Movie Discussion Thread

Discussion in 'Random Thoughts' started by sphinxvc, Dec 29, 2015.

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  1. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

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    That's one helluva movie weekend.
     
  2. Craigo

    Craigo MOT: Mage Audio

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    I liked both movies because they really didn’t care about the audience. They just happened. Sicario had an unconventional story structure, and Emily Blount really wasn’t even the main character. Benicio Del Toro was, but the story was told through her character’s perspective. She was just a passenger, like the audience. Soldado was even more unconventional because it completely removed the “passenger”. It was messy and shit got all fucked up and they had to adapt. Sollima’s direction really melded with the script. He got the hell out of the way and didn’t tell you what to think and feel, and he handled the action perfectly. I especially liked the police escort ambush. He could have done slow-mo shots of the rpg hits and plastered the screen with headshots and squibs, but instead he focused on the girl freaking out while everything goes down in the periphery. Brilliant.
     
    Last edited: Mar 8, 2019
  3. Pharmaboy

    Pharmaboy Friend

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    Speaking of WIND RIVER (which I liked pretty well), ~3 months ago I saw a remotely similar film starring one of my favorite character actors, Jeffrey Wright: HOLD THE DARK. Big disappointment. In it, one of the more opaque actors ever, Alexander Skarsgard, gets to chew the scenery in slow motion. A real masterpiece of Alaskan nihilism & faux mysticism. Wright went down with the ship, like everyone else. When you find yourself sitting there, thinking, "Gee, this violence is more pointless than usual," it's not a good cinema experience.

    If I really put my mind to it, I could list a half dozen films that used frigid locations to suggest all manner of plot & character depth that really wasn't in the screenplay to begin with.

    Hate being negative about films. When I manage to see good ones, the opposite sentiment is what I feel.
     
  4. Pharmaboy

    Pharmaboy Friend

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    ...and speaking of Benacio del Toro (just love that actor), some witty reviewer, commenting on THE WOLFMAN (& love that film--which also starred Emily Blunt) said something along the lines of, "Let's give credit to the casting director for casting Benacio del Toro in the title role. After all, he's 1/2 Wolfman to begin with."

    True. He's one of the best actors alive today IMO.
     
  5. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

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    Hold the Dark was very hard to get through. The directors previous two films (Blue Ruin and Green Room) were much much better.
     
  6. SoupRKnowva

    SoupRKnowva Official SBAF South Korean Ambassador

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    I watched The Hate U Give this weekend, and really enjoyed it, which was the opposite of my expectations. I thought it would spend the whole movie trying to shove its politics down my throat, but it really didn’t. It mostly just showed how shitty the situation was from all sides. There were a few times that I thought it went a little over board, but it wasn’t enough to bother me.

    The main girl, Amandla Stenberg, did an excellent job as well.
     
  7. Pharmaboy

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    Ironic. When this was in the theaters, I passed it up exactly because "I thought it would spend the whole movie trying to shove its politics down my throat."

    Judging by summaries I've read, its politics are actually my politics...still, I resist films that are political (have more than enough challenging conversations w/people IRL about politics).
     
  8. Pharmaboy

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    Slowly working my way through a flick on Netflix--CLOSE, starring Naomi Rapace. Watching her angular, familiar face onscreen, it occurred to me that:
    1. She is the entire film
    2. The camera loves her face (always does)
    3. I can't take my eyes off her. She has a muscular/compact grace that is compelling. I'm not letching on an actress here: I'm acknowledging her tangible/watchable screen presence.
    I had exactly the same reaction to her in a couple previous films (PROMETHEUS & THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO).

    IMO, she owns the Lisbeth Salander role. The other actresses I've seen in the role are good in their own ways, but it's Naomi's show all the way.
     
  9. ultrabike

    ultrabike Measurbator - Admin

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    I agree Noomi is a very attractive. Interesting Spanish + Sweedish mix. Seen a few of those.

    It is interesting that she took her mother's last name Noren. It is more standard to take the father's last name. She would have been Noomi Duran before marriage. A few friends of mine growing up are Duran.

    She seemed to have taken Rapace from her husband.
     
  10. Kernel Kurtz

    Kernel Kurtz Friend

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    I'm a fan of both war movies and zombie movies, so on the weekend I checked out the JJ Abrams produced Overlord. It was not among the best war movies or zombie movies I have seen (not surprisingly), but made for an entertaining combination. Certainly a worthy addition to the undead genre.
     
  11. SoupRKnowva

    SoupRKnowva Official SBAF South Korean Ambassador

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    Saw Captain Marvel in Laser IMAX thursday and as much hate as people on the internet seem to be giving it, I find it to be better than most Marvel movies and found it to be enjoyable. It doesn't feel quite as soulless as most marvel movies are.

    I thought the story was actually pretty grounded and most of the humor beats worked for me. Brie Larson really knocked it out of the park. I'm not a comic book nerd at all, so I don't know anything about what Captain Marvel's personality is supposed to be, but what Brie Larson was doing worked very well.

    It doesn't join the elite group of like 3 or 4 actually good Marvel movies, but it does land pretty close to the top of the stack of all the rest of them.
     
  12. BillOhio

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    Saw Captain Marvel earlier this week and want to like it but I can't. I found the handling of Nick Fury, as well as the cat, to be pretty dopey. Also, I worry that Captain Marvel may be Way overpowered and be the Superman of the Avengers. I didn't particularly care for the plot and its twistyness either.

    I enjoyed seeing the Skrulls on screen, I will say, but otherwise I found this one to be pretty inferior as much as I hate to admit it.
     
  13. eastboundofnowhere

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    The wife and I went to see Captain Marvel as well. To be fair, I was once a comic book nerd and Captain Marvel basically is supposed to be the Superman of the Marvel Universe; not sure how this will play out in the MCU due to the late introduction, but is basically comic accurate. Honestly, I thought Larson’s performance came off as rather wooden, in retrospect I know people like that in real life so it is forgivable but I do wonder if it was intentional or a lack of talent. I did like it, but it was a paint by numbers MCU movie. It was good and I liked it, but the really good ones did something different to separate themselves and this one did not. Ant man was Funny. Guardians tied itself closely to the soundtrack and kind of reminded me of early Star Wars. Winter Soldier, and by extension Civil War tied themselves to a spy thriller. This was really just a hang on until you see how crazy powerful she is, again she is supposed to be, but still. Basically I feel like the sequels could be great, like Ragnarok but they had to get the origin story out there first because the average filmgoer does not know the character.
     
  14. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

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    I hope Rogue steals her powers and defeats Thanos as an introduction to the MCU X-Men.

    I'm going to see Captain Marvel this week but I've worked it several times (I work at Alamo Drafthouse) and from the snippets I've seen, Larson does not come off well. Flat out bad in spots, like she's reading cue cards. If this is who they're trying to slot in as the new team leader, we're in trouble. She doesn't hold a candle to Downey Jr. or Chris Evans.
     
  15. TMRaven

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    Movies I've seen recently:

    Captain Marvel was painfully average and bland. Not a good movie. Cat was mildly amusing. Brie Larson was awful.

    Into the Spider Verse is terrific! Animation and art direction/style are top notch, and the humor is well integrated.

    Lego Movie 2.. I quit halfway through it. I wasn't really a fan of Lego Movie 1, but I acknowledge it as a good movie with the novelty being a strong driving factor. The 2nd movie completely lost me.

    Aquaman is another average superhero movie, but it has the novelty going for it, and I found it highly entertaining.
     
  16. Pharmaboy

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    I had only one reason to see AQUAMAN, and it turned out not be enough to get my ass in a movie seat: I'm a real fan of Jason Mamoa...this dude really can act:
    • I thought he was highly effective in a conflicted/complex role in RED ROAD, a Sundance TV series that was cancelled a couple years ago. It was a fascinating show, and he was a big part of that
    • And he played one of the baddest of baddies ever as Keegan in BULLET TO THE HEAD, a Sly Stallone vehicle that's one of my all-time favorites. It's a rare film that is exactly what the title suggests...
     
  17. Lyander

    Lyander Official SBAF Equitable Empathizer

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    Speaking as a DC fanboy, Aquaman was profoundly disappointing.

    Lots of the cinematography was try-hard but it all looked so busy on the screen that it came off as flat and unengaging overall. There was honestly one scene in the whole film I felt genuinely awed by (Momoa and the alleged domestic abuser falling into the depths of the ocean, chased by the inbred cousins of the God from The Shape of Water). Didn't notice the music. Acting was largely bland, main cast and side characters alike. Jason Momoa fanservice is what the film is— he's cool and Braven was enjoyable so that's fine, but on the whole... bleh.

    +1 Into the Spider-Verse, I LOVED every second of that film and the art style was just gorgeous.

    P.S.
    I swear I didn't notice you guys were actually talking about Aquaman, I just dropped in to complain about the film after seeing it and being extremely let down and then leave. The timing, haha.
     
  18. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

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    I hated The Hateful Eight, but this looks fantastic.
     
  19. Lyander

    Lyander Official SBAF Equitable Empathizer

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    The Hateful Eight was a genuinely upsetting film, gratuitous even by Tarantino's standards. Also still cringe at the destruction of an antique guitar, that was unfortunate. All that aside, it was a well made film that did what it set out to do— stress people the heck out.

    Speaking of well-made films, I dunno if my brain's just wrong but I loved Venom as much as I was profoundly disinterested by Aquaman. The cinematography was far more beautiful, quite a few genuinely cool shots. I can see how some might generously call them unimaginative though, seeing how rigidly loads of them abide by the rule of thirds and all. Also there are way too many anamorphic lens flares for my taste.

    Maybe it's my anime pedigree but I actually appreciate the shits in tone from action to horror to comedy and back— that's something other people seem to have hated about the film. Also I can't for the life of me figure out how they managed to make battles between amorphous parasites feel more cohesive and intelligible than loads of fights between humans in films. Transformers is still in a league of its own though.
     
  20. Kernel Kurtz

    Kernel Kurtz Friend

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    I did not mind the Hateful Eight. Not in the same league as Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction, but I did not consider it a waste of my time either
     
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