Topic: The Movie Thread

@RogerRoger Ah okay. I might actually watch it this weekend as I finished watching other movies this week. Glad to hear that I'm not the only one who feels like that about the third Mission Impossible.

So I've watched Jurassic World: Dominion and Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation this week. The former was really good, possibly the best of the World trilogy. The first movie was a good "reboot" or whatever you want to call it of the first Jurassic Park as it expanded on the idea of what it'd be like if there actually were people there and not simply an experiment. The second movie seemed more like preparation for the third movie rather than its own thing. It didn't really have a strong concept in all honesty. But the third movie went all out in that dinosaurs are roaming the entire Earth once again, which is very interesting to me! So I think the third one had the best and most interesting concept of the World trilogy.

The fifth Mission Impossible movie was also really good! I'm glad it switched things up rather than being another traditional MI plot. I'm also glad that it brought back characters from the previous movie instead of changing them out like they do in every movie. I actually liked the characters in the fourth movie. And yeah, the plot is also focused this time around, so I didn't find anything wrong with it. Another great Mission Impossible movie!

I've just watched Saltburn, I very much now understand why "murder on the dance floor" seems to have resurfaced in the UK music charts!! It's deliciously weird and dark! The decision to show it in 4:3 with text font that feels like it's from a late 70s movie, with the 2000s "tunes" and ultra modern dolby digital hdr really shouldn't all work together but it totally does though. Some wicked performances, Richard E Grant and Rosalind Pike as posh ***** are absolutely fantastic but Barry Keogh absolutely nails it. Rare that a movie shocks me but there are a couple of moments in this movie that genuinely do.

So I started my "year at the cinema" with Poor Things by Yorgos Lanthimos. Now, I have more or less avoided his earlier films because they felt too "quirky" or "weird" to me. As an example, Wes Anderson's movies (after "Rushmore", which I liked) just feel "off" to me... The Royal Tenenbaums, Life Aquatic etc plays to me being weird for weirdness sake and does little else than annoy me. I was sure that Lanthimos movies would be same for me, but from all I heard, this one was unmissable and I'm nothing if not willing challenge my preconceptions and attempt to broaden my horizons every once in a while.

So, my verdict? I honestly don't know, but the short answer is that I didn't really like it. Interestingly, I was worried that the quirky humour and weirdness would lose me, but that was actually what I found to be the movie's strong points. Emma Stone's performance is out of this world, and Dafoe and Ruffalo deliver great roles too (even though Ruffalo's character really grated on me... which was by design, but that didn't change the fact that I hated every scene he was in). Speaking of performances, Jerrod Carmichael's very subtle character really stood out in a movie where everyone else were going very large and loud.

So what was my problem with it? Well, length for one... I was so ready for the movie to be over long before we hit the 2 hour mark... also, while I truly found the central idea fascinating (don't know how much of Bella's "circumstance" is known through marketing, so I will refrain from going into details), I felt that the execution floundered quite seriously as she embarked on her "adventure". Yeah, sexual awakening and exploration is a vital part of growing up and building one's identity, but it seemed to be more or less the only thing the filmmaker was interested in exploring once Bella discovered her sexuality.. I actually got bored with all the sex scenes and I can't really tell if that's a good thing or not... all I know is that I felt that maybe we didn't need to spend quite that much of the movie's runtime exploring all the quirky ways people have sex?

The movie wasn't really overly long, it's just that it spent so much time exploring the same themes when it really should have explored different aspects of Bella's exploration that it actually got somewhat boring after a while. The movie spends ten, maybe fifteen, minutes on Bella's discovery of the cruel world of poverty and inequality and, after her stating that she wants to make the world a better place, moves swiftly on to a half an hour of her having sex as a prostitute with a variety of graphic encounters with an equally varied set of kinks.

The final 15-20 minutes or so (after she returned home from Paris) got truly interesting again, but at that point I was more or less worn out and it seemed like the filmmaker lost interest as well at that point. as it felt half-assed and tacked on.

Interestingly, I realize that this write-up makes it seem like I hated the movie, but that's really not the case. I can truly see why it is as loved as it is, but it really was not my cup of tea and I will probably continue to give Lanthimos' movies a miss in the future.

@LN78 I caught this the other evening.... "The Talented Mr Ripley" for GenZ!

Objectively, I can attest that Saltburn is probably not a very good movie.... but subjectively it was quite an enjoyable watch - albeit I felt I needed a shower afterwards ha! The attempted social commentary was lacklustre, and instead it seemed moreso that the narrative was just racing towards one outlandish set-piece to the next (the bathtub - - > the meeting on the stairs - -> the grave - ->the dance!!)

Barry Keoghan is a fine actor, but his accent was incredibly distracting throughout... think he should have just played it straight Irish as opposed to this psuedo-Liverpudlian attempt. It made me appreciate just how talented Cillian Murphy is (another IRE actor) when it comes to the Birmingham accent in Peaky Blinders.

Saltburn was a very fun watch for sure, to give it some dues, but certainly far from the masterpiece that some people would have you believe.

@LN78 There is a really good stretch in the film, from Ollie's arrival in Saltburn- - - -> up until his temporary departure with Felix to Liverpool, where I think this movie has great potential. Everything post-Liverpool is a car-crash. I agree the ending was pretty implausible... but I shamelessly did enjoy the dance at the end. I'm all for a Sophie Ellis Bexter renaissance ha!

So I watched the first two Fast & Furious movies this week. The first one had an overall great story and mix of characters, but the second movie's focus on two protagonists and their chemistry with each other was just sublime. It made me like Paul Walker's character even more as he got to shine more here. For that reason, I liked the second movie more than the first one, even though the second one didn't have Vin Diesel, which was a bummer. Not to mention how incredible the last scene was in the second movie where they drive a car onto a yacht. Really good stuff! I can't believe I haven't watched these movies much earlier given how much I love racing games and racing in general.

@LtSarge I'm a F&F "apologist" and love them all (some more than others, though) and the more outlandish and batsh!t insane they get, the more I love them

@LN78 I can hardly remember anything from when I saw Black Adam at the cinema, but it was far from the worst DCEU movie... I think... I remember liking that they got Dr. Fate pretty much spot-on and Hawkman wasn't too bad either, as characters. In the context of the movie, I believe they were pretty much wasted (again, memory is hazy). Here's hoping Gunn can use these characters to better effect. Haven't seen Shazam 2 and probably won't for quite a while either, if ever. I found the first one somewhat charming but completely forgettable.

Just back from seeing Poor Things, excellent film. The entire cast was superb and it was really funny, had a lot more sex in it than I was expecting. My other half enjoyed it as well!

movies ive been watching

Thor Dark World
Iron Man 3
Guardians of the Galaxy 1
Captain America Winter Soldier

tonight right now im watching The Hitcher which is on Tubi

then tomorrow im watching Luca and Avengers Age of Ultron

@LN78 It’s a really great question, and I just so happened to have had one of these revisionist outlooks on a film I came across this weekend.

The film — Tombstone. A movie that I really loved when I saw it as a youngster. I thought Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday (a young Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer, respectively) were so cool at the time. I’ve held it in high esteem, despite not having watched it in many eons. I would have easily put it in my top 5 Westerns.

Well, over the weekend while switching channels during commercial breaks of a sporting event I was watching, I came upon Tombstone and figured I’d watch a little of it during the down time. Boy, was I disappointed. It was so ‘Hollywood cheese’, it was unreal. I couldn’t even stay with it more than 15 minutes and gladly turned back to my game.

I figured my change in opinion was mostly due to the evolution of the medium and what seemed like a gritty tale back then, now comes across as a whitewashed simplification which turns Earp into some kind of unrealistic superhero. The dialogue was just so bad too. As was the cinematography. The gunfights were just so over the top too.

Anyways, I think that’s an example of a movie not living up to my memory. As an alternate example, a movie that I really didn’t like and ended up enjoying on a second viewing years later was Forrest Gump. I don’t think I really ‘got’ the movie the first time. It just seemed a random group of events and a mish-mash of greatest hits through modern pop culture, but I was honestly touched emotionally the second time.

From recent memory the first Tim Burton Batman film enjoyed less due to how the fight scenes were filmed. Batman Returns was so much better in that respect.

Some films such Alien, Predator, Universal Soldier I've enjoyed better as I've seen them in 4K, and not watched them since the dvd days.

I tend not to go back to films I've not enjoyed first time round. You couldn't pay me to watch something like Batman and Robin again.

@LN78 The Prestige is probably in my top 5 films of all time, so much to love about it.... the cast, the plot, Bowie(!), and that incredible ending (several great twists). I think it is one of Bale's best roles ever, and Jackman is fantastic as well.

Did Mememto factor in to your viewing? I rewatched this recently, and feel it was pretty 'ahead of its time' in terms of novelty story-telling and the use of the 'unreliable narrator'. A real masterpiece, and a great example of a captivating film on a shoestring budget!

@CJD87 Mememto is such an awesome movie. It is one of those films which I never grow bored of watching.

@LN78 I reevaluate and change my mind on movies all the time My tastes just change over time and, also, my first impression of a movie (good or bad) may be influenced by my current mood or the context (watching a movie in IMAX for the first time is more conducive to me having a good time than watching it again at home a second time... some movies hold up, some gets downgraded a notch, but I rarely go from "like" to "dislike" on my second viewing... that may come later, though).
Started watching the old Schwarzenegger movies again a couple of years ago (excepting the Terminator and Conan films, which I will tackle later) and very, very few of them held up. Red Heat is an example of a movie I loved as a teen, but now I just found it boring and grating.

So yeah, definitely happens. I always say that changing one's mind is perfectly acceptable (though politicians will call it "flip-flopping" and then start digging the trenches the second they form an initial opinion )

@LN78 Yes! Wow, I think I was maybe 13-14yrs old watching that for the first time...

It was a great feature actually, and I loved watching it chronologically after an initial couple of watches the 'proper way'. DVD Easter Eggs and special features.... God bless those simpler times eh

Just finished watching Mission Impossible Fallout. I think this is my favourite movie in the entire franchise. The plot was very interesting and there were so many cool scenes. I also wasn't expecting to see Henry Cavill in this movie, so that was a pleasant surprise and it made the movie much better.

Definitely wasn't expecting to watch through all of the movies the past couple of weeks as I lost interest in the franchise last year while watching the third movie. Fortunately, all movies after that one were phenomenal. Absolutely love this series!

@LtSarge Fallout is also my favourite of the franchise. It just fires on all cylinders and feels like the pinnacle of what a Mission Impossible movie could be. Which set me up for a massive disappointment with Dead Reckoning, which to me is not only the worst in the franchise by a huge margin, but also one of the most irritating movies I saw in theaters last year. Hopefully, your experience with it will be better than mine

@FuriousMachine @LN78 This is not knocking the opinion as no matter how good something is, it's not going to work for everybody, but the critic and user reviews for Dead Reckoning are fantastic as a whole. In other words, it's an outlier, and I'd expect more people than not here would end up enjoying it.

I know I fully expect to as I've highly enjoyed the vast majority of the series. It's been so long since I've watched 2 that I couldn't comment on whether I can find enjoyment out of it or not.

@LN78 In my mind it was. M:I2's biggest sin was that it was at times boring and that it didn't feel like a Mission Impossible movie, "Dead Reckoning" was a preview of what we can expect when the script is written by an AI (in this case, an uninspired remix of key scenes from better action movies, including a finale that mirrors the first one so closely that it's truly embarrassing) Also, contains the most egregious example of fridging I have seen in a looong time.. I really love this franchise, warts and all, but the new one? Hated it...