@LN78@JohnnyShoulder Yep, Paramount are cutting everything original from their animated movies. No accounting for taste though, Paramount’s CEO is the guy who directed Norbit.
It's a shame No Hard Feelings didn't do very well despite the online buzz. That was the nowadays rare mid-budget movie that was primed for the box office and actually quite fun, yet it barely made a mark. This is how we get slates like Sony's upcoming stuff. At least they have The Book of Clarence coming up also which seems to be doing some interesting things.
Took my Dad along to see Oppenheimer and we both thought it was a great film. Some fantastic performances from all the cast. Fantastic score as well. Didn't feel like a 3 hour movie.
@MightyDemon82 I’ll have to agree that Oppenheimer didn’t feel like 3 hours. It’s not like the movie has a lot of action or frenetic pacing, it’s just really interesting and the way it cuts around in different timelines makes it feel like there’s always something new to pay attention to. I noticed the scenes are all really short too. They don’t dwell on any given conversation or event very long and it’s on to another scene. Perhaps that’s what makes the film feel like it’s not drawn out.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
Watched a horror movie on Netflix yesterday called As Above, So Below. If I were to describe it in one sentence, I'd say it's a low budget Tomb Raider horror movie. It's about a female professor with a group of people exploring the underground tunnels of Paris trying to unearth the secrets of the past. It's shot from a first-person perspective, which makes for more effective scares in my opinion. It also makes the movie feel more grounded rather than something clearly shot on a set. So whenever something weird happens, it'll feel so out of place and unexpected. You'd get the feeling that something like this actually happened in real life. So even though the movie doesn't have a lot of production value, it definitely left a lasting impression on me. I mean, I couldn't stop thinking about if for several hours last night before I went to bed lol. I'm glad I was able to sleep yesterday at all. That typically doesn't happen with me in terms of horror movies or even games. Sometimes you don't need a big budget to make an effective horror movie.
Finally got around to watching Parasite. If it hadn’t been lauded so much with all the awards and hoopla, I would have been really impressed. Unfortunately it’s a case of all the accolades hyping up my expectations and so I came away thinking it was merely “really good” instead of “fantastic.” But that’s my own fault, not the movie’s.
Before viewing it, I had no idea what the movie was about, other than seeing that promotional poster of the characters with their eyes black-lined out. With a name like “Parasite” I mistakenly was expecting a science fiction or biohazard type of gore fest. So it was very different from what I was expecting. This coupled with the movie’s shocking left turn definitely kept me confusedly engaged, waiting to see what happens next.
One thing I do appreciate about the movie was the presence of a lot of symbolism and metaphor. There’s certainly a lot of commentary inherent about social class, integrity, and luck. I always like a mysterious McGuffin too, which had me thinking about the Scholar’s Stone which pops up at the end. Seemingly it brought good fortune, but in the end was responsible for Kevin’s near death injury. His placing it in the river at the end felt like a symbol act. And it was particularly cheeky and fourth wall breaking for them to overly say “how metaphorical!” about it at the beginning when it’s gifted to them. I also like it when movies and stories give you just enough plot to be satisfying, but also leave the ending slightly open to interpretation. Did Kevin ever earn enough money to buy the house and free his father? The final shot suggest probably not, but I can’t be sure.
Anyways, I’d recommend the film, certainly. I don’t watch enough movies to know if it was the best movie of 2019 and worthy of the Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay. It’s one of the better movies I’ve seen in the last year, but perhaps having recently seen Oppenheimer set unrealistic expectations for me.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Th3solution If you're looking for more foreign fare from 2019, I'd love to recommend Portrait of a Lady on Fire to you. It was up against Parasite at the Golden Globes and ultimately lost to it there, though sadly not nominated at the Oscars as France inexplicably decided to submit a different film. It's an incredible movie and quickly shot to being among my favourites of all time when I first watched it! Probably am doing the same thing in overhyping it to you now like how you experienced this with Parasite, but I can't help it. Give it a shot if it interests you.
@Tjuz Thanks for the recommendation. I’ll keep my eyes peeled for it. Looks like right now it’s on Hulu which is one of the few services I don’t have 😅
Hopefully it makes its rounds to something else down the road.
@LN78 That seems like a strong top 5. The only other I’ve seen from those is Jojo, which I really liked, but yeah - Parasite is probably a better movie. Ditto to above about The Lighthouse not being on one of my services but I’ll keep an eye out. I should check out The Irishman since it’s on Netflix. I’m not sure I could be objective with Once Upon a Time… since I’m usually not a fan of Hollywood making movies about themselves. Also I’m not much of a DiCaprio guy. Nevertheless, I’ll watch for it too.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Jimmer-jammer Alita was a total mess but it really was fun. Not particularly good but a movie I’d watch again. Leaps and bounds ahead of similar non-franchise blockbusters from that period too like Ready Player One and that abysmal Valerian movie.
@Jimmer-jammer There’s people who swear by Ready Player One but I kinda wanted to dig my eyeballs out with a salad spoon. Don’t ask me to explain why but it’s the Elon Musk of movies. At least it proved to be the death of that 80s nostalgia wave.
This one is so hard for me to gauge because it's so unlike anything I usually watch, but what I will say is that it was immensely engaging.
There's a lot to follow (to the point that I'll definitely have to watch it again once it releases on home video), but the acting is so immersive it took me until I was 1/3rd into the movie to realize that the admiral seeking the cabinet position (in the B&W scenes) was Robert Downey Jr.
On the downside, a storm knocked out the theatre's power for a bit (knocked out the screen for about a minute or two in the first hour), but it could have been much more disastrous (our power at home was locked out for 8 hours!)
On the upside, I think this is the first time I've seen a movie with nudity in the theatre. I was even ID'd by the ticketer to make sure I was old enough to get in (I'm over 30 BTW, lol).
Oppenheimer. Pretty good. Cillian Murphy has always been criminally underrated as an actor (The Wind That Shakes The Barley is required viewing) so I’m glad he’s probably guaranteed the Oscar. Definitely more engaging than other Nolan movies and honestly his best movie since at least The Prestige. Made sure to piss beforehand at least, have awful flashbacks to seeing Interstellar in the cinema.
Finished watching Fear Street Part 1: 1994 on Netflix. I really enjoyed the movie until the last 30 minutes. Up until then, it was great! It reminded me a lot of Scream, which was a fun coincidence since I watched Scream 6 just a few weeks ago, and Stranger Things. It was such a great slasher horror movie. Well, until the end that is. The plot took a complete nosedive when the cast decided that saving one person and risking the lives of the entire group was a better idea than just ending the life of that person. What an absolutely stupid moment that basically ruined the entire movie for me. On top of this, at the end they decided to spoil a lot of stuff in the next movie. What were they thinking?! I'm still going to watch the rest of the trilogy, but holy crap did they ever mess up this entire series in just 30 minutes. Absolutely incredible.
@LN78 Genuinely didn’t realise this movie existed. Tempted to watch out of curiosity but also incredibly wary considering that there’s about a 99% chance that the subject material was chosen for shock value just like the millions of trans serial killers in these sorts of faux-giallo movies.
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