Topic: The Movie Thread

@RR529 I'm a bit on the fence about Civil War, but I will most likely go as I now have a movie pass type membership valid for most of the cinemas in Oslo. Comes down to timing, I suppose (the new vampire movie from Radio Silence, Abigail, comes out at the same time and will likely disappear faster, so that has priority for me).

@Jimmer-jammer Garland's directorial output is pretty much all miss for me. I kind of like Ex Machina even though I felt it came close but ultimately failed at having anything interesting to say about its subject matter (beautifully shot, though). Annihilation was a messy adaptation of a poor novel and while I didn't hate it, I didn't particularly like it either. I could never figure out why everybody was so over the moon about it; maybe the baggage of the novel colored my perception of the movie, IDK.

Still, have tickets to see Civil War on Sunday (and Abigail on Saturday)

@Jimmer-jammer Men has flown completely under my radar, hadn't heard of it until now and based on your assessment I'm quite unsure whether I should track it down or not

Hadn't heard about Sasquatch Sunset either, but, based on the trailer I just saw, it has the potential to be something truly special, but if it misfires it could wind up being a snoozefest. It takes a swing, at least! Will definitely check it out, but it probably won't have a theatrical release over here, so I will keep an eye for it on streaming.

I'll keep you posted re.: Civil War

@LN78 I read on Wikipedia that it was released both as a feature and as a miniseries of five episodes. Was it the feature you watched? (I assume so based on posting it here and not in the TV Show thread)
I have access to the mini series, but can't find the feature, so I will give the series a look.

@JohnnyShoulder I got my Scandinavian release of The Abyss 4k this morning and took a quick look before heading out to work. The cover and slipcover are both in English, however the synopsis on the back is in Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and Finnish (list of special features etc are in English)
When booting up the 4K disc you're first presented with a language selector and upon selecting English, I believe you're presented with pretty much the exact same experience you would have had with the UK release, had the BBFC not blocked it.
I haven't tried the BluRay or Special Features discs, but I expect them to be the same, with a language selector first.
Not sure if @LN78 got theirs from Coolshop yet or if that also is the Scandinavian release or not, but, if so, you should be good to import from them or from iMusic.co

@LN78 Right, the 8 hour runtime tracks with the miniseries I have access to, so probably the same Been on my watchlist for a while but I kind of forgot about it. Highly topical these days, so may pull the trigger on it this weekend. Thanks for reminding me

@FuriousMachine Cheers for tag! That is useful to know!

I'm a bit torn of when to get The Abyss and Aliens. It goes against my natural penny pinching instincts to get anything at full price, so tempted to wait until the price drops a bit. Plus by then I would have watched the 4K's I bought recently.

I had absolutely no interest in Transformers One but today I decided to check out the trailer and I must say it looks way better than it has any right to be Definitely changed my mind about this, will check it out in the theatres now.

@Jimmer-jammer I can't imagine why you didn't like the ending of Men.

I enjoyed it though, and is what me and a mate of mine would class as a 'WTF' movie. 😂 The only fault I could find with is that the cgi in places looked a bit dodgy. It is a hard one to recommend though!

watched the Before the Fire movie from 2020. locally made in South Dakota especially in the Mitchell area.

also this weekend I'm watching these on Tubi

George Carlin's 1990 and 1992 HBO stand up specials
Vampire Lovers the old Jess Franco movie or whoever directed it

Silverado on Netflix before it leaves Netflix

Just returned from Abigail, the new movie from directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (collectively know as Radio Silence), who previously did Ready or Not, Scream V and Scream VI, all of which I've enjoyed immensely.
Abigail did not disappoint. I had an enormously good time with it; it is the kind of horror movie I adore. The cast, led by Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, Kathryn Newton and Kevin Durand, are clearly having a blast and Alisha Weir is a revelation as the sweet little girl of the title.
If you enjoyed the previous movies from Radio Silence, chances are you will enjoy this one too. I would recommend going in blind if you can; the trailer gives away the central concept and while it is by no means intended to be some big secret or twist, I think it would be even more fun if you don't know about it going in. There are bucketloads of blood and gore in this, so be forewarned if you don't like that sort of thing
The first properly good horror movie I've seen in 2024

Besides the Abigail movie being underrated recently there's also that A24 movie Civil War that I think everyone else is missing out on

Then next month is the 25th anniversary of Star Wars Phantom Menace which will be in theaters May 3rd. Wonder if there will be new Star Wars collectibles in theaters next month or not?

@XandertheWise Abigail has been getting quite decent reviews; not sure why it would be considered underrated?

Saw Civil War last night and I think it's easily Alex Garland's best film; the first of his I've fully liked without reservation.
As @RR529 mentioned earlier, it eschews any political messaging, which actually elevates the movie, in my opinion, as it then manages to focus completely on showing the nightmare that awaits when a nation ends up resolving its differences through force and violence.
If I were to offer a tiny bit of criticism I think the movie could have benefited from making a hard statement about the importance of a free press, but the statements the movie does make are powerful enough, so I'm not complaining.
Visceral, engaging and thought provoking, I would absolutely recommend seeing this one, regardless of where you stand on the political spectrum.

dunno why even though I've seen the movie a gazillion times, I was watching the first half of Conan the Destroyer on Netflix last night. Still a great fun movie and I still think its more an R rated movie instead of a so called "PG" movie

Cheech & Chong's Nice Dreams (Tubi) - Old stoner movie from the early 80's. Our titular pair rip off a bunch of product from their supplier (which turns it's smokers into lizards, for some reason), and antics ensue as they try to evade the police. It's funny enough for what it is, and worth a watch just to see Paul Reubens (of Pee Wee Herman fame) play a coked out mental patient.

Metal Skin Panic: Madox-01 (Blu-Ray) - the US Army loses a prototype battle armor in a Tokyo traffic accident, a young mechanic gets stuck in it while mucking around with it, but no time to get it off as he has to be on time for a date with his estranged girlfriend before she goes off to study in Europe! He'll make his rendezvous no matter what, even if he has to fight off the Army trying to reclaim it's toy along the way. This is short & to the point (under an hour long), and is a pretty fun watch. I just love the vibe of these old 80's sci-fi OVAs.

Rebel Moon Part 1: A Child of Fire (Netflix) - This doesn't have a single original bone in it's body, whether it be aesthetically or narratively. A hodgepodge of locations & ideas ripped from other more notable sci-fi & fantasy properties without any attempt to make them mesh together in a cohesive way (& the narrative itself is just the first half of Seven Samurai spread out over 2 & a half hours), but what it does have going for it is a very gigantic, impressive even, sense of scale & grandeur with some fun action (even if it goes laughably overkill on the slow-mo & lens flare). This isn't a "good" movie, but it's the kind of project that's probably the favorite film of some nerdy 13 year old boy out there, and as someone who was a nerdy 13 year old boy at some point myself, it appealed to that part of me (which is how I feel about a lot of Zack Snider stuff come to think of it, kind of like a guilty pleasure. If he ever gets to release that big R rated cut I heard he wants to release, I'll probably be there).

@Jimmer-jammer Glad to hear it, it lends itself well to the big screen and the sound design is incredible and extremely effective in a theatre with a proper sound system. Hope you'll like it!

@RR529 I can't believe it, but you almost sold me on watching Rebel Moon!
I was also that nerdy 13 year old boy and he's still with me... I will probably hold off until that R-rated thing shows up and see if that reviews better, though.

Speaking of Snyder, I was sad to learn that there are no special plans for the 20th anniversary of what I think is his best movie, Dawn of the Dead, but he did suggest that he thought it was due for a remaster. Question is if he'll ever get around to it....

@LN78 Snyder would have made for a pretty decent cinematographer, he does know how to put a good shot together. He just sort of got too big despite making an awful lot of rubbish, meaning he could only ever be a director. Perhaps with a better writing partner he could do something worthwhile (although I stand by the Snyder Cut being vastly better than Josstice League) but he would have been much better behind the camera than making any sort of executive decision surrounding story and the way in which character development is presented on screen.

@LN78 I’d rather sit through an extra 2 hours than ever see Gal Gadot attempt humour again. Or that scene with Flash falling on top of Wonder Woman. And that random Russian family for some reason? I dunno, that original cut is just so offensively terrible that anything is better, even 4 hours.