The Films You Watched Thread VI: The Undiscovered Movie

[QualityChimp]

Yeah, I really like him. Think he carries a film well. Avengement is quite a different role, because he's pretty mashed up by the end of his prison stint. He can't seem to break out of the DTV level, but you shouldn't avoid them.

I watched Casino Royale again last night as I'm trying to watch the Craig films before the new one.
I think I was more forgiving at the time, because it was soooo much better than Brosnan surfing a tsunami and I saw a few more clunky moments, but overall, it still stands as a great Bond. So many lovely moments that raise a smile (or Moore eyebrow).

I kept having flashbacks to the Secret Cinema, though, which was phenomenal.
Honestly, it was so brilliantly done. I wish I could do it all again.

Embedded Tweet

[Neon Ignition]

I can pull faults with Die Another Day very easily but... I still find it a thousand times more fun and watchable than the Craig entries. It's a shame the Brosnan era entries became so fixated one dialling the excess up

[randombs]

I watched Casino Royale again last night

I started that last night, too!

Specifically, the 60's version

I put it on right after we finished watching Dr. No.

I doubt we'll go through all the old Bonds but next in line will be Goldfinger.

Are there any obviously skippable ones?

(side note: the audio for these is weird. The picture lags behind a bit so you hear sound effects before they happen)

[QualityChimp]

Seven James Bonds at Casino Royale.
They won a lot of money and a girl at Casino Royale.

[Dogg Thang]

This weekend I watched Promising Young Woman, which I though was pretty great. It’s an odd film and the tone was hard to pin down, almost rom com feelings in places with quite a few funny moments and yet often incredibly dark and very sad. It really worked though. It just nailed everything and is a very strong small movie. Really liked it.

Then I watched Terminator Dark Fate. I thought it was pretty good. About a billion times better than Genysis or wherever the y goes. Genesys maybe? The opening premise was superb and it managed to be tense enough throughout. They pulled in Arnie’s gags even though I could see he was desperate to go further. Hamilton was great in it and so was the Grace character. As always, pretty much anything that didn’t quite land for me can be traced back to T2, like the Terminator needing to be based on a gimmick that is basically magic (and supposedly just 19 years away techwise) and the progression of a story that was about a robot learning to love.

I preferred it when my Terminators were basically just meat stuck onto metal that would last long enough to get close to your base to kill you.

I wasn’t sure about the casting of the Terminator in this one either. The guy looked really nice, like he could present a kids show.

[Atticus]

They pulled in Arnie’s gags even though I could see he was desperate to go further.

His cover has a curtain salesman was brilliant. Hearing him dispense advice on interior design had me in stitches

[Dogg Thang]

Yeah, that was hilarious. I did enjoy that but I’m always torn because then I think of how menacing and terrifying he seemed in the original and I miss that.

[Neon Ignition]

Funnily enough I still prefer Genesys over Dark Fate. Plot wise Dark Fate feels too dry on ideas and retreads a lot of what the prior three sequels had knocked around so when looking at anything post-T2 my mind see's it one of two ways. The first is moving the plot along in any meaningful way (which is where Terminator 3 takes the crown for all its faults) or on simply giving up any pretence of delivering a worthwhile sequel and just having fun with the characters and world (which is where Genesys steps in). With Dark Fate it felt a lot like watching Genesys but with the fun sucked out of much of the room. It's fine but felt like it added the least of the four sequel attempts we've had.


Extinct
The kids watched this CG Sky movie which looked like it could be mad cap fun at least but turned out much duller than expected.

What We Do In The Shadows
Having watched Wellington Paranormal we went back to watch the film that spawned it. It's got some decent fun moments, following a set of vampires in a house share, but it's more proof of concept. You can tell they refined it for the series.

[Dogg Thang]

Funnily enough I still prefer Genesys over Dark Fate. Plot wise Dark Fate feels too dry on ideas and retreads a lot of what the prior three sequels had knocked around so when looking at anything post-T2 my mind see's it one of two ways. The first is moving the plot along in any meaningful way (which is where Terminator 3 takes the crown for all its faults) or on simply giving up any pretence of delivering a worthwhile sequel and just having fun with the characters and world (which is where Genesys steps in). With Dark Fate it felt a lot like watching Genesys but with the fun sucked out of much of the room. It's fine but felt like it added the least of the four sequel attempts we've had.

Genesys was a lot more inventive. I think for me, it's just that a) it fell apart maybe halfway through and b) the casting was atrocious throughout. Like every single character was woefully miscast. And that's one area where Dark Fate shined for me with the exception of the Blue's Clues presenter. Salvation aside (which I seem to like more than every single other person on the planet), they're all guilty of just trying to be T2 (and not trying that is one of the main reasons I rate Salvation).

[Neon Ignition]

Yep, Genesys was in a way too much of a reaction to the films before. Searching for a way to shake up the story etc but in doing so went OTT, plus the casting was poor. Dark Fate, I wasn't a fan of the casting of the woman supposed to be John's replacement (can't recall the character name) either, it's hard to tell as the planned sequels might have showcased her better but DF and the future sequences failed to convince with her acting as the leader of mankind which potentially would have really undercut the sequels if it wasn't fixed (and they were made).

[Dogg Thang]

I had no issue with her. I felt she was meant to be an unlikely candidate, which ties into Sarah assuming what she assumed.

[QualityChimp]

This weekend I watched Promising Young Woman, which I though was pretty great. It’s an odd film and the tone was hard to pin down, almost rom com feelings in places with quite a few funny moments and yet often incredibly dark and very sad. It really worked though. It just nailed everything and is a very strong small movie. Really liked it.

Agreed. This was a really good film with a lot to say that just hits differently from the likes of Kate and Jolt.
Definitely had more emotional impact.

Terminator Dark Fate. About a billion times better than Genysis or wherever the y goes. Genesys maybe?

I believe the UK title is Terminator: Mega Dryve

I preferred it when my Terminators were basically just meat stuck onto metal that would last long enough to get close to your base to kill you.

I wasn’t sure about the casting of the Terminator in this one either. The guy looked really nice, like he could present a kids show.

Agree again. They're always falling over themselves to improve the Terminators - liquid metal, nanobots, boobs - but the thrill of the first film is that Arnie is the ultimate hard bastard that can't be stopped.
The T-1000 looked wimpy in comparison, but made up for it by Robert Patrick being creepy AF.

A slightly different take I had on Dark Fate's idea of a Terminator completing his mission was in '84, killing the first Sarah Connor and thinking his mission was over, so he just sorta shuts down and hangs around outside her home like a statue until people start showing up when her body is found and he goes into defence mode, blowing up a load of cop cars that arrive and it escalates and he has to go on the run, with the humans in pursuit and him trying to not get... terminated.

[Dogg Thang]

A slightly different take I had on Dark Fate's idea of a Terminator completing his mission was in '84, killing the first Sarah Connor and thinking his mission was over, so he just sorta shuts down and hangs around outside her home like a statue until people start showing up when her body is found and he goes into defence mode, blowing up a load of cop cars that arrive and it escalates and he has to go on the run, with the humans in pursuit and him trying to not get... terminated.

The idea that (spoiler only if you haven't seen a Terminator trailer in the last decade or heard of who is in them so not really a spoiler)

->Open Spoiler<-

a T-800 could possibly grow old has always hugely jarred with me. They were never human. They wouldn't work like humans. Why would they be built to age? I get why they do it because it's pretty much the only way they can get Arnie into them but it still doesn't sit right with me.

The question of what happens when one completes its mission was interesting to bring up in Dark Fate, even though the answer feels really weird. Your suggestion feels way more likely and way more true to what we've seen set up in the first couple of movies.

And yep, the thrill for me is just a basic killing machine. That's what made him terrifying.

[QualityChimp]

I've said elsewhere I bought the Bond Collection and am blasting through the Craig era Bonds in prep for No Time To Die.

Quantum of Solace
I wanted to give this the benefit of the doubt because it's been ages since I've seen it, but it's just so poor.
I recently saw Olga Kurlenko in The Courier and Sentinelle (both Netflix) and she was really good, but I didn't click that she was the main Bond girl in this because, I'll be honest, I think they went the Blackface route to make her fit the character

->Open Spoiler<-

That shouldn't detract from her excellent performance, but yikes.

Dominic Greene is a rubbish Mastermind, though. When we first meet him, he's just hanging around the docks, making doodle art with a rubber stamp!
He doesn't seem menacing, just the kind of humourless prick who tags along on a work's outing and only get the last round of drinks because most people have gone home, or has a meal with starter, main, pudding and alcohol, then insists we split the bill, even if you've just had a main and a soft drink. Bastard.

All this would possibly be excusable if the expected action sequences were any good, but they're absolutely ruined by shakeycam. There's a bit where Bond is tussling with an escaping double-agent and they tumble on some ropes and he's hanging by his foot on a rope. I genuinely had no idea if it was Bond or the double-agent for several seconds.

Look, I'm not exaggerating - here's the opening car chase, including the 1037 cuts in this 35 second clip.

Embedded Tweet

[Neon Ignition]

We're part way through Quantum and from first cinema viewing right through to today that opening car chase always stands out. That it ever made it screen is a disgrace, it's beyond shoddy at every level