Topic: The Movie Thread

My Top 5 of the year:
5) Del Toro's "Pinocchio".
4) "The Northman".
3) "Moonage Daydream".
2) "The Banshees of Inisherin".
1) "Everthing, Everywhere, All At Once".
Honourable Mentions - "All Quiet on the Western Front" and "Licorice Pizza".

And my Bottom 5 (in no real order, they're all awful) :
5) "The Batman".
4) "Dr Strange 2".
3) "Avatar 2".
2) "Jurassic Park 6".
1) "Thor 4".
Dishonourable Mentions - "Blonde" and "Morbius".

@LN78 I need to watch your top 3, loved Pinocchio and the Northman.

We must be getting old, tired of the flashy Hollywood tent pole movies these days.

Merry Christmas you filthy animals 😜

@MightyDemon82 I suppose we must be! There's "Glass Onion" (hopefully seeing that tomorrow) and a few like "Top Gun 2" and "Prey" (does "Beavis and Butthead Do The Universe" count?) that ended up on the big pile of "meh" (I haven't seen "Black Panther 2") but other than those, this years franchise pictures were really,really bad, at least from my point of view. Merry Christmas!

@LN78 not seen any of those other than Glass Onion which we enjoyed. Might get round to some in 2023!

@MightyDemon82 I've been hearing nothing but good things about "Glass Onion" - I thought "Knives Out" ended up being a bit overhyped for what it was - so good to know you enjoyed it, too. I'll post a review here later if I have anything interesting to say!

Finished watching Alien vs Predator. It was a surprisingly good movie! I didn't think a spinoff would be anything special, but I was wrong. It was actually very interesting learning about the historical ties between humans, predators and aliens. The battles were very cool as well. I'm glad that I watched it.

Not sure which movie I want to see next on Disney+. I'm contemplating watching either Solo: A Star Wars Story, Thor: Love and Thunder, or X-Men Apocalypse. I'll watch all of them eventually, but I think I might start with Thor.

I couldn’t even finish Pinocchio. Perhaps I was in the wrong mindset at the time.

@Th3solution A couple more hours in the oven, next time?

@Th3solution Nor me. Not really my type of film with there being songs in it lol.

Well Glass Onion was bloody brilliant! Sequels are always hard but that absolutely stands alongside the first one.

@nessisonett I thought Glass Onion was better. Maybe I'll rewatch Knives out at some point to see if I take to it better as I found it to be overhyped on my first viewing, but everyone here was enjoying themselves. Craig especially after being Bond for so long seems to really Relish the role!

@LN78 @JohnnyShoulder I don’t mind the musical nature of it, nor the themes or animation. I’m not sure what it was. I did think the voice acting was grating at times. And I guess maybe the whole Pinocchio folk tale doesn’t quite click for me because it’s one of the few Disney movies that I’d skip too.

@Th3solution Insert wooden acting joke here.

@MightyDemon82 It was a pretty good takedown of Elon Musk as well!

Yet another one of James Cameron's films coming to 4K Blu Ray, with Titanic being tipped to being released next year. It feels like there is only matter of time before we hear of more of them coming out.

Not sure whether to post this in the TV Thread or Movie Thread but it’s technically a movie —
I’ve always been fascinated by good CGI animation, and as I’m always on the lookout for good video game crossover media, I came across GANTZ-0 and decided to check it out (although it’s not a video game IP but is very ‘video gamey’ in its style).

At about 90 minutes, it’s not too much of an investment, and I found myself engaged with it from the start, despite in the end not being able to give it a full recommendation. An appreciation of quirky Japanese-styled narrative and art design is a must though, if you want to consider it.

What could be best described as a realistically rendered Sci-Fi fantasy set in a dystopian Japan, the visuals are quite good, with a combination of accurately appearing human characters and settings, filled with high tech gear and machines (what’s a Japanese show without at least one large mech?) and ghoulish fever-dream monsters. It’s basically a CGI anime, replete with fan-service, cheesy acting, and anime tropes. It’s quite bloody, and not for the faint of heart. The most shocking aspects are the monsters and as a PSA there is one particular boss monster that not only pushes the boundaries of sensibilities but vaults way beyond that mark with one of the most bizarre combinations of fan service and grotesque that I’ve seen. Kudos to the art direction team for their imagination, but it’s so weird and niche that many people might find it off-putting if you’re not into Japanese media.

It kind of reminded me of a Japanese Hunger Games mixed with Persona style monster design and a smidgen of cyberpunk flair thrown in. The story is decent enough, but the star is the visuals. Definitely not for everyone though, due to the really weird content and mature themes. But if you like Japanese entertainment media and CGI, it might be up your street.

@Th3solution I watched it not to long ago. Enjoyed it, weird and niche sci-fi /fantasy, horror Is right up my street.

Chalk up another positive endorsement for Glass Onion. I mean, it's not a murder mystery in the slightest, but that hardly matters. It's just a delight, and slightly better than its predecessor to boot.

It also made me start revisiting Daniel Craig's tenure as Bond, which'll culminate in my first re-watch of No Time to Die tomorrow. I'm hoping it lands a little better as the conclusion of a binge. Other than that, I haven't managed to watch half as many movies as I'd expected to this Christmas.

Although to compensate, I did get a Die Hard colouring book, which is awesome.

@JohnnyShoulder I'm more interested to see if the 3D blu-ray format undergoes a resurgence with the home release of "Avatar 2". Probably not.

@LN78 Never been a fan of 3D for films at home, especially if it means needing to buy any extra piece of kit in order to watch it. So I would probably give it a hard pass even if it did come back.