The Films You Watched Thread VI: The Undiscovered Movie

[QualityChimp]

Technically, all the teens trespassed on Leatherface's property, so he was in his rights to defend it, according to US law.
Not sure about putting them on meathooks, though. Not sure that's in the Bill of Rights.
What a grubby little film, though.
You want a wash afterwards.
That's not a criticism, but recognition of the power of this low-budget classic.

I agree with your Midsommar summary.
Excellent horror, out of the ordinary, you can't look away even if you want to and some massive "gasp" moments, like you say.
However, there's something missing for me too. I think it's just how everyone just ambles into their fates with no real resistance until they're in trouble.

However, I saw this at the cinema with a mate and passed a look at the "guiding in" scene...

[Finsbury Girl]

Decided to watch the latest Tarzan movie, it was ok. Damn Mr Skarsgard was ripped.

[Asura]

Watched Space Jam 2.

Do we really not have a thread? I thought we had a thread.

[Golgo]

Whisper of the Heart. The 2022 live action 're-imagining' of the Studio Ghibli classic from 1995. I consider Kondo's film greater than several of Mizayaki's or Takahata's own works for Ghibli, so I was excited to see what could be made of the live-action version. It was a disappointment. Significant plot and character points/relationships were changed pointlessly and for the worse, and the new sections - exploring the young adult relationship of the two main protagonists after the closure of the original film - were plodding and predictable. It was quite a novelty to see them recreate a few scenes from the anime, but on the whole it was very poor. The acting, also, had less subtlety and indeed humanity than the anime. The actress taking the part of young Shizuku was truly chronic.

[fallenangle]

Enjoyed watching 10 Things I Hate About You again last night starring Julia Stiles and, sadly the now late, Heath Ledger.

One of those teen high school comedy dramas from the '90s and early 2000s, I haven't watched it in at least a decade and it still entertained on every level.

Right up there with Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Clueless.

EDIT: also watched Mean Girls on Saturday evening, another US high school comedy of the same ilk. Amazingly I'd never seen it before, just clips. Enjoyed it.

Also I now understand Ariana Grande's video for Thank U, Next. I've always thought it was just a tribute to Victorious (her big US TV break) and classic high school film comedies in general. But it is mostly referencing scenes from Mean Girls. It has only taken me 5 years to get that.

Talking about Aussie actors and entertainers I cannot fail to mention the death of Barry Humphries today. He has been Aussie entertainment royalty for at least 50 years under the guise of Dame Edna Everidge and Sir Les Patterson. He lived in London for a long time and I think I saw him in a panto at Christmas when I was a kid.

But he wasn't just a comedian he was a film and TV actor of some quality putting in a great little cameo as a goblin king in The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey where his face was digitally scanned for the role.

[Neon Ignition]

Creed III
It's alright. It's kind of hard to really land on where it fits given how many entries there are now but if I had to summarise I'd say that it's a very well made film, Johnson tries to lighten Creed a little bit, it has some nods to prior entries of Creed too. On the flip side, its plot is very much a retread of prior Rocky plots, Creed remains an infinitely less compelling lead and the plot it does have feels rushed or not fleshed out enough in the right areas. It overall stands up fine but it kind of also shows how without Rocky, too much is missing to make it worthwhile.

Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre
This is... lovely looking, there's some nice postcard locals and it seems to be mostly done without bluescreening etc which is also nice. It's an action comedy and that's its failing as there's almost no comedy - what little is there is just not funny - and also little action either. It's a pretty dull, drawn out watch. Hugh Grant's character is about as interesting as this gets.

[QualityChimp]

I liked The Gentlemen and Wrath of Man, so Guy Ritchie still has it, but Operation Fortune is not being favourably received, it seems.

Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001 via DVD). Picked this up for a quid at CEX, having not seen it since it came out. I remember enjoying it, but not loving it. I mainly watched it for Mark Dacascos!
Set in 18th Century France, it's the tale of two hunters sent to catch a beast that is killing women and children in the forests.
The giant mystery predator is not the only threat, with political and religious forces applying their own pressure and love and lust guiding motives too.

Director, Christophe Gans, loves a slo-mo! Not as bad as his Crying Freeman adaptation, but still a good chunk is slowed down.
It's such a weird mish-mash of genres, which makes it utterly unique.
It's like Dangerous Liaisons crossed with Predator with a load of kung-fu.
There are some big name stars like Monica Belluci and Vincent Cassel.
Not astonishing, but there's nothing else like it and is an interesting curio.



Nope (2022 via NowTV). Been waiting since I missed it at the cinema to see this and I really enjoyed it.
Ultimately, you can tell Jordan Peele is a fan of Outer Limits/Twilight Zone and using a sci-fi idea to create a yarn.
There was a great jumpy moment in the barn, that had me also going "nope"!

Not perfect. It felt a bit convenient that all the right people were there at the end.
I think I'm missing how Gordy the chimpanzee fits in.

However, I really enjoyed it. Loved the mystery and working out what was going on and then assembling a team at the end.

I'm going spoiler-lite here!

There's a moment where I did the DiCaprio point when I spotted an Akira homage, which it turns out was completely intentional.

Jordan Peele said “There are so many ways you can stop a motorcycle, and it was just like, ‘You know what? I could do it a different way, or we could build this rig and do a practical ****ing Akira slide.’”


Peele was on a list of potential live-action Akira directors, but chose to continue with his own personal projects, rather than spend years trying to adapt someone else’s. “Ultimately, I felt like if I was going to put that much energy into trying to honour one of the best works of all time, why not put that energy into something of my own?”


He used the opportunity to reference Akira in Nope, and called it “a bit of a punctuation [mark] for myself that I picked the right pathway.”


Peele credits Nope’s Special Effects Coordinator, Scott R. Fisher for the success of the moment. “He’s a master. He and Mark Vanselow, our stunt coordinator, devised a rig that would take Keke sliding down the street, a track about 20-feet long, from where the camera was, on an arm of sorts controlled by [cinematographer] Hoyte [van Hoytema].” It took only a few attempts to get right: “The special-effects guys and our stunt-team essentially pull Keke, and she folds over safely as the bike is pulled towards that well. Then we create billowing dust to cover up our tracks a bit, and clean up the rest with VFX.”

[Atticus]

I think I'm missing how Gordy the chimpanzee fits in.

I didn't think it was anything more than Jupe

->Open Spoiler<-

sharing that brief moment with Gordy and surviving the incident gave him some kind of superiority complex, and his connection with the alien could be the same / where he could control (and cash in on) something wild for the entertainment of humans, just as the tv show did with Gordy. But Jean Jacket, like the horse it was named after, couldn't be tamed

I absolutely love Nope.

[QualityChimp]

Just reading around [MENTION=4034]Atticus[/MENTION] and I agree with you.
I wasn't sure if there was some other element at play, but it's mainly showing

->Open Spoiler<-

Ricky's attitude to the alien. He's survived a killer animal before and thinks he can make money from it like he has with his Gordy vault.

In contrast, OJ and Emerald want their "Oprah Moment" because they don't want to be forgotten, like their great great (great) grandaddy jockey was.

The shoe thing was just one of those inane things you focus on when you're in a really intense moment.

Peele says the film is about "spectacle", people drawn to gawp at things they shouldn't, like slowing down to rubber-neck a car crash.

I wasn't sure if I was missing something with Gordy being specifically linked to the alien, but it's more how Ricky adapts to phenomenal situations.

[Atticus]

Just reading around @Atticus and I agree with you.
I wasn't sure if there was some other element at play, but it's mainly showing

->Open Spoiler<-

Ricky's attitude to the alien. He's survived a killer animal before and thinks he can make money from it like he has with his Gordy vault.

In contrast, OJ and Emerald want their "Oprah Moment" because they don't want to be forgotten, like their great great (great) grandaddy jockey was.

The shoe thing was just one of those inane things you focus on when you're in a really intense moment.

Peele says the film is about "spectacle", people drawn to gawp at things they shouldn't, like slowing down to rubber-neck a car crash.

I wasn't sure if I was missing something with Gordy being specifically linked to the alien, but it's more how Ricky adapts to phenomenal situations.

Yeah, I thought it was as simple as that with the chimp. I hoped I wasn't just stating the obvious when I posted but I got that you wondered if something greater might be at play. And it might be. It's a JP film ... so many things going on/over my head.

My mate said he loved the cinematographer character, so jaded he constantly watches images of animals killing eash other just to feel something

[Atticus]

Don't know if you saw the full intro for the Gordy's Home tv show [MENTION=10111]QualityChimp[/MENTION] ... I bet it was fun to make

[QualityChimp]

What I didn't realise until today was that Gordy seems to have been influenced by the story of Charla Nash, who was attacked by an animal actor chimpanzee called Travis. Nash was a friend of Travis' owner and he saw her holding his favourite toy, a Tickle-me Elmo, and went into a rage and 'he ripped her face off'.

She appeared on Oprah and showed her face, but the outfit was definitely emulated by the one worn by "Haley" later on in Nope.



Part of this feels a little tasteless for Peele to so closely base this part of the story on a real person's traumatic life, but in searching for her picture, I definitely felt a part of that gaudy "spectacle" that Peele's film alludes to.

[Brad]

That new Ant Man movie : Not bad.

That new Guy Ritchie movie : Also not bad. Not his best work but Hugh Grant was excellent.

[Atticus]

What I didn't realise until today was that Gordy seems to have been influenced by the story of Charla Nash, who was attacked by an animal actor chimpanzee called Travis. Nash was a friend of Travis' owner and he saw her holding his favourite toy, a Tickle-me Elmo, and went into a rage and 'he ripped her face off'.

She appeared on Oprah and showed her face, but the outfit was definitely emulated by the one worn by "Haley" later on in Nope.

Yeah, a mate of mine told me about that and suggested that I didn't, like he did, go mooching around the internet to find out more about it. I gather it's pretty grim. So I took his advice. Then after watching the film again with my sons, they both had their phones in my face ... look dad, this woman ... gah, smart phones!!!

[fuse]

Drive My Car is an adaptation of a Murakami short story, which is always a good start for me (@CMcK mentioned Blind Willow Sleeping Woman a few pages back which went on my list immediately), but a lot of it revolves around the theatre and specifically an adaptation of a Checkov play, who in total contrast, is still on my ****-list following theatre studies A-level

A thing I find with Murakami is how he sees this romance and thoughtfulness in the everyday and the mundane, and there is a lot of that in this. As you can assume from the title, there’s a reasonable amount of driving about, and there’s one shot in particular that is staggeringly beautiful in terms of how it looks but also in terms of how the characters present are doing at that point in time. It’s a three hour commitment which doesn’t race by particularly quickly, but it is very (very) good if you’re up for some thoughtful contemplation on life, love, and grief.

Quite liked Get Out but felt like I’d been slightly oversold on it too. I think what it does very well is establishing a new type of social horror, whereas my biggest problem was having familiarity with Jordan Peele's tremendous comedy chops, and yet finding the side-story which should’ve been tapping into that to be merely jarring. This doesn’t come close to sinking it though; the horror aspects works well still, and I’m now definitely needing to follow up and watch Us and Nope at some point soon.

Lastly, Saint Maud. The main character here being this desperately lonely young woman whose dedication to her care-giving profession and her faith is exposed as being potentially more sinister quite early on, but that the film is keen to leave the reality of open to the viewer. For me the thing it does best is with the writing of Amanda, subject of Maud’s care, whose situation is brilliantly poised to peel back the layers of Maud’s character. Liked this too.