Topic: The Movie Thread

@KratosMD when you're in the territory of remakes of remakes produced solely to jump on an expected genre cash cow, there's very little good to come of it.

When you're remaking a decent film, that itself was a remake of an iconic film... you should expect no-one to care.

@KALofKRYPTON I don't mind jump scares either way, but I crave atmosphere, great direction, interesting themes, and, when possible, an emotional connection to the characters. I would hold up the original Halloween as an example of effective horror direction, Kairo as a brilliant mood piece and meditation on themes of loneliness and alienation in an increasingly technological landscape, and The Babadook as a wonderful look at the crippling effects of grief and depression on the human psyche and also as a film where it's easy to empathize with the leads.

Horror is my favorite genre when it's done right.

@Ralizah I love horror too! Looking forward to "A quiet place" and "Ghost stories".

@Feena I haven't heard of Ghost Stories, actually. Looked it up on imdb and only found a movie from 2017. Can you tell me more about it?

Yeah most horror films these days rely too much on quiet quiet BANG BANG moments and not enough on building tension correctly. Can't think of anything recently that has beaten my faves of Alien, The Thing and The Shining.

What did you guys think of IT last year? And not strictly a horror imo, Get Out? The latter is certainly a marmite type of film.

@Ralizah It's a critically acclaimed horror anthology. A man specialised in debunking "paranormal" hoaxes receives an invitation to investigate three cases: a night watchman haunted by the spirit of a young girl, a teenager whose obsession with the occult apparently backfired and a financier who started being plagued by a poltergeist during his wife's pregnancy.
It should come out on April 20th in the USA. Out now in UK. The always very good Martin Freeman is in it.

@JohnnyShoulder I liked both of them but didn't love either for different reasons. What about you?

@JohnnyShoulder IT was a bit of a shame. Nicely produced mostly, but the very cg 'monster' moments really spoiled the film I thought. It lacked tension throughout, but the cast all did a great job.

The Thing is a masterpiece! If you like a nice bit of body horror, check out Zygote from Oat Studios (indie set up by Neill Blomkamp - who really should have been given his shot at an Alien film rather than Ridley Scott being given shot after shot at making really disappointing Alien films). Should still be free on YouTube.

@JohnnyShoulder When you mention The Thing, I take it you're talking about the John Carpenter version in the '80's? As a gory body horror flick, it's arguably unparalleled (practical effects are queen), but as a film? I was surprised by how poorly paced it was. And a lot of the acting is iffy.

The recent IT adaptation is a great spiritual successor to The Goonies. But, seriously now, it wasn't bad, but divorcing the child and adult storylines alters the tone of the narrative. Also, the film simply isn't scary, and the special effects scare moments were really disappointing. tl;dr it's a decent coming-of-age film, but mediocre as horror.

Get Out... I didn't care much for it. I think you really need to appreciate the racial satire to get the movie, though. It's not a bad movie, but I wouldn't watch it again.

@Feena That actually sounds fantastic! I'll do some digging and see if it's premiering anywhere near me.

Any opinion on Kairo, The Babadook, or Alien?

@KALofKRYPTON @Ralizah Thanks for your comments!

Yeah its the John Carpenter The Thing. That scared the beejus outta me when watching it as a teeneager!

I enjoyed IT. I think they got lucky in a way coming off the back of Stanger Things. I always thought the adult story line was the weakest in the tv series so didn't mind the split. The actor that played IT, what a performance and certainly more menacing than Tim Curry.

@JohnnyShoulder I do disagree with the Tim Curry comment. His portrayal of Pennywise was a lot creepier I thought.
His genuinely spiteful delivery of his lines sold it completely, juxtaposing the standard clown look. The newer version, while looking pretty good, largely relied on looking creepy and effects work.

On Get Out, still not seen it. Trailers looked OK but I wasn't about to race (Boom, Boom) to see it.

@Feena "The always very good Martin Freeman is in it." Is that a joke?

@KALofKRYPTON No way, I think he's brilliant and has a very wide range.

@KALofKRYPTON @Feena Still hard not to see Bilbo Baggins every time I see him. Lol.

@Th3solution LOL I can understand. I had the same problem with him...but with his character from "The Office". Sherlock and The Hobbit and Fargo and Richard III (stage production) took care of the issue and then some. I just love the guy. He's going to be on Graham Norton's tonight btw, probably promoting "Ghost Stories."

@Feena Being in NA, my first exposure to him was The Hobbit and now in the Marvel movies. I guess in The Office he plays the counterpart to Jim Halert in the U.S. version, which is portrayed by none other than... (*drumroll) John Krasinski, who stars in ... A Quiet Place! So now we’ve brought this whole discussion back around again! It’s like playing the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon! It all connects.

@Feena He has no range.

He is just Martin Freeman, as Martin Freeman, much to the detriment of almost every role he's had since the office as Tim - the actually quite dislikeable loser.
I'd like to see him as Richard III as I have heard good things - but he is absolutely 4th wall breaking otherwise.

@Th3solution The Marvel movies is a prime example of Freeman being miscast!

@KALofKRYPTON I think he's very recognizable - yes - but he has a lot of dramatic range and can naturally fit in very different productions.

Anyway, I finally saw "I, Tonya" and loved it. It really is a movie about America imho. Very poignant. @Th3solution OMG that's right! Full circle 😉

So for those interested, I went and saw A Quiet Place on a whim tonight. I really hadn’t been planning on it, but my friends asked me to go, so I did.
The film has been discussed here so I’ll try to be brief with my impressions. [edit — so much for brevity 😔] In short, I really did like the movie. It was better than expected and I thought for the most part it was very well directed and the acting was more than adequate. The tension it creates and drama that unfolds is literally palpable in the theater. As advertised, I found it to be true that I’ve never been in a quieter theater (that was packed) like this before. I usually see big blockbuster action flicks when I go to the theater - with large explosions, sweeping exaggerated soundtracks with blasting orchestral music, and loads of quippy dialogue ... so to experience watching a movie in a theater that was quieter than a church, where you can’t even reach over to open your box of junior mints because it makes enough noise to be heard all the way to the opposite side of the room, well, and even your own breathing seems loud enough that you are consciously aware of it... yeah, that was something I’ve never experienced before and so I applaud the creativity.
Throughout the movie, I kept comparing it to The Last of Us. It’s not exactly like the video game’s story, but it seems slightly inspired by the setting of a post apocalyptic world over run by creatures, the most fearful of which use sound to locate prey. The way the protagonists scavenge through a nearly extinct civilization, collecting odds and ends for survival is very familiar to those who played the PlayStation classic. John Krasinski even looks like Joel, and takes the fatherly protective role quite well.
The other thing the movie seemed inspired by was another film, Signs. A show I quite liked and yet found A Quiet Place to actually surpass it in many ways. The enemy here is very well done.
Up through 75% of the movie, A Quiet Place’s mission to make you feel scared, anxious, and uncomfortable is done quite fantastically. Many times I would have the realization that my fists were clenched and my shoulders taut during the film and I had to consciously make myself relax. Then for some reason at the end, it fell a tiny bit flat for me. Just a bit. The build up and pay off ratio was not quite on par for me. I won’t go further due to spoilers, but I think I might be in the minority there about the ending and I expect most people to be quite satisfied, but I don’t know.
Not to mention, the plot has its share of holes and required suspension of disbelief, like any movie of this ilk. Some of the decisions the characters make don’t quite make sense, but in the context of the show, you just have to roll with it, and it doesn’t detract too much.
In summary the movie is really good. I enjoyed it about as much, if not more, than Ready Player One which I detailed my impressions of last week. I do believe A Quiet Place is probably most enjoyable in a packed theater, and will lose some of its special pizazz if you watch at home on the small screen, so if you’re at all interested, then I encourage you to go sometime in the next couple weeks while it’s still popular.

On a separate but related note, I also finally rewatched Thor Ragnarok on BluRay, although I had seen it in theaters several months ago. Man, I enjoyed it just as much the second time. The vast majority of the humor really hits, and I wish The Last Jedi had nailed some of its attempts at lightheartedness as solidly as Thor does. There was so many laugh out loud moments mixed with the over-the-top action and it’s just a fun time.

@Th3solution Nice, I'm still waiting Thor Ragnarok's (4K) price to drop on Amazon.

Were there a lot of extras, like bloopers or deleted scenes?

@Th3solution Glad you enjoyed it and that the 'silent audience' effect is seemingly universal.

My partner went to see Ready Player One in the week with her dad (off work for half term). She said she'd enjoyed having not read the book, but was expecting a far more referential experience after a couple of conversations with me about the book.

We spoke about the film in detail and I was quite taken aback with the sheer amount of apparent changes and omissions. So much to the point that I really don't want to see it anymore.
The book is far from a masterpiece and I'm conscious of the nightmare of licensing everything in it. But there are a few core things that I really see no need to change or leave out.
I'll wait until it's streaming I think.

@RogerRoger Yeah, The Last of Us similarities are loose enough that it’s possible that they are not intentional. In fact probably so. The idea of an enemy that can’t see and can only hear their prey is actually not all that unique I suppose, so my obsession with video games probably draws the comparison in my mind, but the opening scene scavenging the drug store just looked like it could have been taken straight out of the game.
As far as pacing, I agree with you. It really flows well. Except that the ending sequence after the baby is born and the kids are trapped at the silo started to drag on a little bit for me. It was like they pushed the tension just a little too far to make it bordering on ridiculous. I mean, not only do we have the poor lady giving birth, stepping on a nail barefoot, and then cleaning up and caring for a newborn by herself, all the while trying to stay silent, then the kids have to start drowning in quicksand-like grain while being hunted. The whole thing became a little overly dramatic by that point to as to make me disconnect a little. Then by the time the safe room starts to flood, I just had to think, “Geez, what more can they throw in here to go wrong for these poor people?”
As far as the potential holes and motivational decisions that I questioned — I didn’t quite understand why he forbade the daughter from going into the basement. He didn’t want her to see all the effort he was putting into making her hearing aids? Maybe I missed something but I just didn’t catch the motivation other than to create the pay off at the end when she discovers all he did and sacrificed for her and then how she finally figures out the weakness. Also, why did they not used the quiet safe room before the baby was born? For a year and a half, they prepared and only then did that get to test that idea? I guess it was possible it was too much of a gamble to try it out before the baby came, but still. And is walking barefoot really necessary? Would soft shoes really make that much more noise, considering you are running the risk of stepping on something sharp (which happens), getting an infection, etc.? Which I never really thought about, but maybe it would be quieter but I don’t know. Which leads to my final critique - the presence of ambient noise. Anyone who has spent any time in nature knows there is no true silence outdoors. Or even indoors, unless you are in a true anechoic chamber, as is used in professional recording. The world is full of noise. I appreciate that they touch on this with the river and waterfall, but even in the quietest of circumstances, there would be frequent sounds of nature to confuse the enemy.
But that’s all being excessively nit-picky about a really good and enjoyable film. Like I said before, any fictional setting will have small things you have to just kind of accept in order to enjoy and give the benefit of the doubt to the characters and the world.