Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

The Films You Watched Thread VI: The Undiscovered Movie

Collapse
This topic is closed.
X
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    I want to watch this, but I'm halfway through Stephen King's book about trying to stop the assassination using time travel and I've just seen the Red Dwarf episode where JFK becomes his own killer, so not sure how much more JFK japes I can handle!

    Comment


      It's a fun film, definitely worth watching. Considering the praise it was showered with on release, I felt it was a bit overrated though.

      But yeah, maybe finish up all your other JFK stuff first!

      Comment


        Originally posted by QualityChimp View Post
        I've been working my way through the Evangelion rebuilds over the last few days.
        I did the same thing but a week before. I'd always intended to save them all up and watch them in one go, and I'm glad that I did it that way. The first just felt like a shiny HD recap of the things I've seen recapped before already, and while the second started to go off-piste, it was the third that felt the most surprising and important, even after having finished the fourth. They all look very nice in places but yeah, the action washed over me and I've somewhat stopped being impressed by how much money they've now thrown at it. Spoilering some more detailed thoughts on 3.33 and 3.0 + 1.01 (I hate these names, for the record).


        Perhaps as a result of watching them back-to-back, I'm already struggling to remember details, but 3.33 really stood out to me by being so bleak and generally hopeless. You know something awful's happened, no-one wants to talk about it, no-one can move on from it, and the person responsible is frustratingly and painfully clueless. Awful things continue to happen to everything in his orbit, and it closes with him practically shutting down entirely. Are we sure that Anno's alright these days?

        ... and then 3.0 + 1.01 does a total tonal 180. Big robot fight followed by an overly long, overly sentimental section of small town life. I... didn't really get it. I also don't really like the positioning of Gendo as the big bad, or his limp backstory as a driving force for everything he does. It's all wrapped up a bit more neatly in comparison to where it's been before, but I got fatigued with all of the terminology and weaponry and everything boiling down to something very simple wrapped in layers of pseudo-psychology blahness. Sadly, I was not particularly surprised by this either.



        In summary: would someone please give Asuka some clothes, before she catches a cold.

        OH!

        And then this week we watched Paddington. I thought this was going to be standard fare family-fodder nonsense, but bloody hell it was great. Well shot, genuinely funny, loads of clever visual references, plenty of enjoyable characters, and buckets of charm. Haven't been this pleasantly surprised by a movie in ages. Keen to watch the second, now!

        Comment


          Lovely stuff, [MENTION=3822]fuse[/MENTION].

          Was worried the Evangelion Defense League would be out!

          Agree with everything you said, especially the clothes thing.
          Sexualising 14 year old girls always felt awkward to me and it still appears to be prevalent in 2021.

          Also agree the naming sucks. Also the descriptions are odd in Prime, which don't help.
          First film: "Tokyo is attacked again!" rather than "In the first of four Evangelion remakes..."


          Everyone being angry with Shinji is exhausting and I can see why he shuts down. Literally every character tells him to do something, then changes their mind, then they're angry with him!
          Get in the robot, shinji/Never pilot an Eva again!
          Do it to make your wish come true/you caused the third impact/I guess I can't blame you
          Let's get the spears/don't get the spears
          Get in the robot/I'm angry because you didn't want to kill me
          You're of no use to anyone/how dare you fight us
          I wish you had died/eat this food

          I looked at the timer and it was almost an hour into 3.33 before anyone explained to Shinji what happened!
          I'm not sure how much time was spent in 3.0+1.01 (4th film) in that village doing a montage of rice farming, but it felt like an hour at least.

          Not sure how I'd tidy up the narrative, to be honest.
          Needs to be more cause and effect, rather than just cool stuff happening.
          Maybe Gendo and his wife discovered the first angels and by trying to unlock the secret to life, they triggered the angel attacks like a defense mechanism. After she dies trying to undo their work, Gendo manages to convince the Government to fund his defense project, but he knows from his wife's dying words that he can save her if he triggers the third impact.
          So it turns out that every time the kids step into an Eva, they're unwittingly bringing about the next apocalypse.
          Or something, I dunno. Here, have some robots fighting something for no clear reason and some fanservice panty shots.


          Comment


            Horrible Bosses 2

            Clearly they were stretching the formula with this one because there's only one horrible boss (unless the guys themselves are meant to be the 'bosses'?).

            Anyway, the boys get screwed over on a deal which loses them a ton of money so they decide to kidnap the dude's son and get a ransom.

            Not a patch on the first one, but it was fairly enjoyable(Sudeikis' Texas accent was straight outta SNL) and not too long.

            Comment


              Last night I watched Wall Street Money Never Sleeps, the sequel to Wall Street (obvs). It wasn’t great. The story had very little focus, like Stone couldn’t quite decide what story he wanted to tell. So it didn’t have a strong line through the story. There were also odd choices, like weird wipes that made it look pretty cheap and some really terrible moments of David Byrne singing - I have no problem with David Byrne but they seemed really oddly placed here and it made the film feel kind of goofy in parts where it clearly wasn’t going for goofy.

              I had rewatched the first one a week ago and it’s a far, far better movie.

              Comment


                Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance.

                Top rank swordplay. Very atmospheric. A masterclass of ambience.

                Comment


                  I watched The Handmaiden last night. Really good. Very twisty and the atmosphere and look was gorgeous. It totally sucked me in. One actor was totally hamming it up and seemed to learn acting from anime though. It's pretty long, probably a little longer than it needed to be (the mid section could easily have been trimmed), but a very strong movie.

                  Comment


                    Von Ryan's Express
                    Nice WWII vehicle for ole blue eyes, no songs from Franky in this one though.

                    Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
                    Not seen this since I saw at the flicks at release. Terrific film and should have easily won best picture from shyteiator. Costumes, choreography, photography, this has it all - well it doesn't actually, it has virtually zero CGI.

                    The Italian Job
                    'I only told you to blow the bloody doors off', Great romp with Caine and Coward with some very good alpine photography thrown in, looks very good in HD.

                    Vampire Circus
                    One of the later Hammer's with more gore and nudity than what you would normally expect along with better make-up, tons of ham on the acting but a good example of the genre.

                    All The President's Men
                    Only just got around to watching this even though I've seen many clips as a kid when Hoffman and Redford were on various interview shows.
                    Great 70's feel of course and the acting is top notch, zero ham on the menu here. Really good portrayal of the events during the Watergate Scandal.
                    I enjoyed this so much I bought the book!

                    The Owl and the Pussycat
                    Segal and Streisand are both terrific in this film version of the stage play, the film is centred almost completely around both leads sharing the screen at once, I've always had a big attraction to Babs and since she's playing an ex prostitute dressed up in various alluring garb she doesn't disappoint, but for me it's Segal who steals the show. I found myself laughing so much at his facial expressions, body language and overall demeanour at the situations Doris lands him in.
                    Certainly a film I'll come back to again and again.
                    Last edited by Anpanman; 11-09-2021, 11:51.

                    Comment


                      Okay, week off done so the round up is:


                      Frankenstein
                      The 1931 version, it was weird because as it went on I had those pangs of familiarity until it became clear I'd seen this one before. It's a slow film as both the tale and old films tend to be but the climax remains well done for its era and I remembered that part perfectly which is easy to imagine why presuming it was kid me that first experienced it probably in some BBC2 or Channel 4 morning repeat back in the day.

                      Alien
                      The '79 march continued also as we reached this. It's easy to forget this was part of the post-Star Wars sci-fi content and also easy to forget it's a 70's era movie. It's just a masterclass film, well and above so much else of its time and to be honest I'd include Star Wars in that comparison. It's staggering that the same man could produce the entries he later did and have made this one too, they're at such opposite ends of success. Still undiminished by age.

                      Jackass: The Movie

                      It's kind of hard to get back into the mindset to enjoy this as it turns out which made what was supposed to be a fun new film fuelled revisit a bit more arduous than it should have been. The big stunts carry it, the smaller scale stuff and fooling around is actually fairly irritating these days so it's when the format is being pushed that it's at its best which isn't anywhere near enough.

                      Jackass: Number Two
                      Pretty much the same here as with the first. As much as they are all friends and that carries things a lot there are too many stupid moments or mean spirited ones which drag it down. The notable big scene is the final stunt though, in 2021 it's almost stomach turning to watch them pubicly (yes, spelt correctly) set one of them up as a bomb carrying post-9/11 terrorist in a staggeringly racist skit. The only, only way that skims along to any measure of success is because the joke is at the expense of the one doing it but it still says... a lot.

                      Casino Royale

                      So, with the fifth and final Craig entry inbound and these films sharing a sloppy arc between them we decided to conduct a revisit so it was fresh in our minds for its conclusion at the end of the month. The opening and first hour or so of this film are still so damned good, I'd forgotten how the film starts bigger and scales down as it goes. It's still a good film but it's also a bit of a slog in places and Daniel Craig doesn't elevate it at all. Whilst I enjoyed seeing it again it does leave me feeling mindful of the three yet to revisit given this was the peak...

                      Paw Patrol: The Movie
                      First time just me and Jr1 have gone to the cinema together in a year and a half and this was pretty much exactly what you'd expect. It looks visually much better than the series, opens in a similar manner before transitioning to the city to change up the scale. That then allows them easier ways of upping the scale of the vehicles and destruction. Other than adding a sub-plot involving Chase having city related trauma due to being abandoned there as a smaller puppy it does what you'd expect for a big screen entry aimed at the young audience but it does it competently, pretty inoffensive all round... bar Kim Kardashian appearing in it.

                      Comment


                        A few I forgot to mention:

                        Guns Akimbo (Prime) is one I really enjoyed. Radcliffe is so likeable, it's easy to cheer for him.
                        I'm also a big fan of Samara Weaving, especially in Ready or Not, The Babysitter 1 & 2 and Bill & Ted 3, so her presence is enough to sell me a film at the moment.
                        There are some similarities with Boss Level and Jolt, with an upbeat but cynical take on videogame-style action, but the wimpy guy dragged into events is unique to this one.
                        Yeah, deffo worth watching!

                        I started Prospect (Prime), but I think I got dragged into a gaming session, but deffo want to finish that off.

                        I noticed all the cuts of Dawn of the Dead were on Prime, and started to watch one (extended "Cannes" cut), but I've seen it loads, I don't think the differences are that great (after watching a YouTube comparison) and I'm desperately trying to watch new stuff rather than comfort watch stuff I've seen a zillion times.
                        However, I'd watch an extended cut of Day of the Dead in a heartbeat, because that's the one in Romero's series I've grown to love the most and there doesn't appear to be any extra footage around.

                        On the Sunshine commentary, Danny Boyle speaks of how it was impossible to escape the presence of The Big 3 sci-fi films - 2001, Alien and Solaris. I'd seen the original as a teen and it bored me to tears, but wanted to try again. Thought the Soderbergh version (via Star/D+) might be more accessible. It's not a remake of the original film, but another take on the source novel (like Carpenter's The Thing is NOT a remake of The Thing From Another World!)

                        It's definitely more accessible and there's much more of a sense of motion pushing Clooney's character and the narrative forward.
                        Looks great and it's an interesting premise, but ultimately I felt like the sci-fi setting was a red herring and it could have easily been set on a remote island in the Bermuda Triangle or something, because it's not trying to answer a question like "are they aliens?" or "Is the planet trying to communicate or harm us?" it's an investigation into memories and how they shape us.

                        That's what I found frustrating. It's not really attempting to resolve a problem, it's just asking us to ponder some philosophical ideas, but the sci-fi setting is at first engaging, but soon becomes superfluous. Clooney's character seems to abandon any pretence of a scientific approach after about 20 minutes.

                        Not a bad film and it's nice to mix things up, but felt a bit cheated.
                        Like that time I thought I was biting into apple crumble, but it was rhubarb crumble.

                        Comment




                          Saw Shang-Chi at the cinema last night and really enjoyed it.
                          Ticked a lot of boxes for me as a Marvel and martial arts fan.
                          It was particularly ace to see Yuen Wah in it.


                          It tells its own origin story, but it's interesting to see how Marvel know in advance how all these new films will slot together, now they know they work as a universe.

                          I don't think it's just me, but I'm getting to the point where CGI is just leaving me cold.
                          There's a sequence at the start (from the trailer) set on a bus (*whisper* It's not as good as the bus fight in Nobody) and it's loads more thrilling than the later sections where it's about 93% CGI.

                          Like I said in the Bond thread, a physical stunt, fight and practical effects are always more engaging to me.
                          I don't mind CGI enhancing a scene (like Fury Road) but when your mind is thinking it's just like watching Smash Bros., it's less appealing.

                          I'm not moaning, though, because there are some great moments, a lot of heart and engaging characters and some Marvel chuckles along the way. Loved all the cameos, especially

                          Abomination



                          It made me a little sad that Brad Allan's no longer with us to create inventive fight sequences.

                          Screen Rant nails it (spoilers) but it's a fun ride!

                          Comment


                            Originally posted by QualityChimp View Post
                            I want to watch this, but I'm halfway through Stephen King's book about trying to stop the assassination using time travel and I've just seen the Red Dwarf episode where JFK becomes his own killer, so not sure how much more JFK japes I can handle!
                            "So... You want me to go back in time, and cause my own murder?"
                            "Yeah. It'll drive the conspiracy nuts crazy but they'll never figure it out."

                            Comment


                              Yep, given the money and scale that Marvel is now working at they really should be pushing the envelope more on their effects work. There's no excuse for it to be as shoddy as it sometimes is at this point

                              Comment


                                Originally posted by Neon Ignition View Post
                                Yep, given the money and scale that Marvel is now working at they really should be pushing the envelope more on their effects work. There's no excuse for it to be as shoddy as it sometimes is at this point
                                It's not that I thought it was shoddy.

                                There's a bit where Shang-Chi is leaping about on a dragon and I wasn't sure where if he was CGI, but just assumed that it all was.
                                I rewatch The Burly Brawl in Reloaded and I know where the CGI takes over nowadays, but I couldn't tell if Shang-Chi was green screen or a CGI actor, but assumed the latter.

                                "Is the fight incredibly colourful, yet somehow very grey?"

                                It's just that personally, I found the fight sequences more entertaining than the CGI sequences.
                                Just drains any feeling of peril, for me.

                                Comment

                                Working...
                                X