Topic: The Movie Thread

@GirlVersusGame Yeah, absolutely. This wasn't a reviewer, though, these were simply the reactions of fairly "regular" movie goers, so that was what made me wonder if people in general viewed these movies as "scary movies" and I was just being jaded or something.

@JohnnyShoulder I'm also a big fan of "Pitch Black". I have the Arrow release from 2020 and it's a wonderful package
The Vin-man is busy prepping the next movie in the franchise; think maybe they've even entered active production on it. Looking forward to that one!

@FuriousMachine Nah it sounds like that person needs to be sat down with an actual horror movie, then they'll know the difference. I hope they know the Robocop and The Terminator are Sci-fi too. Though I have heard some people refer to the original Alien as horror, I think the original Fox genre on the VHS box was 'Sci-fi Horror'.

@GirlVersusGame Of all mentioned, I would say "Alien" is the one that hews closest to being "horror", but that comes mainly from the movie being very good at creating suspense (something I felt was lost in the subsequent movies, but was brought back to a large degree in "Alien: Earth"). Wouldn't go so far as calling it actual "horror", though.

@JohnnyShoulder I will have to find out if the blacks are inky enough to pontificate about 🧐

Apparently the uptick in detail intensifies the wounds and gore 😂 so there's that, haha! think it will be a grainy film, but I can take that with Scarface, as I have probably only ever seen it on tv or dvd anyway. I imagine the club and night scenes will look noice.

Pitch Black is another i've casually avoided for reasons unknown. Never felt swayed to watch that one 🤷‍♂️

@FuriousMachine i'm quite glad you mentioned it at the time, as I would have just pre-ordered that one and moved on. But the fact I didn't led me to find this Film Vault version still knocking about in the depths of the amazon. The blood trail really draws the eye with a kind of semi-gloss effect (pictured with my other October snaffles) And it better portrays Tony's downfall with him sat alone at the desk, rather than the new one where he is surrounded by cut outs of the rest of the cast, which must be the most common design trend going.

Was the movie itself just a 'one-and-done' type affair for you, where it didn't click so you moved on? It isn't exactly absolute cinema, but it had enough ott style and violence to appeal to a younger me. And the OST rivals other 80's cheese such as Top Gun (which i've also avoided and never seen for reasons unknown. I guess I always assumed it was a super Americansed patriotism kind of movie 🫣 and apart from the K-Logg theme tune it might have no redeemable qualities if that were the case)

@Ravix It’s funny because I was just hearing someone say that Top Gun is one of the most overrated movies out there. Honestly, there’s probably some truth to that. I rewatched it a couple years ago and it’s fairly cheesy, even by 80’s standards. I don’t know if it’s Americanized patriotism per se (hard to say since I’m living in it), at least not any more than many of the other military themed movies. I don’t think the fact that the characters are all US Navy pilots is as important as the fact they are just dude-bro pilots in a competitive flight school with all the brash ego that goes with that.

Top Gun Maverick (which is a much more entertaining movie by today’s standards, imho) is probably more rah-rah America than its predecessor. But it’s quite a good popcorn flick. A friend of mine cried during it. So if there’s something good to be said for seeing Top Gun it would be that it serves as a meaningful segue into Maverick.

@Th3solution oh yeah, the Americanised "I must be better than you, dude-bro" aspect within was maybe what made it more off-putting , to be fair. I prefer my war themed movies to be about, you know, the horrors of war, rather than it being idolised as a fun time for cool guys.

Is there at least a scrap of satire or some poignant questions asked, or is it literally: guys battling over who is faster and more daring, but with million dollar killing machines. And, of course, who gets the girl and a coca cola endorsement at the end, or whatever? 🦅

They are supposed to be top tier 4k transfers, however. And it is Tony Scott, so maybe I should have given it a watch. I just can't get over the feeling they will be empty and exploitative and celebrating something that I despise. Maybe they aren't how I imagine 🤷‍♂️

@Ravix I might not be a good judge of the way the film may come across to a non-American audience, but in an emperor’s-new-clothes sort of way, I don’t think it comes across nationalistic or even political. But the pilots don’t sit down and discuss flight theory over tea and crumpets before going out and playing a round of croquet. They yell at each other and then play sweaty shirtless beach volleyball before speeding around on their motorcycles. 😂

And in seriousness, there’s more interpersonal plot development than tactical combat. Romance and bromance, with a sprinkling of personal tragedy and redemption. But all pretty standardized, relatively shallow, and predictable. The films play with your emotions on a certain level with the “🎶Highway to the danger zone…🎵” pumping full blast with Cruise gritting his teeth to flex his jaw at every opportunity. There’s a high chance that your eyes will be sore from rolling back so far. But I don’t think that the films honestly are trying to celebrate imperialist, capitalist, ethnocentric militarism or fanaticism (but again — Emperor’s new clothes so I might be blind to it). I would never even class them as war movies. I guess there’s international conflict as part of the plot, but just like with James Bond flicks, the home country is represented culturally and then whoever the bad guy is tends to just be generic “bad people from a cliché system outside” rather than a meaningful targeted lifestyle or ideology. You’re led to root for the protagonists because the film direction steers you that way. But if Cruise and company get on your nerves enough then you may find yourself pulling for his plane to crash into a mountainside. 😂

@Ravix With "Scarface" I think I just came to it too late. Didn't see it until a few years ago, so it had a lot to live up to due to its iconic status and it just didn't deliver for me. I will probably give it a rewatch now that expectations are different, so I may grow to love it. We'll see.

I'll echo most of what @Th3solution says on the Top Guns. I wasn't a rabid Top Gun fan growing up as many of my contemporaries were (are), but it certainly had a place in my adolescence. Plus, Tony Scott. His involvement ensured that I held the movie in high regard even if I hadn't seen it since the late 80s, early 90s. When "Top Gun: Maverick" was about to be released, I gave it a rewatch and hated it.

The movie is quite toothless when it comes to what one might consider glorifying warfare, American military exceptionalism and nationalism and things like that, it's not that kind of movie. Nor is there any satire to be found anywhere. My issues comes from the dude-bro angle and the simple fact that Cruise's character is a massive douchebag who not only gets away with reckless and dangerous behaviour, but is rewarded for it. He's a rebel with a smile, you see. A "Maverick". Utter dreck. Outside of that, you get some cool aerial combat sequences that are pretty amazing considering that the special effects of the time didn't allow for much else than actually doing all the stunts practically. Think that may be where Cruise picked up his stunt-work ethos.

None of the things I hated with "Top Gun" are present in the sequel, though. "Top Gun: Maverick" I really enjoyed and even own the steelbook that came out (which is a quite fine release). I would recommend seeing them both, with the caveat that the first one is something you probably won't like, but no Tony Scott movie should go unseen and you'll have some backstory for the second one (not that it is all that necessary), which is a genuinely good "high-octane action flick" (which, of course, is code for "you won't find much deep character work here, but, oooh, explosions!")

@GirlVersusGame now you've given me some more movies to check out. I have to work this weekend but my wife is away, I can feel a movie marathon coming on as soon as I'm home on Saturday.

@FuriousMachine Yeah, I think it sounds like we’re of a similar mind and experience.

I’m pretty sure we’ve had a Tom Cruise discussion on this thread before so I won’t go into detail, but I find him to be really one-note in his character portrayal. Every now and then he’ll surprise us, but so many of his characters he plays are all interchangeable— action hero with a lot of swagger for which nothing ever goes wrong, or at least wrong enough that he can’t get himself out of it as the rebel with a smile, as you accurately describe. He’s made a living of playing the same basic role over and over. And to give him due credit, he has the Midas touch and his movies almost always seem to be successful and produce.

It’s why I liked Edge of Tomorrow so much. It’s one of the few times he plays a character who comes across as at least a little vulnerable and timid and has to grow into the heroic role. Plus the movie was very ‘video-gamey’ in concept with the respawn angle, so I got a kick out of that.

@Th3solution @FuriousMachine

I must say that I agree with you both about Tom Cruise.

He seems to have made a career playing the same role over and over again for the last forty years.
Perhaps he cannot even act? Maybe he truly is just an arrogant, cocky *****, that everybody loves for no discernible reason? Am I being unfair?

The Mission Impossible films are truly over-the-top, but something is lost in the making of them. Where is the sense of danger, when you know that no matter what happens to Tom Cruise in the following three hours, he will somehow manage to survive it all, without so much as a scratch? And grinning like an idiot, every thirty seconds.

The only real oddity for me, is Michael Mann’s Collateral. Here, Cruise’s role is certainly the villain, and he is the only person on screen with any charisma. I can respect him for trying something different in that role, and it is a pity that afterwards he went back to, in a sense, playing it safe.

@MightyDemon82 Does your wife watch Horror? I ask because my partner doesn't, Sci-fi yes but never Horror. I've been showing my friend Horror movies for the last few years, she didn't watch them growing up. There's something brilliant about introducing someone to a movie or game that's so memorable to you, the same with bad movies. There are some I would have dropped half way in (Borderlands, The Crow Reboot, Jeepers Creepers 4) had I watched them alone but when there's another person present you can combine your efforts to power through. JC4 was probably one of the worst movies I've ever seen, even the sets were green screen. They shot it in the UK so some of the main talent are from Eastenders and Hollyoaks.

@Matthewnh I’ve not seen Collateral, and honestly I’ve not seen some of Cruise’s lesser known movies like Vanilla Sky and The Last Samurai. But I’ve seen a lot of Cruise flicks and you’re absolutely right. The Mission Impossibles, Jack Reachers, Minority Report, Jerry Maguire, Days of Thunder, War of the Worlds, Oblivion, Top Guns, etc. all seem to have really similar basic roles. The guy has charisma, no doubt, and people seem to love him. He also looks really good for someone in his early to mid 60’s. Many actors and actresses have not aged nearly as gracefully and either do so much cosmetic surgery attempting to keep themselves looking 20 years younger that they end up looking unnatural and even worse, or they say ‘screw it’ and look completely over-the-hill almost drastically from when they were at their peak. I can respect embracing one’s age and I have no idea if Cruise has had a lot of work done (I suspect he has) but he’s managed to still look much the same as he did 20 years ago. He had a little bit of ‘saggy old man body’ when he went shirtless in TG Maverick, but for 60, not too bad. 😄

@FuriousMachine I wasn't overly keen on the other movies in the Pitch Black series. I thought the second film was dreadful and don't remember anything from the third film. Didn't even realise the was another being made, but unless the reaction to to it turns out to amazing, I think I will be skipping it unfortunately.

@Th3solution I can't really stand Tom Cruise anymore, I know it's a religion but I've met too many survivors of Scientology to not view him differently. However Collateral is top notch. It's one of Michael Mann's best movies, right up there with Heat and his original L.A. Take-down. Honestly seeing it mentioned makes me want to watch it again. It's an intelligent movie with some great dialogue and cinematography. I'll probably watch it tonight while I play some Rimworld.

Last two films were both works by Kiyoshi Kurosawa (the director for the OG Pulse). First Cure, which is credited as being one of the early pieces of the J-Horror boom period and Creepy, which was regarded as Kurosawa going back to the well that made him rich, after years of experimenting in other genres and stories and finding little success.

I thought Cure was solid, it has some really cool ideas and is gorgeously constructed, but it does have that fairly typical J-Horror pacing (IE, it is glacially slow) and a lot of the story is fairly abstract, more about vibes and atmosphere than truly coherent storytelling, so these all held me back from loving this, but I absolutely enjoyed it overall.

Creepy on the other hand, I just thought was terrible. Sorta like a rerun of Cure, but with a way worse story, and while it does fix some aspects to Cure, like its slightly better paced and up until the third act where it just completely implodes in on itself, it is a more coherently put together story, but these things either don't go far enough to actually fix things completely or just weirdly end up making the film less interesting and given the third act is so bad, and it has little of Cure's real upside, just really didn't like this at all.

@GirlVersusGame She's not a huge movie lover but she will watch horror with me. JC4 sounds like a riot just spotting soap actors 🤣

Congratulations Movie Thread! 1,000.0k veiws (1 million) 💪

I don't think the site could handle listing it as 1 million, and it stood out to me while browsing.

What are we all watching tonight in celebration? 🥂

@Th3solution @Matthewnh @GirlVersusGame "Edge of Tomorrow" is a brilliant watch, but Michael Mann's "Collateral" is probably my hands down favourite Tom Cruise movie. He plays so much against type there and the movie is fantastic. An underseen gem, for sure, and definitely worth hunting down. "Vanilla Sky" is okay. I loved it back in the day, but a recent rewatch revealed that I've cooled on it quite a bit. "The Last Samurai" is also a favourite of mine, even if it is a text-book representation of the problematic "white saviour" trope. I just love the samurai angle and it is so beautifully shot. Cruise is also very good in it, but the stars of the show are Ken Watanabe and Hiroyuki Sanada (of recent "Shogun" fame). Easily my favourite Zimmer soundtrack to boot. Love that movie.

As for Cruise as a person, there are no shortage of people extolling his work ethic and kindness to the people around him, so he seems to me to be a decent person with a problematic blind spot when it comes to Scientology. While Scientology is abominable, I don't hold it in much lower regard than I hold other organised religions, so while I won't give him a pass simply because there are Christians out there I find equally problematic (he is too high up in the Scientology food chain for that), I won't let it completely eclipse the reports of his day to day behaviour either, which seems to paint a picture of a nice guy that cares about people. So, like most people, he can be more than one thing.