@GirlVersusGame It got worse when they started integrating the TV shows onto Disney+. At least the Netflix shows were pretty much self-contained, and only mentioned the events of the films in passing. Even if the stuff you are missing out on wasn't that substantial, the thought would be there for me. And not as bad as Star Wars having a major plot point for The Rise of Skywalker only available in Fortnite.
Life is more fun when you help people succeed, instead of wishing them to fail.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
@JohnnyShoulder Oh that's not going to happen then, I'll eventually catch up with the DareDevil show because that was really good but having to watch a TV show to stay in the loop of a movie franchise is a little too much.
These violent delights have violent ends & in their triumph die, like fire & powder Which, as they kiss, consume.
Just saw the new Avatar, at the cinema, Christmas Eve. The film was spectacular. A good continuation of the story, and I enjoyed it more than the first two.
Deserves to be watched in the cinema. You need a big screen to appreciate it.
This was the third, and I think two more Avatar movies are planned, or already in production.
The only new movie I watched over the holiday week was The Naked Gun (2025). I'm a big fan of the original TV series and movie trilogy starring Leslie Nielsen, so I was sceptical of a contemporary reboot until I saw that some genius somewhere had gone and cast Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson as the film's two leads. While some sequences definitely took their gags a little too far, the trademark sense of humour was upheld, and that's the most important part... as proven by the fact that my partner, who can't stand said humour, absolutely hated it. Me? I had a blast, and I'd happily watch a sequel.
"If I let not knowing anything stop me from doing something, I'd never do everything!"
@Werehog The scene with the thermal camera almost killed me, and the 'thanks Dad' with the Owl. I watched the movie with such low expectations, I was sure it would be terrible because it was modern and the spark would be gone. I don't know how they did, it turned out great.
These violent delights have violent ends & in their triumph die, like fire & powder Which, as they kiss, consume.
@GirlVersusGame Yep, was definitely a pleasant surprise! Right down to cringe-laughing at some of the rudest jokes in the exact same way I occasionally cringe-laugh at the classics. I absolutely adore the smaller, rapid-fire wordplay gags as well, stuff like, "I moved here for college." "UCLA?" "I see it every day. I live here." They're such an integral component, wouldn't have been the same without 'em!
"If I let not knowing anything stop me from doing something, I'd never do everything!"
@Werehog It makes me wonder what a Police Academy reboot might look like, if they did it right. But given how many people they'd have to cast, if they got it wrong it could be really bad. I think City Under Siege was their best one even-though it's one the their lowest rated. Those were the kinds of movies I grew up with, I was only about thirty five years behind. Now modern comedy, since I did catch up with it doesn't hit the same way. Liam Neeson pulled it off, I'm not sure who else could. Spaceballs 2 should begin shooting next year, I've my fingers crossed for that. Rick Moranis has mostly been doing voice acting, it might be his first proper role since the nineties.
These violent delights have violent ends & in their triumph die, like fire & powder Which, as they kiss, consume.
@GirlVersusGame Yeah, modern comedy movies often leave me cold. I tend to get bigger laughs from the quips in comic book movies, which is a damning indictment. I need to re-watch the original Spaceballs at some point. Mel Brooks has never been a guarantee for me, but he and I definitely share a similar sense of humour, so I'm hoping the sequel can be a last hurrah for him. Funny you should mention Police Academy as I'd never seen 'em before, so my partner and I started working our way through the box set a couple months back. We made it... hmm, three in? Maybe four? They sorta blended together (we even watched two back-to-back, which was probably a mistake) but we keep meaning to go back and finish the series, if only because I think there are strong rumours of an impending reboot / revival. At least The Naked Gun proved that such things can work, so hopefully they'll follow the same blueprint.
"If I let not knowing anything stop me from doing something, I'd never do everything!"
I've managed to watch quite a few films over the festive break of varying interest. Starting with a quick shout out to the Christmas animated film Klaus. I first watched this a couple of years ago but gave it a rewatch and found it as charming and entertaining as I remembered. I don't think I see this mentioned much around the topic of Christmas films which is a shame.
Superman This was going as a cheap rent and it was the kind of film I was in the mood for so I gave it a try. Whilst it kept my attention and I was reasonably entertained it didn't make a big impact on me. I found some of the themes jarring with the cartoony characters. I suppose it is kind of Gunn's style and I'm a fan of the GoG films but this one didn't gel with me. I felt like it had too many characters and things going on that it all felt rushed.
Still, I imagine this is more aimed at fans of Superman comics and I never really connected with much DC stuff so I was never really the target audience.
Minecraft I had no plans to bother watching this but it was on Christmas Day tv and it was something to watch with my Mum (who will happily watch anything with Jason Momoa). I suppose as I went in with such low expectations I ended up thinking it was alright. Credit to Jason Momoa he steals the film for me and played his goofy role well. Not something I'd bother to watch again but not a complete waste either.
Oppenheimer One of the type of films I put in a watchlist but take ages to be in the right mood to watch (especially given the running time). This one falls into the category of films I say I'm glad that I watched, and found well made and interesting, but I highly doubt I'll ever be tempted to watch again in the future. Some of the time jumps early on took a bit of time to get a handle on but otherwise it kept me engrossed. Great performances throughout from a packed cast.
Frankenstein Maybe I wasn't in the right mood for this one but it didn't land for me at all. One of the rare times I actually just gave up on it after an hour. Normally even a poor film can make me curious enough to see where it goes but found I really didn't care with this one. I found the very start quite good but once it turned into Victor telling his life story I just found it dull and uninteresting. Maybe if I stuck with it a bit longer it picks up again but I can't see me bothering.
K-Pop Demon Hunters Seeing as I've got Netflix for a bit longer and I have a fondness for animated movies I thought I would see what the fuss was all about. Whilst I wasn't big on a lot of the music in it I quite enjoyed it and could understand why it was popular. Another worthy of a watch but not something I'm likely to seek out in the future.
I almost forgot the pick of the bunch
Wake up Dead Man Another great film in the Benoit Blanc series. An excellent cast of characters with the standout being Josh O'Connor, who much like Ana de Armas in the first film, steals the show as Jud Duplenticy. A compelling story which kept me entertained throughout. Almost as good as the original, even maybe as good, I'll reserve full judgement until seeing how a second viewing in the future holds up.
It makes me wonder how Rian Johnson did such a poor job with Star Wars. Maybe he is better making his own characters/worlds. Then again I wasn't that impressed with Looper either.
Anyway I think that's all. I did rewatch Heat last night. Still good but maybe not quite as good as I remembered. I'm going to watch Ghostbusters Frozen Empire when that hits Netflix tomorrow. I really enjoyed Afterlife but I know this one was widely panned so I will go in with low expectations.
@BearsEatBeets Anyway I think that's all. I did rewatch Heat last night. Still good but maybe not quite as good as I remembered.
Try L.A. Takedown. Michael Mann's original from 1989. You might like it. There's Heat 2 also, a novel by Michael Mann. a lot of people don't even know it exists. It's gotten great reviews and was a New York Times bestseller.
These violent delights have violent ends & in their triumph die, like fire & powder Which, as they kiss, consume.
@GirlVersusGame@BearsEatBeets Not only that, but Mann is currently looking to adapt it into a movie (wikipedia link), with Leonardo DiCaprio confirming his involvement just last month and Adam Driver being looked at as a possible young McCauley.
@FuriousMachine I didn't realize, I'll read it again before it gets released. I'd be interested to see how they balance the before and after. You don't see a lot of directors turn novelist, many wrote their own screenplays like Tarantino. Maybe Neil Jordan, Cronenberg definitely wrote some novels and obviously Guillermo del Toro. It's still very rare, Michael Mann was the last director I expected to do it. He writes very good dialogue, but HEAT had a very good cinematographer (Dante Spinottiy, Last of the Mohicans, Manhunter, L.A. Confidential) it's impossible to recreate his work in words alone. He's an artist, you've probably watched a lot of movies that he worked on and never even noticed his name. Cinematographers and DPs are a kind of unsung hero, I love his work. By Manhunter I mean the original 1986 movie, also directed by Mann. The original Hannibal Lecktor, Silence of the Lambs is brilliant but Manhunter absolutely holds it's own. I just remembered a song for my playlist. And of course it's greyed out on Spotify.
This track, I believe it's on the end credits, I've been forgetting to add it for years. They sound like Phil Collins no? it might just be because it's 80's. I might watch it again tonight, it's been years.
@GirlVersusGame Brian Cox was a good Hannibal Lecter and "Manhunter" runs circles around "Red Dragon", if you ask me. I haven't read any of the books, so I don't know which is the better adaptation, though.
Yeah, DPs and cinematographers are definitely undervalued, though I've noticed quite a few on here know to appreciate them. I believe I've discussed both "Dark City" (Dariusz Wolski, who Proyas likes to work with) and "Nightmare Alley" (Dan Laustsen, who also did stellar work on the John Wick movies and, of course, several other DelToro films, including "Frankenstein") on these forums earlier.
I'm not able to properly listen to the music at the moment, nor do I remember the song specifically, but pretty much everything sounded like Phil Collins back in those days
@FuriousMachine If someone told me that person was Phil Collins I'd believe them. I never thought to check but now Chris de Burgh sounds like him too so you are probably right, maybe even Peter Gabriel. Somehow Nightmare Alley completely escaped me, Guillermo del Toro too. It looks like it was Fox Searchlight so that's probably why, then it went to HBO and Hulu, I don't really watch either. I haven't seen John Wick either, I've heard they are very good but someone said his puppy dies and I heard he kills a lot of Russians, and that I might not like it I'm not sure yet, I think he's a great actor.
I'm holding out for Constantine two. I really like Peter Stormare, Francis Lawrence just needs to stop making Hunger Games movies so it can actually be made. I didn't realize Bone Temple was so close it will be good to find out what happened after the end of the first part, unexpected is one word I'd use. The last scene felt a lot more like Doomsday, Neil Marshall movie than the rest of the movie. I half expected them to start blasting two tribes go to war by Frankie Goes To Hollywood. Instead it was some kind of Metal Teletubbies
These violent delights have violent ends & in their triumph die, like fire & powder Which, as they kiss, consume.
Just finished off my home setup last night.
Finally put my projector screen on the wall.
Needed lots of help doing that. The job required at least two of us to lift it and hold into place. Whilst a third person did all of the drilling.I have now spent the last few nights sorting it out properly, and rebalancing my speakers.
I have so far only watched clips, favourite scenes from movies on 4k. I need to try and relax, and enjoy a film without worrying about how it looks, and tweaking the details in the setup. That’s the problem that comes from having worked in a cinema!
Anyone have any recommendations for a good test disc? What is the first thing I ought to fully watch on my new “big screen”?
Although I don't have a projector, I too spent a time tweaking features when I got my TV and then when I got my Sonos setup, I can kinda feel your pain.
As for movies for test discs, the ones that came to mind are Blade Runner 2049, Dune (Part One & Two), Mad Max: Fury Road, The Revenant, Top Gun: Maverick, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and nature documentaries like Planet Earth II. If you don't have any nature docs on disc, they are some really good ones on the BBC iplayer. I know some people turn their nose up at streaming, but honestly some of the docs one there that are in UHD are absolutely stunning!
Life is more fun when you help people succeed, instead of wishing them to fail.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
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