Also watched The Goonies, which I'd never seen before. I could write a bunch of words here, but not even the most eloquent of sentences could convey my feelings more accurately than "meh" so... yeah. That.
Life is more fun when you help people succeed, instead of wishing them to fail.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
In all seriousness, I'm a thirty-something watching it for the first time. I get that it might've been a bigger deal for kids who saw it on release, or on telly at Christmas in the 90s or something, but that ain't me. It's the same reason I think Ghostbusters and Home Alone are "fine". I just missed the boat. Which is why I didn't comment on the movie itself, but rather my reaction to it.
***
@CthulhuFhtagn Having recently revisited a lot (but not all) of the Terminator flicks, it'll be good to see your thoughts on the more modern movies, especially since I agree with you about T3.
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
@JudgeDredd Too be fair, I don't think I've ever finished it. I was never a big Whitney Housten fan after on of her songs stayed in the charts which seemed like forever.
Life is more fun when you help people succeed, instead of wishing them to fail.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
I wish I’d liked Wakanda Forever more. There were moments that I could understand their intentions with wanting to pay tribute to Chadwick Boseman but outside of that, the movie just felt a bit aimless. I was left feeling a bit empty at the end, and couldn’t really care less about any of the characters. A shame.
finished the Terminator movies. 4 was soulless, lifeless and even Christian Bale couldn't save it or even add something. 5 and 6 were even worse. terribly boring. pointlessly rehashed, recycled and repurposed. no new idea. even the performances were terrible, 5 especially.
has resurrection of old movies ever worked? any good example?
@CthulhuFhtagn I might be one of the few but I quite liked Dark Fate. Yes, it was a rehash of the first one, but it captured the essence of that movie while having a modern setting. That’s all I can really ask for from those sorts of reboots, which is why so many horror movies get rebooted I guess.
@CthulhuFhtagn Well, I'll brace myself for Salvation and Genysis, then!
I'm with Ness, I quite enjoyed Dark Fate. It probably helps that I didn't watch it right after all the others, so a lot of its recycled and adapted content wouldn't have been quite as jarring. I was disappointed that it flopped because I was interested in seeing its planned sequel, but I guess the audience voted with their wallets, so that's fair enough.
In terms of other examples, I thought Ghostbusters: Afterlife was decent, too. There are probably some others that I haven't minded but you're right, they're in the minority!
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
@nessisonett@RogerRoger the real problem for me was the expectations. as a kid, Robocop and Arnold were the coolest "things". I never liked star wars or movies like indiana jones or back to the future. I watched Terminator 2 and Robocop 1&2 many many times. my parents and my cousins used to make fun of me for watching Robo2. in 2003, the wait for Terminator 3 was killing me, like there was nothing else important in my life (there was nothing to be honest). with Dark Fate, "well, it is the return of the "real" Sarah Connor, after all these years, so it must be something". of course I was not the same kid anymore and I couldn't be excited like before, but still a fan I guess. I wish I could get excited like a kid again. FFVII remake and Kratos 2018 reveals were the last times I was really interested for something.
I know I'm boring. thank you both.
@CthulhuFhtagn I'm not a Ghostbusters fan either, which is why I think Afterlife worked so well. It must be a super-tricky balance to strike, honouring a legacy whilst hooking in newcomers.
Why'd people make fun of you for watching Robocop 2, by the way? It's my favourite!
And you're not boring, either. You're describing what a lot of folks go through as they get older, myself included. There are times when I get scared that I'm falling out of love with my hobbies and passions, so I try and push myself out of my comfort zone on occasion, in an effort to keep things feeling fresh. I also block out folks who tell me to "grow up" or, worse, that I "shouldn't like" the things I like. Nuts to that!
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
@RogerRoger@CthulhuFhtagn The first Ghostbusters film is one of the few films I watch again and again. Afterlife felt like just a rehash of that film in a different setting but with very little of what made it special in the first place.
But I generally don't enjoy any of the reboots/remakes that I've seen. I'm a bit sick of them tbh and wish the industry would stop dragging the films I grew up watching through the gutter with each new sub standard release.
Life is more fun when you help people succeed, instead of wishing them to fail.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
@RogerRoger you're right about blocking people out. it has helped me a lot. thanks.
about Robocop2, my parents were tired of seeing it on tv over and over, like every weekend or so. I can't blame them. ha ha.
@JohnnyShoulder Yeah, without that connection (I only saw the original Ghostbusters and its sequel for the first time a couple years ago) I was way more open to the idea of Afterlife. That being said I do agree that new, fresh ideas are always preferable to reboots, but then this is Hollywood we're talking about!
@CthulhuFhtagn Ah, so long as they weren't making fun of you for liking something! I mean, you should still be allowed to watch stuff on a loop if you want to, but my family had a similar reaction to my insistence on wearing out my Star Wars VHS tapes every weekend, so I understand, at least!
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
Wasn't feeling too well last night (well, all week long TBH), so I sat back and watched Mickey: the Story of a Mouse on Disney+.
Pretty much a light hearted documentary on the evolution of Mickey Mouse & his affect on pop culture (though they did manage to reflect a bit on Walt's outdated/racist elements that worked their way into the older cartoons too, so it wasn't entirely patting themselves on the back).
It was actually pretty interesting, though they acted like my era of Mickey & Co. didn't even exist. From the perspective of the documentary you had Mickey's Christmas Carol in the mid 80's, then a few decades of being nothing more than a corporate icon until he was revived by the modern shorts.
This of course completely ignores Mickey's House of Mouse (which was my go to Saturday morning cartoon for a few years), arguably the entirety of the Goof Troop/Goofy Movie continuity, and his transition to video games (Castle of Illusion, Epic Mickey, and of course the titan that is Kingdom Hearts) to make it's case.
It's really good until then though.
Currently Playing:
Switch - Blade Strangers
PS4 - Kingdom Hearts III, Tetris Effect (VR)
Bones and All, from director Luca Guadagnino, is billed as a "romantic cannibal road film," which ends up being a fairly apt description of what I sat through. It sounds bizarre and potentially exploitative, like a cannibal version of Natural Born Killers or something, but the subject matter is treated with some level of restraint. I mean, there are definitely some rather gross sequences in the film (mostly thanks to Sully, an elderly cannibal our protagonist meets early on who serves as a mentor in the ways of safe cannibalism, if such a thing exists), but the focus of the film is less on the stomach-turning taboo and more how people live their lives while being forced to address, and ultimately accept, a horrifying aspect of their being. In this respect, it's less a cannibal horror film and more of a "cannibalism-as-metaphor" sort of film. Anyway, the bulk of the film's runtime eventually becomes consumed (heh) by the love story at the center of it, which unfortunately didn't resonate much with me. Definitely an interesting blend of genres for people who want something new in their romantic dramas, but anyone who goes in expecting a horror movie is going to be disappointed.
A much more satisfying experience came in the form of director Mark Mylod's new dark comedy The Menu. Ads for the film give you the sense that you're in for a foodie-themed horror flick, which is only partially true. It actually ends up being a rather fun, and frequently funny satire of celebrity chef worship and pretentious upper-crust foodie culture in general. Particular kudos to star Ralph Fiennes: despite the air of civility he maintains throughout his murderous performance, notes of malice and contempt can be detected, which help pull the role together.
Finally, I watched Disney's new film: Strange World. Disney apparently had the nerve to create an environmentalist fable following a mixed-race couple and their unapologetically gay son, but not enough to actually communicate any of this in the advertising, perhaps fearing another Lightyear-style backlash from racists. Actually, the marketing has been pretty light overall, which would suggest Disney sent it out to die. It's certainly losing them a ton of money, considering how poorly it's doing so far, which is a shame, because it's not half-bad when it's exploring father-son dynamics, the various ways in which one can be a man, etc. The film overall does lack that certain something you find in the best Disney films, but it's a solid family film nonetheless.
@Ralizah The fact that Bones and All uses cannibalism mostly as a metaphor and not just as yet another twist on Bonnie and Clyde ‘twisted love’ tropes is a bit reassuring actually. Still not convinced it’s for me but I’ll maybe try it!
Strange World is a movie that I genuinely didn’t know existed until very recently, Disney’s marketing has been woeful at least in the UK. Part of me wonders whether that’s on purpose, burying a movie with diverse characters in order to convince shareholders that they don’t sell!
Forums
Topic: The Movie Thread
Posts 7,241 to 7,260 of 8,942
Please login or sign up to reply to this topic