The Films You Watched Thread VI: The Undiscovered Movie

[randombs]

I was re-watching some of Matrix Resurrections last night and it made me realise IMAX is beer goggles for bad films.

It’s stunningly bad in some ways. In the cinema I thought the action scenes were good but the bullet train bit is atrocious and there’s nothing memorable about dojo fight - I guess we have Lilly to thank for the cool shots in the original films. Having said that, Resurrections looks sumptuous when it’s not doing the shakey cam-cam. It’s just plain beautiful. Losing the signature green tint has allowed the film to go Konika colours are calling me-level bonkers.

Blue sunglasses and yellow suits, man. Pretty as a picture.

[Atticus]

Watched You're Next last night. It's an enjoyable little home invasion horror. You get the impression Adam Wingard (who also made The Guest) is a big fan of The Shining, especially with cues heard in the score. There's some axe/door action too. What took it from being run of the mill was the

->Open Spoiler<-

flipping of the script with a houseguest skilled in survival and good at killing, an inside job going on and a turn around of good guys getting bumped off to bad guys getting their just desserts

. It also has a great final scene

[Atticus]

Spider-Man. I always look back fondly on the sequel but the first was a real treat to revisit. Sam Raimi brings the joy and the comic-book mayhem along with an old-fashioned, romantic approach that gives the film a load of heart and a timeless quality. Maguire and Dunst are casting perfection. Tobey Maguire has so many qualities on display as PP you feel every ounce of his pain and guilt carried from Uncle Ben's death and his feelings for MJ that he can never quite act upon. The buzz and feel of the city really connects too. And of course, it features another great score from Danny Elfman. Such a wonderful film. Really loved it. I'm in the mood for the full trilogy now.

Beasts Clawing at Straws. This kept cropping up in podcasts and various lists of films from last year so I took a punt and picked up the blu on import. It's a Korean thriller that follows a bag of money and the increasing circles of those around it who want to get their grubby mitts on it. It's fun in the twist-turny way it tells the story and introduces the different players but it never quite hits a mark of greatness. Just wasn't quite satisfying enough. It'll be worth watching if it ever hits uk netflix or something but it wasn't, as a certain youtuber says, worth-a-buy.

[Dogg Thang]

I watched Dune last night. It looked great but I expected that. It’s kind of hard to say much about the movie without seeing the next one because it’s very much just half a movie and I didn’t even feel like it got going in its two and a half hours. I found it to be a bit gloopy. In the sense that I felt like I was wading through some parts. They didn’t flow but I know that’s due to the source material. I found it hard to grab onto any of the characters and mostly just felt a bit bad for the main character that he had to bring his mum everywhere. Trying to picture The Matrix only Neo has his mum tagging along for the whole film. Or Star Wars where Luke and his mum go on an adventure to rescue Princess Leia.

[Atticus]

I'm looking forward to Dune purely because it's Denis Villeneuve (never read the book(s) or seen the David Lynch film). I'll probably pick it up at the end of the month. Funnily enough I watched Blade Runner 2049 again last night. I think I love it more and more with each watch. On a technical note the Dolby Atmos sound is possibly the best I've ever heard.

[fallenangle]

Watched the WW2 2019 battle of Midway movie.

Essentially a very late companion piece to the fairly awful 2001 Pearl Harbor; same heavy use of very obvious and over the top CGI and 'personal' back stories of so little interest, even when base on fact, that you didn't really give a damn.

The original 1976 Midway film, sometimes well reviewed for I've never understood what reason, is no worse despite the fact it steals chunks of action footage from the benchmark film of this type, the dry but historically accurate: Tora, Tora, Tora. The 1976 film is also loaded with historically incorrect real action footage too but give me that in preference to the over-blown CGI of this latest version where everything explodes in great balls of fire every time, again and again and ...................again.

[Neon Ignition]

Scream
It's clear from the outset that not only has it dated quite a bit but the term slasher was clearly coined because there isn't one ounce of horror about it. That Scary Movie worked is all the more amazing because a lot of the time Scream is already parody level in its first film. Despite this it's likeable and there are enough subtle moments that I can see the thread of the killers throughout but also see why I missed it on the first viewing.

Scream 2
Overall it's a solid sequel. There's some ho-hum about the whole copycat killer/sequel rules thing because it's one thing to raise it but another to then follow it as it makes for predictability. It's not as good as the first but overall it does a decent job as a follow up.

[Atticus]

Finally got round to finishing Friday the 13th pt 3. It's should have been called Bother in the Barn. It's like every other set-piece is, yep, someone else walking into that barn. They certainly got their value out of it The film is not as good as the first two but I feel it's understood that the 3D came first and the film second. But it's still enjoyable, and finally delivers Jason's iconic hockey mask.

[QualityChimp]

Smashed a load this weekend.

Nobody (2021 via NowTV) - It's just a lot of fun. Lacks the seriousness of John Wick, but the whole cast are fun to follow, with some epic action sequences.

The Paper Tigers (2020 via NowTV) - This was a nice surprise! Three aging martial artists reunite to find out who murdered their sensei. In their youth, they were undefeated, but now, their ailments are just one of many challenges they face!
It mocks martial arts, but in a knowing and loving way. Great lead trio and you really want them to win.
Nice cameo from some of the Martial Club team (including Andy Le last seen in Shang-Chi).

Return of the Jedi (1983 via Blu-Ray) - Giant planet-destroying spaceship is defeated by some cute bears with sticks.
I think this one's probably my fave because there are so many cool moments and Luke is finally a badass.
The ending with a ghost Anakin changes when you get the backstory about him slaughtering whole families of sand people and a school of jedi younglings. Like, how does that mofo get redemption?

The Croods: A New Age - (2020 Via NowTV) - Ryan Reynolds plays a CGI character called Guy and saves the world.

Free Guy (2021 Via Disney+) - Ryan Reynolds plays a CGI character called Guy and saves the world.

Mixed feelings about this one. It's rated 12, like the Marvel films, so watched it with my son, however there were F-bombs and s-words all over the shop. It's packed with yootoobers, so it's definitely appealing to a younger audience.
Loads of funny game references and observations and the actual world feels unique (although a lot like GTA Online), but it feels like the story has been done better before, especially by The Truman Show.

Misery (1990 via Film4) - Wanted to rewatch this after listening to the Film Stories podcast about it. The key scene is very gruesome, but even worse in the book. This scene alone saw the film get passed up on by many directors and actors. The smaller production company meant they could take a risk with Kathy Bates and I'm glad they did because she towers over this film.

Vivarium (2019 via All4) - Another curiosity I wanted to investigate, but never got chance at the time. I'll be honest, there's an intriguing start and a bold finish, but there's about 50 minutes of digging a hole in the middle. There's a brilliant Outer Limits/Black Mirror episode in there, but not a 100 minute movie.
Reminded me of Under The Skin, but that is so much more gripping.

[Dogg Thang]

Luke is finally a badass.

Did someone summon a nerd for an argument on an entire generation's misinterpretation of Luke's badassery?! I'm... oh, it's Monday morning and I'm sleepy and not ready for it.

That whole Luke/Vader/Emperor sequence is incredible and will always be the highlight of that movie. It's actually really the only thing that keeps me coming back to the movie, having seen it so many times. It's so perfect.

I rewatched The Lost Boys yet again yesterday. I can just keep on watching that movie. I can and I will.

[QualityChimp]

Is he not a badass in Jedi?

[Dogg Thang]

Is he not a badass in Jedi?

He is totally a badass in Jedi. And that is his failure. It's arrogance. It is demonstrated many times in the movie, the most obvious being "you will turn Captain Solo and the Wookiee over to me" (doesn't happen) and "he won't turn me over to the Emperor" (he did). He goes around like a tough guy and a generation seems to have had that vision of him embedded as the character, missing the entire point of that end encounter where Luke has to learn to throw down that lightsaber. Badass Luke was the thing he had to learn not to be.

So years later when we get into The Last Jedi, we get a whole bunch of fans complaining about Luke's character when in fact what we see is a perfect reading of the character and those same fans cheering for his appearance in another show where he is the total badass they imagined him to be but he really shouldn't be that.

[Neon Ignition]

So years later when we get into The Last Jedi, we get a whole bunch of fans complaining about Luke's character when in fact what we see is a perfect reading of the character and those same fans cheering for his appearance in another show where he is the total badass they imagined him to be but he really shouldn't be that.

So many things that Last Jedi invites discussion and debate over but Luke is the one that always amazes me the most as it easily gets his portrayal spot on. Luke was a rubbish Jedi, over three films he learns what he cans and he survives through various ordeals but ultimately he fails. The Emporer isn't defeated by Luke, he's defeated by Vader who relents at the last moment. Luke is a flawed character and shouldn't be expected to be an amazing Jedi as he has a fraction of the training and support that those who came before him had. He's important because of who he's related to and that he's the last of his kind in the fight. That's why he's a brat in Jedi, he hasn't earnt being a badass and even thinking he is one goes against being a Jedi. He's arrogant and makes misjudged decisions.

It's one of the reasons Rey works less well, they make her a badass Jedi and so it misses the point. Last Jedi tried to make the point of arguing against hero worshipping, that the universe isn't Skywalker orientated and the whole 'prophesised one' was the wrong read. That would work really well with the prequels arc too if Anakin wasn't so blatantly heavily handed birthed into the universe. A lot of the problems the characters face across the saga are born from the mistaken view several characters have (and the audience in turn) that Anakin and Luke are special ones who will save the universe when really they're instrumental in making it happen because they're wrongfully elevated as greater than they are. It's one of the more interesting arcs in the saga but the last film threw that completely away and SW still does in general.

[Dogg Thang]

he's a brat in Jedi, he hasn't earnt being a badass and even thinking he is one goes against being a Jedi. He's arrogant and makes misjudged decisions.

Yep, exactly this.

And yes, I agree about Rey to an extent and that's because Abrams goes with what he feels is cool regardless of any thought and sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn't. Last Jedi tried at least to give her more depth with it. But there is one huge character difference between Luke and Rey that, for me, really gave her a free pass in at least The Force Awakens - her positivity. At every step up to RotJ, Luke rejects the Force. He is cynical and negative. You see it right back when he trains with the remote. Yoda says it straight out: "always with you it cannot be done". So on top of him being a brat and arrogant, he's negative too!

Rey, on the other hand, has the opposite attitude and completely opens herself up to all possibilities of the Force right away. There is zero resistance and she just goes for it. And that big difference in character helped me go with her for The Force Awakens. All other things being equalish, of course she was going to be the better Force user because she embraced it right from the start. She didn't need Ben and Yoda trying to talk her into even believing it.

[QualityChimp]

Ah, okay.

I don't really want to muddy the waters with the presequels, but having watched the three originals in the last week, it was refreshing to go from him whining about the Toche Station in the first, whining about moving things with The Force in the second and finally strutting into Jabba's palace like a boss, mind-tricking, flipping, slashing and finally being confident in his powers in the third.