Topic: The Movie Thread

My last purchases for my collection since I updated on here (which was the Tombstone steelbook, probs my fave Val performance) is Nightmare on Elm Street collectors edition and the Arrow 4K of Robocop. Both were the cheapest I've seen them, not sure why the latter was always over 20 quid.

Also bought Star Wars Episode V and Independence Day. I've only seen the latter, but it still holds for me. Cheesy AF, but I have fond memories of watching it in the cinema when it first came out.

@JohnnyShoulder
I watched all of the Elm Street films last October, they were not as good as remembered from my childhood! The second one in particular is exceptional nonsense. Hope you enjoy them more than I did.
I would quite like to see Robocop again, especially before I get to the game, it's been many a long year since I saw that one.
And as for Independence Day, well I'd be happy to watch anything with Mr Goldblum doing his stumbling arkward professor character.

@Ravix
Yeah I watched The King of Comedy a few months back and I second your recommendation. Interesting enough and a great turn by Bobby Di Niro.
Watching it didn't particularly make me feel like re watching The Joker though so maybe that only works in one direction.

@JohnnyShoulder I think Arrow releases always start high, but then settle to a pretty consistent low of £15 after x time, or after they have made their money or whatever (much quicker than Criterion do that's for damn sure 😬) I guess being a more of a boutique label that puts in the effort to provide something the original studios may not plays into the pricing. I hear Robocop is another good'un from them, so enjoy.

During my many rabbit hole plummets and brain tangents last night I realised Vanilla Sky has a 4K, so that is on the list of possible buys. Bringing Out the Dead had one in the USA only (boo) and even the DVD of that is hard to find now, which is incredibly vexing. The King of Comedy has a Blu Ray available, at least. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind seems to have a 4k, but it isn't available to buy this film in any physical format from the big 3 UK retailers 🤷‍♂️ Being John Malkovich has a region locked Criterion Blu Ray. There's a lot of mild annoyances when searching for physical media, i'm finding 😅 does anyone else find this when searching for something they would potentially like to pick up at some point. The ones I've mentioned are merely scratching the surface and i'm going to have to draft in the help of someone that likes to make spreadsheets to list what is available in the UK and Europe on 4K, on Blu Ray, or annoyingly unavailable at the moment in any format!?

And yes, we may need to make a very clear list of movies we need 4K's of in Europe to send to Arrow, Criterion, Second Sight et al, demanding satisfaction 😂

@sorteddan yeah, I think it would be a one direction deal as I think I found The King of Comedy to be more interesting overall. So I'd probably not want to watch Joker right afterwards, particularly. I remember when I first saw Joker it smacked me in the face as being heavily influenced by it though, and apparently online discussions seem rife about it, probably verging into the outrageous. I think people maybe have secondhand anger on the behalf of Scorsese due to Joker being super successful, and The King of Comedy being a flop. But it is what it is, I'd have seen TKoC multiple times at the cinema if i'd have been alive, as it's right up my alley. But I wasn't, so we can only blame the people of the 80's, not Joker for that one 😅

@Ravix
It may be for the best that The Joker just ripped off an underappreciated cult classic as the uproar drew more people into checking out or revisiting TKoC... Also I saw, regrettably, what happened when they tried to be more original with the sequel... Unless there is also a laughably bad, part musical King of Comedy 2 that I missed.

And I was an 80s person but probably too young to share much of the blame. But I will accept the responsibility anyhow. Think I was too busy watching Back to the Future, Ghostbusters and Police Academy to pay attention to Scorsese around then.

@sorteddan haha yeah, I do remember thinking "this is TKoC" multiple times as I watched Joker, TKoC being a film I guess I saw on the late night BBC/film4 cult movie slot at some point, and instantly loved for its American culture and celebrity worship satire and performance of De Niro, But I can't be mad at Joker finding success with the modern movie goer, and in a way i'm glad they annoyed people with the sequel because i'm a sicko 😂

I'll no doubt pick up the TKoC blu ray, and thus ruin my latest memory of Joker when I watch that. But at the moment enough time has passed to probably enjoy Joker on its own merits before I do that 🤞

@sorteddan Oh I only got the collecters edition for the first Nightmare on Elm Street. I don't think the 4K box set is out yet for all the films, and will probably be too pricey for me. Plus I'm not sure if I liked any of the films after the third one.

The game is pretty good, and was one of the reasons why i bought the 4K, apart from the price.

@Ravix Yeah there are a few films which I want and are annoyingly not available in this country. The Silence of the Lambs and The Abyss spring to mind. You can get them on ebay or other sites, but they have never been at price i'm happy to pay for.

The Tombstone steelbook was my most recent purchase also.

Fantastic film, and certainly Val Kilmer’s best performance. But a terrific cast overall, as well.

@Ravix Never heard of the King of Comedy, buf that film sounds really cool. Thanks for the recommendation!

@Matthewnh Agreed. I'm not a massive fan of westerns these days, as I watched too many of them as a kid with my Dad. But there are a few that I can go back to and Tombstone is one of them.

It was a troubled production as they changed directors part way through. The one that took over was out of his depth, so Kurt Rusell had to do a lot of the heavy lifting.

@JohnnyShoulder hmm, a pain indeed. Makes me wonder whether to start buying any of the more obscure titles I have my eye on that are currently available just in case they end up never coming back to our shores too. I'm very indecisive about what I feel like I should get next, though.

@Herculean I guess it would be considered a cult classic due to its initial flop. Definitely worth a watch or purchase.

So, I Had the Joker on last night...

I think I actually liked it more than I did first time, tbh. It's isn't perfect, but it is very watchable. And it looks pretty stunning on 4K, some of the depth in the city scenes gives a real 'reach out and touch it' feel.

And of course it had to have this mention:

So now i'm once again vexed that Criterion seemingly won't drop the price of their Blow Out 4K. I need that in my collection, but I don't think I can ever justify £30 for one movie that I can't even remember why I liked it 😅 I'm sure it is great, or at least certain that I will still like it, but still, come on Criterion!

@Ravix Buy them all!

Yeah I liked Joker more the second time round. Still didn't find it that enjoyable though but appreciated the craft involved. And of course Joaquin's performance is top, top class.

@JohnnyShoulder nooo 😭 I may be mad, but I'm not that mad 😂 I currently have a longlist that is getting longer, and hopefully that becomes a better curated shortlist so I can just cherry pick whatever is on a good deal, and just rent or stream the ones that fall off the list, if available.

Speaking of madness... Joker actually put me on the path of wondering just how many films that I would watch again feature characters with some kind of mental health issues. And it is quite a lot, oft a feature in movies and tv, it seems.

From Matchstick Men to Moon (a Sam Rockwell link)
He Was a Quiet Man to Mr. Robot (Christian Slater)
The Machinist to American Psycho (Bale)
Taxi Driver to TKoC to Joker (De Niro link)
Memento to Ravenous (maybe i'm reaching to get a Guy Pearce link, but maybe not. If anyone likes a Western/Horror give it a go)
From Bringing Out the Dead to... quite a lot of other Nicolas Cage films, let's say Bad Lieutenant and the list will go on and on and thus my longlist will grow inexorably if I keep at it.

Anyway, enough of that now, especially as some of these are hard to get a hold of too. Damn it. Now we're back to where we started 😅

I will have to hire Sol to make a spreadsheet

I saw Fantastic Four: First Steps yesterday; the superhero movie of the year I was least excited about. I saw the first trailer and it all felt a bit "off" to me, I felt the 60s vibe didn't work too well and the cast didn't feel great (particularly Johnny Storm and The Thing). I heard that it contained a comic accurate version of Galactus, and I am nothing if not an MCU completionist, so I was always going to see it. So, I dodged all the subsequent trailers and, finally, yesterday rolled around.

And I freaking loved it. This is without a doubt the most comic accurate MCU movie ever made, nailing the characters, the look and even the 60s retro-futuristic setting worked exceedingly well. It also is the MCU project that has had the most respect and love for the source material, embracing the goofiness pf the comics (yes, even Mole Man makes an appearance) and they even include the scene from the iconic cover of Fantastic Four #1.

Okay, so the plot isn't all that original (superheroes must save the world from a cosmic threat) and while it was fun, it was rarely funny, but my criticism ends there. As I mentioned, they nailed the characters, Silver Surfer and Galactus were brilliant and they managed to avoid the trap of making Human Torch a one-note dumb playboy. Like Superman, this was another colourful and fun superhero movie, which is exactly the way I like them

@Pacific

Donnie Darko is an excellent film, but most certainly one that does not make sense the first time around.
But I also think that does it not have the same impact if you understand it all. Perhaps you are still meant to have questions.

Also excellent performance from Patrick Swayze, whose character is almost totally unlikeable.

Similar to film Memento, the Usual Suspects, and Tenet. Multiple viewings are required.
I enjoyed Tenet so much, that I went to the cinema to watch it two days in a row.

Another modern western I really enjoyed is Kevin Costner’s “Open Range”.
Robert Duvall and Michael Gambon are both excellent. You would not know that it was the same man who played Dumbledore.

@Matthewnh another Tenet appreciator. I feel like that was one that split the room, but I was happy with it.

With the films you've listed there, I wondered how how do you feel about:

The Guest
Moon
12 Monkeys
Vanilla Sky
Bringing Out The Dead
The Machinist
Predestination
K-Pax
Being John Malcovich
Looper
De Ja Vu
Lucy
Source Code
Or the other Nolan "mind bending/time travel entries

I know this is a massive drop of titles, but if there are any you are unfamiliar with, I'd bet you'd like a good few of them so it could serve as a recommendation. They range in quality and genre to an extent, but I'd lump them together as similar types of movies.

@Ravix have you seen 'Coherence' (movie, 2013)? Maybe my favorite mind-bender out there.

Also, 'Primer' - a bit more cerebral, but perhaps the best time travel movie ever made

@CJD87 i'm not sure. I feel like I recognise Primer by the art. Coherence, perhaps not.

I'm now wondering if it is worth adding 10 Cloverfield Lane into this big list of random slightly related weird stuff too, as it popped into my head out of nowhere, but I honestly can't remember anything about it other than it was probably pretty damn good. That is potentially a good thing though, because now I can watch it again at some point and see if i'm right to think that or not 😅

Damn, I really wish I'd spent more time collecting DVD's and Blu Rays instead of simply watching via TV and then later on streaming seevices. It makes it an absolute pain to remember anything that might be worth watching again, and then having to track down where it might be streaming these days or if it is even still available to buy 😅