Topic: The Movie Thread

@FuriousMachine I think it is one of those strange effects of 'if you don't know you don't notice as much' but since moving back to physical something has to be very engaging to not drift and notice bitrate issues and artifacts, loss of image data etc. I think watching with people slightly reduces the noticing effect, too, as you are kind of instinctively more forgiving of the content somehow. There is probably some kind of interesting chemical reasoning behind that though, but it doesn't change the fact that image data is lost, just how much you actively notice.

I think my main realisation came with the GoT 4k stream vs a standard Blu Ray discs. There is a boat sailing on dark seas, and the stream version was just a mess of pixels getting confused and I was like... 'oh, damn! that... that looks really quite sh**' 😅 and since then it is pretty obvious when backgrounds, shadows, dark scenes are just completely lost in the presentation of the image data.

That said, I recently enjoyed the latest Knives Out on Netflix 🙃

@FuriousMachine The kind of of piracy quality you are looking for does exists off the surface web, less peer 2 peer but I wouldn't advise dabbling on there unless you have 'tour guides' or are running on virtual machines and even then it's not worth it. With most of the release|groups it's about getting it out there first so quality takes a knock, it's a kind of race/game for a lot of people who do it. From the old 700mb YF (not completing the name) to the current 2GB (TX) Right now there are about fifteen S-tier (their term) groups who compete in those rooms for that top spot. It's about the feedback from the DL's the 'you guys r0ck!' so it's half a game and half a service.

You are looking more for something like this (no links, not breaking any rules, it's an example of file data)

Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 4
File size : 23.1 GiB
Duration : 1 h 38 min
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 33.6 Mb/s
Frame rate : 23.976 FPS
Title : ----------------------------------
Encoded date : 2025-12-16 08:44:20 UTC

or you see

Modalità frame rate : Costante
Frequenza fotogrammi : 23,976 (24000/1001) fps
Spazio colore : YUV
Sottocampionamento croma : 4:2:0 (Type 2)
Profondità bit : 10 bit
Bit/(pixel*frame) : 0.304
Timecode primo fotogramma : 00:00:00:00
Dimensione traccia : 72,6 GiB (95%)

That's 4K Ultra HD. It's all there but groups don't push it onto the surface web because peer 2 peer surface web users want fast content, they don't want to download an 80GB movie. Piracy has improved but it's moved elsewhere. Like everything you can get anything if you know where to look, should you? Well I don't support piracy because I have the resources to do what's right but a lot of people can't afford to even have Netflix so I understand it.

The premium groups on the DeepWeb don't charge, they believe in free media for those who can't afford it and as we've talked about with books before I do believe knowledge should be free, I'd never pirate a video-game. I look at North Korea as an example, when I was there they had no real media only smuggled in USB content, it's a tough argument to make. I've seen it from both sides and technically I'm living it too, but yes everything exists in certain places.

@GirlVersusGame Yeah, I am aware that these things are available when one knows where to look. I guess it's a good thing that they're not readily available to anyone with a browser and some things down there shouldn't be available at all, but this is the way society has always been and I don't see that changing as long as humans are in control of things

@Ravix I too enjoyed Wake Up Dead Man. Glenn Close and Josh Brolin were excellent, I think

@FuriousMachine It's a good thing that they're not readily available to anyone with a browser and some things down there shouldn't be available at all.

• That's how I view most of what I see on encrypted networks, parts are for me a personal necessity but the majority of services etc on there don't benefit society. It's the any port in a storm for me, I'll dock there for a time then depending on the waters maybe go elsewhere, others networks etc. Keep on rollin' as they say.

I quite enjoyed the first 2 Avatar films. I'm a sucker for some stunning visual world building even when the story is basic. Still, this review for the new one I found very entertaining.

watching Prancer on Tubi

man, Sam Elliot's father character is mean. planning on giving away his one and only daughter to live witih her aunt just because he couldnt sell his dumb beat up tractor or whatever

I've just finished watching 'Terror of Mechagodzilla' a great way to cap off the Showa Era. I just have to pray we eventually get a Heisei Era box set from Criterion.

@MightyDemon82 Great timing! I finally got back to the series yesterday and watched Destroy All Monsters, and so was coming here to tell you that you were right, it's one of the better ones! For some reason, I got it confused with what I gather is coming up next. Didn't expect them to make another sweeping epic after Ebirah and Son of Godzilla kept the action local.

Glad to hear Terror of Mechagodzilla makes for a great ending to the era and yes, fingers crossed for that Heisei collection sometime soon! From what I gather, there are some weird licencing rules about only allowing a certain number of Blu-Ray releases per year, so I'm hoping 2026 delivers!

Glenn Close was an absolute hoot in Wake Up Dead Man! Josh O'Connor was very good, too. I did find the film quite predictable, but the performances more than made up for it. Firstly, it shows the crime being committed, and secondly, one character's grief was so performative, alongside their other behaviour and interactions with the victim. Other characters didn't really have much of a point or any clear motive.

Well Marvel clearly thought 'everyone has guessed it, let's just confirm it'. One of the strangest teasers I've ever seen.

I'm not totally up to date with all things Marvel but not sure how they are going to do this. Endgame committed to him being an old man in the current timeline. Are they going to do more time travel or is he going to be some other 'multiverse' version? This sort of stuff just gets messy and meaningless for me. It doesn't fill me with optimism.

I hope with the starting of the release countdown they aren't putting too much pressure on their VFX departments.

EDIT: @FuriousMachine reading the comments, it seems this is the first of those 4 different teasers shown before Avatar you mentioned. So it seems the plan is to show it in cinemas for a week then move to the next and show the original/previous one online.

@BearsEatBeets This scene is actually at his (1940's?) house where he settled down. So it seems like they will just split it from when he did the old man cameo timeline in one of those ways you mentioned.

I don't like that they gave him this soft happy ending timeline anyway tbh, so maybe this time we get a more mature variation of an ending for the character 🤷‍♂️

Do we think a certain Hugo Weaving will return? Maybe Furious will know more as I didn't make it that far into my Marvel rewatch, but I think he had an ambiguous fate

@Ravix Yeah I always had mixed feelings about the ending for Cap in Endgame. I liked that he got to be with Peggy in a way but it becomes to messy for me rather than just putting things back where they were. Could someone like Cap seriously live out his live knowing of terrible things that would occur through time and not try and prevent it. I suppose he knows the risks with tampering with the timeline and could try and shut himself away from the world with Peggy somewhere but I'm not convinced.

Using time travel in Endgame was always going to open a can of worms plot wise and adding the multiverse even more so.

Maybe once I eventually get around to seeing Fantastic Four I might have a slightly better idea how things might proceed. I'm assuming that story has some significance to the introduction of Doom and the next films.

EDIT: Oh yes and as to Hugo Weavings character, it's my understanding his current state is he is stuck on that planet that houses the soul stone (can't recall the name). So I'm not sure he will play a part. At least not that 'version'.

EDIT 2: Also, I've never understood how Cap was supposed to put that stone 'back' either.

@Werehog I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a direct sequel to Godzilla Vs Mechagodzilla but also the original movie with plenty other parts of the lore scattered in.

Just watched 'The Holdovers' fantastic film. Funny and touching with great performances.

@BearsEatBeets honestly I can't remember. I don't necessarily pay full attention when Marvel movies are on, it has to be said 🙈

I remember something about the planet and the stones. I will maybe have to watch a couple more from where I left off, or at least the avengers stuff, I guess, over the holidays sometime.

I only made it half way through Fantastic Four so maybe there os some set up there 😅

@Ravix @BearsEatBeets If you do have to watch other movies to get the best 'context' or whatever from the latest Marvel film, then I'm already out. I'm so sick of that ****. Which is fine, as I'm really into Marvel stuff these days.

I did watch Superman last night, and it was only ok. It did nothing wrong per say, I just found it felt like I'd seen it a gazillion times before. The cast all did a fine job, but I did find Krypto annoying whenever he was on screen.

I would say I've become disillusioned with the whole superhero thing, but I've enjoyed season 2 of Gen Z so far, and I liked The Batman and Deadpool & Wolverine, so it is not all comic book stuff I don't like.

@FuriousMachine You were right about Zootopia 2, I watched it last night then went and watched the first one again. It was a lot funnier than I expected too, I haven't watched your Christmas Norwegian movie yet.

@Ravix or Drive (sorry Ravix) I heard Knives Out is quite good so maybe that will be next.

@JohnnyShoulder I've seen maybe five Marvel movies, there must be twenty now I wouldn't even know where to start. I liked the Thomas Jane Punisher movie, and the first two Blade movies but not the last two. The third one was okay, the fourth one was absolutely dreadful. I'm counting Darkman as Marvel too, it's a movie from 1990 directed by Sam Raimi and starring Liam Neeson. It was right after Evil Dead 2 and just before Army of Darkness and The Quick and The Dead so he was in his element and it shows.

@GirlVersusGame Ah yeah, I remember Darkman. I enjoyed it at the time, would be interesting to see if it still holds up. Done in a different era, way before the Marvel bump but only just after Tim Burton's Batman.

I probably watched all of the Marvel stuff up to Endgame, and was beginning to become fed up with all the interconnectivity of them by then.

@JohnnyShoulder Oh so it's sort of required viewing to watch every previous modern one to make sense of the new ones? I'd have to put aside a week for that. I did like Spawn too, it's not Marvel. I'm not even sure if you'd call him a superhero. It was darker and a little more interesting, I can see a lot of potential for a modern reboot. Great soundtrack too, I found Stabbing Westward from that movie (then from Escape from LA) Korn, Metallica, Prodigy were all on there too.

Just finished 'Wake up Dead man'. I enjoyed this one far more than 'Glass Onion'. Glen Close was absolutely fantastic in this.