The Films You Watched Thread VI: The Undiscovered Movie

[Dogg Thang]

Just on a very basic level, the colony scene is wrong - it’s an unmotivated third party point of view at the wrong time. Ripley introduces us to everything important in the movie and it’s about her journey through it.

For pacing, I also get why pretty much everything else in the Special Edition wasn’t in the original cut. And Aliens is not one of those films where it ever felt like something was missing - usually that tells me the cuts were right. It’s always intriguing to see the extras but I’m a firm believer that an edit should be ruthless and, now in the age of shooting on digital (and so no stock costs), I think film bloat is everywhere. Aliens and most great films of its day was perfectly paced.

[Neon Ignition]

Watching it again as well it was striking that the Aliens themselves are barely in it. Half of the attacks they carry out happen off screen either away from the main characters or the scene occurs from the characters perspective like the sentry gun scene where you watch a number count down for 90% of the shots

[QualityChimp]

Spoiler talk about that theory:

->Open Spoiler<-

That's an interesting point about Ripley talking about the ship being the catalyst for them being sent, by Burke, to go and find it.

I think my counterpoint would be that the Nostromo crew was awoken from hypersleep early and was sent, by The Company to investigate the signal coming from LV-426 and Ash was given the special order 937.



So, before man had landed on the planet, Weyland Yutani, or at the very least MU-TH-UR, speaking on behalf of the company, knew about the planet, the signal and possible life.

We find out later in Aliens that it was Burke, Carter J. that signed off the report to explore the location that Ripley talked about in her testimony to the panel. We also get in the early SE Hadley's Hope scene, Captain Hollister talking about how one prospector has gone to the location sent to them by The Company.

So I think Weyland-Yutani was already planning to find alien life there and sent a colony, but it was Burke, speaking to Ripley that speeded the process up.

Really interesting theory, though. Cheers for sharing!

[QualityChimp]

I watched Moonlight (2016 via BBC iPlayer).
One from my bucketlist poster that I probably would never have seen.

"A young African-American man grapples with his identity and sexuality while experiencing the everyday struggles of childhood, adolescence, and burgeoning adulthood."

It's a pretty tense watch as the main character has a pretty tough deal with life dumping on him in lots of ways.
You're rooting for him at every stage, but can't seem to get a break.

Probably not a Friday night beer-with-the-lads movie, but a moving and engaging film.

Didn't 100% click with me like most people (it's at 98% on Rotten Tomatoes, if you value that metric) because I found a couple of moments a bit contrived, but overall I'm glad I went outside my comfort zone.

[QualityChimp]

A bunch over the Bank Holiday.

So, Evil Dead is on my Movie Bucket List poster, but didn't fancy that, so I sorta cheated and watched Evil Dead II (1987 via Legend Channel), which is kinda a remake, so it counts! Yeah, this is great fun and helps expand a few more references in the third film, which I really wanted to watch afterwards, so I also watched Army of Darkness (1992 via Prime), which is one of my all-time faves.

Ash is just the right level of asshole and badass (badasshole?) and the demonic scrapes he gets into are brilliant and from a bygone time before CGI. It's not just the excellent lines (jack left town, yo she-bitch, who wants some, gimme some sugar baby etc etc), but Raimi's direction is so fun and dynamic with crash zooms, tilts and really clever framing of shots.

The Goonies (1985 via Prime). Bucket scratch-off and one I wanted to share with my son, but to older eyes, it was less fun.
Firstly, for a film that's aimed at kids, there's a tonne of swearing. It just feels unnecessary most of the time. I know it's unrealistic to expect kids not to swear, but in a film with pirates and booty traps, I don't think less swearing would be the most unrealistic thing!

Also, I'm sure about 87.3% of the kids' lines are shouted. They shout about everything. I was getting a headache by the end and wanted to retire the parlour with my pipe and slippers.

Await Further Instructions (2018 via Horror channel). We're getting a new TiVo box, having negotiated a contract with Virgin, so I'm trying to watch a few bits on the old box before swapping. This one has a really intriguing synopsis: The film follows a dysfunctional family who winds up entrapped in their house on Christmas by a mysterious black membrane and begins receiving cryptic instructions from their television.

It's ooookaaaay, but wouldn't recommend. The family are all racist and it's painful to watch. By the end, you just want to know what the black stuff is and finish up.

Sometimes I like to at least give a chance to low-budget/British/International/under-the-radar movies, though.

Still on a James Cameron high after watching Aliens at the cinema and time to finish off the bank holiday weekend with one more bucket list film, I popped on The Terminator (1984 via DVD). I probably would have watched with commentary for a change, but there wasn't one. I rinsed the extras upon last watch, where a lot of the ideas for the second film were removed.

It's still a brilliant watch and probably my favourite of the series because all of the others are good robot Vs. bad robot.
I think Sarah Connor's transformation from carefree waitress to future mother of the resistance is great to watch and her and Reece's doomed romance is gripping, but tragic.

I love the score too. Even just that constant robotic heartbeat as the Terminator is getting guns or scanning for Sarah.
Then in the chase scenes, those artificial synth screeches and rhythms fit perfectly.

One question: Where does the Terminator get his second outfit from, the leathers for the police station assault scene?

[Neon Ignition]

I asked Chat Bing and it said a group of biker thugs?
Feels like its getting confused with Terminator 2

[QualityChimp]

I asked Chat Bing and it said a group of biker thugs?
Feels like its getting confused with Terminator 2

Like a flipping AI is going to tell you the truth about it's robotic brethren!

[Neon Ignition]

I had to try that but it wasn't falling for it

IT'S LEARNING

[QualityChimp]

There's a chase where the Terminator runs through a car explosion and dives onto Reece's car and punches through the windscreen (probably on PCP...). That fire burns off its eyebrows and singes its hair, hence the shorter hair for the second half of the film.

It gets thrown from the car and a police officer pulls up and it steals the car, but in that sequence, its jacket is still smoking.

This special effect was achieved by pouring actual acid onto Arnold Schwarzenegger's back.

This chase finishes with Reece arrested and the Terminator missing from the crashed cop car.
I assume it's between this point and returning to its motel room that it gets the new outfit as its already wearing the grey shirt it wears under the leathers and has ditched the black shirt from the thug.

Another cheap way to do special effects in the sequel was to use the twins of the actors in some scenes:

[CMcK]

It's still a brilliant watch and probably my favourite of the series because all of the others are good robot Vs. bad robot.
I think Sarah Connor's transformation from carefree waitress to future mother of the resistance is great to watch and her and Reece's doomed romance is gripping, but tragic.

The Terminator is IMHO the perfect slasher movie. I takes the Halloween template and fleshes it out a bit. Genius. I'd say it's still a more enjoyable film than the acclaimed sequel. They are very different films though much like the Alien / Aliens mold.

[wakka]

There's a chase where the Terminator runs through a car explosion and dives onto Reece's car and punches through the windscreen (probably on PCP...). That fire burns off its eyebrows and singes its hair, hence the shorter hair for the second half of the film.

It gets thrown from the car and a police officer pulls up and it steals the car, but in that sequence, its jacket is still smoking.

This special effect was achieved by pouring actual acid onto Arnold Schwarzenegger's back.

This chase finishes with Reece arrested and the Terminator missing from the crashed cop car.
I assume it's between this point and returning to its motel room that it gets the new outfit as its already wearing the grey shirt it wears under the leathers and has ditched the black shirt from the thug.

Another cheap way to do special effects in the sequel was to use the twins of the actors in some scenes:

You had me with this one. This gave me a good chuckle.

[Atticus]

We watched M3GAN the other night. I like a killer doll movie as much as the next person so I was fairly up fo it. And its PG13 status meant the who family was watching (Mrs Atticus doesn't like horror films). It starts pretty well, using adverts for new generation toys with AI and stuff, it's a nice introduction to the tech and the company. But that company, like all toy manufacturers, needs the next big thing, and prototype M3GAN is unveiled (M3GAN stands for Model 3 Generative ANdroid apparently). A doll who can be far more (too much more) than just a toy to kids. It's a decent enough watch, but its please-all rating (even the unrated version) keeps things a little too tame ... and the scares are way too telegraphed. So it does fall a bit short but the doll itself is well designed and a decent concept for a 21st century killer doll. 2.0 is already greenit so it must have gone down fairly well. I wonder if we might ever see M3GAN vs the Chuckster one day ... I'd buy a ticket

[QualityChimp]

So, when I was younger, I caught a bit of a film on TV where a terrorist is threatening an American football stadium.

Reading the blurb, I thought it was Black Friday (1977 via Talking Pictures TV), where a jaded Vietnam vet is manipulated by terrorists to attack a football stadium on the biggest match of the year.

Having seen this, I don't think it was this, because in my memory you don't know who the assassin is, but he's front and centre in this.
I might have been thinking of "Two-Minute Warning" starring Michael Caine.

Anyway, Black Sunday is a terrorist thriller written by Thomas Harris ("Hannibal"), directed by John Frankenheimer ("French Connection II") and starring Robert Shaw ("Jaws") and Bruce Dern ("Silent Running"), with a score by John Williams.
It's not quite as good as that pedigree would suggest, but it's an interesting story with a scary premise. There are a couple of peaks of action and a thrilling finale with some death-defying stunts.

Concrete Plans (2020 via Film4). One that seemed intriguing and had some good feedback.
"Five builders renovate a remote farmhouse in arduous conditions but events spiral out of control when the aristocratic landowner pushes them too far. As the weather closes in and payments are late, tempers fray. Blood is spilled."

Yeah, it's alright. Things go a bit nuts a bit quick, but it's interesting to see how things play out.
The closest thing I can think of is Shallow Grave, but not as good.

[fuse]

Watched Molly’s Game last week. It's based on a sufficiently interesting true story about a woman who ran high-stakes poker games for the rich and famous but unsurprisingly ruffles some feathers in the process, however the movie is rather... messy. Aaron Sorkin wrote the screenplay and directed it, and while I have no questions about his writing chops, there's a lot of these narrated montages that get quite exhausting and annoying, a lot of moments that felt tonally very off, and boy, it really, really wants to get you excited about the actual poker that's happening too, and... no thanks?

Michael Cera is almost laughably mis-cast as some kind of poker badass, whereas Idris Elba and Jessica Chastain are much better fits in the central roles. As a whole though? Yeah, it's not so hot.

[Finsbury Girl]

Villain - a geezer gangster flick starring the legendary Ghost from COD MW2 (and I see he's been on Eastenders) it was ok, definitely a low budget affair but Mr Fairbrass was pretty watchable. Nothing spectacular but it held my interest and didn't go for too long.

Samaritan - finally got around to watching this. Was better than the reviews but worse than my initial expectations before it was released. Some really dumb and bizarre character motivations, plot and super powers full of holes / inconsistent and the gothca was well and truly telegraphed. Nonetheless Sly can still command the screen. Some decent action, again it was ok nothing spectacular. Shout out to the de-aging on Sly it looked really good to my eyes.