Topic: The Movie Thread

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.

@JohnnyShoulder Been a while since I saw Hurt Locker, but I remember liking it. Should give at rewatch one of these days. Other "classic" war movies I remember liking back in the day but need to rewatch are Where Eagles Dare, Guns of Navarone and, of course, Bridge on the River Kwai.

@zupertramp Ah, Saving Private Ryan, how could I forget that one?! Really liked that one. Wonder if that is easily available on 4K; it would probably be perfect for my upgraded setup

I had severe issues with the incredibly poor writing on Pearl Harbor, it just came across as lazy and was impossible to take even halfway seriously. It was like someone had taken a Leslie Nielsen type war movie parody, ripped out all the jokes and shot it straight-faced. Not only was it extremely stupid, it also used every war movie cliché in the book and at least one of them twice! I remember two wide eyed teenagers, evidently on a date, sitting next to me in the theatre, and not even they could manage to take the movie seriously and giggled at all the contrived dialogue and cringeworthy attempts at romance. The attack sequence itself was spectacular, though

@FuriousMachine @zupertramp I've don't think I've ever seen Pearl Harbour all the way through. For want of a better expression, I found it all a bit too cringe.

I used to really like Saving Private Ryan (also shout out to the porno version, Shaving Ryan's Privates lol), but when I watched it recently I found large parts of it a bit boring. Of course the Normandy Landing and snipers scenes in particular are top tier cinema.

Platoon and Full Metal Jacket (have that one on 4K) I really like also, and I have a soft spot for The Great Escape. It used to always be on TV when I was growing, but it never gets old.

@JohnnyShoulder I actually contemplated walking out of Pearl Harbor (something I've never done before or since), but I had a date to see Evolution later that evening (the Ivan Reitman film with David Duchovny and Julianne Moore) and I really had nothing to do until my date so I stayed until the end. Evolution came across as a cinematic masterpiece in comparison.

I actually picked up Saving Private Ryan on 4K on my way home from work, so I'll be rewatching that soon.

Haven't seen Platoon since the 90's or thereabouts, so can't really speak to whether it still holds up. I liked it as a teenager, at least. Never saw Full Metal Jacket, as I've yet to see a Kubrick film that I didn't find completely soulless and mindnumbingly dull. After Dr. Strangelove, 2001 and the Shining (which I hated with a passion, making me the only one besides Stephen King to not think it's the pinnacle of horror), I simply gave up on Kubrick. I have decided to give 2001 another chance and if I don't hate it I will check out Full Metal Jacket as well.