The Films You Watched Thread VI: The Undiscovered Movie

[Atticus]

I’ll watch out for it. Ta for the info Dogg

[Atticus]

A double-bill last night starting with An American Werewolf in London (is was full moon after all). The new 4k release from Arrow is a clear upgrade from their previous blu. That was super-grainy and a little washed out looking in places. The higher resolution refines the film grain and the HDR delivers superb colour. Always a fun one to revisit. There isn't a moment in it that isn't entertaining. Such a brilliant horror film.

Then the evening entered a lighter note with Scott Pilgrim vs The World. This is a film I'd seen once before, on dvd with a bunch of mates, and it didn't do a lot for me. Recently I've really warmed to Edgar Wright's films and it felt like a good time to take another look. And it's brilliant. Hits so many of the right notes. Big smile on my face all the way through. Want to watch it again already.

[Dogg Thang]

I watched Deep Water, the new film by Adrian Lyne who directed 9 1/2 Weeks, Fatal Attraction, Jacob’s Ladder and other stuff. A director I love and this is his first movie in around 20 years. Ana De Armas plays a wife who is off the rails and sleeping with other guys while Ben Affleck plays Ben Affleck in the meme with him with the cigarette. One of her lovers is missing and Affleck’s character starts to take credit for his murder and it goes from there. It’s not good, unfortunately. It’s a bit all over the place but most of the fault probably lies with two actors, the main one being Affleck who is so absolutely checked out. He has the Bruce Willis “kill me now” thing going on in every scene. And then there is another smaller role who just acts every scene with a sense of “hey, pay attention to me because I’m going to be a plot point - look at me!” And he’s really distracting.

The film doesn’t really come together at all. Not a patch on his earlier work.

[charlesr]

Shin Godzilla. Bloody excellent. Glad I wasn't eating. That needs full attention. SKY version is japanese with subtitles (Prime version is dubbed I think). About half an hour to go which I will watch later.

[charlesr]

Sad about Deep Water [MENTION=3144]Dogg Thang[/MENTION]
I loved Jacob's Ladder

[wakka]

Interesting and a shame about Deep Water. Jacob’s Ladder is a really cool film.

Shon Godzilla is kinda cool but I think the amount of time spent in meeting rooms is kind of insane for a film about a 500 ft monster attacking Tokyo. I get that’s what they were going for, but, yeah.

Great to hear your feedback about the new American Werewolf transfer Atticus. Love that film. Will be picking that up.

[fuse]

Turning Red was fun; nicely grounded but just the right amount of fantasy.

Don't Look Up? Total ****. Toothless, overly long, unfunny squandering of a who's who of acting talent... and Jonah Hill.

[Neon Ignition]

It: Chapter One
Been a while and having picked both films up on 4K disc time to christen the new player. Still brilliant from end to end

[Dogg Thang]

I resumed VanDamme season with Hard Target, John Woo's first Hollywood movie. Lance Henriksen plays a guy who organises hunts where rich people can shoot poor people and, when a homeless victim's daughter goes searching for him in New Orleans, VanDamme's character gets caught up in it all and so it's basically VanDamme versus Henriksen's goons. It's a good one! The action is great. VanDamme, ridiculous hair aside, is wonderful in it and it's just really entertaining. A strong VanDamme outing.

[fuse]

The Lost Daughter. It's pretty low-impact drama, yet the amount of atmosphere and mood it manages to stir up is seriously impressive. The supporting cast aren't to be downplayed, but really, the turmoil of the main character and Colman's ability to say so much with just her face drives so much of the emotional response. Good, very good.

[QualityChimp]

Old (2021 via NowTV)
Finally took the plunge and watched Shyamalan's latest, which I actually enjoyed a fair bit!
Unusual pacing as the concept is in the synopsis, but we spend a long time with people struggling to accept what's going on.
I really liked the resolution, although I believe people would probably volunteer to go if they knew why people were being sent there.

Over The Moon (2020 Via Netflix)
My daughter had seen clips on YouTube Kids and suggested we would like it because "there's a mummy in it".
Said mummy dies in the first 5 minutes. Yikes.
It's a film of two halves, with the former being quite grounded, then the second half is pure fantasy.
It actually looks gorgeous, with a nice selection of songs ("Ultraluminary" and "Hey Boy" were standouts), interesting characters and some nice topics discussed.
Obviously, I was blubbing at the topic of love and loss, but my daughter was happily snuggled in with me, so that's a win for me.

Back to the Future Pt II (1989 Via Blu-Ray)
So the success of the first film lead to the inevitable sequel. The script had them going to the wild West, but they decided to split the movie, but film them at the same time.
All the cast agreed to be in the sequel apart from Wendie Jo Sperber (Marty's sister, Linda) who was pregnant, Claudia Wells (Jennifer) who became full-time carer for her mother and Crispin Glover (George McFly).
The latter is more complex because he said he disagreed that money shouldn't be the main motivator/reward (Marty's new truck) and he was being paid a lot less than the main cast. Zemeckis says on the extras that Glover was asking too much money for an actor of his status.
So, that's why George McFly is either in the background, wearing sunglasses or upside down in the future and totally written out of alternative 1985.
This lead to another interesting development because Glover insisted that Universal did not own his likeness or had permission to use it. He settled out of court, but as a result of the lawsuit, there are now clauses in the Screen Actors Guild collective bargaining agreements stating that producers and actors are not allowed to use such methods to reproduce the likeness of other actors. Glover's legal action has been considered as a key case in personality rights for actors with increasing use of improved special effects and digital techniques, in which actors may have agreed to appear in one part of a production but have their likenesses be used in another without their agreement.

Anyhoo, the film is mint. It's not as good as the original and possibly a little too dark (which some people like Empire Strike Back, fans...), but that glimpse of the future is still absolutely brilliant. I liked how they aimed for it to be positive, rather than dystopian and even now, the hovercars, hoverboards, powerlaces, autodrying jackets and holographic cinemas really stir the imagination.

Back to the Future Pt III (1990)
Having enjoyed parts 1 and 2, it would be rude not to finish off the series.
Unlike Zemeckis, who found the future the least interesting, I find the Wild West a little overdone, but the highlight of this part is the swapping of roles where Marty becomes the sensible man of science, but Doc becomes a lovestruck daydreamer.
The final section with the shootout with Mad Dog Tannen and then the train section are still really thrilling.
I had no idea it was filmed with miniatures!

->Open Spoiler<-

Jaws (1975)
Having glimpsed Jaws in BttF Pt II ("Shark still looks fake"), I decided it's time to show my son the real deal.
Hit and miss for him as I don't think the scenes of bureaucracy are particularly thrilling for a 10-year-old, but I think they help set out the importance of why Chief Brody needs to kill the shark.
I always find one of the most powerful scenes is where Brody is jubilant at the catching of the potential predator, only to be interrupted by the mother of the 2nd victim, Alex Kintner, who tells Brody she blames him for his son's death for not closing the beaches.
I'm going to watch the extras as there's so much to learn about the film, but it really is a masterclass in cinema and the use of sound and lack of it, to heighten suspense. The main doc, "The Shark Is Still Working", is two hours long, but there's a section on the unused footage of Jaws properly chomping down on poor Alex.

->Open Spoiler<-

Ah sod it, for the hell of it, here's on-ride footage of the now defunct Jaws ride...

[Atticus]

Some choice selections there [MENTION=10111]QualityChimp[/MENTION]. BTTF and Jaws are timeless (back and forward in time-less) classics I love to revisit. I have to agree with Crispin Glover on how they approached pt2. It is sneaky. The other replaced actors were simply swapped out, but George McFly was made up to look like Crispin Glover and directed to act like him, copying mannerisms and stuff. I didn’t even notice it when I was young (I’ll use the excuse I must have thought it was the ageing make-up), and I think may have been the intentions of the producers, to do just that ... while also sticking two fingers up at CG for being difficult or whatever. I think Glover and Zemekis are okay now but the bad blood is still with Bob Gale. As for the films I like pt3 the least. It’s a great conclusion but lacks the layers of the first two ... it’s a bit more one-dimensional.

I did watch Jaws again recently (watched it with both of my boys now, both at their request) but I didn’t delve into any extras on the disc. Might have to watch a couple of bits and bobs at some point.

[wakka]

Great impressions and I agree about the way the future is portrayed in BTTF 2. What a great idea the way they start off in that alley. Even having seen the film a million times I can't wait to get out of it and see what the future is like - and the ideas of the floating cars and the robot-staffed cafe really deliver on the anticipation generated.

[Neon Ignition]

This lead to another interesting development because Glover insisted that Universal did not own his likeness or had permission to use it. He settled out of court, but as a result of the lawsuit, there are now clauses in the Screen Actors Guild collective bargaining agreements stating that producers and actors are not allowed to use such methods to reproduce the likeness of other actors. Glover's legal action has been considered as a key case in personality rights for actors with increasing use of improved special effects and digital techniques, in which actors may have agreed to appear in one part of a production but have their likenesses be used in another without their agreement.

Unless Glover has given his permission more recently I'm curious if this applies to all use, particularly in Zemeckis and Gale's work on Back to the Future: The Musical. The actor who portrays George McFly is staggeringly (and I mean staggeringly) good at the role and it's 110% pure unfiltered Crispin Glover's performance and look recreated.

[QualityChimp]

Yeah, agreed about starting in the alley. It leads to that lovely shot where Marty walks out and the walls open out to this whole futuristic version of his hometown, cleverly the same, but modernized.

I remember videoing Film '89 and even though Barry Norman slated the film, I watched that snippet in the future over and over.

I agree with Glover and the use of likenesses without permission. It's interesting with things that have permission like Arnie's young Terminator in Salvation and Genysis or where the actor has passed like Oliver Reed in Gladiator and Paul Walker in Fast & Furious 7.
Things get a bit weird with things like Peter Cushing in Rogue One. Did he ever say he wanted to wise from the gwave for future films?

I can understand why Courtney Love got upset with Guitar Hero when Kurt Cobain became an unlockable character, but he then mimicked the character singing, so moved around like Paramore's Hayley Williams, which wasn't what she agreed to and was a bit disrespectful.

Studios should own the characters, but I definitely think a person's face and their interpretation of a character should remain their own.

Pt. III is fun in the old West, but repeating the idea that other times are the same was done in 1955 and 2015, so it's fun but predictable, which is why I liked swapping roles of Doc and Marty in III as it was new.

Jaws is great.
Making yellow barrels pop up one of the most tense scenes in cinema is a testament to Spielberg.