d-bag, but I must say that the biggest surprise was just how incredibly well Kelsey Grammer worked as the bad guy! Would love to see him tackle more roles like this, preferably in better projects, though.
Another plus for this movie was that I felt that the Transformers other than Optimus Prime and Bumblebee now had some decent personalities and designs that made them stand out from each other in the melee. Great voice work from John Goodman and Ken Watanabe also works in the movie's favour. The geography in the action sequences was clearer in this one, too, and not as much of an incoherent jumble of steel and gears like some of the sequences in the earlier movies.

Becky (BluRay)
Seeing that this one had a sequel released, I managed to borrow this from my hoarder... eh.. collector friend (hope he doesn't read this ). It was a solid little revenge-flick that I found quite enjoyable. Nothing earth-shattering, but a fun and somewhat gory hour-and-a-half that never overstayed its welcome. Extra credit: Kevin James playing waaaaay against type. Paul Blart this ain't (thankfully)

One of the cool things about ripping DVDs is finding Easter Eggs I wouldn't have found just in the DVD menus. I just found one on Cabin Fever that I'm surprised made it onto a 15 certificate DVD!

this week and the next last week of this month Im doing an Indiana Jones movie marathon from watching the regular blu ray collection along with the 2 disc Special edition of Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls since the DVD special edition has more bonus features for Kingdom of the Crystal Skull than the blu ray collection does.

Been a long long time since I actually sat down and watched Last Crusade.

also i watched the 1980s King Solomon's Mines that had a young Sharon Stone in it and this weekend im planning on watching the sequel City of the Lost Gold

@LN78 @XandertheWise I'm also prepping for the Dial of Destiny by checking out my 4K Indy collection. Only done Raiders and Temple so far, but they are still stone cold classics. Back in the old days I preferred Crusade over Temple, so I'm curious to see if that still holds true.

I'm determined to give the Crystal Skull a fair shake, but it's kind of funny that it feels more like a chore I have to do rather than something I want to do. Still gonna do it, though

@FuriousMachine yeah itll be a little while til i get the 2 disc DVD special edition of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull since i need to get it for its bonus features.

But as of right now, for this week and the weekend and little bit of next week im going to be busy binge watch my Indiana Jones movie marathon before i go to the movie theater next week to see Dial of Destiny or as I call it the Dial of the McGuffin

Yesterday I watched Speak No Evil - A Danish film that can't be exactly described as horror, it's more a drama that builds tension until it's almost unbearable. I enjoyed it and it's certainly been on my mind today. Anybody else seen it?

@sorteddan That sounds like my kind of jam, will check it out Thanks for the tip

watching Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade today since this coming next weekend this coming week Dial of Destiny is playing at the movie theater.

also watching Untamed Heart, Major League II and Jackass 4 this end of the month.

and rewatching some of Movies That Made Us on Netflix. the Dirty Dancing episode i havent seen though on the Movies That Made Us on Netflix.

@LN78 Glad to hear it! I find that most "blockbusters" these days could stand some extra trim to their length. Seems like most filmmakers are allowed to indulge in their cuts and quite often the movie suffers a little bit for it (of course, some movies simply become overlong and boring if they overstay their welcome, but that doesn't sound like the case here, thankfully)

@LN78 Cool, looking forward to seeing it tomorrow

Across the Spider-Verse was a terrific experience. Possibly one of the most dazzlingly animated films I've ever seen.

It was a little too lengthy for my liking (why does every superhero epic need to be 2.5 hours now?!), but, even so, there were few points in the film where I felt like I could tear my eyes away from the screen.

Airplane! (Blu-Ray)

I've caught this in bits and pieces before, but have never actually sit down to watch the whole thing until now.

It's at that point where it's at the cusp of being just a bit too "before my time", which is why I was actually pleasantly surprised by how much of this I found genuinely hilarious. Not every gag landed, but there were definitely a few that had me in stitches.

InuYasha Movie 4: Fire on Mystic Island (Blu-Ray)

Well animated with some cool action scenes and something for everyone in the cast to do, it's worth a watch for fans of the series, but amongst all of the movies this is the one that most feels "here are a few random baddies who want to take over the world or something" without much else of a hook.

The first two films have moments that seemingly move forward InuYasha & Kagome's romance (even if the events aren't recognized in the series proper), the second movie is the only one that involves the main series villain, movies 1 & 3 connect the big bad to InuYasha's father (with the third movie in particular going massively in depth with that background lore in a way not explored anywhere else in the series), and this movie is just completely lacking in that kinda hook. Sure, they half heartedly jerry rig some connection between InuYasha/Kikyo/Sesshomaru and the mysterious island, but it feels forced comparatively.