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Zurtilik posted:The Lost World: Jurassic Park. It's a serviceable movie, I guess. A real B-/C+ of a film, a pretty weak Spielberg! This is the first movie I really remember seeing in theaters, so I might be softer on it than other people. You can tell Spielberg resented making this one because there’s a mean streak you don’t often see in his films,. Like having the one guy that saves the lives of all the main characters get torn in half by two tyrannosauruses. Or implying that the one in San Diego ate an entire family after eating their dog.
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Apr 9, 2025 13:45
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Pope Corky the IX posted:You can tell Spielberg resented making this one because there’s a mean streak you don’t often see in his films,. Like having the one guy that saves the lives of all the main characters get torn in half by two tyrannosauruses. Or implying that the one in San Diego ate an entire family after eating their dog. It definitely seems crueler than a lot of Spielberg's output. But admittedly, I haven't really seen most of his post 2000s stuff, so I wasn't sure if he just gets meaner.
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Apr 9, 2025 13:46
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Zurtilik posted:The whole San Diego section is weird. There isn't a lot of sense of place. The T-Rex goes from a dock to the suburbs and then downtown. He's really getting around! I've noticed this about Spielberg movies as an adult or after many watches. Some obvious examples are the Jurassic Park Trex paddock also being a cliff or ET taking place in a suburb in the hills of California but also right next to a cornfield. It's exciting and entertaining in the moment but falls apart when you think about it a little bit. Which is fine, they're supposed to be fun to watch (and are).
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Apr 9, 2025 14:39
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Zurtilik posted:The whole San Diego section is weird. There isn't a lot of sense of place. The T-Rex goes from a dock to the suburbs and then downtown. He's really getting around! Geographically speaking, the San Diego portrayed in that film is impossible.
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Apr 9, 2025 16:17
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True Lies Definitely Problematic but also very good, extremely stupid in a fun way. A divorced guy letting out his inner child.
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Apr 9, 2025 17:15
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kalel posted:literally 9/11 Hurt Locker from the first minute makes it clear that these soldiers shouldn't be there. It isn't explicitly anti American other than being a movie about some hosed up Americans, but it didn't feel it was valorizing anything. Iraqi rebels aren't humanized or characterized well tho.
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Apr 9, 2025 17:40
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Civil War (2024) - what a silly little movie. If Garland meant to portray journalists as ineffective, self interested malcontents then mission accomplished. Every part was underwritten although I think Wagner Moura did a great job with very little. Jesse Plemons is quickly approaching Paul Dano/Ben Foster levels of typecasting but he was very effective here. The dramatic sacrifice at the end was very very dumb and hamfisted. I think they undersold the deprivation war actually causes but based on what they did show I can see why people were antsy about this when it first dropped. Lots of neat little sequences - night driving through the forest on fire and the Lincoln monument getting lit up with a stinger missile in particular.
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Apr 9, 2025 20:19
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Shageletic posted:The Hurt Locker. loving holds up. An audacious piece of filmmaking whose parts are so finely working together you're lost in its world, a terrible world full of death and too much excitement that might be one of the few effectively anti war movies ever made. i saw this on a whim in theaters when it first came out. randomly wound up having katherine bigelow and the screenwriter in attendance doing a Q&A. i was 25 at the time and had a much less developed movie taste, so i don't think i *appreciated* it as much as i definitely would today, but i was still excited. i haven't watched it since then and basically remember nothing about it. i should revisit it. Mat Cauthon posted:Civil War (2024) - what a silly little movie. If Garland meant to portray journalists as ineffective, self interested malcontents then mission accomplished. Every part was underwritten although I think Wagner Moura did a great job with very little. Jesse Plemons is quickly approaching Paul Dano/Ben Foster levels of typecasting but he was very effective here. The dramatic sacrifice at the end was very very dumb and hamfisted. I think they undersold the deprivation war actually causes but based on what they did show I can see why people were antsy about this when it first dropped. i liked civil war both on first and second watch, but the bolded part is my biggest problem with the movie. you could tell it was gonna happen but they kinda completely botched the execution.
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Apr 9, 2025 21:35
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It would've been better if the apprentice had bought it.
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Apr 9, 2025 21:45
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Mat Cauthon posted:Civil War (2024) If Garland meant to portray journalists as ineffective, self interested malcontents then mission accomplished lol guess what
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Apr 9, 2025 21:47
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ShoogaSlim posted:i liked civil war both on first and second watch, but the bolded part is my biggest problem with the movie. you could tell it was gonna happen but they kinda completely botched the execution. Yeah I found myself liking it despite the flaws but that moment in the third act really deflated the movie. Gaius Marius posted:It would've been better if the apprentice had bought it. I thought this is what was going to happen, as an inversion of the opening and a clear message about the rookie choosing to follow Joe down the path of thrill seeking combat photographer despite having seen multiple times how that ends up. The movie opens with Dunst inadvertantly saving the rookie but by doing so brings her into a life/profession that Dunst's character finds increasingly hollow. Then the movie ends with Dunst deliberately attempting and failing to save the rookie from the danger inherent to the profession. Maybe that would've been too straightforward though, I dunno.
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Apr 9, 2025 22:03
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Magic Hate Ball posted:lol guess what might be one of the biggest ever gulfs between the directors stated goal of the movie and the much more interesting and unintended message of the movie. I don't know how you could make that movie and think you are complimenting the bravery of our journalist troops
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Apr 9, 2025 22:22
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kalel posted:literally 9/11 They were also very hyped to give Bigelow Best Director.
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Apr 9, 2025 22:35
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Zurtilik posted:The Lost World: Jurassic Park. It's a serviceable movie, I guess. A real B-/C+ of a film, a pretty weak Spielberg! This is the first movie I really remember seeing in theaters, so I might be softer on it than other people. Pete Postlethwaite! A fantastic actor who is absolutely the best part of this movie and many others. He definitely seems like the type of guy filmmakers obviously loved and respected, but never got the wider audience recognition they deserved. Mat Cauthon posted:Civil War (2024) - what a silly little movie. If Garland meant to portray journalists as ineffective, self interested malcontents then mission accomplished. Every part was underwritten although I think Wagner Moura did a great job with very little. Jesse Plemons is quickly approaching Paul Dano/Ben Foster levels of typecasting but he was very effective here. The dramatic sacrifice at the end was very very dumb and hamfisted. I think they undersold the deprivation war actually causes but based on what they did show I can see why people were antsy about this when it first dropped. ShoogaSlim also posted:i liked civil war both on first and second watch, but the bolded part is my biggest problem with the movie. you could tell it was gonna happen but they kinda completely botched the execution. I try not to rewrite movies as I watch them but, even on first viewing, I felt it would have been so goddamn much stronger if Dunst saves Spaeny and the bullet hits Dunst's camera. No overwrought sacrifice (and the camera shots capturing it was definitely too much for me), the torch is still passed, and it gets to be a choice. War photographers are crazy, don't get me wrong, but they are not, as a rule, stupid. I think seeing how small this page is supports that.
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Apr 9, 2025 22:36
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I watched Babe: Pig in the City. I must have seen this as a child but barely remembered it. The original Babe is a cute movie set on a farm. By contrast, Babe: Pig in the City is completely unhinged. The city is a nihilistic nightmare, one that Babe cannot change or defeat – instead, all he can do is try to save a few oppressed souls through the sheer goodness of his heart. Also at one point he sets fire to a pediatric cancer ward, causing the death of a clown named Uncle Fugly, which is certainly a wild thing to happen in a kids' movie about a talking pig. "It's in the bloodline, you see. We were once warriors. Now, there's just the urge. A murderous shadow lies hard across my soul." A dog says this. What a great movie. I hope George Miller lives forever
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Apr 9, 2025 23:04
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Sherlock Jr. : This is my first Buster Keaton and it was a pretty fun ride overall. It got a couple good chuckles out of me. I liked the pool table scene and the bike scene the best. Him turning the 1 into a 4 is pretty good stuff too. I don't know if it's the particular DVD I have or just the product of it being a 100 year old fim, but it didn't look particularly good. There were parts that made me wonder if this might've been a VHS rip at points, too. A good show of silent comedy. I think I have another Buster Keaton in my queue too! Zurtilik fucked around with this message at 17:45 on Apr 10, 2025 |
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Apr 10, 2025 01:52
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The Age of Innocence Scorsese There's a part near the end where Newland realizes that he isn't above the society he privately detests, that he is as much a source of gossip and ill will as Beaufort or Olenska, and that everyone has conspired against him the deny him even the opportunity to swim against the current; without ever dropping their smiles or raising their hands. It is quite possibly the most devastated a Scorsese protagonist is out of all his films and the combination of a high society story and Scorsese's ability for abrupt and shocking violence are perfectly matched in that scene. I still think it's his greatest film although it does have some pacing problems which is usually unlike his features.
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Apr 10, 2025 04:58
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Joker - Foie Gras. I'm not a comic book person, so I imagine people would be angry with this? But, I just don't get the point of it. Maybe that was Todd Phillips main goal, for it to suck? The show tunes took any momentum and emotion away from scenes, and I eventually started skipping through them after the first hour. I couldn't imagine watching this in the cinemas, it'd be torturous. It honestly felt longer than 2 1/2 hours. a right stinker pee-yew
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Apr 10, 2025 06:40
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saw warfare tonight in imax. i really don't like judging a movie purely on movie theater experience, because a strong movie needs to also work on your living room tv and on after repeat viewings where you already know what's gonna happen. ideally, repeat viewings make a movie even better as you pick up on more details or consider different readings on the material presented. i'm not so sure warfare will have much more to offer beyond the initial viewing, and i think you'd be doing yourself a massive disservice by watching it at home instead of in a good quality imax theater. all that said... it was one of the most intense movie theater experiences i've had in as long as i can remember. it was gripping and enjoyable. legit "edge of my seat" type poo poo that lots of movies claim to inspire but never really do.
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Apr 10, 2025 09:30
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Hook: Spielberg has already made the perfect family film with ET, but somehow when he tries it again it just not come together as well. Generally it's too long and has some identity clashes/lack of commitment. For example, Peter Pan is now grown up (forgets he's Peter for reasons never explained), and now he's a corporate lawyer, a pirate of sorts. The premise is that he needs to become Peter again and remember his inner child to fix his life. But in those first 30 minutes, he's shown to really enjoy his lawyer job and have lots of respect there. He's just bad at boundaries and misses part of his daughters play and sons Christmas baseball game. So really just seems like he needs to learn some work life separation and less how to be a happy kid. The film also seems to have two identities. One is a parental figure, pan, coming back to the lost boys and trying to reconnect. The other is wacky kid adventure with skateboarding, basketball, and pirate baseball. Each can be good like the "there you are Peter" or just the desire the kids have for pan to play with them. But they clash with Rufio. Rufio is meant to look like the badass leader, but he feels so tragic. He's angry at his idol having left and returning and seems to want a dad. But Peter just kind of bullies him some until Peter becomes the leader again. Then there is Rufios death. The lost boys seem to all fight with less lethal home alone weapons. They shoot eggs, colored goo, and marbles. Meanwhile the pirates have swords and guns. So it's mostly goofy fighting and then Hook stabs Rufio. Now this might have been a motivating event for Peter, but then his kid wants to go home, so Peter and the boys walk away just leaving Rufios body on the pirate ship. The death is pointless. I guess it lets the fat kid become the new leader, but he said his happy thought was his mom. Why does Peter not take him or any of the kids home after he realizes his love for family. Anyways, Williams and Hoffman are fantastic. Score is great. The little girl and Julia Roberts could all be cut with nothing lost.
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Apr 10, 2025 17:09
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Gaius Marius posted:The Age of Innocence Scorsese This was a good read, I also love that movie Postmen in the Mountains, 1999 An hour and a half of gorgeous shots of mountain passes and green Chinese countryside, a nice no stakes journey following a dad teaching his son the route for the mail delivery job he is taking over for him along with their cute dog Buddy. They have some great conversations along the way to understand each other more since they weren't too terribly close and it all feels very natural.
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Apr 10, 2025 18:36
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Meshes of the Afternoon Wow, can't believe this was made in 1942, feels like the kind of thing you'd expect to see at least 20 years later. There's a great rhythm to the editing and camera movement and you can see how influential it was. Cacator fucked around with this message at 18:30 on Apr 11, 2025 |
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Apr 11, 2025 18:27
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California Split, 1974 Wow I loved it, the first chunk of the movie is some of the most realistic 2 dudes hanging out drunk content I've ever seen. A consistently very funny comedy for most of it's runtime before we have to get a bit serious in the last chunk where it turns into the best depiction of succumbing to a gambling addiction I've seen. Feels pretty timeless, other than the clothing being aggressively 70s this felt modern and relevant like most 70s stuff doesn't for me. Can't wait to watch The Long Goodbye and McCabe & Mrs. Miller soon.
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Apr 11, 2025 20:36
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Cacator posted:Meshes of the Afternoon Absolutely. Deren was suuuuuper ahead of her time. Meshes is (I think, rightly) considered her best work but everything she's done is worth at least a look.
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Apr 11, 2025 20:43
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The Battleship Potemkin: Continuing my watch of well-regarded silent films. I don't think I love this one as much. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of interesting stuff here: model work, large crowds, massive sets, etc. I think I understand why this is viewed as such a triumph of cinema, but it didn't really entertain or stir much in me. Parts of it that I believe were made for tension just instead felt rather dragged out to me, especially in the fifth and final part of the film.
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Apr 12, 2025 03:53
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Collateral (2004) - I seem to be tricking myself into watching Mann films not realizing what they are and thinking they're something smaller and lighter and less notable. This was tight as a drum and very lean, especially the last half hour, but the real star is the cinematography, all weird deep-focus tricks and slow pans across scenes where everything is blurred out at all levels of depth until finally at the end a nice sharply focused face slides into view. And then the shot will linger about five seconds too long just because a bannister looks real cool. Then there's all that footage from helicopters over a 4AM downtown LA (I lolled at the opening scene's conceit of the bet over how long it will take him to drive from downtown to Pasadena and he has it timed down to the minute, but then after a whole sequence of exposition and flirting it turns out they've just been doing laps of downtown for like 20 minutes). I bet Mann wishes he could have got that Barry Lyndon lens for the darkened office shootout Tom Cruise as a total cipher of a terminator hitman works pretty well, we're used to him being the boyish good looks protagonist but you know you've hosed up when you've got that face coming after you in anger
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Apr 12, 2025 04:19
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Zurtilik posted:The Battleship Potemkin: Continuing my watch of well-regarded silent films. I don't think I love this one as much. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of interesting stuff here: model work, large crowds, massive sets, etc. vertov > eisenstein
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Apr 12, 2025 19:44
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Data Graham posted:… I bet Mann wishes he could have got that Barry Lyndon lens for the darkened office shootout…  but I’d bet that the film stocks available by the time Collateral was shot could hit the same results with any high-speed lens.Fake edit, per shotonthis Collateral didn’t even use high speed lenses, so he could have gotten a lot more aggressive just with Panavision.
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Apr 12, 2025 20:16
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Blade Runner (1982 US theatrical cut) Me and my brother are trying to get my 85 year old dad into sci-fi, so we watched this with him tonight. Watching it for the first time in probably 15 years, a bunch of stuff really stuck out to me. First off, at least 98% of the script is corny as gently caress enigmatic one liners. Secondly, Rutger Hauer's hamminess is out of control. Thirdly, it feels like the entire film takes place on a single city block. Fourthly, Harrison Ford's narration is an absolute abomination, although he swears he tried his best. Fifthly, the soundtrack is incredible. I still love it, my dad loved it, and it shits all over BR:2049.
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Apr 12, 2025 22:36
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Remulak posted:I haven’t done the math on it, as I don’t do this for a living and it would be Mann said he shot on digital because it allowed for better exposures at night vs film. Maybe he left out ‘for the price the budget could afford’.
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Apr 12, 2025 22:43
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Nosferatu (1922) I had a good time with this one. It's probably my favorite of the five silent films I've watched lately. Nosferatu still looks unsettling, they did a good job with the make up. There are shots that are still a little eerie, even with over 100 years of horror and tech between now and then. I liked the weird inverted color shot in the creepy woods. I liked the silent figure driving the carriage. Certain things didn't make a ton of sense to me, I guess Nosferatu can like psychically attack people from very long distances? Both Knock and Ellen went mad without ever even seeing Nosferatu. And him sucking blood at the wrong time from an innocent woman makes him vulnerable to the sun? Idk. Still had a good time!
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Apr 12, 2025 23:00
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Haptical Sales Slut posted:Mann said he shot on digital because it allowed for better exposures at night vs film. Maybe he left out ‘for the price the budget could afford’. Of course the dude is a genius that probably did something out of left field to get what he wanted and the film works, so now I wonder about the context. Man I wish I kept all my American Cinematographers. And ASC membership. Money, for cameras at least, wasn’t an issue, all the gear was top-of-the-line: https://shotonwhat.com/collateral-2004
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Apr 13, 2025 00:24
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Zurtilik posted:Nosferatu (1922) I had a good time with this one. It's probably my favorite of the five silent films I've watched lately. If you pick one silent-era director to deep dive: make it Muranu.
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Apr 13, 2025 06:18
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toiletbrush posted:Blade Runner (1982 US theatrical cut) Me and my brother are trying to get my 85 year old dad into sci-fi, so we watched this with him tonight. Watching it for the first time in probably 15 years, a bunch of stuff really stuck out to me. First off, at least 98% of the script is corny as gently caress enigmatic one liners. Secondly, Rutger Hauer's hamminess is out of control. Thirdly, it feels like the entire film takes place on a single city block. Fourthly, Harrison Ford's narration is an absolute abomination, although he swears he tried his best. Fifthly, the soundtrack is incredible. I don't think I've ever heard someone enjoy BR but not 2049 but then I've never heard someone say they love the theatrical cut either
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Apr 13, 2025 15:29
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2049 is very good but a bit more genre-generic and less groundbreakingly stylish; it lacks the noir feel of the original. Though interestingly I wonder how much of the noir aspect is brought to the fore by the narration, and absent without it, but we all just keep ascribing it anyway
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Apr 13, 2025 15:50
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I am entirely too dumb for The Green Knight. I needed to read some explanation of what was going on, to understand that this was more than just a quest by Gawain.
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Apr 13, 2025 16:05
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Data Graham posted:2049 is very good but a bit more genre-generic and less groundbreakingly stylish; it lacks the noir feel of the original. I feel the complete exact opposite. multiple sequences in 2049 took my breath away. largely thanks to deakins but some of the effects work is insanely good. a lot of it felt very noir-ish to me, which is quite impressive given that, I agree, it's hard to accomplish that feeling without narration. TV Zombie posted:I am entirely too dumb for The Green Knight. I needed to read some explanation of what was going on, to understand that this was more than just a quest by Gawain. one of my favorite "adventure" films ever made
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Apr 13, 2025 16:14
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The Running Man (1987): Fun as gently caress but I wish there was more actual running and stalking. Would have been better if the Running Man sections were shot more like a slasher/horror movie. Instead they just introduce a new wrestler with a fun gimmick and Arnie kills them almost immediately. Could have been better but a delight all the same! Black Bag (2025): Wow, a real movie! This feels so slick; they were able to do so much with so little. I haven’t seen a lot of spy-centric movies (aside from assorted James Bonds) so I’d describe this as feeling like an Agatha Cristie/Poirot mystery. And it’s only 96 minutes! Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989): Oh, ok. Another huge movie that I hadn’t directly seen but had experienced through references & cultural impact. It’s… a cute little movie for kids I guess. George Carlin is in it. It just sort of washed over me.
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Apr 13, 2025 16:19
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Crocobile posted:Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989): Oh, ok. Another huge movie that I hadn’t directly seen but had experienced through references & cultural impact. It’s… a cute little movie for kids I guess. George Carlin is in it. It just sort of washed over me. Bogus Journey raises a cool time travel paradox theorem thing where just the fact that we're not able to manifest things into reality today means time travel will never be invented in the future I thought of this when I was like 13 and thought I was very smart
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Apr 13, 2025 16:28
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Heath posted:I don't think I've ever heard someone enjoy BR but not 2049 but then I've never heard someone say they love the theatrical cut either 2049 is fine, it's got some stunning visuals and neat ideas, but you can practically hear the film creaking with how drat seriously it takes itself, all while trying to present incredibly silly characters like Luv and Wallace as credible antagonists.
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Apr 13, 2025 16:55
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