Film and Episodic Content Discussion Thread

Discussion in 'Random Thoughts' started by purr1n, Jan 8, 2020.

  1. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

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    Eyes Wide Shut is as enigmatic today as it was at the turn of the century. Kubrick's final statement is a cautionary tale about the dangers of infidelity and the dreamlike spells we cast over ourselves when we allow our minds to wander and disconnect from reality.

     
  2. Philimon

    Philimon Friend

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    Tenet
    Rating: 01|10

    I dont want to say it was bad. I liked the themes.

    Effort was made, which I always appreciate and Ill give a film a non-negative rating just for that. However, this film had too many unamusing winks at the audience to disregard plot holes that I wonder if the director was trying hard enough to make a congruent piece of entertainment. The 01/10 ranking was for fun. Tenet needed more fun.

    A shorter film wouldve been tighter and would not have been less grounded. That sounds like I didnt understand the plot. Well, its sci-fi time travel, so yes. Ive seen lots of sci fi time shi(f)t stories and can enjoy them fine. Tenet is like a bad remix. The fresh reverse action elements are disorienting. If I had watched an original version with a linear timeline, then watched the remix it wouldnt be disorienting, but would it be that interesting?

    Christopher Nolan bats above average which still means sometimes there’s a miss. I appreciate another grand sci fi with a wild concept.
     
  3. Pharmaboy

    Pharmaboy Friend

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    Saw the new Jason Statham actioner, WRATH OF MAN, this week. I'm a big fan of JS, but found this film to be a murky, dispiriting mess. And saying that, I find myself at odds w/the critics, who praised this Guy Ritchie-directed film more than I expected.

    Guy Ritchie seems the British equivalent of Quentin Tarantino, albeit w/more humor & somewhat less blood (apologies for an imprecise analogy). At least part of the excellent critical reception for this film appears to stem from Ritchie's direction being altogether darker and more violent than usual--and nearly devoid of humor (banter dialogue intended to be humorous is just tiresome & misogenistic).

    IMO this is a screenplay problem: Statham's character is so grim, violent, and on occasion, cruel & heartless, as to be impossible to sympathize with. It doesn't help that viewers are given no clues who this man is, or was, before the plot events kick in. It's all a rather convoluted revenge scenario playing out.

    I need to sympathize with this actor at least a bit, because without that, his physicality, martial arts, and monosyllabic dialogue delivery become one-note, tedious. Contrast this to his best film, the original TRANSPORTER, where he's given far more dialogue (some quite ironic) and is perpetually a few degrees from glorious self-parody.

    Without such embellishments, WRATH OF MAN is just dull, though kinetic as hell. The long-awaited return of Josh Hartnett doesn't distract either: he's improbably cast as a borderline terrified, panic-driven armored car driver (this actor can do so much more). For me the bright spot here was an especially mean turn by a great character actor, Holt McCallany, who gets to play a truly smart and heartless character (he makes a great villain).
     
  4. rott

    rott Secretly hates other millenials - Friend

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    Interesting; I enjoyed Tenet, more-so on rewatch. It has one of the best vehicle-oriented sequences that I've watched in some time, which according to the making-of documentary featured on the Blu-ray (2nd disc) was mostly non-CG.

    Guess I'm just a Nolan fan, plot-holes and all. At least he's pushing some boundary of conventional film-making.
     
  5. crenca

    crenca Friend

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    @Pharmaboy , what IYO are the top 3 or so Jason Statham films? I have been meaning to do a JS run...
     
  6. Pharmaboy

    Pharmaboy Friend

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    Well, I haven't seen them all. But of the ones I've seen, these are my picks:

    1 - TRANSPORTER (2002): This is my favorite Jason Statham film. Luc Besson's script really sparkles: the plot, dialogue, witty soundtrack and characters all satisfy. There's real irony in Jason's interactions with Qi Shu & Francois Berleand in particular

    2 - SAFE (2012): He plays a very sympathetic character who saves a little girl's life. It's a good vehicle for Jason IMO

    3 - PARKER (2013): It's a Donald Westlake script, which means a streak of irony runs through the film (always welcome). And baddie #1 is the excellent Michael Chiklis

    4 - THE BANK JOB (2005): This film is in my list not so much because Jason is great in it (it's an ensemble film & everyone is great IMO)--but because this is a classic "heist" film, very well written, played, and directed. It's a real high-line role for Jason, who for once is not expected to dominate the action...
     
    Last edited: May 16, 2021
  7. Pharmaboy

    Pharmaboy Friend

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    I love this thread, so it pains me to see it decline. No posts at all in last 3 weeks? @ColtMrFire -- where you at?

    I've been re-watching one of my favorite films of the '90s -- Steven Soderbergh's THE LIMEY. The center of the film (in fact, about 95% of it) is the white-hot performance by Terence Stamp. It's really a thing of beauty. Think of the best revenge films ever (POINT BLANK, JOHN WICK, ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, THE SEARCHERS) and this film is up there with best.

    Soderbergh's direction delighted & disoriented me in 1999, but now all those flashbacks & flashforwards seem a bit affected. Then again, it's hard to stop watching this film...the loopy narrative rhythm works somehow.

    In the margin of the story, Luis Guzman does soulful acting in a heartfelt character role: calm, sincere and conversational, he's the perfect foil for the combustible & monosyllabic Stamp. I love the scene where Guzman physically hustles Stamp away from the big party, effectively saving his life, and prolonging that of Peter Fonda's character.

    It's on Prime--highly recommended.
     
  8. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

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    Taking a break. I've been pumping out videos once a week for the past year. Pardon me for being a little burned out. That stuff isnt easy.
     
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  9. Pharmaboy

    Pharmaboy Friend

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    Nice to see you're still on the thread!

    FYI, I've come to rely on those videos to learn new things; also to get an informed reappraisal of films I didn't necessarily pay much attention to on any technical or aesthetic grounds.
     
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  10. crenca

    crenca Friend

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    @Pharmaboy,

    Thanks for the Jason Statham list from a month or so ago. I have only watched "The Bank Job" so far. I liked it, but in the end it was a bit over stylized I think - it did not quite convince me. That said your right the acting was good.

    I have re-watched the first Star Wars triology (ep. 4,5,6) with my kids this week. This is the first time I have really "watched" them again (instead of just having them on in the background) since at least the 1990's. They were more even over all than I remember. Empire was not as good as I recalled, and Return was better than I remembered. The acting, particularly in New Hope and Empire, was atrocious, even worse than I remembered. New Hope had all the really good lines however, as campy as it was.
     
  11. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

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    To me the acting in Empire was significantly better than any of the other films in the first trilogy. Mostly because you had a real director at the helm who valued acting (Kirshner). Not someone making a glorified muppet movie/toy commercial (Marquand/RoTJ) or someone for whom the acting was mostly unimportant (Lucas/ANH).
     
  12. Pharmaboy

    Pharmaboy Friend

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    The 1st TRANSPORTER film is the total package of action, wit, plot, romance. It fades toward the end, but for the first 1/2 or so, it's one of the most exhilarating action films ever. It's Jason's best--everyone's best.
     
    Last edited: Jun 25, 2021
  13. crenca

    crenca Friend

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    That's what I am surprised about, as for the past 38 years I would have agreed with you. I still prefer Empire, but now only just. This weeks re-viewing has me thinking Kirshner did not matter much. Excepting for a few moments, Hamill and Fisher are just as wooden and unconvincing as they were in New Hope. It's in Return when they seem (particularly Fisher) to have ran into an acting coach at some point.

    What really struck me this time around is how there just is not that much difference between them - not nearly as much as I remember. I also had forgotten how human (i.e. not as fantastic and manic as the Lucas re-imagining in the prequels) and believable the Darth Vader and Skywalker story was. Darth as a "pupil" of Obi-wan, who had been seduced, yet did the right thing in the end...so much more convincing than the teenage brat who needed a spanking in the prequels
     
  14. Pharmaboy

    Pharmaboy Friend

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    Currently watching 2 things I can recommend:

    TAKE SHELTER (2011) (Prime Video)
    It's the same basic plot as M. Night Shyamalan's SIGNS, but done subtly and better. The acting (Michael Shannon & Jessica Chastain) is beyond reproach: spare, quiet, impassioned. It's actually rather difficult to watch what these characters go through, because they're drawn so carefully and are so believable.

    Shannon works a lot, and not always on great material--but he routinely elevates the material if given a chance. A few years ago I saw him star in a low-key film, THE MISSING PERSON, that wound up being the most profound cinematic statement on 9/11 that I've yet seen.

    VINCENZO (Netflix)
    Until this series, I don't believe a genre existed for Italian mafia/S. Korean comedy-romance. But now it does. The plot this baby faced main character (Song Joong-Ki) finds himself in is byzantine & not that easy to follow. But it's the wacko tone of this production that snares me: deeply comic, even satiric, in ways impossible to predict. You just don't know whether a given scene will result in sly laughter or bloodshed (here I'm describing my own life). I'm only one episode in but thoroughly hooked.
     
  15. crenca

    crenca Friend

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    Thanks for the recommendations Pharmboy. Take Shelter seems particularly interesting. I watched Parker from your Statham list, and I think I liked it better than The Bank Job though both were fun.

    Just got done re-watching Mandalorian with the kids. There have been 4.5 Star Wars movies/series IMO:

    1 New Hope
    2 Empire
    3 Return
    4 Mando
    .5 Rogue One
     
  16. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

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    Today was my first time back in a theater since the pandemic started almost a year and a half ago.

    Went to see OLD and quite enjoyed it. On a purely philosophical level, there was something extremely disturbing and fucked up about it, far far more than any previous Shyamalan film. As a thriller it was quite, well... thrilling. Very very different than anything I've seen. Highly recommended.
     
  17. Pharmaboy

    Pharmaboy Friend

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    I can't wait to see this film.

    When this director is good, he is extremely good--and like no one else. He's made some clunkers, but the good ones are out of sight.
     
  18. Tchoupitoulas

    Tchoupitoulas Friend

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    I scared myself silly just now watching the trailer. Thanks for the recommendation!

    Which would you recommend, if you don't mind me asking?

    ---

    I just saw Dr. Death, a decent mini-series on the NBC streaming service, Peacock (you get the first three of eight episodes for free). It's a true crime story, a medical malpractice thriller, and the mystery was engrossing enough - and the criminal behavior sufficiently disturbing - that I binged it in two nights, which isn't something I do often. It lost a bit of momentum towards the end but the excellent acting more than made up for it. I managed to forget, momentarily, that Alec Baldwin and Christian Slater weren't just being themselves or doing their usual thing (like Slater being a Jack Nicholson knock-off). Joshua Jackson and some of the other actors were excellent.

    My wife convinced me to see Dr. Death - she's a fan of true crime podcasts, which meant she already knew the story. A while back, she also got me to watch Dirty John, which is another miniseries based on a podcast, again about a fascinating, deranged criminal. Eric Bana was terrific in it; I had no idea he's such a good actor. Almost as bewildering as Bana's character was his victim, the woman who fell for him (the show's great if you like screaming at the tv about people being ridiculous). The show has become an anthology series now. Alas, the second season, a separate story, wasn't as good (Christian Slater was in that, as well).
     
  19. Pharmaboy

    Pharmaboy Friend

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    The 2 MNS-directed films I recommend are THE SIXTH SENSE (a film with real delicacy & subtlety) and SIGNS (not as good, but still very good). The one I somehow failed to see, but want to, is THE VILLAGE. MNS's gift IMO is depicting unease & disquiet onscreen, both globally and within different characters.

    I heard both podcasts you mention (Dr. Death & Dirty John). I've always thought Eric Bana is a fine actor & wouldn't mind seeing him as Dirty John (if it ever comes to Prime or Netflix). As far as his Dr. John's victim being bewildering--I heard her speak repeatedly in the podcast. She's very earnest and straightforward about what happened to her, but it's still pretty hard to understand being played so thoroughly by this demented, drug-addled bully of a man.
     
  20. Tchoupitoulas

    Tchoupitoulas Friend

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    If you do manage to catch the show, I wonder if you'd find the actor's portrayal of her behavior convincing - she comes across as oddly emotionless, as though heavily medicated, and while her behavior seems incomprehensible, I still felt sympathy for her, which I suppose makes her "relatable."

    Thank you for the MNS recommendations!
     

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