Topic: The Movie Thread

@JohnnyShoulder Yeah, I can understand that. Personally, Scream and Final Destination are two of my favourite horror franchises, so I am always happy when they get them right.
And, yeah, "Ready or Not" is the one where Samara Weaving marries into an... eccentric family. I loved it

@FuriousMachine Final Destination! Now that is something that tickles my memory berries.

When I saw Ready or Not I didn't realise who she was until way after. She is also in Azarel which I watched recently whis is fairly decent. It is an interesting concept as there is hardly any dialogue. Doesn't hold back in the gore department either but not an over excessive use of it.

@JohnnyShoulder Samara Weaving seemed to turn into the queen of blood soaked horror heroines for a while there, and I understand "Azrael" continues her reign. I haven't seen it yet, as I have a sneaking suspicion that the new gimmick, for want of a better word, of minimising or leaving out dialogue will irritate me. Will probably give it a go down the line, though.

Final Destination will get a new sequel for its 25th anniversary this year and I hope they deliver once again. While there are movies in the franchise that doesn't live up to the excellence of the first two, I feel there are no really bad entries. I will hopefully be able to continue to say that after I've seen the new one (and I'm really hoping for an anniversary release on 4K, too, but as there's been absolutely no whispers of such a release, I may be hoping against hope)

@FuriousMachine I lost interest in the Final Destination films after the third one I think, as much like the Scream movies I found they were getting too samey for my liking. May give the new Final Destination film a go if it turns out ok.

There is also Mia Goth who has appeared in a few horror films. She was really good in Infinity Pool, which is another one that falls into the category of 'I enjoyed it but find it hard to recommend'.

@JohnnyShoulder I haven't gotten around to "Infinity Pool" yet, but she was good in Ti West's "X", though I found the movie slightly overrated. Good movie, but not "OMG AWSM" as some critics would have you believe. Been meaning to check out the sequels to "X", but they are also in the category "haven't gotten around to yet"

@FuriousMachine Yeah I've seen the X trilogy, think I liked the second one the best. The most recent one Maxxxine was my least favourite as it kind of felt too neat and tidy at the end.

@JohnnyShoulder Yeah, that tracks with what I've heard elsewhere.

I just got back from seeing Robert Eggers Nosferatu and.... I didn't love it. In fact, I'm not even sure I liked it all that much. I didn't dislike it either, but there was quite a few things that just didn't work for me, and Bill Skarsgård's asthmatic Count Orlok was my primary issue. Never would I have thought that Willem Dafoe's OTT portrayal of the same character in Shadow of the Vampire could feel subtle, but here Bill comes along and makes it so. I didn't like Lily-Rose Depp's character all that much either, though Depp does a fine job portraying her. The rest of the cast works well, too. Eggers does have an eye for sumptuous visuals, though: The scene were Herr Hutter is picked up by the coach at the crossroads was stunning.
Overall, I guess it was OK, but doesn't bring all that much new to the table, and the changes it did make didn't work for me. Your mileage will most likely vary, so go see it if you're curious and go see it in the cinema if you can

@FuriousMachine That's a shame. I'm the opposite, I really dug this version of Orlok.

@MightyDemon82 He was surely different from the previous incarnations. I liked that he had absolutely no redeeming features and was simply pure evil, but I found the delivery grating and was immensely distracted by the fact that he looked like a decrepit version of Peter Stormare

@Jimmer-jammer The Substance is truly something special. I could not stop laughing during the insane finale. Sheer brilliance. Can't wait to get it on my shelf; hoping for a UK steelbook release.
As for Gladiator II being Scott's worst film.... I dunno, there are some serious contenders for that title, two in the Alien franchise alone I'll say it's his most unnecessary film, as I consider it to be competently made, but being basically a pale imitation of the original.

@Jimmer-jammer @FuriousMachine

Well, no one cared about The Last Duel and he had his big rant at cinema goers, popcorn movies, sequels and Marvel, right? Maybe he is just giving the people what they want these days 😛

If you can't beat them, join them. The idiots are winning et cetera, et cetera.

Roll on "Gladiator III, semel
plus" and "Gladiator IV, et aliud" and maybe chuck in a remake, "Gladiator, idem, sed deterios" 😁

Liked Nosferatu a lot. Eggers definitely gets the original. I do have a soft spot for the original though, it creeps the f*ck out of me.

@Ravix @Jimmer-jammer I'm getting more and more convinced that Sir Scott should have retired a long time ago.

@nessisonett The original is fantastic and I liked that Eggers stuck to Murnau's characters, rather than mixing them up with Bram Stoker's equivalents, like Herzog did. I was a tiny bit disappointed with Herzog's version, particularly because I felt that Kinski's count was a bit too understated. I felt that Eggers and Skarsgård went a bit too far in the other direction, though, and that portrayal did not work for me at all. In my mind, Murnau's version is the best, Herzog has the best ending and Eggers version is.. uhm... the newest.

I finally got around to watching The Place Beyond the Pines. It came out around that time that Gosling released a million films at once and it passed me by.

I'm still processing it to a degree. It was quite a jarring film in some ways, given the chronological leaps it makes, yet I found it quite affecting. Bradley Cooper isn't my favourite actor in the world but I thought he was good here, cutting a constantly frustrated and haunted figure.

@Gremio108 great film. one of my favs along with Blue Valentine, another great Gosling performance imo.

@zupertramp Yeah it's an excellent showing from Gosling. The film pivots on a few big moments and lesser movies would suffer from it.

Not seen Blue Valentine, that's another one I need to catch up on

Better Man is probably the most surprised I’ve been in a long time by a movie. I thought it sounded stupid, then the reviews made me give it a shot. Without a doubt one of the best movies I’ve seen this entire past year. I know Americans inexplicably don’t know Robbie Williams much but I was born post-Take That and he’s still a cultural icon just with his solo stuff, I was actually amazed how many songs he had given the amount woven into the movie. The whole monkey situation bizarrely works really well and gets around the impersonation issue that a lot of these biopics struggle with. Genuinely brilliant movie.

@nessisonett A novel concept, for sure, but aside from liking some of his music, I can't say that I'm all that curious about his life. I'm generally not all that interested in biopics, either, but I might give this a go when it hits streaming, on the strength of the reviews alone.

Nooooo not David Lynch! Absolutely gutted.