Topic: The Movie Thread

Top Gun: Maverick really is bloody good. We rented it through Apple TV in 4K for £5 which isn’t bad at all and the picture looked great. Some of the most breathtaking aerial footage I’ve seen in a movie and yeah, there’s a few corny bits as expected, but it’s worth it.

@nessisonett Thanks for the post, I'll probably watch it that way too. It's even cheaper over here.

@Voltan Hmm, I wonder what it is about the current state of the pound that would make it more expensive here 😉

@nessisonett The Polish Złoty isn't exactly in great shape either but I guess they just have regional pricing

Just saw a brilliant little movie called "Shadow of the Vampire" starring John Malkovich and Willam Defoe. It's about the making of the classic silent horror picture "Nosferatu" but posits that the director F.W. Murnau (Malkovich doing his thing) hired an actual vampire in the form of Defoe's superbly deranged Max Shreck to play the film's title role. Hijinks ensue when the cast.and crew begin to mysteriously disappear one by one much to chagrin of the progressively more exasperated Murnau who does his best to keep his star's vampiric tendencies in check. Equal parts funny and creepy (how could it not be with those two names above the title?) this one comes with my highest recommendation.

@LN78 Oh man, that’s a great movie that I’ve only seen the once. It seems to be almost forgotten about and is rarely discussed for some reason considering how good it is.

@nessisonett Minor masterpiece. I bought it along with "Gods and Monsters" (about pioneering horror director James Whale) starring Ian McKellen and Brendan Fraser to watch as palate cleansers amongst all the actual horror movies that I've got lined up. I needed one after watching "Legion" last night. That one was quietly disturbing. I've been thinking about it all day.

@LN78 I’m ashamed to say that I’ve never actually seen The Exorcist, I’m not a big horror movie fan as I’m a total wuss! I’ve heard good things about that director’s cut of the 3rd one though, it seems to have been quite a few years in the making anyway.

@nessisonett "The Exorcist" has become a victim of its own ubiquity in horror pop culture mythos. It's a brilliant film but one of those movies (like "Jaws") that you've essentially seen even if you've never seen it.

Bought tickets to see Terrifier 2 with the family on Sunday. I love the ridiculous claims of people fainting, puking, etc. in the theater. We've become so desensitized to on-screen violence in recent decades that we just kind of shrug when ultra-violent movies release, so it feels like a fun throwback to see a teeny tiny horror movie (production budget was $250,000, lol) become a minor hit through word-of-mouth accounts of how shocking it apparently is.

Apparently it's decently more gruesome than the original, which is... hard to believe, given how nasty that got, but I suppose we'll see!

@Ralizah Oddly those exact same claims were made during the initial release of "The Exorcist" in 1973! The resultant brouhaha certainly didn't hurt that film's ticket sales and it seems to be working again in 2022. I think the last movie that shocked me in terms of its depiction of violence was probably the Korean horror/thriller "I Saw The Devil" from 2010. Not for the faint of heart.

@LN78 You got claims like that periodically when new horror films would turn up the test the limits of what viewers could tolerate. A lot of it was marketing, but it tapped into a sort of transgressive fun that used to be associated with the genre.

I guess that's why one critic pointedly observed that "films like this just aren't made any more." The transgressive horror market was seized and subsequently run into the ground by the torture porn cinematic trend in the 2010s.

But it's pretty standard for horror most of the best films to be indies and/or low-budget. You have some notable exceptions, but it's usually the people working on shoestring budgets that reinvigorate the genre.

Art the Clown is also the only interesting new slasher villain to crop up... in a long time, if I'm being honest.

I've found a few films to be a bit much for me (A Serbian Film, Martyrs, Funny Games, and any exploitation film with real or simulated animal violence come to mind), but it's rarely about the explicitness of the actual on-screen violence for me. Terrifier 1 had one somewhat shocking death scene, so I'm curious to see how they top it.

Thanks for the recommendation. I'll add I Saw the Devil to my list.

@Ralizah I can't believe you sat through "A Serbian Film".

@LN78 It's definitely a film designed to test the limits of what the audience is willing to put up with. And doesn't need to bombard the audience with cinematography and low frequency noises designed to make the audience feel sick like Gaspar Noé does in his films.

That being said, I'd never, ever watch it with everyone else.

@Ralizah I was hoping I'd never, ever have to think about it again. Thanks, pal.

@LN78 Did you not realize what you were getting into when you watched it?

@LN78 The film. From what I remember, there was a decent amount of buzz about its extreme content.

Oh I knew what it was. I was singularly unimpressed.
PS Deleted that last comment in response to your re-edit. It seemed extraneous!

Watched a couple of movies with my children yesterday.

Now You See Me - It was okay, but I really didn't like any of the main characters. Thought they were really smug and arrogant.

The Batman - First watched it at the cinema. I enjoyed it again yesterday at home. The more grounded approach is very appealing. That being said, I still feel that it's perhaps 30 minutes too long.

@Sable Some of Now You See Me was filmed in Greenwich. I think it was the first one but could be the second. If I remember correctly the magic circle is based in Greenwich Observatory for some reason and there's also scenes of street magic filmed in Greenwich Market.

There's quite a few films made around that area actually!